Quality Beats Quantity When Building Backlinks: Here's Why...

If we're going to talk about backlinks, it's worth taking the time to go over the basics. It's the numero uno buzzword in the SEO world right now. The most stripped down definition of a backlink is an incoming link to a webpage.

When a web page links to any other page, it's called a backlink. These used to be the major metric for ranking a page. Google used to highly rank any page containing a lot of backlinks. Other useful terms for this discussion are nofollow links, which are links that contain a "nofollow" tag, and therefore are not used to rank the page. Opposite to this are do-follow links, which of course work the opposite way.

Google's Penguin Update

So, now that we're clear on what a backlink is, what's it doing on your page? Well, that answer gets a little complicated due to Google's roll out of the Penguin algorithm. This crackdown on spam backlinks changed the landscape of SEO and backlinking. There has been a lot of chatter about guest blogging and backlinking and how Google killed both. But the fact of the matter is, Google is merely kicking trash to the virtual curb.

Backlinking is still a great way to accomplish a few things on your page. Firstly, it still does improve organic ranking. When your content is getting links from other sites, it will of course rank higher with search engines. This is made easier by creating links to individual posts, not just your homepage. If you want people to share, make it simple for them to do so.

Another thing backlinking will do for you is give faster indexing of your site. It encourages bots to more effectively crawl your site. The more backlinks you have, the quicker your page will be picked up and indexed.

The magic of backlinking will also bring you referral traffic. This is a major goal, as getting traffic is important, and referral traffic especially has a low bounce rate.

All that being said, you may be thinking, "that's it, I need to get a TON of backlinks!" This is a pretty common misconception. It's not the quantity of the backlinks that matter, but the quality. The Google Penguin is smart enough, evidently, to know the difference. That penguin is likely to reach out and bite you if you're using a paid service to get links.

Good to know, but what's a quality backlink?

Glad you asked. Since this penguin is so smart, it's been taught to distinguish a quality backlink. The qualifiers it's using are that the link to your site uses one or more keywords or keyword phrases, and that the link shows up on a webpage with a similar theme or content. In other words, if your backlink to an article about petunias shows up on a gardening website, in an article about planting flowers, it's a quality backlink. Conversely, if you blog about fishing, and post a backlink to a model search page, it's considered a spam link, and your ranking will suffer because of it. This is why it's so important to be wary of guest bloggers on your page, and always know who you're dealing with on some personal level.

How do you get quality backlinks?

So there's the good, bad, and the ugly. Now that you are armed with this information, the question becomes, how do you get quality backlinks? After all, it's great to have a blog, but if it's not growing and being shared, the only looks it'll get are mercy reads from your closest friends, and maybe your mom. Hopefully your goals are a little bigger than that.

Step one to getting backlinks: Start writing some articles. At the risk of offending, no one wants to read about your cat. You need to create relevant content that people want to read, share, and refer to when THEY write. Some of the best link producing content is tutorials or top-ten (or 5, or 12... it doesn't really matter) lists. The point is, you want to write on current topics, and in a format that is engaging. Spend a little time doing research, have credibility, and write honestly.

Another way to get backlinks is to comment on other blogs. Comments are free, and they're an easy way to get links. Additionally, they get you some solid one-way backlinks, more traffic, and better search engine visibility. Look for blogs related to your industry, and ones that have good traffic and engagement. Once you've spent a little time commenting there, follow the links in other comments. This will help you branch out and find more places to comment. Check for blog post authors to see if they have individual blogs that you can also comment on.

When using commenting, have something relevant to contribute. Be prepared to have an intelligent comment exchange on the topic. You want the blog owner to be impressed, rather than annoyed.

A third option is to submit your blog to web directories. This used to be a very popular method that tanked in recent years, but it's still viable if you are able to find legal web directories. If a directory asks you to create a backlink to their site to get into their directory, avoid them.

There's great value in backlinks, but use caution and your best judgment. Google will actually penalize sites that it determines are growing backlinks too quickly. This will cause your site to actually drop in rankings, rather than move up. A few hundred quality backlinks will have you sitting higher than a site with tens of thousands of garbage links.

For a comprehensive guide to building backlinks organically, see Peter Ellington's article. In it, he discusses organic growth, setting a goal of a few quality backlinks a day, over a period of weeks, and how to use the PageRank system to qualify links.

Whatever method you chose for adding backlinks, the best course of action is to stay off the Google Penguin's radar. In the world of SEO, it's clear this penguin is judge and jury, and being on the wrong side of him is detrimental to the health of your webpage.