You’ve probably heard it before – quantity is not as important as quality. Even though it’s better you get more backlinks, you need to be wise with the selection. Not all backlinks benefit your website. actually, some of them can hurt your SEO. So why waste some perfectly good content and ‘damage’ it with poor-quality backlinks? Make sure this never happens by learning how to analyze if it’s worth getting a backlink from a website. And we’ll be more than happy to assist you with that. Let’s dig in!
Never underestimate your website and your niche
Some website owners will disregard these posts thinking that their website is too small to be picky. Or, they would think their niche is not huge, so there are probably not too many bad websites that can hurt your SEO. Well, this is a wrong approach. No matter how big your website is, you always need to treat it with respect. This is the only way it will continue to grow – by not allowing mistakes and penalties and investing in proper backlink building strategies. Also, whatever is your niche – there are always tons of websites you can get backlinks from. So why accept everything and take a risk, when you can be wise and analyze the website offering you a backlink? It’s okay to say no – just be sure you checked the website correctly.
The main steps of analyzing if it’s worth getting a backlink from a website
In the text below, you’ll see that there are a couple of steps in this analysis. If a website is, in any case, suspicious, make sure you take all the steps to check its worth. Here are the main signals to look out for.
Too many penalties – no Google index
One of the ways to check if a website received penalties is to see if it’s indexed by Google. You don’t want to receive backlinks from such websites, so it’s best to check the Google index first. This is actually quite simple to do. Use the google search to type site:domain.com and see if the domain you typed appears in the results. If not, you can be sure Google ‘punished’ it for a good reason.
Low ranking for its own name
Another red flag comes with a website not ranking on the first page for its own name. If that’s the case, you can expect that Google doesn’t trust it a lot, so it doesn’t give it enough authority and a higher ranking. Again, it is also one of the simple tasks to do. Type the name of the website and check the first results page that pops up. Take a look and try to find the position of the website. In case you have trouble finding it in the first couple of positions, it’s maybe better to avoid getting a backlink from them.
The connection to your website
Websites you get backlinks from should be at least remotely connected to your website’s niche, style, and audience. The topics you write about should be related so that you can connect the posts through backlinks in a logical way. If two websites with absolutely no connection share backlinks, this will look unnatural and suspicious to Google. Therefore, it’s not worth getting a backlink from a website unless you share some topics, products, and interests.
Fresh content
If everything is working fine, a website should have regular fresh content posted. You should avoid websites that haven’t posted in a while. This may be a sign that the website admins gave up and abandoned the site. This is something you don’t want to get involved in, as an abandoned website will only lose authority and bring you no positive points. On the other hand, focus on creating fresh content yourself. It’s one of the most efficient strategies for building high-quality backlinks and improving your SEO.
Active audience
You’re creating content for an audience, right? Well, they can help you analyze if it’s worth getting a backlink from a website. If a website has posts frequently commented on or shared by readers, it’s a sign it’s doing well. The audience will react positively to fresh, helpful, and informative content – another thing loved by Google.
How to make a website everyone wants to get backlinks from?
One thing is avoiding unbeneficial websites and their posts. But how does your website becomes with getting a backlink from? You need a solid backlink strategy and maybe some professional assistance. More importantly, the content you create needs to be valuable for other websites in your niche. In order to achieve that, you’ll have to:
- create original research reports that can be used in multiple guides and articles;
- use infographics to present some information visually and make it easier for people to understand your ideas;
- create useful guides that explain some matter in detail;
- top lists are quite attractive content – use your knowledge and make lists of the best or worst things about something. This puts a perspective on a topic and it is easier for users to read and understand them.
Finally, don’t forget that a successful SEO and a top-notch backlink strategy take time. It requires patience, attention, and skills to make sure you’re doing the right thing. Only then, you’ll be able to analyze if it’s worth getting a backlink from a website. Knowing what’s the right thing to do will help you recognize the sites that have no or little value, making sure you avoid them in your strategy.