Today, millions of websites are competing for SEO rankings. While some want to appear on the first page, others root for position zero to stay ahead in the market. Surprisingly, search engine optimization is not as simple as it sounds. From optimizing webpage, apprehending ranking factors to evolving algorithms – SEO demands time, effort, and attention to detail. Thus, before delving into technical SEO, optimize your webpage for leading ranking factors.
Although visual content, URL descriptions are new additions to ranking factors, link building remains Google’s all-time favorite. So, why not create some quality links? With SEO’s changing landscape, link building campaigns have become essential to compete and thrive online. Therefore, develop a robust backlink profile and ensure all links are coming from quality sites. You can add backlinks to blogs, guest posts, images, videos, and even infographics.
However, your job doesn’t end after building backlinks. You have to keep a check-in balance on your link profile to determine backlink sources, quality, and domain authority. You can get all these insights from a thorough backlink analysis. In addition to giving all fundamental knowledge about links, it will unmask new links, page performance, unique domains, and much more. If you are clueless about it, let us show you the ropes. Here are some tips and tricks to conducting a backlink analysis.
- Assess Link Quality
Do you know the total number of links directing traffic towards your site? Understanding the total link count is an incredible start to determine the website’s competitiveness. It will give you a clear idea about where your link building strategy stands. More than numbers, you have to focus on backlink quality. After all, it is easy to spam a high link count with black hat SEO practices. You can insert the target website’s URL on explorer, but checking every backlink like this can take forever.
Thus, use a backlink checker tool to get insightful data on your backlinks. Alongside high-domain websites, it will disclose links coming from unique domains. It is a better ‘quality’ assessment metric since multiple links coming from the same domain are not valuable. The tool would also consider site relevance and anchor text to ensure the link is coming from a credible source.
- Understand Anchor Text Usage and Variance
Unsurprisingly, keywords are a significant part of the link building strategy. In your backlink analysis, make sure to examine the anchor text’s usage and variance. Firstly, look into the optimized keywords and check their ranking difficulty. Next up, search the anchor text on Google to determine how a site is performing. It will reveal potential insights regarding how many people click on the anchor text, competitiveness, etc. If the rate seems low, consider diversifying the links.
You might be using a keyword-rich anchor text – accident lawyer ladies’ handbag, etc., as a backlink. With the latest Penguin algorithms, you have to focus more on uniqueness and branding. Instead of using common keywords, include your brand name to increase your rankings. It will direct referral traffic towards your site – the potential leads who have a genuine interest in your product offerings. Hence, understand the anchor text portfolio to ensure correct usage of keyword-rich anchor links.
- Check Backlink Velocity
Do you have any idea about link velocity? In the SEO world, link velocity determines how fast your webpage is winning links. Indeed, spammy sites and paid links can send thousands of links to a website in a day, but Google recognizes such activities. In addition to charging hefty penalties, it can suspend your account, hurting your overall SEO rankings. Analyzing the backlink velocity will display the rate at which your site historically gained links. Thus, your goal should be to maintain the same velocity with slight ups and downs.
For instance, if you are getting approximately 45 visitors per week with 35 backlinks, Google will put your site under the radar. After all, the backlink pace doesn’t seem natural. Similarly, if you are getting 300 visitors with 25 links, Google might increase your rankings. Although no one knows how Google weights velocity, keeping a close eye can give you a better idea about it.
- Evaluate Page Performance
A backlink coming from a high-engaging webpage is always better than one coming from low-performing sites. Therefore, it is essential to evaluate page performance, especially if you have links coming from resource pages. It will throw light on underperforming pages and the ones that generating traffic for your site. As a result, you can take the link building campaign in the right direction. By leveraging an online tool, you will automatically give you a list of top link pages, from best to worst performing sites.
Besides this, dig into page authority to know how the site will rank on SERP. Similar to domain authority, the score ranges from 1-100. A website with a 70-80 score is ideal for link building; anything below that can reduce your chances of generating traffic.
- Unfold Competitor’s Link Building Strategies
After gaining an idea about your backlink portfolio, feel free to analyze your competitor’s backlinks. You can review their websites and performance to figure out what exclusive tactics and techniques they are using. Similarly, identify which backlinks are helping them rank higher in the niche. They might be using online directories or publishing content on a reputable blogger’s site. It will help you come out with a bunch of new strategies to implement in your website.
Moreover, you can compare your link building process to your competitors to see where your strategy is falling weak. Likewise, discover their most trusted linking domains and find similar ones for your webpage. Remember, the purpose is not to copy competitors but to learn from their mistakes and establish better strategies.
Wrapping Up
Undoubtedly, generating backlinks is every marketer’s utmost priority since it an essential aspect of SEO strategy. Hence, backlink analysis is one of the first skills you should learn as an emerging link builder. It will help you dive into your web site’s link profile more confidently, helping you recognize broken, spammy, and dead links. Similarly, you will develop a better understanding of SEO industry, leading to higher rankings and growth.
