We've already talked about the first three pillars of SEO: Keywords, Technical, and Content. We will now cover the fourth SEO pillar, Backlinks. Backlinks have been and remain the primary ranking factor for websites for over a decade. This isn't just our experience; it's backed up by a ranking factor study that SEMRush conducted.

Do Backlinks Help SEO?

Yes, SEMRush discovered that domains with more backlinks have higher SERP positions. We briefly touched on this in the Domain Authority blog; backlinks can be thought of as confidence votes that this website is valid and its content is useful. However, not everyone's vote (backlink) counts for equal authority.

You may be surprised to find that some backlinks are hurting your rankings and can cause a penalty on your site. This illuminates a darker side of SEO full of malicious intent known as 'black hat' SEO. 

I must issue a word of caution before continuing on this topic. Backlinks are a narrow path surrounded by temptation to do things the wrong way. I cannot stress this enough: Do Not Buy or Pay For Backlinks. Google will issue what's known as a manual penalty and it will severely cripple your rankings and ultimately your traffic.

Do not try to scheme the algorithm. Google's algorithm is far too comprehensive to get away with buying backlinks these days. Trying to recover from a manual penalty will cost much more than doing things the right way. 

Before attempting to get new backlinks, you must take stock of your existing profile of backlinks. You can use Google Search Console to view your backlinks for free. Alternatively, SEMRush offers an audit tool that rates backlinks' with a 'toxicity score'. 

How to Check Backlinks in Google Search Console

Navigate to Google search console, then select your property in the top left of the dropdown menu. On the left menu, scroll down to Links. Go to Top Linking Sites to see a list of domains linking to you. Clicking on these domains will provide more detailed information about specific target pages and number of links. On the top right of any report, you can also click Export to your preferred spreadsheet. 

Is a Backlink No Follow or Not?

While on the page that the link is coming from, press CTRL+U to view the source code (in Chrome/Firefox/Brave), then CTRL+F to Find your domain URL. Here you'll be able to view the anchor text and see if the link is nofollow or not.  Simply check if there is a 'nofollow' tag. If there is not a nofollow tag there, then it's a do follow.

It's wise to check some of these domains to make sure they are legitimate and not part of a linkfarm. This is where an experienced SEO specialist can really benefit you. It's difficult to accurately describe signs of a link farm as they are constantly changing and evolving tactics. If you suspect the link could negatively affect you, there are a couple of options we can go into later. 

The Links page in the Search Console has External Links, Internal Links, Top Linking Text and Top Linking Sites. Internal links allow you to examine your domain's internal link structure. Backlinks are basically what's known as external links from other sites to your domain. 

It's a good idea to check the Top Linking Text section. If the anchor text in this list is mostly the same exact terms, it could look unnatural and lead to a penalty. For example, if you had a long list of exactly the same anchor text, Google would suspect this as manipulation. 

How to do a Backlink Audit with SEMRush

If you have a subscription to SEMRush, you can use their backlink tool to easily conduct an audit. Open SEMRush, navigate to the link building section, and click Backlink Audit Tool. Create a project and run an audit. You will be provided with an overall toxicity score. If your site has a high toxic domain percentage, we can handle it in a couple of ways.

The first is to work on getting better quality backlinks. Easier said than done. However, this will offset the negative impact of low quality backlinks. If the backlinks are of really poor quality, you can attempt to remove them by reaching out to the site. If this fails then as the final solution, you may disavow them through google.

What is a Disavow?

Disavowing backlinks can have a negative impact on your SEO performance if you are not careful and this should really be a last resort. You're essentially losing all authority gained from any links you disavow, good or bad. 

How to Build Backlinks?

Here are some basic guidelines for acquiring backlinks. First, ensure the link is relevant to your website. For instance, if you run a wedding venue, you should get backlinks from wedding sites and bridal bloggers.

Second, it needs to be a real website with organic traffic, not a fake front propped up by bots or paid traffic. This is a bit of a cyclic chicken or the egg, but if it has organic traffic, then Google probably trusts it. The opposite is likely true if there is no organic traffic and caution should be taken.

Thirdly, the site is authoritative. This may be hard to gauge, but using an authority estimation tool can assist greatly. Moz offers a toolbar, and SEMRush can also gauge domain authority. Simple rule: Higher authority domains offer higher quality backlinks. SEMRush also has a backlink opportunity tool to show if it's worth pursuing that opportunity or not based on its organic traffic and other metrics. 

Thanks for following along and we really hope that you find this backlink explanation helpful. Esseodigital is a digital marketing service providing agency experience at a freelance price. If you’re interested in boosting your business’ marketing success, please contact us.