If you want search engines to notice your website, then you need to build backlinks. It’s a mantra repeated over and over again: build backlinks.
But like cheese, not all backlinks are created equal. Some backlinks are really good, while others are bad. There are backlinks that do nothing to increase your search engine rankings and there are backlinks that will take you to the top.
When it comes to backlinks, there are two main things to know:
quality over quantity
It’s not about the number of backlinks you create, it’s about the quality of the backlinks. And this isn’t just theory: Google’s Matt Curtis has made this point many times in his presentations. Being a Google employee, he knows what he’s talking about.
What makes a quality backlink? The easiest way to tell is by Page Rank. What is the Page Rank of the website that gives you a backlink? If the website is not ranked or has a page rank 1, then it is not a quality backlink. Google won’t give it too much value (if any). But if it’s a website with Page Rank 5 or 6, then that’s quality. A backlink from a Page Rank 6 website tells Google that a top website thinks your website has good content.
Also keep in mind that Page Rank is logarithmic. Which means that every increase in Page Rank is a 10x increase in value. A PR 6 is worth 10 times more than a PR 5 website. So if you are building backlinks by creating guest posts and have to decide between a PR 5 blog and a PR 6 blog, always choose the more high.
Of course, the higher the Page Rank, the harder it is to get a backlink. But think of it this way. You can spend days building 20 low quality backlinks on a PR 1 site, or you can spend those same days building 1 quality backlink on a PR 5 website. You spend the same amount of time, but the PR 5 backlink is worth much more than the 20 PR 1 backlinks.
Anchor Text in Backlinks
Search engines use the anchor text to determine what the backlink is about. So when you get a backlink, try to make sure the link uses your keyword in the anchor text. Instead of the backlink showing your domain name, you want it to show your keywords. For example, notice at the bottom of this article how the link to my website uses keywords and not the website address.
Search engines keep track of the anchor text used to link to your website; it’s one of the main ways they use to determine what your website is about. When people search using your keywords, you have a better chance of ranking high if your keywords are used in backlinks.
If the website with the backlink doesn’t use keywords for their website, usually all it takes is sending them an email asking them to change it.
It’s true, backlinks are important if you want to rank high in search engines. Don’t waste your time creating hundreds of worthless backlinks. Instead, spend that time on some quality backlinks.