Why You Don’t Need Backlinks Only From Websites Having DR 80+
Not sure if you’ve noticed this or not, but some SEO professionals shy away from various backlinking activities as they believe that the only way to rank higher is to target links from websites with Domain Rating (DR) 80 and above.
DR is an important score, which tells about the strength of any website’s backlink profile. Higher the score, stronger will be the backlink profile of the website. It is also a ranking factor for Google and it’s a given that links from high DR websites can significantly impact the rankings.
Such is the hype for high DR, that some businesses solely focus on getting backlinks from DR 80+ websites.
Easier said than done right?
In our free SEO webinar, Make Your SEO Great Again, Dimitry Mikhailov, Business Development Director talked about how you can focus your efforts on getting good quality backlinks, which are not just limited to the ones from high DR websites.
Let’s look at some of the crucial tips from the webinar:
Develop A Solid Backlink Strategy
Nothing beats an effective backlink strategy. But how do you go about it?
- Conduct A Competitor Analysis: Use tools like Ahrefs and conduct your competitor’s backlink analysis. This will help you gain some incredible insights. Think of it this way, if your competition is an eCommerce website selling gaming accessories, you may find that they have gained their backlinks from tech review websites, community forums on Reddit, and so on. By weighing in their backlink sources, you’ll be able to make an informed decision by targeting those very websites. Simple!
- Value Quality More Than Anything Else: The time and effort that you are going to put into acquiring links from reputable sites, such as Forbes, can be dedicated to choosing backlinks from fairly good quality websites as well. It’s like taking the middle ground, where you’re also not focusing on several low-DR websites just to get several backlinks at one go.
- Aim For Organic: Google tends to favor websites that demonstrate a natural, organic growth pattern of backlinks. Not that buying backlinks is a crime, but if your website is to gain several backlinks at once, the search engines get cautious and may slap a penalty. Instead, focus on gaining a foothold with more sustainable link building efforts.
- Take Metrics Into Consideration: When you’re evaluating the backlinks, use a reliable tool to check all the relevant metrics. This includes the age of the domain, web traffic, domain authority, spam score, and so on.
- Go Easy On Anchor Text: It’s easy to get carried away in your quest to find and use the best backlinks from relevant websites. However, it is also important to use diligence and see whether you’re over optimizing anchor text by stuffing it with keywords. Ideally, you need to use natural and at most descriptive phrases that allow room for context of the content.
All said and done, how do you proceed to build great backlinks?
Building A Robust Backlink Profile
- Guest Posting: Keep churning out content at scale for various guest posting websites. This is one of the crucial ways to establish thought leadership in your niche and also comply with Google’s Helpful Content update. Serpzilla has several handy posts that will help you zero-in guest post websites across various industries, countries, and niches.
- Broken Link Building: When you find broken links on relevant websites and suggest your high-quality content as a replacement, it can become a great way to earn some quick backlinks. The only caveat here is that your content or the link offered should be of top notch quality. Doing a thorough research about the website can help you in this endeavor.
- HARO (Help a Reporter Out): Responding to journalist queries with your expertise is a great way to secure backlinks in their newsletters, blogs, or any other publications. You can build rapport with them on networking sites as well, and monitor their posts. The moment you see an opportunity to help them with your expertise, go ahead and make a comment or send them a direct message. WIth your insights, they’ll be more than happy to quote your website as a source within their posts.
- Consistent Monitoring and Audits: Regularly monitoring your website’s backlink profile and conducting backlinks audits are essential for your strategy. Do check for all the spammy or toxic backlinks that could harm your site’s SEO performance. This should be followed by taking the necessary actions.
- Tailor Based On Your Website: No two websites or niches are alike. This is the reason why your backlink strategy shouldn’t mimic anyone else’s. Use the right tools, and follow industry-specific strategies to build a backlink profile that can help your cause. This way, your website will retain its position in the SERPs.
Calling It A Day
Backlinks will continue to remain a critical factor in SEO. And even with Google refining its algorithms, you can be assured that a solid link building strategy in place will help you rank higher in the SERPs.
