Link Building: Conducting a Link Profile Audit and Effective Strategies

What is link building?

Link building is the process of building a high-quality backlink profile (not to be confused with mindlessly purchasing backlinks). It is a key aspect of SEO that falls under the category of external website optimization. Search engines take into account the presence of backlinks when evaluating content. Websites with a strong link profile are ranked higher in search results.

Why does promotion without link building not work?

Backlinks hold equal importance alongside high-quality content. They are one of the main ranking factors in Google's algorithm.

Key criteria for high-quality backlinks

Not all links will help you in your promotion efforts. Some may not have any effect at all, while others may even harm your website. Below, we will list the key criteria for high-quality backlinks. It is important to keep in mind that obtaining a link which meets all of these criteria is challenging. Instead, these criteria serve as guidelines for assessing risks. For example, you will have a clear understanding of which websites to avoid.

1. Relevance Examine the website on which you want to place a link. How relevant is it to your niche? If its focus is unrelated to your topic, the link will carry little weight. The domain zone and region also matter. If your business is targeting the UAE market, backlinks from Chinese resources will be of no help to you.

2. The significance of the linking website's authority (trustworthiness) How authoritative is the website that is linking to you? Google refers to this metric as PageRank, but the specific rating data is not publicly available. Ahrefs provides a trust score ranging from 0 to 100. It is advisable to aim for a score above 30. However, it is important to understand that trustworthiness is an auxiliary criterion. A new website may currently have low scores. But if it is of high quality and geared towards growth, your link on that site will also become more influential over time.

3. Traffic Does the website receive consistent organic traffic? If you notice a sharp decrease in traffic at any point, with a continued downward trend, it is a risk. Even if the website meets other criteria, it is advisable not to rush into placing a link. This resource may have been affected by search engine filters or penalties. Monitor its future dynamics closely before proceeding with a link placement.

• Right-click on the link.
• Select "Inspect" from the menu that appears.
• Look for the attribute in the opened HTML code.

• How relevant are the links?
• Do they lead to authoritative resources?
• Do they appear natural or paid for?

How is a backlink audit conducted?

We analyze the volume and quality of the link profile of the website itself and its competitors. Performing an audit without considering the competition would be pointless. Our goal is to outperform your competitors, so we need to understand the existing gap in terms of quantity and quality of backlinks. The link building strategy will depend on the competitor analysis. Additionally, the analysis can provide insights and suggestions, such as identifying potential donor websites to target for acquiring backlinks.

• The quantity of backlinks and the growth dynamics.
• The quality of the link profile. We assess whether the links meet important criteria, as discussed earlier. Our focus is primarily on evaluating the authority of the referring websites. We also study which pages are most frequently linked to and analyze the ratio of anchor links (hyperlinks containing a search query in the anchor text) to non-anchor links.
• Are there any links that hinder position growth? Some links can actually impede your progress. During the era of black-hat SEO techniques, there were widespread practices of creating so-called "link farms" or "link spam." These websites were solely created for the purpose of hosting links. However, search engines have become better at detecting and penalizing such practices. If your website has acquired links from these low-quality sources in the past, they can now negatively impact your rankings. It is crucial to remove these links from your backlink profile. The easiest way to do this is through Google Search Console, where you can utilize the disavow tool. This tool allows you to upload a list of websites that you want to disassociate your website from.
• Additionally, we conduct a separate analysis of the backlink profiles of your competitors for the keywords you are targeting.

How is a link building strategy created?

Based on our analysis of these factors, we can develop a link building strategy. We can determine the number of links needed for quantity and quality, as well as assess the potential impact of utilizing crowd marketing techniques such as native link placements on relevant forums and social media platforms. Crowd marketing is beneficial as it not only helps improve product visibility but also serves as a source of links and native advertising. At the same time, the growth rate of the link profile should not be too rapid as it can raise suspicion from search engines. For instance, if the website is relatively new, the growth should be gradual and smooth. Similarly, in the case of a stagnant website, a sudden acquisition of 100-200 links can be questionable. If the average monthly growth rate has been around 10 links, it is advisable to limit the purchase to no more than 20. The goal is to establish a natural and organic link growth pattern.

• Guest posting (negotiating free placements with relevant corporate blogs that intersect with your target audience)
• Pitching materials to significant media outlets in your industry (usually, such resources have detailed guidelines) or establishing direct contacts with journalists
• Providing comments to journalists through specialized services (the catch is that not all publications include backlinks in their mentions)

Two ways to check your backlink profile for free

• Google Search Console. If you don't have it installed, go through the verification process. Then go to the "Links" section. There, you will see pages with the highest number of backlinks, sites that link to you most frequently, and the most common anchor texts (the text of the link that serves as a search query). This tool is useful for reference purposes, but it cannot assess the quality of the links.
• Ahrefs Backlink Checker. It shows the trust level of your domain, the number of backlinks with the referring page addresses, the number of referring sites, and the percentage of dofollow links. Generally, Ahrefs is a paid service, and this tool is a limited free version.

What are some unconventional link building tactics?

1. Guest post updates Typically, working with guest posts follows a certain process: you negotiate with the editor of a blog for publication and prepare a unique piece of content for them. This content includes one or two links to your website. Sounds great. However, this process has a downside. The guest post is published at a new URL, which, in turn, does not have any backlinks or authority.

What is the benefit? Updating the material will revive the influx of organic traffic. This is particularly relevant for articles tied to a specific time period (e.g., "Most Effective SEO Strategies of 2020"). The traffic to such influential domain materials usually initially grows and then predictably declines as it loses its relevance. It's a mutually beneficial arrangement: propose to update the material in exchange for a backlink. To begin, gather a pool of suitable websites and materials, find their contacts (if they are not available on the website, LinkedIn and other social networks can be helpful), and write a brief pitch message.

• Find listing materials where your product is not mentioned.
• Reach out to the authors, offering your product in exchange for feedback.
• If they like the product, you can ask them to mention it in their post. If not, you will receive valuable feedback.

3. Search advertising Why do businesses opt for search advertising? Within the realm of SEO, there exists a concept known as the "vicious cycle of SEO," which follows this pattern:

This implies that content can naturally acquire backlinks simply because it is visible and occupies the top position in search results (achieved through advertising). However, this approach is unreliable and requires genuinely valuable and viral content. It can work well with research, statistics, and facts. In theory, if your content is truly excellent and optimized for SEO, it has a chance to reach the top organically without relying on advertising.

Conclusion

Link building has both pros and cons. Among the drawbacks are the time and effort it requires. It is not a quick promotional method, and it's not possible to build a high-quality link profile in just a few months. Additionally, it takes time for search engines to index new backlinks. On the other hand, the benefits are significant. Link building improves the visibility of your website, helps you rank higher for target keywords, and maintains positions through a high-quality link profile. Backlinks also serve as a source of referral traffic, and contribute to improving your brand reputation through increased brand mentions. Link building is only one of the services offered by our agency. If you need a high-quality link profile, we are ready to assist you.