Evaluating Link Quality: Metrics & Criteria For Effective Backlinks

Backlinks are a critical component of SEO and will determine your search engine ranking, but not all links are equal. To achieve search engine success and increase organic traffic to your website, you must obtain effective backlinks and know how to go about acquiring these. This is a skill we have developed over the years at Digitally Unique, so keep reading to learn about our process for evaluating link quality by looking at key metrics and criteria. 

Relevance

First, relevancy is hugely important. You need to acquire links from a relevant source. This should be a blog or website with content similar to your own and addressing the same themes. This is why a blogger outreach campaign is a critical part of link-building, as it allows you to discover relevant places to acquire backlinks - this is something that search engines consider when determining the importance of a link.

Link Placement

You must also make sure that the link is placed in a valuable area in the eyes of search engines. Generally, the best place for a link in web content is in the main body of the text, ideally placed slightly higher on the page. Try to avoid links in sidebars, introductions, and footers.

Anchor Text

You must also consider the anchor text that is used. This anchor text should be relevant and descriptive, but you should also use a mix of anchor texts and avoid excessive use of exact-match anchor texts, as this can backfire.

Domain Authority 

It is important to consider the domain authors (DA) of a website to identify websites that will improve your own website's authority. This is a metric that was developed by Moz that predicts the ranking potential of a website. You can use Moz and a few other tools to determine a website’s DA and identify those that will have a positive impact on your search engine ranking.

Page Authority

Similarly, page authority (PA) can influence the impact of your performance on search engine results lists. PA measures the ranking of a specific webpage, so you want to identify those with a high PA score to optimise your results. 

Editorial Links

Search engines are becoming more adept at spotting paid links and devaluing these, so you want to prioritise editorial links - these are links from high-quality content. This is why creating quality blog posts that will engage your target market is important. You should have a deep understanding of your target market and create content that will answer questions they have, address issues they face, and/or entertain them. It is worth using content writing services for this so that you can benefit from content that is both engaging and SEO-friendly.

These are the key metrics and criteria that we focus on with link-building strategies. Not all links are created equal, so it is important to obtain effective links that will improve your search engine ranking and increase organic traffic to your website. 

Enjoy this post? Check out these articles to learn more about link building. 

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