Quartz 4

backlinks (SEO)

1 min read

Backlinks are inbound links from external sites to your site. They grant reputation in Google’s eyes (domain authority). The higher the domain authority of the linking site, the more Google juice the link grants.

Do not ask for links on a site that only offers nofollow links. These do not grant any Google juice.

Determining Value

determining backlink value

Authority

Determine value of a link in terms of how much authority it grants by looking at the authority of the domain and page it’s coming from.

Social

All links are nofollow and don’t contribute to domain authority as a result. They can result in more other links which would then impact search ranking.

Relevance

  • Linking web site content should be related to the target topic
  • Anchor text includes target topic
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Building Backlinks

building backlinks

  • Search for keyword you want to rank for and find who is ranking. Can export from MozBar.
  • Find inbound links to those ranking results. Can do this with Moz Link Explorer for free. Filter “Link Type” to “follow” to only see links that give Google juice. Limit to one link per domain for feeds and proxy sites.

Quick Wins

Find incoming links to broken URLs and use 301 redirects to the new relevant page. Links that result in 404 do not contribute any Google juice.

  1. Go to Moz Link Explorer
  2. Search for your domain
  3. Go to “Top Pages” and filter status code “4xx - Broken”
  4. Create 301 redirect to the most relevant page

Find a link to similar content from a competitor that is now broken. Offer the linking site to link to your functioning content instead.

  1. Go to Moz Link Explorer
  2. Search for competitor’s domain
  3. Go to “Top Pages” and filter status code “4xx - Broken”
  4. View links to pages with high page authority that are relevant to your content
  5. Check boxes next to potential opportunities and click “Add to Link Tracking List” button
  6. Name list, add your URL in “Associate a target URL,” and save. If you want to create a list of places you’re targeting for links to a single page of yours, enter the full URL as the target. If you want an umbrella list that would cover links to multiple different pages on your domain, use the domain as the target.

You can find that list under “Link tracking list” and use that to track whether the site has started linking to your site.

Find Sites Linking to Multiple Competitors

Use Moz Link Explorer’s Link Intersect tool. Enter your domain in the first box, and enter at least two competitors’ domains in the other boxes.

Unlinked Mentions

For any sites who have mentioned your brand without linking, ask for a link.

  1. Search for brand name in Google except for your site: "design media" after:<YYYY-MM-DD one month prior> before:<YYYY-MM-DD end date> -site:designmedia.com -site:facebook.com -site:twitter.com -site:pinterest.com
  2. Export results using Moz Bar
  3. Create link tracking list in Link Explorer with your domain
  4. Copy/paste URLs from unlinked mention search results CSV and save
  5. Filter “Does not link”

Can also create an alert for this search using Google.

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Manipulation

backlink manipulation (SEO)

Follow Google’s webmaster guidelines. Do not manipulate or your ranking may be penalized. “Bad practices are one update away from a massive penalty.”

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Graph View

Backlinks