10 essential tips for successful link building

Building a robust link profile is one of the pillars of a successful SEO strategy. However, it’s not always easy to know where to start or which tactics are the most effective.

Therefore, in this article, we will present you with 10 essential link building tips that will help you move your website up in the search engines and grow your online audience.

Whether you’re a beginner in the SEO world or looking to optimize your current strategy, these best practices will help you get the most out of your link building efforts.

Systematic link building and the right backlinks can be an important success factor of your online marketing campaign. However, you should follow some rules when building the links to be successful:

Be sure to pay attention to the topic relevance of your backlink structure. It is of great importance that your backlinks come from different but topic-relevant sources.

Why do I have to pay attention to high topic relevance for backlinks?

Because that’s what Google values! By getting backlinks from diverse and topic-relevant sources, you signal to Google that your content is relevant and valuable.

To analyze your backlinks, there are several tools available, such as ahrefs.com, linkresearchtools.com or majestic.com. These professional tools allow you to examine your backlink structure in detail so you can optimize topic relevance.

Remember: a high-quality backlink structure that relies on topic-relevant sources is a crucial factor for ranking well in search results. So take the initiative and invest in reviewing and improving your backlinks to strengthen your online presence. Google will thank you!

Anchor text plays a crucial role in web page linking and internal referrals. It is a text or phrase that acts as a hyperlink and refers to other web pages or specific areas within a web page. By using an HTML link tag, the anchor text is displayed as visible text that users can click on to go to the linked page.

Using different anchor texts in link building is important for several reasons:

1. Natural link profile: Search engines like Google prefer a natural link profile. If all your backlinks have the same anchor text, this could look unnatural and be seen by search engines as an attempt at manipulation. A diverse profile of anchor texts looks more natural and authentic.
2. Relevance: Different anchor texts allow you to highlight different aspects of your content or website. This can improve the relevance of your backlinks for certain search queries.
3. User Experience: Different anchor texts can also be helpful to give users more context about what they can expect from your page when they click on the link. This can improve the user experience and drive more qualified traffic to your website.
4. Avoiding penalties: Google has in the past penalized websites that use overly optimized anchor texts. This practice, known as the “over-optimization penalty,” aims to prevent the manipulation of search results. By using a variety of anchor texts, you can minimize this risk.

Here are some examples of good and bad anchor texts for internal links to a blog post about link building tips:

So it’s important to use a mix of exact matches (e.g. “blue running shoes”), partial matches (e.g. “cheap running shoes”), brand names, and neutral terms (like “here” or “website”) as anchor texts when creating backlinks.

Also, avoid using identical anchor texts all the time, as this can be interpreted as manipulation by search engines. Instead, regularly change the labels of your manually created backlinks.

An essential aspect of OffPage SEO is examining your competitors’ anchor texts. By analyzing the most successful websites, you can improve your own SEO strategy.

The correct choice of anchor texts is crucial for an efficient link strategy and SEO. Using concise and descriptive anchor texts, varying them regularly, and studying competing websites will increase your visibility in search engine results.

The number of backlinks is not an important aspect of search engine optimization and is not decisive for the success of a website. In the past, it was considered a measure of quality and credibility if a website had a large number of backlinks, as this indicated high popularity and increased the chances of a higher ranking in search engine results.

Nowadays, search engines have evolved their algorithms and put more emphasis on the quality and relevance of backlinks. It is not only the quantity, but mainly the type of backlinks that is crucial. Search engines now analyze the reputation and authority of linking sources to evaluate the relevance and quality of a website.

It is therefore of great importance that the backlinks you set are of high quality and thematically relevant. A handful of high-quality backlinks from trusted and topic-relevant websites can prove to be much more effective than a large number of low-quality backlinks. Quality goes before quantity.

It is also important to note that the number and regularity of backlinks depends on the nature of your website. A small niche site targeting specific topics or audiences should not try to artificially generate thousands of new backlinks per month. Instead, you should focus on building an organic and authentic backlink structure that reflects the needs and interests of your target audience.

Overall, it is crucial to take a balanced approach that pays attention to both the number and quality of backlinks. Focus on building high-quality, topic-relevant backlinks from trusted sources rather than focusing solely on sheer quantity. This way, you can effectively support your SEO efforts and achieve long-term success.

How many backlinks do I need for a good ranking in Google?

There is no fixed number of backlinks you need to achieve a good ranking on Google. The number of backlinks a website needs can vary greatly depending on the competition, industry, keyword difficulty and many other factors.

However, you should note that Google takes into account not only the number of backlinks, but also their quality. High quality backlinks from trusted and topic relevant websites are more valuable than a large number of backlinks from less trusted or irrelevant websites. In addition, Google makes sure that link building happens naturally and over a long period of time, and not suddenly and in large quantities.

You should not only link to your main page, but also place deep links, i.e. links to sub-pages. Linking to a subpage is helpful for finding information and can improve the user experience.

Deeplinking increases the visibility of your website, which in turn can help drive more traffic and customers to your website.

Why are deep links important?

Quite simply, deeplinking helps users find relevant information quickly, improving the user experience.

By placing deep links, you enable your website visitors to go directly to the content that interests them. This reduces the need to navigate through the main page or menu structures, which greatly improves the user experience.

By giving users direct access to specific subpages, you increase their satisfaction and make it easier for them to use your website. In addition, deep linking also contributes to the visibility of your website.

Search engines like Google appreciate well-placed deep links as they help to better index and understand the content of your website. When you place deep links to relevant subpages, you increase the chances of your website showing up in search engine results for specific search queries.

This, in turn, can lead to increased traffic to your website and target potential customers.

Deeplinking increases the user-friendliness and visibility of your website. By linking to subpages, you increase accessibility and traffic and attract potential customers. Integrate deep linking firmly into your link building strategy to make a positive impact.

The placement of your link to the landing page plays a crucial role. It has been proven that links that are placed in a thematically relevant body text are given far more consideration by Google than those that are merely located in the footer or other less prominent areas of a web page.

Why is the placement of backlinks important?

1. Context relevance: Search engines like Google consider the context in which a link is placed. A link placed in a thematically relevant context is likely to carry more weight than a link without context or in an irrelevant context. Therefore, the links should be placed on pages that thematically match your website.
2. Visibility: Links that are prominently placed on a page are more likely to be clicked by users and can drive more traffic to your website. Therefore, it is better to place links where they can be seen and clicked by users, such as in the main content of the page, rather than in the footer or sidebar.
3. Link Value (Link Juice): Search engines also consider the position of a link on a page when calculating the link value or “link juice”. Links placed in the main content of a page or closer to the top may carry more weight than links placed lower on the page or in the footer.
4. Avoiding Spam: Excessive link placement or placing links in irrelevant places can be considered spam by search engines, which can result in your website being downgraded.

So when placing your links, keep in mind that context and relevance are key. Rely on natural embedding in the text to provide the best user experience for both search engines and readers, and effectively support your SEO efforts.

Don’t rely solely on DoFollow backlinks, but also rely on some NoFollow links. However, it is crucial to prioritize quality over quantity. By carefully distributing your backlinks, you ensure that you have a balance of DoFollow and NoFollow links.

Why are nofollow links important?

Although “nofollow” links traditionally don’t directly help improve search engine rankings because they signal to search engines that they shouldn’t use the link to calculate the target page’s link popularity, there are still some reasons why they should be considered in your link building strategy:

1. Natural link profile: A link profile that contains both “dofollow” and “nofollow” links looks more natural. If all your links are “dofollow”, this could be seen by search engines as unnatural and possibly manipulative.
2. Referral traffic: “Nofollow Links can still direct users to your website. Placing a “nofollow” link on a popular website can result in increased traffic and visibility, even if the link itself doesn’t directly help improve your search engine rankings.
3. Extended visibility: “Nofollow Links can always make your brand or website more visible. The more people see your site, the more likely they are to link to you or share your content, which can lead to more “dofollow” links.
4. Google policy change: Google has recently changed its treatment of “nofollow” links. Since March 2020, Google considers “nofollow” links as “hints”, which means they can use them to calculate link popularity in certain cases.

An effective way to determine the right ratio is to analyze your competitors’ approach. Tools like semrush.com offer you the possibility to examine the backlink profiles of your competitors. By familiarizing yourself with their strategies, you can gain valuable insights and adjust your own approach accordingly.

A balanced mix of DoFollow and NoFollow links thus increases SEO results and website visibility. Prioritize quality over quantity and analyze competitor tactics for success.

Link building is undoubtedly a long-term process that requires perseverance and patience. It’s important to have realistic expectations and not expect your rankings to improve dramatically in a matter of days.

The truth is that it can take months to see the first visible results of your link building efforts. It’s an ongoing effort, but one that will pay off if you take the right approach and stay disciplined.

Link building is a complex discipline that requires time and experience. It requires a deep understanding of the different strategies and tactics to build effective backlinks.

At first, it may seem difficult to understand and successfully apply the nuances of link building. But with time and practical application, you’ll find that it gets easier and easier and your efforts pay off.

The positioning of a backlink on a website is of great importance for its effectiveness. When a backlink is placed on a prominent and highly visible page, it gets more attention from visitors and search engines. This leads to a stronger transfer of link power and thus improves the ranking of your own website.

Therefore, it is important to check the linking site before accepting or aiming for a backlink from it:

1. Quality: Not all backlinks are created equal. A link from a high quality, trustworthy and topically relevant site can be much more valuable than a link from a low quality or low trust site. High quality sites usually have well-written, informative content, a clear structure and a good user experience.
2. Relevance: Links from thematically relevant pages are usually more valuable than links from irrelevant pages. If you get a backlink from a site that is thematically related to yours, it will likely have a greater impact on your ranking.
3. Spam: Some sites engage in questionable or manipulative SEO practices, such as buying links or creating spam pages. Links from such sites can be negatively evaluated by search engines and can harm your own ranking.
4. Traffic: A backlink from a high traffic site can drive more traffic to your site than a backlink from a low traffic site.

By reviewing the linking site, you can ensure that you are getting quality and relevant backlinks that will strengthen your SEO profile instead of damaging it. It also helps you build valuable relationships with other sites in your industry or niche.

For
an effective link building strategy
it is of great importance that most of your backlinks come from websites that are written in the same language as your target page.

There are several reasons why you should prefer links in the same language when link building:

1. Relevance: Search engines rate links higher that come from thematically relevant pages. If your site is in German and you receive a backlink from another German-language site, that link is likely to be considered more relevant than if it came from a site in another language.
2. Targeting: The links you create should be valuable not only to search engines, but also to users. If you link to websites in the same language, you are more likely to reach your target audience, as visitors to these websites are likely to speak German and therefore interested in your content.
3. Natural link profile: Natural link building is mostly done with websites in the same language. Too high a percentage of backlinks from websites in other languages could look unnatural and be considered spam by search engines.

However, it is important to note that this is not a rigid rule. It is perfectly acceptable to get backlinks from sites in other languages as well, as long as it is relevant to your target audience.

For example, if you have a multilingual website or want to target an international audience, backlinks from English-language sites can also be beneficial.

Nevertheless, the majority of your backlinks should come from pages in the same language to improve relevance and user experience. This allows search engines to better rank your website and increases the likelihood that it will be visible to your target audience.

If you have invested a lot of time and energy in building backlinks for a particular website over the past few months and abruptly stop these efforts, there is a great risk that the website will slip in the rankings.

This problem often occurs when companies try to improve their link profile and find that the process requires a lot of time and effort. Many become frustrated and tend to give up, believing that their efforts were in vain. However, caution is advised because suddenly stopping link building can cause serious damage to the website.

Search engines like Google evaluate the quality and continuity of backlinks to assess the relevance and credibility of a website. Abruptly stopping link building signals to search engines that the website is no longer actively working to improve its online reputation. This can cause the page’s ranking to decrease and it will lose visibility in search results.

It is important to understand that building backlinks is a continuous process that delivers positive results over time. A sustainable link building strategy requires patience and perseverance. Even if the results are not immediately visible, it is critical to continually build quality backlinks to support long-term website growth and visibility.

It is important to emphasize that buying links is against Google’s webmaster guidelines and can result in your website being penalized. Search engines prefer natural links that are created based on the quality and relevance of your content.

If you still decide to buy links, which is explicitly not recommended, keep the following in mind:

1. Quality of the linking page: A link is only as good as the page it comes from. The page should be high quality, thematically relevant to your website and trustworthy.
2. Don’t be too obvious: If Google detects that you have purchased links, this can lead to your website being downgraded. Therefore, you should try to make the purchase of links as unobtrusive as possible by using a variety of different anchor texts and making sure that the links are naturally embedded in the content of the linking page.
3. No “nofollow” attribute: Links that you buy should not have the “nofollow” attribute, as this signals to Google and other search engines not to consider the link when calculating the link popularity of the target page.
4. Long-term strategy: buying links should not be your only SEO strategy. It is still important to create quality content and follow an organic link building strategy.

Again, buying links is not recommended and can have serious consequences for your SEO. It is usually better to invest time and resources into creating quality content and building organic links.