7 Important Criteria To Check The Quality Backlinks

Why are links important for SEO?

Google's algorithms are constantly evolving, yet and without wanting to simplify too much, Organic SEO has 3 major points:

  • technical SEO
  • the contents
  • the quality backlinks

In this article we are interested in backlinks because they are considered as a strong signal to rank websites. However, not all backlinks created have the same value. Indeed, link building is a story of links but not just any links. It is above all about quality.

What is a quality backlink? What criteria determine the quality of a link for backlinks? Follow the guide!

Why are links important for SEO?

There are over 200 factors that make up Google's ranking algorithm. Each of them has many variations, which means that several factors can go into the ranking of a single keyword.

A quality backlink or rather inbound links are one of these essential criteria for the success of a natural referencing strategy.

Indeed, to estimate the popularity and relevance of a page, Google analyzes the number and quality of links. Each link is interpreted as a vote of confidence in favor of the site receiving the backlink.

Thus, the more quality a web page has inbound links, the more it will be positioned at the top of Google results.

Why should we focus on quality backlinks?

The significant weight of backlinks in the ranking on Google has created a whole ecosystem around the exchange, sale and purchase of links.

This allowed (and still allows) to influence the ranking of web pages on Google. And the latter does not like that we “manipulate” his algorithms. Since then, several algorithm updates have been introduced, such as Google Penguin, in order to limit abuse.

Is a $ 500 backlink better than a $ 50 link?

Before getting to the heart of the matter and since the majority of backlinks strategies are based almost entirely on buying links: “Is the price of a backlink an indicator of its quality?”

Let's be clear, the quality of a link is independent of its price. You can find quality backlinks at particularly good prices and lower quality links at excessive prices.

What is a quality backlink? How to determine the quality of your backlinks? Below are the main things you need to consider when evaluating the quality of a link.

Factors to Consider For Evaluating Quality Backlinks

1. Is domain authority synonymous with quality backlinks?

As we saw previously, backlinks are interpreted as votes of confidence or recommendations. They indicate that the content is credible, trusted, provide added value, etc. Having recommendations is a good thing. However, not all of these trust marks and recommendations are created equal. Indeed, think of it this way:

What will strengthen the credibility of your business? A mark of trust from your neighbor or the C.E.O of a large corporation?

While both are popular, one carries a bit more weight than the other. The same goes for backlinks.

2. The relevance of the content of the page issuing the backlink

Among the criteria scrutinized by Google is the relevance of the content of the author page of the backlink.

Google will analyze the consistency between the subject of the page that receives the link and that making the link: are the subjects addressed complementary or similar? Is there an added value?

For example, if your site is about home appliances, a backlink to you from a sports site will be of less value and not be considered a quality backlink.

3. A quality backlink from a page or domain that generates traffic

To assess the quality of a backlink, it is not just the domain authority or the TTF ... Traffic is a particularly important criterion for several reasons:

  • If the site receives traffic, it is in the good graces of Google and therefore provides a better signal to search engines.
  • A link is good, a clicked link is better! The more traffic a website generates, the more your chances of getting some of that valuable traffic.

How to check the traffic of a website? Ahrefs' Site Explorer tool gives an estimate of the organic traffic of a site.

4. The “do-follow” attribute for a quality link

The “nofollow” attribute is a piece of code added to a link that tells search engines not to take it into account.

The “do-follow” attribute is the opposite of “nofollow”. It tells search engine bots to consider the outgoing link from the page.

5. The position of the link in the page and its context

The location of the link (its position) and its context are of great importance. Ideally, a quality backlink should be integrated into the heart of the content of a page.

For example, a link placed outside the main text (like in the footer) will appear unnatural and bring little or no popularity to your website.

6. The anchor text of the link

Anchor text, also called a link anchor, is the clickable part of a link. This text was heavily weighted in Google's algorithm and led to several abuses. Since Penguin, Google takes a closer look at the keywords used in link anchors and no longer considers the anchor as a single endpoint.

Also, over-optimizing anchors can work against you. You must diversify these so that your links seem acquired naturally:

  • Use your brand name
  • Use your domain name
  • Use text variants that combine your keywords with your site url, etc.

7. Your personal judgment to evaluate a quality backlink

In the age of quality backlinks, tools and metrics allow you to make more informed decisions. But these are still “indications”.

Your personal judgment will undoubtedly be the best decision tool to assess the quality of a backlink.

Remember to evaluate the site's On-Page signals simply before refusing a backlink because, for example, its Domain Authority is less than 20 or 30...

  • The age of the site (age of the domain)
  • Site history (has it suffered any penalties?)
  • Does the site have a good backlink profile?
  • Lots or too many outgoing links on the page
  • The quality of the content published on the site (Is the site an expert on the subject?)
  • Are the anchors too optimized?
  • The existence or not of means of contact and social network profile of the site
  • The topics covered on the site (are they too different? Related?)
  • Does the site have organic search traffic?

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