Link building is the process of obtaining links to a website to improve its search engine ranking and visibility.
In SEO, link building is an essential aspect of off-page optimisation.
Having a strong link profile with a mix of internal and external links, as well as links from reputable websites, can demonstrate to search engines that a website is authoritative and trustworthy. This can help to improve the website's ranking and visibility in search results pages.
Backlinks represent "a vote of confidence" from one site to another. In essence, backlinks to your website are signals to search engines that others vouch for your content.
Anchor Text: Anchor text is visible, clickable text that’s associated with the article or website linked to it. It effectively provides inspiration and motivation for readers to click through to that destination. For example anchor text below:
Our SEO services the link include this code <a href="/website-services/seo-services-and-training.html">Our SEO services</a>
There are several different types of anchor text best practices to consider, including:
- Exact match texts
- Partial match texts
- Naked link anchor texts - when you put the URL in your content like "www.dumco.net.au"
- Branded anchor texts
- Generic - when you use words like: click here, learn more
- Images
Using too much anchor text is called over-optimisation, and this applies to your keywords as well. SEO best practices dictate that anchor text should be relevant to the page you are linking to, rather than generic text. For example, if you link to a website with the anchor text 'website design' Google is going to assume that page has some relationship to website designs.
What pages should you build backlinks to?
- Homepage
- Service Pages
- Posts and articles
The general rule is you should build links to pages that have value to your visitors!
The difference between citations and backlinks:
Local citations are a key foundational factor for local SEO (mentions of your business NAP - name, address phone)
- Citations are typically 'non-follow' backlinks
- Backlinks are typically 'do-follow' links
Determine Backlinks quality:
- Check the website PA (min 30)
- Check the website DA (min 30)
- Check the website traffic
- Check how many keywords the website appears for