How to measure link building success
Posted: Thu Jan 23, 2025 3:19 am
When getting links to support your SEO strategy is not the primary goal, paid link building can be used.
When you are looking to get referral traffic or build your brand authority. This can include sponsored placements and ads on trusted and relevant sites. If this is the case, you should always use a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute to avoid negatively impacting your search engine rankings.
As a general rule, using paid links for the sole purpose of improving your rankings is a no-no.
Google Penalties
If you resort to risky tactics, you risk having toxic links appear in your backlink profile, which could earn you a Google penalty and negatively affect your rankings.
It is not uncommon for a penalty to take months or linkedin data even years to recover from, so prevention is better than cure.
The success of a link building campaign depends on its goals. It is important to understand the metrics to consider when setting these goals.
You shouldn’t focus on the raw number of links built, as you’ll find that this comes at the expense of quality. Additionally, you should use competitive insights to determine the link gaps between you and others and ensure that you’re building the right links to improve your rankings.
For metrics, you should consider using one or more of the following options:
Authority Score: This metric from Semrush evaluates the overall quality of a website, which can help you determine the impact of a backlink coming from a site. If a site has a low authority score, it probably won’t be very beneficial.
Ratio of follow to nofollow links : It’s normal to see a mix of different types of links in your backlink profile, but generally speaking, the more follow links you have, the better. Follow links are a signal to Google to pass authority to your site.
Topical relevance: Are your backlinks coming from sources that are closely related to your business? If you have backlinks from sites that are completely unrelated to your business, those backlinks may not carry as much weight (especially if it’s a spammy link).
When you are looking to get referral traffic or build your brand authority. This can include sponsored placements and ads on trusted and relevant sites. If this is the case, you should always use a rel="nofollow" or rel="sponsored" attribute to avoid negatively impacting your search engine rankings.
As a general rule, using paid links for the sole purpose of improving your rankings is a no-no.
Google Penalties
If you resort to risky tactics, you risk having toxic links appear in your backlink profile, which could earn you a Google penalty and negatively affect your rankings.
It is not uncommon for a penalty to take months or linkedin data even years to recover from, so prevention is better than cure.
The success of a link building campaign depends on its goals. It is important to understand the metrics to consider when setting these goals.
You shouldn’t focus on the raw number of links built, as you’ll find that this comes at the expense of quality. Additionally, you should use competitive insights to determine the link gaps between you and others and ensure that you’re building the right links to improve your rankings.
For metrics, you should consider using one or more of the following options:
Authority Score: This metric from Semrush evaluates the overall quality of a website, which can help you determine the impact of a backlink coming from a site. If a site has a low authority score, it probably won’t be very beneficial.
Ratio of follow to nofollow links : It’s normal to see a mix of different types of links in your backlink profile, but generally speaking, the more follow links you have, the better. Follow links are a signal to Google to pass authority to your site.
Topical relevance: Are your backlinks coming from sources that are closely related to your business? If you have backlinks from sites that are completely unrelated to your business, those backlinks may not carry as much weight (especially if it’s a spammy link).