Building Links That Matter: How to Earn High-Quality Backlinks

In the search landscape, one of the effective ways to rank is by building links. But, if you really want to get the top positions on search results, it takes more than just a few hundred backlinks to reach those coveted spots — you need high-quality links.

A Quick Recap: What are High-Quality Backlinks?

High-quality backlinks are those that point to high authority websites, or websites that provide great value to users. Sites with a domain of .gov or .edu are examples of high-quality backlinks. Major publications and sites that are great sources of information can also be considered as authority backlinks.

You might ask, “Why do you need these high-quality links when you can always get any link to point to your site?” For this reason: not all backlinks bear the same weight or value.

Even if you have thousands of links pointing to your site, if those links are all low quality (and some of them suspicious), you’re not doing any favor to your website. High-quality links, on the other hand, can reward your site with higher search visibility and domain authority.

One of the websites I own was able to earn high-quality links from authority websites:

What you need to remember is you’re getting these links not just to rank your website, but also to give value to your users and help them better understand your content. High-quality link building allows you to connect your site to another important site that shares a common goal, and that is to provide more substance to an existing content.

What’s the Secret to Getting High-Quality Links?

When building high-quality links, you only need to remember this: don’t beg, steal, or buy links. You need to earn them. Search engines are getting smarter, and they know when and if you’re trying to trick the algorithm. To avoid getting on the bad side of search engines, it’s important to follow the best practices of link building.

Here are some ideas on how to get backlinks that will help your website rank:

1. Start with a good link building foundation.

What good will be your strategy if you don’t have a solid foundation that will support it? Before you start building links, you need to address these question: Is my site organized?

Site organization is an important aspect for effective link building. Is your content organized? Do you have information that website references find valuable and would make them want to link back to you? Your link building foundation depends on how you organize your website, because it helps users and search engines find the information they need off the bat. This, in turn, will prompt high authority websites to create an external link to your site.

2. Look at the right metrics.

When it comes to link building, you don’t just pick a website randomly from a list of reference sites. There are certain metrics you need to look at if you want to earn links that will boost your backlinks profile.

○ Domain Authority: Know the domain authority tells you how well that website is ranking on search engine results pages. You want to get links from sites that have a high DA because these pass on the strength of their domain’s authority to your own website, which can be a good indicator for search engines.
○ Domain Relevancy: If you’re running a clothing website and you have a backlink from a soda company for a blog post, wouldn’t that look unusual? The best practice is to get a link from a website that’s in the same niche.
○ Trust flow: This metric indicates how trustworthy a page linked to your site is. Think of this as checking the quality of the links on your backlink profile.
○ Citation flow: The metric shows how influential a URL can be based on the number of sites linking to it. You can refer to this as the quantity metric.

From these metrics, Siteoscope allows you to monitor the Trust and Citation Flow of your backlinks:

3. Write unique, fresh content.

Building quality links is all about providing unique, fresh content. You need to show those high authority sites why they should link back to you.

One effective way to earn high-quality backlinks is through guest posting. While some say guest posting is a dead practice, it still has some bearing if you know how to do it right. By establishing your authority and credibility in high domain guest posting site, you’re showing users and search engines that you’re an expert in your niche.

Another way of earning high-quality backlinks is by creating different content types. Don’t just stick to one type of content; people are becoming more and more perceptive about what they see online. If you want to give them as much value as you can in one go, publish an infographic or a short video that others would want to share on their website.

As long as there are websites vying for the top positions on search results, link building is far from dying. While Google keeps the game interesting with its updates, you can still stay on top of your link acquisition and gain those high-quality links as long as you follow a solid strategy.