Search Engine Optimization is a tough business. With everyone competing for those top ranking spots, opinions differ on the best way to get there. You’ve all seen those fiver gigs offering thousands (or tens of thousands) of backlinks, delivered in a matter of days. Such strategies could actually damage your rankings rather than improve them. The reality is, Google wants quality rather than quantity when ranking your website.
Sure, quantity can still be important. You’re not going to rank for a highly competitive term with only a handful of backlinks – but the various algorithms that search engines use tend to place more importance on where those links are coming from rather than the sheer number of them. If you’ve ever analyzed the top ten rankings for a keyword on Google, you’ll have seen sites with 10,000 backlinks sitting below those with only 500. This happens because Google looks at other things which help determine the authority of a site – and this can often be down to the quality of its backlinks.
Obviously, other factors still play a part – like the age of the site and other SEO parameters. But high quality backlinks can do the job where a scatter gun approach of thousands of cheap links cannot. Google actually penalizes sites if it thinks they’re getting backlinks in an unnatural way, like too fast or too many. That’s why a natural, organic backlinking program is best. Only the biggest viral sensations go from zero to ten thousand backlinks overnight. It’s just not realistic. Such penalizations can result in sites dropping considerably in the rankings after they’ve been flagged by Google. Some fiver backlinking gigs can work well, but many of them can be harmful.
What Page Rank means for your backlinking strategy
One of the most important things most search engines look at when evaluating the quality of backlinks is Page Rank or “PR”. It’s a ranking from zero to ten, with ten being highest. There aren’t many PR 10 sites out there, but Google and a handful of other famous names are amongst them. PR9 includes the likes of CNN.com, amongst others. Basically, these sites are considered to be very authoritative, and a backlink from one of them is like gold-dust.
The reality is that most lower-level SEO operators won’t be looking for backlinks from PR9 sites or even anything above PR5 very often. Most new sites will start with a PR of zero, but there are many small-scale blogs that have managed to achieve a PR of 4 or 5, which isn’t bad in the grand scheme of things. If you can get some good, relevant links on a number of PR3+ sites, you’ll be going about things the right way.
A proper backlinking program should take time, and that’s a positive rather than a negative. Google (and other search engines) wants to see your site grow naturally over a regular period of time. Results simply don’t happen overnight. A good system is to set yourself a goal of a few good quality, high PR backlinks each day, over a number of weeks. Doing it this way is much healthier and much more sustainable than suddenly getting a thousand PR0 links in a day.
So how do you get good quality backlinks?
Hopefully, you’ve seen how a good quality backlink can be worth more than a poor quality one. Much more. But how do you actually get these links? There are a number of ways. Firstly, although they would do your site a lot of good, you probably aren’t going to be looking for links from PR7 sites. However, there are a number of good quality blogs and sites that will link to you. It’s not impossible to get PR5 links if you know what you’re doing, but even PR2 links are better than PR0 and PR1.
Generally, the cut off point should be around PR2. That’s the minimum you should be looking for when attempting to build backlinks. If you’re wondering how to even see the rank of a site, there are a number of tools available. SEOQuake is a Firefox add-on that shows you the PR of any site, along with a number of other useful SEO metrics.
One of the most popular ways of getting high quality backlinks is with Guest Posting. Loads of blogs need content and will offer a link or two to your site in an author byline. All you need is a good quality article that’s somehow relevant to their site and yours. The general opinion is that Google likes guest posting, not least because the links are generally contextual and sit alongside quality content rather than just spammy link farms. It’s also great for blog owners because they can get quality content for free.
Generally, the better the blog post, the better (and higher PR) site you can get it on. There are loads of sites out there who offer guest posting, many with a PR of 3 or more. A simple search of guest posting blogs in your niche will throw up plenty of options.
The reality is that PR isn’t the only thing that makes a link “quality“. There are a number of other factors, such as if the links are from sites relevant to your niche and what keywords you use in the anchor text. However, a strong backlinking campaign should be taken seriously, and you shouldn’t look for too much, too soon.
About the Author: Peter Ellington knows that good quality writing is important whether you’re creating website content or completing an academic paper. When looking for expert help for his essays, he uses Essay Jedi.
Hi, Thanks for providing very useful content for us. It’s a very important beginners.
Thank you
Good website for backlinks thanks for giving me information about backlinks
hi thanks for the information i hope its will work on my website
nice to increase site
I am Frequently Updated my Site. But my Posts are not Index Frequently in Google Search.
Thanks for your valuable information and how can I get backlinks (websites)
Nice article,
Backlinks remain an important Google ranking factor. When you build good quality backlinks, and your contents get indexed on search engines, you drive more quality traffic to your website. You become more relevant in search queries”
Nice article, I will work hard on my too to get to the top though it takes time as a beginner
wow its very good article,which permalinks type is good for seo?
The post-name one is the permalink structure we use for our websites.
I also understand that quality has greater weight but my webmaster account says that i have backlink link from websites like google yahoo and blogspot, they are top rank sites even though my page ranks bad can you explain why, does webmaster also crawl nofollow link, but google search doesnt
Yes. Google creawls those backlinks but when they’re nofollow they don’t pass the link juice to get ranked. That’s why you have not improved your rankings.
Blogspot can generate a ton of great backlinks if done right. Have a look at my guide for email subscribers 🙂
Thank you for the article! It’s a very interesting read. However, a quick google search for “Guest posting” shows numerous posts about the downfall of guest blogging, and about how it’s become a practice full of spammers and people trying to build a lot of backlinks very quickly.
I’m wondering if you think it’s still worth to do guest posts (of high quality of course), or if my time is better spend elsewhere if I want to grow my website.
I published my website only half a month ago, so it’s obviously in the very early stages and still growing. I’ve gotten about 700 views in 15 days which comes out to about 46 views per day. I’m trying to make my website high-quality, and trying not to spam backlinks and stuff like that on the internet.
Your response would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for your time!
Guest posting is a lot more dangerous this days, honestly. But it will work to get traffic, make a presence and build your list. I’f still do it if it’s a high quality one 🙂
Thanks for the tips!! I am here to know whether using multiple sites over a single adsense account can affect the CPC? And Directory submission is good idea to get bcklinks? Please tell me sir!!!
Hello Rohit.
No, it won’t affect your CPC. If you see some change there, make sure you check your account by sites/urls.
Directory submission is a good idea to diversify, but it’s just not very effective anymore.
I think , now mostly blogger will hesitate to accept guest blogging after announcement of MATT CUTT announcement related to guest post.
Nice article, I have been trying hard with my backlink generation plan. But it seems like that need some specific strategy, or else I am doing it wrong some where. Am still working and in wait-and-watch mode, to get the result out.
Everyone has its own opinion about that subject. I’m a beginner in that business. I read everything and understand very little. But I’m learning all the time……..
Best wishes,
T.
Dear Friend.. there is a lot of hype about getting good quality backlinks but in my opinion getting good quality links is like a mirage.. Even if you get some links, ultimately they are connected to some unwanted sites and it is difficult to comprehend how the page ranking sites filter out such garbage kind of links which get connected to your site. It appears that all the good quality links are available only on pay and get basis and nothing else..