Link Quality Vs Link Quantity: What Matters More?

One of the most effective tools for search engine optimization is link development. You need links if you want to rank well on Google. Just like that.

What is the most effective link-building tactic, I hear you ask?

Do you devote your time and energy to gaining as many connections as you can, or do you concentrate on obtaining a select number of links from reliable, high-quality websites?

Should you prioritize link quantity or quality, in other words?

In this post, we’ll examine the difference between link building quality and quantity and provide you with the advice you need to launch a successful link building campaign.

What are Backlinks?

Links from other websites to your website are known as backlinks or inbound links. It could be a link from a retailer’s website to one of your product pages or from Forbes or another online magazine to one of your blog pages, for example.

What is link building so crucial? because it has a significant impact on how Google ranks websites. Here is what Google has to say about it:

Webmasters can generally raise the rank of their websites by expanding the number of high-quality websites linking to them.

Consider each link pointing to your website as a vote. ‘Link juice’ is the term used for this in digital marketing.

Your pages perform better in search engine results when more websites link to you since Google will view your website as having more authority on the subject. 

Furthermore, as Google strives to always deliver the most relevant information to visitors, your website’s authority has a Huge effect on where you appear in search results.

Building a high volume of links

You should focus on obtaining as many backlinks as possible if they are beneficial for SEO, right?

The data appear to support it,  a Backlinko analysis discovered that the top Google result has an average of 3.8 times more backlinks than results 2 through 10:

Another study by Ahrefs revealed a substantial correlation between the volume of organic traffic a website receives from search engines and the number of various websites (“referring domains”) connecting back to a site.

According to the hypothesis, when someone links to another website, they are indicating that they believe it to be a reliable source. They wouldn’t link to it if they didn’t.

Webmasters then started working to create as many links to their website as they could.

The better, the more links a website has. And it made no difference if they were of poor quality.

Google soon realized, however, that some users were attempting to manipulate the system. 

They were employing additional black hat techniques that basically produce multiple low quality links while also establishing hundreds of links on irrelevant or spammy websites.

Google accordingly released the Penguin update in 2012.

Google Penguin, a new “filter” for search results, was launched to combat manipulative link building techniques and link spam. Google later declared that it was a component of the main ranking algorithm in September 2016.

In the end, this altered people’s approaches to link creation and encouraged them to place more emphasis on quality than quantity.

A number of previously effective link-building strategies, such as submitting your website to online directories and receiving a link in exchange, have begun to lose popularity with Google. 

Google used to advise using it, but as SEOs started abusing it, Google stopped deriving as much value from that type of connection.

In fact, if you experiment with these so-called “black hat” techniques and are discovered, Google will penalize you and make your website’s ranks fall. Additionally, returning to the top is difficult and expensive once you’ve fallen.

Because of this, it’s wise to be familiar with the Google Webmaster Guidelines and design your strategy with them in mind  or hire a best SEO company to take care of it for you.

Although the exact formula used by Google to calculate its search results is unknown, links are still widely believed to be a very important factor among SEOs.

For this reason, if you want to see long-lasting effects from your link building activities, they MUST be quality-focused.

Is link quality more important than quantity?

Marketers and webmasters should prioritize link QUALITY first when it comes to the quality vs. quantity debate in link building.

A single link from a well-known news site like Forbes or Medium, a blog from a similar industry, or another reputable website can be just as valuable as a hundred links from other unrelated sites.

Everything depends on Google’s evaluation of the website from which you were connected. Google will trust the link if it trusts the webpage.

In other words, you might spend time and effort constructing links across hundreds of unknown websites, but the links from high authority domains carry the most link juice.

For the kind of visitors who will truly value your website, products, and services, your link is right there. Not necessarily large audiences are what we’re referring to, but rather targeted audiences that are more likely to convert.

Visitors will notice that your business has been connected to by an authoritative source, which significantly boosts your brand’s authority and trustworthiness in their eyes.

Therefore, there is a better likelihood of conversion when they click on to your website.

Building and earning quality backlinks

What makes a high quality backlink?

The Domain Authority of a corporation mostly determines the quality of backlinks.

You can determine how important a backlink is by entering your own URL or the URL of a domain from which you have got a backlink.

The value of the backlink increases with domain authority, which is good for your rankings.

Generally speaking, a grade of 60 to 100 is excellent, 40 to 50 is acceptable, and anything lower than 40 should be avoided.

Links from websites with a high domain authority that are pertinent to your business are considered high quality backlinks.

Links to your website can be evaluated by search engines for relevancy, and “unnatural” links can be identified. Therefore, it won’t be suspicious if your article receives a few links from other relevant blogs. However, it will raise red flags if you acquire a significant number of links from absolutely unrelated links.

How to build high-quality links

If your backlink campaign is giving you trouble, you’re not the only one. The majority (41%) of SEO professionals believe link building to be the most challenging aspect of search optimization.

The fact is, it’s not supposed to be simple! Google desires to be compensated.

But it’s also not impossible. To achieve outcomes, one must just put forth consistent work and attention.

Here are some tested strategies for gaining backlinks if you’re planning to launch a link campaign or want to step up your link building efforts to obtain some high quality connections to your website:

Try these content types outlined in our SEO guide:

Infographics, charts, and graphics are popular on websites because creating their own can be costly and time-consuming.

List entries. One of THE most widely used types of SEO content is the listicle. List-based material offers a concrete result and is simple to peruse, such as “The 100 best SEO statistics you need to know” or “85 must-see places before you die.” They are frequently shared.

facts and figures. Watch your backlinks grow by making your own surveys and research investments. 

Any trustworthy website will provide a backlink to the original source to support any assertions or facts. That source might be you.

• Submit your business to relevant industry listings
• Start guest posting
• Link from sponsorships and suppliers
• Take it slow – Your site should build up links naturally over time. 

Key factors for quality link building

1. Your backlink should appear organically in the text

High-quality backlinks shouldn’t painfully stick out from the text; instead, they should blend nicely with the rest of the sentence. 

Even if the site is reliable, if the link appears forced, users (and search engines) will notice and it won’t be beneficial.

Make an effort to insert the backlink in the content’s call to action or body. If it’s not in the right spot, get in touch with the website and kindly ask them to update it.

2. Your backlinks should be relevant

Relevance of backlinks is crucial.

If a backlink is not pertinent to your products, audience, industry, content, region, etc., it serves no use to have one from a reliable, high domain authority site.

Your objective is to obtain backlinks from websites that have comparable audiences to your own and have the potential to send qualified traffic your way.

Consider how pertinent a backlink is to your offering and location whenever you obtain one. You succeed if you can hit both shots.

3. Beware backlink cramming.

It’s nice to obtain a backlink, but be sure the website isn’t handing them out to everyone! When you receive a backlink, count all the other backlinks that are present in the same piece of content.

You won’t get much from the link if the word count to link ratio is large. Because the likelihood that readers will click on your link decreases noticeably when there are several links in a paragraph.

The Bottom Line

The game of link building has changed since a few years ago. Creating as many backlinks as possible is no longer the goal of effective link building. 

To start succeeding in the search engine rankings factors, focus on quality links rather than quantity.

Keep in mind that building quality links takes time. Like all good things in digital marketing and SEO, you need to invest in a sustained strategic effort over a long period.

However, the outcomes might be extraordinary by obtaining high-quality backlinks, you can outperform your rivals, increase conversions, and establish greater credibility.

Bring in the pros if you want to enhance your portfolio of backlinks and raise your search engine rankings. 

At Online Marketing Gurus, we have worked with thousands of businesses to develop and implement effective link-building and SEO strategies that have positively impacted their financial performance.