Did you know that over 50 percent of all internet traffic comes from organic search?
With those numbers, there’s no reason you shouldn’t take time to invest in your digital marketing strategies. It’s one of the best ways to make sure that you’re still creating new leads.
The best boost you can give your SEO game is getting great backlinks. Backlinks are links on other sites that link back to your site.
These links tell Google that you are a reliable source, meaning your SERPs result will be higher. And the more reliable the source that points back to you, the more Google will trust you.
Here’s the thing though: making sure you have quality backlinks can be difficult. If you don’t know how to do it, look no further. In this article, we’re going to tell you 4 ways to determine the quality of your backlinks.
1. Domain Authority
Do you remember when English teachers said you couldn’t use bad sources?
They often said you had to use .gov or .edu sites. Some lenient teachers said .org sites were okay. This made sure that the information you used for your research was reliable and true.
While you shouldn’t limit your backlink search to these site pages, it can help to make sure the potential site is worth its salt. In fact, .com sites are just as fine.
Like your English teacher, the more authority the site linking to you has, the more Google will think you are an expert.
You can check your authority with a domain checker tool. Often, these tools rank a site’s authority from 1 to 100; the closer to 100 you are, the more authority you rank.
The New York Times, for example, tends to have a domain authority between 90-100. Comparatively, a brand new site called, “The Lol News Right Now” probably has a low ranking.
A backlink from that site likely won’t hurt, but how much it helps is debatable.
2. Total Links on Page
After you find a site that has a link to your site, you can look to see how many links are on that page. The more links on the page, the less your link is worth.
Think of it like a page is an angel investor. If they have $1 million to start with and your link is the only other link on the page, then they’ll give you $1 million.
But, if there are 100 links on the page, your link is only worth $10,000. Google will give you some credit for getting a backlink, but it won’t help you as much if you get a quality backlink that you aren’t competing with.
Buying Backlinks
There are ways to buy backlinks for your site. This isn’t always a bad idea, but it can be dangerous.
If you pay a blogging service to write a real article about your site and put it on another reliable website, you’re getting a quality backlink. Or, if you pay for a sponsored post on a news or blogging site, odds are you’re getting a solid backlink.
But if you pay a sketchy backlink site to put a link to your site on 100 different unreliable sites, it will hurt your SEO. Google punishes sites that do this, so it’s not worth trying!
3. Look At Anchor Texts
One of the most important parts about your backlink is the anchor text. Don’t know what anchor text is?
It’s simple: Anchor text is the text that is linked in the article.
So, if you’re reading an article and it says, “Check out the coolest puppies online today,” the anchor text is “coolest puppies online”.
The anchor text is what tells Google’s crawlers, bugs that read web pages, what your site is about. This means that a descriptive anchor text is much more valuable than something simple.
So, when looking at backlinks to your site, you’ll want ones that say something like, “Burger restaurant in Chattanooga, TN” instead of “Click here!”
Click here and other similar phrases are spammy to readers, and they don’t help your SEO strategy. If possible, don’t use these anchor texts, and consider asking for them to be changed when you can.
5. Page Title
A page title is also very important when it comes to getting quality backlinks. Page titles are one of the most important parts of SEO in general.
If the page title is related to your site, Google will have an easier time recognizing that you are an expert on the subject. This makes sense outside of the internet as well.
Let’s say you have a book called, “How to Brew Coffee at Home.” While it’s a reliable book, odds are you won’t use it as a reference for how to make tea–even if the book discusses it.
Google treats this in an organic way, and this works out for your best interest. If you can, make sure that your backlinks correspond with the title.
Surrounding Content
Along with the page title, the surrounding content makes a difference for your backlink. Even if the page title is related to your backlink, it matters if the content around it is related too.
If the article is about the best animated characters in the world, a link to your photography business won’t be as reliable as other articles. But if the article is best photography businesses, you have a much better backlink on your hands.
Quality Backlinks Aren’t Impossible
There’s no doubt that backlinks are one of the most important parts of your SEO strategy. Even if you have difficulty finding them, keep in mind that they aren’t impossible to have.
And, getting quality backlinks is absolutely worth any trouble you might have to find them.
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