SEO link building: how does it actually work?

SEO link building: the basics

We take you through the basics of SEO link building. Earlier, we wrote a blog about what link building is and how you can link build using PR. This time, we give a more in-depth explanation, go into more detail on how to approach (or outsource) SEO link building in practice and discuss the difference between high authority link building and high quality link building.

Link building is gathering links on other websites that refer to your website. All these links together form your link profile. The more relevant the websites that refer to you are, the better your link profile. Why is this important? Because based on your link profile, a search engine determines how important your website is and whether you deserve a spot in that coveted top three on the first page of search results. In the video below, Neil Patel, one of the top ten online marketers according to Forbes, explains all the things Google looks for when assessing your link profile.

High authority or high quality link building?

What exactly is high authority link building and high quality link building? So, to briefly summarise Patel's story, you want backlinks to relevant sites with 'high domain authority'. Domain authority (DA) is a value between zero and one hundred that Google assigns to websites. This value is determined based on many different factors, such as the number of backlinks, internal links and domains. If a website with a high DA (>35) refers to your website, your DA will also increase. You can find out the DA of different websites via Open Site Explorer, for instance.

However, high authority link building is only one part of high quality link building (also called high-end link building). To build a high-end link profile, you also need to pay attention to a few other things:

1. Website with high domain authority

As mentioned, a link on a website with and high domain authority is worth more.

Relevance

Make sure your link is on a website with content that suits your business. If you, or your client, have a business in mattresses, a link on a lifestyle blog is worth more than a link on a website about art.

Context

Your link is worth less if it ends up on a site consisting of lists of link partners. Google, or any other search engine, soon realises that this is rigged. A link in the middle of a piece of text has more value.

4. Prefer to ignore link exchanges

A link is worth more if it does refer to you, but you do not place a referring back link.

Buy linkbuilding

Item four from the above list brings us to the next and final topic: buying link building. Whereas a few years ago you could buy in full backlinks to boost your ranking easily and quickly, Google's algorithm is now a bit more sophisticated. It prefers a 'natural' link profile, or a profile that is built up gradually and consists of links to different channels. So buying a thousand links in one go is no longer a good idea.

If you buy from a reliable linkbuilding agency that pays attention to the quality and context of the links, and the relevance and DA of the websites, buying can still add value. So don't go to the first best agency that is stunting with cheap link building prices, but go for quality. Then you will get the most value out of your euros in the long run and link building buying can become attractive.