How to Increase the Quality of Your Backlinks

Backlinks are a vital yet commonly overlooked element of search engine optimization (SEO) and digital marketing strategies. Also known as inbound links, backlinks are links from another website that connects directly to one of your site’s pages. While quality website content, keyword optimization, site design, and user experience are vital elements for every site, backlinks help search engines determine the value of your pages and how to rank them in search results. Quality backlinks can also help search engines find and index your pages faster, making them an invaluable tool for every site. As experts in search engine optimization, the team at FirstPage Marketing knows how valuable high-quality backlinks can be for every website. That’s why we’ve put together some information to help you understand how to increase the quality of your backlinks and enhance your SEO efforts.

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What Does a Quality Backlink Look Like?

Not all backlinks are created equal. While you may be tempted to pursue quantity over quality, this is rarely a beneficial approach. For example, if many untrusted sites link to one of your pages while using a hyperlink that doesn’t accurately represent the content, these backlinks can actually do more harm than good. That’s why it’s in your best interests to curate high-quality backlinks from reputable sources.

High-quality backlinks typically come from sites with high domain authority. This means that they are highly reputable and trusted by both users and search engines, helping bots and users see the destination website as a trustworthy source of information. While there are many factors that influence the quality of a backlink, most high-quality backlinks share the following characteristics:

• The referring domain is reputable and trustworthy.
• The link text occurs naturally within the context of the page. This means that the link is hyperlinked as part of the paragraph text instead of saying “click here” or “learn more” and linking this text.
• The referring page is topically relevant to the link destination.

These inbound links from reputable sites express confidence in the value of your content, letting search engines know that your page contains valuable information and that it should be ranked accordingly in search results.

3 Strategies to Increase the Quality of Your Backlinks

Knowing what a quality backlink looks like is only the first step. To fully unlock the potential of your site’s content and insights, you need to know how to acquire high-quality backlinks. While there are many ways to increase the quality of your backlinks, the following 3 strategies are proven and effective methods for all types of sites:

1. Look at the Competition

If your competitors are outranking you, it’s worth looking into their SEO methods and analyzing the quality of their backlinks. Thankfully, there are many tools available to perform this task. First, build a list of your top 5-10 main competitors. Next, use your preferred tool—Semrush, Ahrefs, etc.—to look at their backlinks and identify sites with high trust and authority. To make this process more effective and efficient, consider using an SEO tool such Moz Domain Authority or Semrush Domain Authority Checker.

Once you have located some high-quality backlinks for each competitor, try to understand how your competitor obtained each link. Perhaps they got one through a guest blog article, or maybe their page content is really informative and compelling. Whatever the reason may be, use this information as inspiration to make changes to your content and reach out to the owners/administrators of these referring sites to show that your site is worth linking to.

2. Resource Link Building

One of the most effective ways to get quality backlinks for your site is through resource link building. Many high-authority websites have dedicated “resources” pages or sections. These pages can focus on a variety of topics ranging from specific industry insights and discussions to step-by-step guides. Resource pages are essentially a collection of links to other sites that have a page or section that can answer a visitor’s question or provide them with additional information.

Look at the resource pages for some prominent sites in your industry. From here, see if any pages or information on your site can be used as a resource for unanswered questions or if your pages would be a better resource than the site they are currently linking to. Make note of these instances and reach out to the owner/administrator of each site to see how you can obtain a link from them. In most cases, simply asking for a link and showing your content will be enough, so long as your content is informative, easy to follow, and optimized.

3. Broken Link Building

Broken link building is an effective and scalable technique that can help you obtain high-quality backlinks while benefiting the site(s) linking to you. Over time, links can stop working due to changing URLs, inactive sites, or hosting issues. When this happens, a high-authority site is essentially linking to a 404-error page or nothing. This results in a negative experience for the user, the linking site, and the site being linked to.

Broken link building is the process of locating these dead links, informing the site owner/administrator about them, and suggesting one of your site’s pages as a replacement. These links can be located via a variety of SEO tools, though you will likely not be able to offer a replacement page for every dead link. Instead, focus on links that are applicable to your site’s content and industry. By offering to replace a broken link with a link to your site, you are helping the referring website while bolstering the quality of your backlinks, creating a win-win situation for both parties.

For more information on search engine optimization, website design, or other areas of digital marketing, get in touch with the experts at FirstPage Marketing. We can be reached through our online contact form or by phone at 1-800-676-4393 and will be happy to answer any questions you may have regarding our services or how we can help you grow your business.

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