Organic search engine results are the most crucial source of traffic for digital businesses today. Therefore, getting on first page of Google is imperative. One solid technique for ranking high on Google is through backlinks. But the debate still rages whether a business should invest in large quantities of small & medium quality backlinks or a few but high quality backlinks.
What is a backlink?
I assume that most of my readers have basic idea of the subject by reading my blog on SEO backlinks, therefore I will proceed ahead to technical aspects of quality & quantity of backlinks after just defining the term as – Hyperlinks that connect an external website to your website. The other website can be a blog, news media company, social media website, e-marketplace, etc.
Why is backlink important?
Backlinks affect the rank of a website directly in search engine results. Consider it like a recommendation from one website to another.
What is a Quality backlinks?
I have been asked this question many times – What metrics are used to gauge the quality of a backlink. For instance, if a person having good reputations vouches for you then people tend to perceive you with respect as well. Similarly, if a website that has high authority is connected to your website then search engine assumes you have authority as well. At Brand Vedas, we thoroughly check the authority of a website before contacting them for backlinks. The domain authority or DA as it is more popularly known as is measured on a scale of 1 to 100. The higher the DA, the better it is. As expected websites like Google, FB, twitter, Forbes, etc. have a DA ranging from 80-100, but anything above 60 is great. Such numbers are achieved mostly for content generation/consumption platforms. There are a lot of medium authority websites with DA 20-50. This is mostly as a result of coordinated SEO strategies. The bulk of B2B websites aim to get in this range. Lastly, as you might have guessed a DA below 20 is practically same as non-existent. Another aspect of quality measure is the niche of the website. It helps if you get a have a backlink from a travel magazine to a tour operator’s website or health ministry’s backlink to a doctor’s website. Most of the clients at Brand Vedas come with a DA of less than 10 and with concerted efforts we deliver a DA in the range of 40-60.
The reasons to invest in high-quality backlinks are:
- They have proven record of definitely improving search engine rankings based on current Google algorithms.
- There is less possibility of malware attack form these links.
- Traffic coming from these quality websites has high probability of getting converted to sales.
- Over time your website will be sought out for backlinks.
From what we have discussed thus far, there is no reason to not aim for quality backlinks. However, the websites that have a high DA are not easily approachable. This translates into a lot more hard work, extended timelines, and sometimes even kickbacks or unsolicited liaison. Therefore, we must also focus on low DA backlinks. But as these are comparatively lower than the aforementioned links we need to understand them in detail.
Everybody wants large Quantity of backlinks:
In one of the forums an ardent follower of my blogs asked me ‘How many quality backlinks are enough’? And I instantly replied as much as you can get. That is the thumb rule for backlinks in general, notwithstanding their quality. It is similar to getting as many people to recommend you as possible. But there is a limit to the number of backlinks the high DA websites are willing to give.
Therefore we have to build backlinks from medium or low DA websites while staying clear off blacklisted or spam websites. In fact, these links might be just HTML tags and not even have proper references in the content or anchor texts. Moreover, when we say quantity of hyperlinks this will be exponentially more than quality hyperlinks. To put things in perspective, you can have 1 backlink from a website with DA- 80 or have 8 hyperlinks from websites with DA -10. An additional advantage is that the traffic coming from 10 websites will be much more than the traffic expected from a single quality domain.
The obvious advantages of making huge quantity of backlinks:
- It is very easy to find low DA websites that will give backlinks to you.
- Though the quantity of websites that have to be approached is large, but still the process is quicker as compared to generating quality links.
- Your rank on search engines is directly proportional to number of unique platforms linking into your website.
- An important piece of information here is that search engines count multiple links from a single website as unique links so there is no harm in getting links from multiple URLs form same website.
Common Mistakes people make while making large quantity of backlinks:
After reading these points I believe it will be very clear that making large quantity of low or medium DA backlinks is advisable. Then what keeps people form over indulging in this cost effective strategy?
- People often procure backlinks from websites that cater to an industry or niche that is not related to their own. The traffic thus generated may or may not translate into sales.
- No matter how careful you are when huge numbers are involved there is a considerable possibility of linking yourself with a blacklisted or spam website. The search engine might treat you as an accomplice of the spammer and this will hamper your SEO ranking.
What is the correct strategy for making backlinks?
At Brand Vedas, the best digital marketing agency in India, we create a custom SEO strategy for every client. Therefore, you should also create a unique SEO strategy for your business. The major factors that will determine how you focus on quality and quantity of backlinks are as follows:
- How old is your domain/website.
- Currently, how many backlinks you have?
- How many of those backlinks are from high, medium and low DA websites?
- How many competitors do you have?
- How many backlinks does your competition have?
- How many of those are form high, medium and low DA websites?
- Your current rank on search engine
- The timeline that you have set for achieving your SEO goals.
It is important to be practical here and set some realistic short term milestones along with long term goals. Once you decide on the strategy I recommend you to read my blog on Ways to Generate High Quality Backlinks as well as the blog on Ways to Generate Large Quantity of Backlinks.
