16.6 Backlinks

Backlinks, also known as "inbound links" or "external links", are links from one website to another. Think of them as digital recommendations or votes of confidence from one site to another. When Website A links to Website B, it's like Website A is saying, "Hey, check out this valuable content on Website B." The more votes (backlinks) your site has, the more trustworthy it appears to search engines like Google. However, not all backlinks are created equal.


Reveela's Backlink tool, allows you to monitor your websites backlink profile.


To access the Backlinks tool: 

  • Select Research Hub from the main menu navigation bar.
  • You will be directed to Trending section in the Research Hub.
  • Select Backlinks from the menu.

To perform a search: 

  • Enter your website (for example www.reveela.com) into the search box and select Search.
  • The backlinks for your website will be displayed.

The Importance of Backlinks

Search engines, particularly Google, use backlinks as a major factor in determining a website's authority and relevance. Here's why:

  1. Trust Signals: Backlinks act as votes of confidence. The more high-quality websites that link to you, the more trustworthy your site appears to search engines.
  2. Discoverability: Search engine bots (crawlers) use links to find new web pages. More backlinks mean more opportunities for your content to be discovered and indexed.
  3. Referral Traffic: Beyond SEO, backlinks can drive direct traffic to your site from users clicking on the links.
  4. Brand Exposure: Even if users don't click, seeing your brand mentioned on various sites increases awareness.
  5. Online Authority: Backlinks from authoritative sites can enhance your site's perceived expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (E-A-T).

Types of Backlinks: A Closer Look


Dofollow Links:

Definition: These are the default type of links that allow search engines to pass authority (often called "link juice") from one site to another. Search engines follow these links and use them to determine rankings.

Impact: When a reputable site links to yours with a dofollow link, it boosts your site's credibility and can improve your search engine rankings. By default, links are dofollow unless specified otherwise.

Value: Dofollow backlinks are the most beneficial for SEO because they help increase your site's authority.


Nofollow Links

Definition: These links do not pass authority to the linked website. These links include a "rel=nofollow" attribute in their HTML code. For example:

<a href="https://example.com" rel="nofollow">Example Site</a>

Purpose: They were created to help reduce spam and low-quality links on the internet.

Value: While they don't directly boost SEO, they can still:

  • Drive traffic.
  • Increase brand visibility.
  • Potentially lead to dofollow links in the future.

Editorial Links

These are the gold standard of backlinks. They occur naturally when a website references your content because they find it valuable. For example, a news site linking to your research study.


Guest Post Links

Obtained by writing content for other websites. While valuable, it's important not to overdo this strategy, as Google has warned against excessive guest posting for link building.


Directory Links

Links from online directories or business listings. Quality matters here – a link from a reputable industry directory is much more valuable than one from a generic, low-quality directory.



Creating Valuable Backlinks

Create High-Quality Content:

This is the foundation of any good link-building strategy. Create content that others naturally want to link to, such as:

    • Original research.
    • Comprehensive guides.
    • Infographics.
    • Thought leadership pieces.

Outreach:

Actively reach out to other websites, bloggers, and influencers in your industry. Share your content and explain why it might be valuable to their audience.

Guest Posting:

Write articles for other reputable websites in your industry. This not only gets you a backlink but also exposes your brand to a new audience.

Broken Link Building:

Find broken links on other websites and offer your content as a replacement.

Digital PR:

Create newsworthy content and reach out to journalists and news outlets.


Backlinks to Avoid: Why They're Harmful

  1. Links from Low-Quality Sites: These can actually hurt your SEO. Google's algorithms are designed to detect and penalise sites with spammy link profiles.
  2. Paid Links: Unless properly disclosed, these violate Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can result in penalties.
  3. Irrelevant Links: A link from a site completely unrelated to your industry looks unnatural and provides little value.
  4. Excessive Reciprocal Linking: While some reciprocal linking is natural, too much looks manipulative.
  5. Links from Link Farms: These are websites created solely for the purpose of linking out. They're easily detected by search engines and can lead to penalties.

Backlink Value: What Makes a Link Valuable?

  1. Authority of the Linking Site: A link from a highly respected site in your industry is much more valuable than one from a new or low-quality site.
  2. Relevance: A link from a site in your industry or niche is more valuable than one from an unrelated site.
  3. Link Placement: Links within the main content of a page are generally more valuable than those in footers or sidebars.
  4. Anchor Text: The clickable text of a link. Natural, descriptive anchor text is best. For example, "SEO strategies" is better than "click here."
  5. Freshness: Recently acquired links may carry more weight than older ones.

Best Practices for Building Backlinks

  1. Content-Focused Approach: Create content that naturally attracts links. This could be:
    • Original research or studies.
    • Comprehensive guides or resources.
    • Unique data visualizations or infographics.
    • Thought leadership articles.
  2. Relationship Building: Network with others in your industry. Attend conferences, engage on social media, and collaborate on projects.
  3. Competitor Analysis: Use Reveela's 'Backlinks' tools see where your competitors are getting links from. This can reveal opportunities for your own link building.
  4. Diversify Your Backlink Profile: Aim for a mix of different types of backlinks from various sources. This looks more natural to search engines.
  5. Local SEO: If you have a local business, focus on getting listed in local directories and earning links from local organizations.
  6. Monitor and Maintain: Regularly check your backlink profile. Remove or disavow any low-quality or spammy links.

By implementing these strategies and maintaining a focus on quality over quantity, you can build a strong backlink profile that boosts your SEO performance and drives valuable traffic to your site.


Identifying Bad Backlinks:

Maintaining a healthy backlink profile is crucial for your website's SEO performance. Here's how to identify and handle bad backlinks effectively:


Manual Identification

Manually reviewing your backlinks can provide valuable insights:

  • Examine the linking website's content quality and relevance.
  • Check if the link comes from an unrelated niche or industry.
  • Assess the anchor text for over-optimization or keyword stuffing.
  • Look for links from known link farms, directories, or private blog networks.
  • Evaluate the context of the link for naturalness.
  • Be wary of an unusually high number of links from a single domain.
  • Consider the linking site's domain authority or trust scores.
  • Watch out for pages with an excessive number of outbound links.
  • Be cautious of links from non-indexed pages or irrelevant foreign language sites.
  • Trust your instincts - if a link feels manipulative, it's likely bad.

Using the Reveela Backlinks Checker

For a more streamlined approach, the Reveela Backlinks Checker offers:

  • Backlink Discovery: Locates websites linking to your domain or specific webpages.
  • Link Quality Assessment: Provides key metrics to evaluate backlink quality:
    • Domain Rank: Indicates the linking site's credibility.
    • Page Rank: Measures the authority of the specific linking page.
    • Spam Score: Identifies potentially harmful backlinks, with lower scores being more trustworthy.

Removing Toxic Backlinks

Once you have identified potential harmful backlinks you should attempt to remove the links to your site. Eliminating low-quality or toxic backlinks is crucial for maintaining your website's health and performance. This practice:

  • Protects your website's credibility.
  • Prevents potential search engine penalties.
  • Improves traffic quality and user experience.
  • Enhances overall website success.

Step 1: Contacting the Referring Domain

When you identify a toxic backlink, follow these steps to request its removal:

  1. Identify the toxic backlinks you want to address.
  2. Find the referring domain's contact information (usually on their contact page or social profiles).
  3. Draft a concise, clear, and friendly email that includes:
    • The exact location of the backlink.
    • Your request for removal or addition of an appropriate "rel" attribute (e.g., rel="nofollow").
    • The reason for your removal request.
  4. Send the email and await a response.
  5. Repeat this process for other toxic backlinks.

Step 2: Disavowing Backlinks (If Necessary)

If contacting the referring domain doesn't work, you may need to consider disavowing the backlink. However, proceed with caution.


What is Disavowing?

Disavowing is the process of asking Google to ignore specific backlinks to your site, preventing them from impacting your SEO.


When to Consider Disavowing

  1. Google advises against disavowing links unless:
    • You have received a manual action penalty from Google. This is a penalty given after a human reviewer determines your site violates Google's backlink guidelines.
    • You'll be notified in Google Search Console if you receive a manual action
  2. AND you have engaged in link schemes that violate Google's quality guidelines, such as buying links.

Important Considerations

  • Disavowing is an advanced feature and should be used cautiously.
  • Incorrect use can potentially harm your site's performance in Google Search results.
  • If in doubt, it's best to avoid disavowing.

Before Disavowing

If you have a manual action against your site or suspect you might receive one:

  • First, attempt to remove the problematic links directly from the source sites.
  • Only consider disavowing if manual removal efforts are unsuccessful.

In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance. Therefore, most sites will not need to use the disavow tool. Always prioritize manual removal of toxic backlinks before considering disavowal.


How to Disavow Backlinks: A Simple Guide


Step 1: Prepare Your Disavow List

  1. Create a Text File: Open a simple text editor (like Notepad) and save a new file with the name ending in .txt .
  2. List the Links: Enter the web addresses (URLs) or domains you want to disavow, one per line.
    • To disavow a whole website, write it like this: domain:example.com .
  3. Add Comments (Optional): You can add notes by starting a line with a # . Google will ignore these lines.

File Requirements:

  • Each URL can be up to 2,048 characters long.
  • The file can have a maximum of 100,000 lines and should not exceed 2MB in size.
  • Make sure the file is saved in a plain text format (like UTF-8).

Example List:

text






# Two pages/URLs to disavow
http://spam.example.com/stuff/comments.html
http://spam.example.com/stuff/paid-links.html

# One domain to disavow
domain:shadyseo.com

Step 2: Upload Your Disavow List to Google

  1. Go to the Disavow Links Tool: This is where you can upload your list.
  2. Select Your Website: Choose the website you want to apply the list to.
  3. Upload the File: Click the upload button and select your disavow file from your computer.
  4. Check for Errors: If there are any mistakes in your file, you’ll see an error message. Fix the issues and try uploading again.

Important Notes:

  • If you upload a new list, it will replace any old lists for that website.
  • Only the owner of the website can upload this list.
  • The links you disavow will still show up in your reports, but Google will ignore them when considering your site’s quality.

Step 3: Wait for Google to Process

After you upload your list, it may take a few weeks for Google to update their records as they check the web again.


How to Remove All Disavowals

If you want to remove all disavowals requests for your website:

  1. Go to the Disavow Links Tool.
  2. Select Your Website.
  3. Click "Cancel Disavowals": This will remove all disavowed links for that website.

Additional Tips

  • You can download link data from your Google Search Console to see which links might need disavowing.
  • Make sure to remove any links you don’t want to disavow from the list before uploading.
  • If your website has both http  and https  versions, you should upload separate lists for each.

Remember, disavowing links is a powerful tool, so use it carefully! In most cases, Google can figure out which links are good or bad without needing your help.

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