The days of building links to just have a bigger link profile are long gone. In a perfect SEO world Google wouldn’t have any site actively building links at all; it would all happen naturally, but most websites can’t sit and wait for people to come to them and for all their links to just happen. But as you seek out links it’s important you focus on building the best, most authoritative, and highest quality links possible.
1. A quality link will come from a relevant site.
Relevancy is key to building quality links. Just because you can get a link from XYZ site that doesn’t automatically mean you should. The best links come from sites that are relevant to your website/niche/target audience. For 3 Things a Quality Link Will Haveinstance, Brick Marketing has a few links from the SEMPO website as one of their suggested SEO training partners. SEMPO is an SEO industry association so it makes sense that we would actively build a partnership (and subsequent links) with their site. On the flip side, it would not make sense for Brick Marketing to form a partnership with North/East Roofing Contractors Association. Even though they are based in Boston, as are we, that business has no real connection with us. Getting a link from their website might look nice in our monthly link building checkup, but it doesn’t really mean anything for our SEO. Relevant links add real value to your link profile and connect you with your target audience.
2. A quality link will drive traffic back to your site over time.
The best way to ensure you are only building quality links is to look for sites that will drive traffic back to your site over time. When you look at links as potential doorways into your site, and not just as a way to climb up the SERPs, you hone your focus to just building the best links from the best sites that connect you with your target audience. Link building is not actually about just building links, it’s about connecting your website to the Internet at large and creating hundreds of channels for potential customers to find you through. The more quality links you have on multiple sites that drive traffic back to your website the less reliant you are on Google to deliver people to your site. These quality links also help lend authority to your website, as one website “votes” for another via linking.
3. A quality link has to be earned.
The best links you can build are typically ones you earn while going about your content marketing campaign in the right way. These natural links are pleasant side-effects of consistently creating engaging and informative content that people want to share and link to because it provides real value to others. Some links that are “easy wins” might be quality, but oftentimes those easy win links can actually do more harm than good in the long run. Links from free directories, article submission/spinning sites, or fluff PR might look good in a report but they do little to help your website succeed organically. Real high-quality links from authoritative industry sites or places like CNN.com or .EDU domains aren’t just handed out to any site—you have to prove your worth in some way before you can add those links to your profile.
