By now, most of us know that a link building strategy is a part of the SEO package for building a successful online web presence. However, the days when using links from everywhere are long gone, and search engines have made their position clear: they want quality links so the traffic has a meaningful experience.
So if you were thinking about going out there with a 10k backlink blitz, stop and think again – because you’ll achieve absolutely nothing if all of those links are low quality. It’s also worth noting that it’s not wise to place too much weight on whether a link has a high Page Authority (PA) or Domain Authority (DA). Instead, you should be looking at a spectrum of metrics to determine the link quality.
Those metrics include things such as topic, geography, relevance, position, and even anchors. While you don’t need to ace all of these, the more of them you can nail, the better quality your links and the more effect they will have in building your organic(ish) website presence.
Another thing you’ll want to avoid is comment spam. We’ve all seen it: badly written comments that always link to somewhere that brutalize the comments section of articles, irritate forum users, and make social bookmarks and article directories one of the seven circles of Hell. Of course, completely avoid this as it is completely detrimental to your business!
Indeed, the current consensus these days is very much that quality matters over quantity. A few high quality backlinks in the right places that score high on a whole bunch of metrics is kind of like having your own Dream Team – it’ll take on an army of thousands of crappy wannabes and come out on top without breaking a sweat.
With that said, in local link building, you can break the rules a little – if you’re just after a quick victory, a blitz of backlinks of average quality can help you to quickly get some points, although in the long run they’ll do little – so you’re still better off focusing on the future as well. It’s all very well making a quick buck today, but if it costs you hundreds or thousands of bucks over the lifespan of your business, you have to ask yourself – “is this really worth it?”. For most people, the answer is going to be no.
Think of it like building a real local business, rather than a global, internet focused one. The most successful businesses out there are built on trust and professionalism, and without these two core qualities, you’re gong to have a tough time getting punters coming in through the door.
Whether you’re focusing on your own business or running a local SEO company for businesses such as stores, tradesmen, and professionals seeking more clients, you simply need to focus on building a compact but hefty strategy that deploys backlinks like the SEO WMDs tht they actually are.
The good news is that you don’t really need to bother with high DA – the most important thing is ensuring that you have a high quality bit of content to go with your link, and that it’s geographically relevant – there’s no point backlinking a Florida electrician in Oregon!
So, next time you embark on a backlink blitz, be sure to check for quality over quantity unless you’re looking for a quick win – and even then, be wary that you could be hurting yourself in the long run!