As a novice copywriter, I had no idea what backlinks are or why they are needed. Being in the field for six years, I realized that link building is crucial for increasing a website's position in search engines and bringing it to the top. Often, marketing managers are tasked with picking up backlinks. And here, they are faced with the question of what is more important: backlink quality or quantity?
Let's tackle this question together. I hope to help you decide once and for all what's best for your marketing strategy!
Let's Start with the Basics: What Is Link Building?
Marketing strategy involves using dozens of tools, and backlinks are among the most important. The idea is that your website gets links from other websites. That's what backlinks are. They most often come from social media, blog posts, and other websites. The entire number of backlinks is called reference mass. Consequently, link building is about increasing reference mass.
Benefits of Link Building
Search engines like Google bring to the top websites that are linked to by other sites. It is the main advantage of building reference mass, from which all others proceed. Let's take a look at them:
- Increasing domain authority. A website with quality backlinks and compelling content attracts the attention of search engines. Consequently, you will be able to reach your target audience because they will definitely see your website if it is in one of the first positions.
- Attracting organic traffic. The goal of any business is to attract new customers. White-label link building allows you to solve this challenge. Right after all, the more users see your blog or online store, the bigger your audience will be.
- Increasing sales opportunity. The more potential customers you have, the greater the chances that some will order your product or service.It's clear that you need backlinks to increase your domain rating. When creating a marketing strategy, deciding what is more important to you is essential: the quantity of backlinks or their quality. Let's consider both options in detail.
What Are Quality Backlinks?
Determining a winner in the backlink quality vs quantity dispute is impossible until we analyze both parameters. Let's talk about the first one. High-quality backlinks are links that you get from websites that have a high domain authority. One interesting point: it is considered authoritative by search engines and people — the audience it is oriented to.
So, how can you determine the domain rankings? You can do it with the help of specialized tools (website traffic checkers). They show not only DR (domain rating) but also the quantity of backlinks. There are generally accepted DR values that will help you understand if you should pay attention to this website:
- 60-100 — a phenomenal score, which is hard to achieve;
- 40-50 — a standard rating;
- 0-40 — a low score.
Here is an example of the perfect domain authority.
Quality link building means getting backlinks from websites whose domain ranking ranges from 60 to 100. However, getting them is not easy, and this raises the question: are they worth the time and effort? Let's find out.
Why High-Quality Backlinks Are Good?
The term “quality backlinks” speaks for itself. They boost your domain ranking and, consequently, your brand's credibility.
Often, low-quality backlinks hurt your domain authority. With high-quality ones, you don't have to worry about this. They will boost your rankings and pay off in the long run. You will constantly get passive traffic, and that's precisely what your website needs.
For this reason, many marketers choose the former when it comes to backlink quality and quantity. However, this approach has disadvantages, which I will discuss below.
Why High-Quality Backlinks Are Bad?
The main cons you will have to face is the difficulty in getting quality backlinks. Trust my experience: if you have just created a business and want to publish an article with a backlink in Forbes, you cannot do it. That's where the problem comes from. By focusing on quality, you will get less traffic, and the commitment will be high. Often, newly established business owners realize that they don't have time to increase domain authority in this way. It's challenging, so I can't blame them. Below, I'll explain how to help with white-label link building.
How to Get High-Quality Backlinks?
Guest blogging is one of the most commonly used content marketing strategies. In this case, you need to write high-quality guest posts that other website owners will be willing to publish and add a backlink to your site. There are two essential factors here:
- the matching your niche with the theme of the website you want to get quality backlinks from;
- quality of your guest posts.
The quality of the content plays an important role, too. If you create expert and unique content with proper SEO optimization, users and owners of other websites will want to link to your site. The August 2024 Core Update, aimed at improving the ranking of smaller sites whose authors create valuable and unique content, plays in your favor.
In practice, such content without additional methods can increase the authority of your domain and rank higher on Google. However, more than using this strategy is needed to rise high, especially not in a short time.
Is there anything you need to consider in your content marketing strategy? Of course! According to research conducted by Ahrefs, several vital factors influence the ranking of your website in Google from a content perspective:
- Word count. Pages with less than 200 words rarely make it into the top 10. Accordingly, the lower limit is 300 words. It is better if there are more. For example, pages with 900 words or more get into the top 3. The first places are occupied by pages where the number of words is 1,300 or more. The ideal situation is 2,000 words or more. Such content is more likely to be referenced by users on social media and authors of other blogs.
- Images. If content doesn't contain images, it ranks much worse. They should be placed next to the text to which they refer. It is worth considering that images should correspond to the article's topic and be high quality. Having fulfilled all these conditions, you can count on the fact that someone will definitely share your content and leave a backlink.
For example, this article is 2,042 words long and has images I created. I follow my advice :)
Well, we found out that high-quality backlinks work great when you need to increase the domain authority and raise it in the eyes of search engines. However, it takes work to get them. What about quantity-focused link building? Does it make sense? Let's talk further.
What Do Quantity Backlinks Mean?
You are wrong if you think a large number of backlinks from websites with poor domain rankings will help you get to the top. Link-building specialists understand this, too, so they ignore such platforms. Under large quantity of backlinks, they understand backlinks from websites whose DR ranges from medium to low (often from 50 to 30).
For such specialists in the dispute about backlink quality vs quantity, the second parameter unambiguously wins. They get a lot of traffic but with low commitments. At first glance, it may seem that you can quickly get high domain authority this way, but is it really so?
Why High Quantity of Backlinks Is Good?
The main advantage of having many backlinks is that it allows for quick building of reference mass. Another plus is the acceleration of your rankings and getting the website to higher positions. Of course, you drive traffic, which means it's good for your domain.
The number of referring domains is directly correlated with the ranking of a website on Google. Put simply, concentrating on the number of backlinks is not a waste of time for your link-building strategy.
Why High Quantity of Backlinks is Bad?
There's a downside to everything. Your risks increase if you're a proponent of quantity in the backlink quality vs quantity debate. Why? It's simple: you risk getting backlinks from spammy websites that will only hurt yours. Your search engine rankings will start to drop rapidly.
You should also realize that high-quality backlinks seriously add value to your website. Remember that you will not get comparable value if you focus on quantity. It is not always a bad thing, but it is a fact that should not be forgotten.
How to Get a High Quantity of Backlinks?
While high-quality backlinks are pretty difficult to get, the situation is completely opposite with backlinks from medium or low-ranking sites. Here are some simple ways to do this:
- Adding a review on other sites. It is elementary to do. Just go to a website specializing in reviews, find a product or service there, write a review, and leave a backlink to your site at the end. Remember that the owners of sites often do not approve of such actions, so your post may be deleted. Alternatively, you can contact the owner and offer them free use of your product or service. In return, you ask for very little — just one backlink!
- Publishing paid guest posts. It is one of the most common guest post outreach strategies. You should find a website that accepts such articles and arrange for the owner to publish them. He will post your content with backlinks in return for an agreed amount of money. Remember that the website should have a similar topic to yours. The minus of this method is that it is pretty expensive.
Backlink Quality or Quantity: What to Choose?
Why choose one thing when you can combine these link-building strategies and be on the upside? Choosing only one of them would be a mistake. Many SEO specialists prefer to stay somewhere in the middle. They find many websites with average domain rankings ready to publish content with backlinks.
Let's face it. Individually, none of these marketing strategies will bring the desired results. If you focus only on quality backlinks, you will have to wait a very long time for results. If you go the other way and decide to emphasize quantity, then get ready for risks. Often, they are simply not worth it.
How to Avoid Low-Quality Backlinks?
It turns out that both backlink quality and quantity are important. But how can you choose these links so you don't get into trouble? Regardless of which strategy you choose, ask yourself the following questions:
- Does the website have something in common with the topic you're working with?
- Does the website have a high level of traffic?
- Is the website relevant to your target audience?
If you answered all these questions positively, it's worth discovering the domain authority. How to do it? It's simple: you can use special tools, many of which are available online for free. What should you do if you know for sure that you already have backlinks but have no idea how many and from which websites? In this case, you can use a backlinks checker. It can be found in free access, too.
Wrapping Up
Obtaining high-quality backlinks may be time-consuming and challenging due to strong competition, necessitating dedication and effort. Focusing on a large number is dangerous because of the risk of ending up on a spammy website. Like in various aspects of life, reality typically lies somewhere between extremes. That is the place where true success takes place.
And what strategy do you follow in white-label link building? Share your opinion with me in the comments!
FAQ
How To Evaluate the Backlink Quality?
Evaluating requires examining factors like the linking site's relevance, domain authority, and credibility of the source. All of this can be done with the help of online tools.
Should I Focus on Backlink Quality or Quantity?
It's worth combining both of these strategies. This way, you will quickly build a good link profile, increase the authority and trustworthiness of your site, and reduce the risks of failure.
Are There Any Tools To Help Balance Backlink Quality and Quantity?
Indeed, for instance, tools like Ahrefs and SEMRush are included in this category. With their assistance, you can create a successful link-building plan tailored to your website.