Build Backlinks: How to Achieve Better Rankings

To be found on the Internet, it is essential to reach the highest possible positions in Google’s search results. Many factors influence this ranking — one factor plays a very significant role: the building of backlinks.

We will explain to you what backlinks are, how they influence your ranking and therefore lead to more traffic. Furthermore, we will show you what types of backlinks exist, what high-quality and bad backlinks look like, what mistakes you can make and what else you need to consider.

One thing in advance: Building backlinks takes time. So bring patience and never deviate from your high-quality standards.

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are links that point to your website from other, external pages. The higher the quality of these backlinks, the more they are considered when ranking. It is a kind of quality indicator. Backlink building is therefore one of the most important measures in the field of SEO (search engine optimization), and is one of around 200 factors that affect the ranking.

Backlinks can only be influenced to a certain extent, as other website operators must be convinced to link to one’s own site. This is sometimes a time-consuming process.

What Types of Backlinks Exist?

Backlinks can be categorized according to two different criteria:

1. Type of Medium

When creating a backlink, one must decide at which point it should be used. One can place such a cross-reference to another page…

• in the body text,
• in a headline, or
• by assigning it to an image, a photo, or a graphic.

All three media are important for search engines and are included in the evaluation.

2. Type of Following

The far more important distinction is made between dofollow and nofollow links. If no special setting is made, a dofollow link is always generated when a backlink is created — i.e., a reference that is to be followed by the search engines. If it is a source that is not entirely trusted, or if the backlink is less relevant, it can also be assigned the nofollow attribute.

In the past, this automatically meant that Google would not follow the link, but today the search engine often looks at the links anyway. Some content management systems allow further distinctions, like sponsored links.

How Do Backlinks Influence the Ranking of a Website?

Backlink building must be given a high priority because it influences the ranking by many factors. In order for such a link to your website to be crowned with success, the following factors need to be considered:

• How many backlinks link to your site in total?
• How many domains link to you?
• Where are the backlinks located in the text? Is the link mentioned in the body of the text, or rather in a comment or appendix?
• Is it a body text or a headline, an image link, a link in a video or another form?
• Is the anchor text of the link coherent and appropriate?
• Is a title tag assigned to the backlink and is it coherent?
• What technical type of backlink is it (dofollow, nofollow)?

Many backlinks from high-quality pages have the best effect on the ranking if they are in a prominent position in the text or in a headline, have a suitable anchor text and title tag and are dofollow. The supreme discipline is to place a backlink from Wikipedia.

Link Velocity and Link Juice

Two terms that one stumbles upon again and again in the context of building backlinks are link velocity and link juice.

What Does a High-quality Backlink Look Like to Google?

The PageRank algorithm is very sophisticated and advanced nowadays. How it works in detail, no one knows exactly, but some insights can be gained from observations and analyses of the way Google works. Thus, it is considered certain that the following criteria (but in a secret weighting) play a role:

Structure of the Link and Anchor Text

Care should be taken when creating the backlink. A suitable anchor text, the right place in the text flow and a title tag are particularly important. Conversely, a bad anchor text such as “Read more here” leads to a devaluation of the link. Positive are a brand name, a topic-relevant text or the complete URL.

Authority and Importance of the Page Being Linked From

The stronger, more relevant, important, and recognized a page is, from which it is linked to your Internet presence, the higher the link is ranked.

Again, a backlink on a poorly rated page, on a link farm or from known link sellers means a downgrade and is therefore counterproductive.

By the way: Many backlinks from a single page to your website are to be rated worse than a few (or even many) different links from different websites.

Thematic Relevance

For Google, the user experience is paramount. Accordingly, the most relevant pages for a search term are always displayed in the search results. Similarly, backlinks that lead to your page from a thematically similar page are more important than those from general pages or pages that focus on other keywords and topics.

Moreover, the more often such a link is clicked, the more important it seems to be and the more added value it seems to give.

Position Within a Page

When building backlinks, particular attention should be paid to the position of the link. Valuable backlinks are located in the main body of the text or even in a headline, in a well-placed image or in some other central location. If a link is presented in a comment, footer or attachment, it is inferior for Google.

Topicality of the Content

The more regularly new backlinks can be found, the better. From Google’s perspective, new backlinks to an existing page should be added constantly. If this is not the case, Google assumes that the content of the page has become outdated or less relevant.

Note: Google will notice a new backlink only after about 14 days. However, a noticeable influence on your search engine ranking can only be expected six to eight weeks after setting the link, at the earliest.

Do Bad Backlinks Also Exist?

Oh yes, there are also bad backlinks that are not only to no advantage to your site, but can even harm it. But what does Google understand by a bad backlink? These types of pages are considered bad:

1. Pages that don’t add any value to the reader, but mainly show advertisements.
2. Pages that have nothing to do with the topic of your website.
3. Pages that are obviously link farms, etc.

What Can Happen If You Have Bad Backlinks?

It depends on the type of bad link, but basically, you have to expect a penalty in the ranking. In serious cases and in the case of obvious violations of Google’s guidelines, a page may even be banned from the search results altogether.

To get rid of the bad links, you have to make a considerable and often costly effort. So keep your hands off purchased backlinks right from the start.

How Can You Recognize Spam Sites, Link Farms and Bought Links?

If you are considering working with a site in terms of backlink building, you should take a close look at the site beforehand. If it is poorly made, has short, meaningless texts, has few or no internal links, constantly links to Wikipedia and has many completely inappropriate links, you should stay away from it.

Backlinks Detox

Just as you should detox your body every now and then, you should identify and eliminate bad backlinks. For this, you can resort to various tools that draw attention to toxic links. The trick, however, is to get rid of these bad backlinks.

Why Should You Build Backlinks?

Creating backlinks and consistent backlink building have a positive effect on your domain authority and give you “link power”. This automatically makes you more relevant and better ranked for the search engines.

Backlinks also increase the traffic to your site. The more links lead to your website, the higher the chance that users will find and visit it. In addition, links act as a trust seal in a certain way. So, your site seems to be a reliable source that people like to reference in their text.

What Are the Most Common Mistakes in Backlink Building?

When building backlinks, some mistakes can be made, which of course should be avoided. Therefore, we have compiled the most common mistakes for you here:

Mistake #1: The Wrong Website

A backlink from a site that thematically has nothing to do with yours will not be of advantage to you. Furthermore, links from sites that have bad content, offer no added value to their readers, have too much advertising or are obvious link sellers should be avoided in any case.

Mistake #2: One Hand Washes the Other

According to Google’s guidelines, reciprocal backlink building is prohibited. So don’t be tempted and arrange a link exchange with a site — even if it fits thematically. Google will recognize this and penalize you.

Mistake #3: Meaningless Anchor Texts

The anchor text is the linchpin of a good backlink. However, if it says, “read more here”, “here, you’ll find more” or other meaningless passages, the link is worth less. The anchor text should be relevant to the topic, give a quick impression of the link and not repeat itself.

Mistake #4: Backlinks From Non-indexed Pages

Whether the website owner intentionally does not have his page indexed or Google has penalized the page, does not really matter. A link from such a page has no or even a negative influence on the ranking of your page.

Mistake #5: Non-organic Backlinks

If the references to your page seem artificial and the totality of links on a page that refers to you is rather inorganic, this backlink will be classified as irrelevant. The more diverse the links on a page are, the better.

Building Backlinks: These Are the Best Methods

So far, we’ve talked about what backlink building means, what mistakes you can make, and what matters when creating them. Now we want to give you practical tips to build, create and find the best backlinks.

Basically, a few, but high-quality backlinks are worth much more than many lousy cross-links. In addition, it is especially important to avoid any actions that could lead to Google penalizing you.

There are two basic ways to actively build backlinks: You can set backlinks to your site yourself, or you can look for collaborations. There is also the passive, natural building of backlinks over the years as other sites link to your content in their copy.

Active Building #1: Web Directories

In the most different web directories, the webmaster himself can set a backlink. If the web directory fits thematically, Google will rank it slightly higher than neutral directories. For businesses with a local connection, appropriate, regional web directories are to be preferred.

Active Building #2: Comments in Blogs

While Google does not rank links in comments on blogs as highly as links in a body text, they are a promising way to actively build backlinks to your website.

Active Building #3: Forums

There are countless forums on the Internet, often centered around specific topics. Become an active member in topic-relevant forums, write neutral comments and participate in the discussions. Then it is not so noticeable if you sometimes put a link to your page.

Active Building #4: Cooperations

Here you look for suitable pages, write to the webmaster or author and ask for the integration of a link to your page. The better your content fits to this page, the higher the chance that the link will be set.

Ideally, you might offer the readers of this page an added value through a good infographic on a topic covered there or more in-depth information, which the webmaster will recognize. And this is how you could go about it:

1. Go searching for topics that your article or infographic, etc. might fit. You can then find suitable articles and pages via Google search results.
2. Write a friendly email to the author or webmaster of the page and offer your content or added value for free.
3. After the agreement comes, you provide your extended content and ask only for a link to your contribution.

Without having designed extra content, you could help others enhance their article and received something back by linking back to your content.

Active Building #5: Writing Guest Articles

Look around and find quality, topically appropriate sites and blogs, and ask if there is interest in writing a guest article on a particular topic. This way, the site owner gets new content, and you get a backlink — a win-win situation.

Active Building #6: Updating of Outdated Content

There are countless websites that struggle with outdated content. Information or even references are outdated in articles that were written years ago. Go looking for it specifically, and then offer to help the author update it by providing new sources (including your own website, of course) or newer information. Again, both sides win — the best condition for a successful conversion.

Passive Building Through Good Content

You may be familiar with the term “instagrammable” — this refers to particularly pretty photo motifs that can be used as a restaurant, for example. It’s a similar story with the content on your site. If you have “linkable assets”, then this means that your texts, a checklist, a sweepstake, or an infographic are so good that people like to link to them.

You should always offer self-created images and infographics for free to use, with a request to link to your site when using them.

Other Factors That Make a Good Website for Backlink Exchange

But it’s not just good content that’s important if you want to make your site interesting and relevant as a source:

• Optimize your site’s load time.
• Always keep in mind that mobile pages are to be given preference.
• Be careful not to have duplicate content.
• Use the robot.text file and the sitemap correctly.

Blogtec — Your Specialist for Optimized Websites

If you bring everything back to the point, you always come to the conclusion that in the end it all comes down to good content. Good content on the page where you want to create a backlink, and good content on your own page.

This is where we at Blogtec come in. We deliver the best content for your site. We work exclusively with experienced writers who tailor a topic exactly to your site. Editors and SEO specialists do the rest to put the finishing touches on everything. Of course, you can also entrust us with your backlink building.

High-quality content is the key to success — there’s no question about that. We are here for you, take over this work for you and are already looking forward to our first, completely free and nonbinding consultation. Get in touch with us right here.