One of the key issues in link building is the correct choice of donor sites for placing links. If ten years ago the quality of platforms did not play a significant role, after the introduction of more complex and strict algorithms by search engines, this criterion has come to the forefront. Additionally, the number of sites on the internet is not infinite, especially when it comes to a specific theme or regional attachment. Gradually, resources become spammed with outbound links and become less attractive for link building.
Sometimes SEO-specialists have to work in extremely limited choices, when it seems that suitable donor sites are non-existent. These circumstances significantly complicate the work and require new approaches to link promotion.
There is no universal method that would suit most SEO specialists and projects. Each applies their criteria for selecting platforms for link placement. Some focus on the site’s theme, while others primarily assess traffic values or various trust parameters. If you analyze the most commonly used selection methodologies, certain patterns can be detected, making the search for donor sites more efficient.
The Serpzilla team conducted a market SEO study involving users of the company’s link services and leading World Wide experts. In particular, its results helped to determine the parameters specialists prioritize when selecting resources for link building:
- Page thematics
- Site thematics
- Traffic
- Spamminess
- Trust value
When ranking sites, Google largely focuses on the trustworthiness of the link source. The higher the trust of those resources linking to you, the higher position in the search results you can expect.
Therefore, in addition to other parameters, SEO experts also focus on the search engine’s trust level when selecting link donors.
Components of Site Trust
Trust is usually formed from several indicators:
- Site age
- Content uniqueness
- Traffic
- Link weight (presence of quality external links)
To assess the latter, indicators such as Trust Flow (TF) – characterizes the quality of links to URLs and websites, and Citation Flow (CF) – indicates the number of links to a website, are typically used.
Links are often of high quality if the webpage’s Trust Flow value is higher than the Citation Flow value. In some services, like Serpzilla, these parameters can be set when searching for donor sites.
How to Boost a Site’s Trust and How Many Links Are Needed for This
It all depends on the goal:
- If you want to sell links at a higher price due to increased trust, focus on increasing the number of links.
- To enhance authority in the eyes of Google and influence the growth of stagnant positions, acquire more ‘tasty’ links from sites with strong reputations, but in smaller quantities.
Competitive analysis can help determine the number of links needed for site promotion. Gather the top results from Google for priority queries and compile a comparative table. Calculate the average number of links among competitors and use that as a guide. You can select quality donor sites based on more than 40 different parameters and purchase links from them via the Serpzilla user dashboard.
Choose quality resources with high trust for link placement to maximize their effect in promoting your site.
Selecting Platforms Based on Parameters
However, a common problem arises here. When all desired parameters are set in the link service filter at once, SEO-specialists often end up with a limited selection of platforms, complicating link building.
Recommendations from the Serpzilla Team
If you are using strict filters, try to gradually simplify them. By doing so, you will expand your selection and be able to find more suitable donor sites.
You can search for individual pages that match your theme through keyword searches characteristic of your niche.
Some link services also offer more precise and specialized search capabilities. For example, Serpzilla allows for the selection of platforms based on their theme — the algorithms themselves determine the niche to which a site belongs, without the owner’s involvement. Text analysis of pages enables the determination of themes with high accuracy, and in case of their change or obsolescence, the system periodically conducts re-checks.
If there aren’t enough thematic sites suggested by the system, there is another technique for obtaining a quality link. When purchasing, add surrounding text to the anchor that corresponds to the desired theme. Its maximum length should not exceed 100 characters. This will be enough to create a thematic trace on the page of almost any site. Search engines respond positively to the use of this method and rank such links well. There are successful SEO cases where this approach has been actively and successfully applied.
Thus, by softening the search parameters and focusing more on the theme of individual pages, rather than entire sites, you can achieve more effective link building with minimal effort and time. Find suitable platforms for placing links using proven methods and achieve significant growth in Google rankings.
