Backlink strategy should consist of the following topics:
- Analysing current backlink status
- Building a strategy to get more quality backlinks
- Fixing broken links
Analysing current backlink status
First it is important to understand the existing link profile. You can use different tools such as Ahrefs to find out how many backlinks you have, where the links are coming, what is the quality of the links, and comparing the results to competitors. This gives you an understanding of what can be done better to earn more links and finding issues so they can be fixed.
Also Google Search Console gives relevant information related to the SEO quality of the links. You can see the top linking sites and texts as well as to which pages the links are pointing. Besides getting the link from the quality domain and page, also linking text is something that should be optimised. If anchor text includes the relevant keywords, the visibility and rankings of those keywords will benefit and improve. For example, it’s better to have “Backlink strategy” as an anchor text than “Read more”.
Building a strategy to get more quality backlinks
Getting new backlinks is not easy, but it should be done continuously. Usually, the best way to earn quality links is to write useful and quality content that users will share.
Here are some ideas of what can be done to earn more links:
- Get journalists, bloggers and influencers to use links
- Contact product manufacturers to mention where to buy with a link and partners to add the link to your page (you can add their links in exchange)
- Do a competitor analyses and check where they are getting links and you aren’t
- Add your webshop to industry directories
I want to highlight the word “quality” here. The idea isn’t to get as many links as possible and definitely any questionable link packages shouldn’t be bought. Bad links such as links that are coming from domains that Google doesn’t trust or mirrored pages might harm your SEO visibility.
How to focus on quality in link building
- Get links from the websites with high domain authority
- Make sure search engines doesn’t ignore the links (NoFollow -links)
- Use relevant anchor texts to improve the visibility with relevant keywords
- Point links to the pages which visibility you want to improve
- Maintain linking profile by fixing broken links
- Fixing broken links
In online shops broken links usually come from expired products or structure changes that affect URLs. Those broken links should always be 301 redirected to relevant pages such as the closest category.
Broken links aren’t only a bad user experience but also the website won’t get any authority benefit from the links leading to error pages.
Find out which of the error pages are getting a lot of links and visits by using tools such as Google Analytics, Google Search Console, and Ahref. If the workload for redirects is too big, URLs can be prioritised based on the number and quality of the links and visitors they are getting.
Feel free to contact me [email protected] to discuss more about the link-building strategies and how to improve visibility by search engine optimisation.
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