Nov
22
What Matters More: Backlink Quality or Quantity?
In one corner stands backlink quality. Marketers everywhere are arguing that all you need to worry about to improve your rankings is the quality of the backlinks you’re generating. There’s no need to worry about the number of backlinks so long as the ones you generate are from high domain authority websites. But are they right?
In the other corner stands those who argue for the quantity of backlinks. They say that the amount of backlinks you generate is far more important than the quality of those backlinks. In fact, they would argue that the quality of the backlinks matters very little if at all. But are they right?
Well, that’s what we’re going to discuss. And my goal is to finish this debate once and for all. Or at least to settle it until Google comes out with a new algorithm update. But before I get too ahead of myself, what are backlinks?
Backlinks are links that travel from another website to your website. They can come from social media sites and directories, but they most often come from blog posts and the content of other websites. Ideally, those links come from other relevant websites within your niche and industry. Marketers like yourself are scrambling to build these beauties because they massively impact your rankings on Google. If you have a lot of high-quality backlinks, then your stats might end up looking something like this.
And that’s what we all want, right?
We all want our backlinks to raise our website through the rankings and generate passive traffic and leads consistently every month. That’s the dream of every marketing strategy. But should you focus on quantity or quality of backlinks?
While the two sides are fighting, let’s take a moment to discuss the ins and outs of each, and then we’ll finish with a final verdict.
Quality backlinks
First, we’ll discuss quality backlinks. What defines a quality backlink?
A quality backlink is a link that comes from a high domain authority website that is well-trusted by search engines and searchers alike. In other words, not only do the robots trust the website, but actual people also trust the website. Advocates for this side of the argument would say that the more trustworthy the website and the higher domain authority, the better quality the link. To check the domain authority of a website, go here to check the domain authority of a website, Then, you’ll be able to type in either your own URL or the URL of a domain that you received a backlink from. The latter option will give you an idea of just how valuable the backlink you received is. The higher the domain authority, the more valuable the backlink for your rankings.
Generally, a ranking of 60 to 100 is phenomenal, 40 to 50 is okay, and below 40 isn’t great. If you want to build high-quality backlinks, then start by building links from high domain authority websites that are also relevant to your niche and trusted by searchers all over the Internet. But here’s the real question we’re asking: are these links worth your time?
Well, let’s look at why they’re good, why they’re bad, and a few different strategies you can use to build them.
Why high-quality backlinks are good
High-quality backlinks are good for an obvious reason. They are… well, they’re high-quality. That means they are intrinsically beneficial for domain authority and SEO rankings. With these backlinks, you don’t need to worry about hurting your rankings by unintentionally building a relationship with a spam website. They are reliable, trustworthy, and foolproof. And that’s important for your link-building strategy. After all, you don’t want your rankings to survive on shady practices, but on real, valuable, meaningful, and relevant links back to your website. Quality links promise just that kind of attention. And since they are practically guaranteed to build your domain authority, they are also likely to help your rankings.
In other words, quality backlinks are beneficial because you know what you’re getting. You can know for a fact that the links you’re building are high-value and, over time, will generate the passive traffic you dream of. The other benefit of high-quality links is that each one tends to be worth more for your SEO. Because the links are from high domain authority websites, they are also more valuable than other backlinks. The more high-quality links you build, the better your rankings will be. But now that I’m done gushing over high-quality links, let’s discuss why they’re bad.
Why high-quality backlinks are bad
While the upside to quality backlinks is that they are more valuable for your SEO, the downside is equally blaring. Unless you’re an already-established business with a high domain authority and incredible rankings, all of those links will take a long time to build. Let me ask you this: how difficult would it be for you to get a backlink from places like Forbes, Entrepreneur, or Success? For many of you, such a thing probably sounds impossible. I totally understand.
That’s the problem with high-quality backlinks. While they’re massively valuable, they are also far more difficult to get and thus far more time-consuming. Generally, focusing on quality instead of quantity will generate a small amount of high-commitment traffic. You’ll usually have fewer high-quality links because it’s difficult to build more than a few links on massive domain authority websites. However, they’re generally high-commitment because they are more relevant and will thus target your ideal client better than other links. Many businesses simply feel like they don’t have the time to generate these links. And that’s partly true. But it’s not completely true. In fact, I’ll show you a few ways that you can build these kinds of massively influential links for your website, increasing your rankings, traffic, and bottom line.
How to get high-quality backlinks
One great way to generate high-quality backlinks is to create an infographic with awesome information and beautiful design. Ask yourself these two questions.
- What is a particularly interesting part of my industry?
- How can I create an infographic explaining the ins and outs of that?
Then, go and create it. You can create one on your own using Canva.You can also use Venngage. Or, if you’re like me and you don’t trust your ability to design a beautiful and informative infographic on your own, you can go somewhere like 99designs to hire a cheap freelancer and have them do it for you. But the next step is the most important one. Instead of just creating an infographic, publishing it, and moving on to the next piece of content, gather up email addresses from other relevant blogs within your industry. Ideally, try to find blogs that are similar to your own and might be willing to share the infographic with their audience. Then, email the editors of those blogs to tell them about the infographic you created and ask them if they’d be willing to share it with their audience.
Say something like this: Hey there! I’m from [website], and we just created this infographic for our blog. We think you might be interested in it as well! Let us know what you think. And if you’d like to share it with your audience as well, you’re more than welcome to. Thanks!
When they do, you’ll receive a backlink from their website. And the best part is that you get to decide who gives you the backlink when you send out the emails. That means you can choose to only generate quality ones if you like. For inspiration, check out this infographic that Carrot made. They’re a SaaS company that designs real estate websites. After all, if they can make real estate and Facebook Ads interesting, then you can make your industry interesting.
