Link Building for SEO

Updated on April 15th, 2024 at 06:24 pm

Also known as “backlinks”, “inbound links” or “incoming links” have, for a long time, been the cornerstone of ranking algorithms for search engines.

Backlinks usually refers to one website adding a hyperlink to their page which targets another website e.g.

send-links.com >>> receive-links.com

The importance of natural backlinks or inbound links for the SEO performance of a website cannot be understated, historically backlinks have been counted as “votes” which Google and other search engines have interpreted as signals to help order websites within the index.

Early on in the development of the web, using inbound links to help rank websites was a much simpler job for search engines than it is today.

Sites that gained the most links generally earned higher rankings. However, as the web developed and as SEOs began understanding and exploiting links to get their websites to the top of search engine results pages search engines had to make changes so they could more easily determine which links were genuine and should be counted and discount those that should not.

Backlinks form a crucial part of search engine ranking algorithms with additional data from each specific link, website page, linking root domain and the type of link all interpreted as “signals” by Google.

2020 Link Attribute Changes

Linking was a binary process until 2020. Links to other sites either contained a “nofollow” attribute e.g. rel=”nofollow” or did not have this attribute and were considered as followed.

Links which included rel=”nofollow” were not counted in the ranking algorithms of search engines but links without the attribute, known to some in the SEO industry as follow links or dofollow links were.

This all changed in 2019, when Google announced one of the biggest changes ever to link and link attributes.

Rather than a binary approach to the measurement of the link graph, Google is shaking things up by adding two more attributes for webmasters, editors and site owners to consider using. Each with their own specific meanings;

• rel=”nofollow” – used since 2005 – has until recently been the only way to prevent Google from following links out of your site. From March 2020, can be followed in some instances where Google deems it is suitable.
• rel=”ugc” – NEW – used to identify links that are added by users as part of comments on message boards or at the foot of editorial content. Can be followed depending upon Google’s interpretation.
• rel=”sponsored” – NEW – used to denote affiliate links, links that are used for paid placements or sponsored adverts.

The above changes, introduced by Google in September 2019, now mean that there are more ways for sites to manage their outbound linking and crucially, means that Google can count any links, from March 2020, towards ranking signals, depending upon their interpretation of the links.

With the changes above, Google is taking back the power of the link graph and determining for itself, through machine learning and algorithmic processes what naturally occurring SEO links look like and identifying unnatural linking patterns as spam.

Followed links vs Nofollowed links

Google looks at the overall numbers of links that both website pages and website domains gain, but can also assess things like;

• anchor text (highlighted text content which encases links)
• followed links (are officially the only ones which directly count towards rankings)
• nofollowed links (supposedly do not directly impact rankings but can contribute to the performance of your site in other ways)
• quality (closely tied to relevance but loosely, links from higher “authority” websites are more valuable.

nofollowed links append an attribute to the link which instruct search engines not to follow the link. This means, authority and ranking signals won’t be transferred from the linking site to the target page.

However, there is a caveat here, Google changed it’s approach to nofollowed links in 2020, suggesting that in some cases it would still count links, even those appended with the nofollow attribute, as “followed”.

Links without the nofollow attribute are what is known as “followed” links because there is no specific instruction to search engine bots not to pass ranking signals to the linked page.

Most internal links on websites are followed links.

The State of Link Building in 2024

Link building today is both more complex and simpler than ever.

With three types of link attribute to understand, you can be forgiven for thinking that link building is complicated.

In reality, Google’s current stance on backlinks means that you need not worry so much about the type of links that you acquire provided they are naturally occurring and you have not paid for them.

Instead, you should focus on building high quality, highly relevant backlinks from sources where your potential customers are likely to visit.

For example, if you sell car parts online trying to get links from;

• car maintenance forums
• expert mechanic tutorial sites
• car brand sites
• mechanic websites
• automative industry news sites

Would all likely be beneficial to both your rankings and your sales because the sites are likely to engage with users interested in car maintenance and repairs and therefore, potentially be looking to buy car parts for projects.

Relevance and Intent

This is where relevance (both at page and site level of origin link to link destination) is arguably factored into link assessment algorithms that search engines use to help rank websites.

i.e. if you were to get a high number of links from highly relevant sites, you’re much more likely to see greater benefits from your link building efforts much faster than if you built the same number of links from the same high quality sites which exist outside of your niche and aren’t industry specific.

When you start link building, it helps to map out what each of the perfect set of sites are that you could possibly get links from, then establish ways and approaches to help you successfully source these links.

How Search/Natural can help you

We have many years of experience and knowledge of how to generate backlinks for websites.

We can help you to;

• assess competitors for their current backlink profile
• identify where your site will benefit from links the most
• create and implement a strategy to generate links in one hit or as an ongoing basis

We utilise tried and tested methods like newsjacking and strategic outreach campaigns to build good quality, relevant links to the most important pages on your site.

Contact us to discuss your link building efforts and get an insight into how we can help build quality links for you.

Link Building FAQs

How do links to your website help?

Getting links from external websites (known as external domains) can help your website compete in organic search results because:

• links are a ranking factor in search engines like Google – Google use both the overall count and quality of links to a website to help understand the quality of a domain and it’s content. In Google’s eyes more high quality links equates to better rankings for websites and pages.
• links help to infer authority – as well as affecting rankings, Google especially use backlinks as a signal to determine the authoritativeness of a website for a particular topic. If you blog about financial services but you only get links from baking recipe websites, your pages might struggle to rank for any meaningful or valuable financial services keywords.
• links can deliver engaged users to your site – users who are coming from related resources or pages that discuss topics related to your content can be considered as potentially higher value customers because they’re coming from a source which indicates they’re interested in this topic already.

Getting links for ranking, authority building and to provide engaged traffic should be a focus in all of your link building efforts.

What are natural links?

Natural links in SEO are those which your pages acquire naturally, i.e. without you having to ask for them to be added to a page. For example, if you write a comprehensive guide which is considered expert and authoritative about a topic, you might find that other sites within your niche link to it as a useful resource.

In this way, your content is acquiring backlinks “naturally” without you having to push the content out to people.

How to get natural links?

Getting natural links is extremely difficult. Almost every niche and topic has numerous articles and webpages competing for the same positions on search engine results pages so there are many possible link targets for sites to choose from.

If natural links aren’t forthcoming when you produce content; check things like;

• content quality – is your content as high quality, useful, well presented and detailed as competitors? What steps have you taken to provide additional user value to your readers?
• targeting and the angle of your content – is your content addressing user needs? Is it offering an alternative perspective on a topic or subject?

If your content vs your competitors is failing in any of these areas then you’ll likely want to make these edits first before you build links.

How many incoming links do you need to rank well?

This is a common question that clients often ask. The number of backlinks you need to help your page rank in a competitive position in SERPs (search engine results pages) depends on four things:

• the difficulty or value of the keywords you’re trying to rank for – more difficult and higher value keywords typically require more links
• how many links your competitors have – if you’re competing against sites with particularly large link profiles or high quality links pointing towards them then you’ll need more to compete.
• the quality and authority of your domain – this isn’t domain authority, as calculated by SEO tools but a way of considering the overall strength of your website vs your competitors based on things like; pages which already rank well, the links you have, the domains which provide these links and how well your pages currently perform on keywords you are targeting.
• the quality of your content – although this is very difficult to measure, higher quality content, i.e. content that is useful, engaging and purposeful for your readers is less likely to need a large number of links to rank than content that is generic, unhelpful or low effort.

So in reality, the number of links you need will vary based on all of the above.

How to Find Links Pointing to Your Website?

One of the best free resources for discovering which domains link to your website and which of your website pages get the highest number of links is through the free Google tool, Google search console.

The Google Search console links report details things like;

• the most linked pages on your website; commonly this will be your homepage
• the top linking sites; essentially the websites with the most links pointing to your pages
• top internally linked pages; your pages which have the most links from other pages on your site
• top linking text; the most commonly occurring anchor text used when sites link to your pages

Use Google search console to understand the type of pages which link to your site and use the data to determine how best to optimise your website pages and where to focus your link building efforts.

Why is Link Building Important in SEO?

Link building is important for SEO because regular consistent and high quality link acquisition can help search engines determine that your website is a high quality, high authority resource for information about the topic your website covers.

If you regularly build high quality links you’ll find your potential to rank well on higher value and more competitive topics will improve.
Regular link building ca also help protect your existing rankings and help protect your pages from drops brought on by search algorithm updates.

In conjunction with the regular production of high quality, expert led and detailed content link building sends a strong message to search engines that you’re a useful resource for information.