Almost everyone agrees that backinks are the BIGGEST factor in getting your site high up Googles’ front page: that is, loads of quality links to your site from important, relevant sites.
But what EXACTLY makes a quality backlink in the eyes of Google is hard to determine. If you use Google’s own Webmaster Tools you’ll find a list of backlinks AND a list of sites linking to yours (Pages with External Links) , and while the latter may be full of URLs, it almost certainly won’t match the former.
So why the difference? That’s the $64,000 question. Only Google knows for sure. Which is a pity because backlinks do seem to be the really big factor in getting to the top.
It used to be thought that published PR of the referrer — commonly known as PR — was a key factor (it had to be PR4 or greater); however, this no longer seems to be the case and sites with PR of 3 and below frequently show up.
We’ve worked on many sites where there is a big gap between “backlinks” and “sites linking”, and one connection seems to be forming — pages counted as “backlinks” get more than 100 visitors a day.
It would be stonishing if this was the only reason for the difference, but it must be at least one factor.
So, in five easy steps, here’s how to recognise a quality back link.
- It’s relevant to your page theme
if you run a pet store web site, a link from a local koi carp society would be relevant, a link from the local exhaust fitters would be less so. - It’s voluntary
In 2007, Google started filtering out “paid-for” links schemes (although most paid directories seem to have escaped, especially where the payment is seen as a “research fee”) - It’s one of less than 10 links from that page
This is why having your site on a links page is bad news for any backlink; it dilutes the power - It’s not reciprocal
I’ll scratch your back if you scratch mine (at least in backlink terms) seems to cancel out the strength of any link. The favored method today is three-way linking, but be prepared for that to fail anytime soon.
AND
- The linking page is popular That is why a link to your IT start-up from time .com or the BBC talking about your great new thingummajig is better than a link from your personal blog (unless you’re Stephen Fry or Barack Obama).
