Obtaining Quality Inbound Links: Key Things You Should Know

by Glen Dimaandal, Guest Contributor

Growing a website’s link profile through proper link building is one of the most important and most effective means of improving a site’s organic search performance. Although search engines—Google in particular—have consistently updated their algorithms in recent years in an effort to clamp down on low-quality backlinks that provide no real value to web users. 

​

Having a high link score remains as one of the most important ranking signals at the moment.

The Link Score
​In a nutshell, Google determines a website’s link score by looking into both the quantity and quality of the site’s inbound links. The first element, quantity, is much more straightforward in that it simply means you have to aim to get as many high-quality inbound links as possible from websites or webpages that really matter. Essentially, a backlink from a trustworthy, high-authority website is a vote of confidence to your own website, signaling to Google that your site is likewise respectable and offers great-quality content.

Now, the second element is much less clear-cut. This is primarily because it is just the search engines themselves who understand their algorithms in complete detail, choosing not to disclose the exact process of how the value of links are determined.

Thankfully, however, experts are still able to make intelligent deductions as to which links really matter based on their extensive practical experience and on the numerous experimentations that they perform, whether for their clients or for themselves. If you’re just beginning to explore how you can improve your organic search performance with proper link building, then this short guide can help you get started.

Tips for Getting High-Quality Links
When reaching out for inbound links, it is important to remember that not all links are created equal. It’s a well-known fact that you can’t rely on inbound links from such shoddy sources as link farms or article sites that publish low-quality material. Neither can you rely on links created through spammy blog comments and other such atrocities. Instead of resorting to these black-hat methods, try to focus your energy and efforts into obtaining links the right way. Here are a few tips that you can follow.

• Obtain Links from High-Authority Sites
  

Inbound links from high authority sites that are long established and possesses a high number of high-quality incoming and outgoing links can help a low-ranking website improve its own link profile as well. If you’re consistently getting links from websites of popular news media outlets, blogs, or trade organizations, for example, that’s a good thing to have.

• Get Highly Relevant Links

Sometimes, getting inbound links from authority sites may not be enough. The websites—or at least the pages where the links to your own site are placed—should also be very relevant to the content of the pages they are linking to. So, for instance, if you’re selling air conditioners and you get an inbound link from a website that publishes news about climate control technologies, that should count more than a link from a website about cat toys.  

• Acquire Links from Trustworthy Websites

Imagine the amount of junk content that can be found throughout the internet and you can appreciate why search engines would value links from trustworthy websites. Obtaining inbound links from government (.gov) and school (.edu) websites can help pass on much needed link equity to your own website. Again, relevance matters in this regard.

• Get Links from Websites That Provide Actual Value

Remember when you were told not to get links from questionable sources that provide no real value to web users? These include websites that are made just to house spammy articles or those that are part of a link farm that all link to one another. These are the types of websites that Google doesn’t want web users to visit. Because the search engine aims to provide the best user experience to its users, it generally penalizes websites that try to game its algorithms by acquiring links from these poor-quality websites.
​
Before beginning your link building strategy, it is important to make sure that you’re aiming to get inbound links from the right sources. Working hard to find partners that can help improve your link score and creating top-quality content that provides real value to readers are the best way to build your link profile without drawing the ire of search engines.

Author Bio:
Glen Dimaandal is the author of GlenDemands.com and the CEO of GDI Online Marketing, a Philippine-based SEO agency. When he’s not blogging, Glen likes to talk about SEO in conferences such as SMX, PeepCon and Confluence where he has been featured in the past.