Backlinks in 2020: 6 Things You Need to Know
Several years ago, marketers were obsessed with backlinks. Guest posting was all the rage, and many somewhat dubious media companies sprouted up with the sole purpose of charging businesses for the opportunity to get regularly featured in stories across a range of vanity web sites. Each story mention included a backlink to the sponsoring business, of course.
It worked for awhile. Businesses got better SEO from the backlink bonanza, dubious media companies got a business model, and Google got loads of content it could index. The only problem was that those with questions were not finding quality answers.
So ended the early days of link building. Google cracked down on disreputable backlinks, and marketers were left with the unenviable choice of disappearing from search results or finding another way. The backlink game changed.
Or did it?
“A few years ago, I felt that Google ambassadors like John Muller started to try and distance themselves from the concept of links,” says Dixon Jones, global brand ambassador for link intelligence tool, Majestic. “I even heard John Muller say at a conference in Munich that they used links ‘mainly just for discovery.’ However, this position does not seem to have remained.”
“It’s not the year 2000, but backlinks still work,” adds Alex Lindholm, chief operating officer for SEO specialist, LinkLifting.
Backlinks Matter
The fundamental idea behind ranking sites based on backlinks still makes sense: If sites are linking to specific domains, these destinations must have authority and be important. That’s why Google still values backlinks when ranking sites.
The way that backlinks are counted has changed for marketers, though, as Google has cracked down on gaming the system and gotten more sophisticated about determining expertise, trust and authority. Here’s what you need to know about backlinks in 2020.
1. Quality Over Quantity
Google cares about showing the best quality that exists on the internet for a given search term. So backlinks from link farms and sites without much credibility don’t help marketers because those backlinks come from sites without much credibility. What helps are backlinks that are legit and from sites with authority.
“It doesn’t work to pack an article with links and post randomly to sites,” says Brenden Bittner, a digital marketing strategist at content marketing firm, Watson Creative. “Backlinks need to be relevant, unique, and serve a purpose.”
Marketers can have a 1,000 poor-quality backlinks and this bundle will only deliver the power of one high-quality backlink, he suggests.
“Focus on high-quality backlinks,” he ssays, “even if that means having fewer backlinks total.”
2. Look Beyond DA when Seeking Backlinks
Domain Authority, a proprietary metric developed by Moz that attempts to measure the authority of a given site for SEO purposes, is a common tool for determining which sites to focus on for backlink development purposes.
While DA does matter, Lindholm suggests that it is more important to pick sites that have strong traffic and are relevant to the brand. Meaningful links matter more than just DA.
“Pick backlinks that drive real traffic,” he emphasizes.
3. Seek Backlinks from a Variety of Sites
The point of backlinks is showing that your site is widely respected by other sites that matter. So while it doesn’t hurt if a single, authoritative site keeps linking to your brand, it also doesn’t help much.
“Try to get backlinks from different websites rather than focusing on just a handful,” says Bittner. “Google wants to see variety in the websites that link to yours.”
That’s because many links from the same site could indicate a relationship between your site and the one providing the backlink, which lessens the value of the recommendation. More links also indicate little; you already got a link, so the vote has been cast in your favor already.
4. Keep the Backlinks Flowing
Another factor widely believed to impact the Google ranking of your site is consistent linking. Old backlinks show authority, but a constant stream of new backlinks to your site indicate continued relevance and authority. When other sites keep linking to your brand, Google sees that as verification your site still matters.
“If your website is not getting new backlinks every month, authority will drop,” says Lindholm.
So keep creating content and reaching out to other sites for backlinks. Getting and staying on top is an ongoing process.
5. Nofollow is No Good
With the maturity of SEO and the online ecosystem, and the general awareness that marketers are seeking backlinks, many sites now are increasingly using “nofollow” tags that tell Google not to count links when calculating rankings. That’s both to prevent marketers from contributing content for the sole purpose of getting a backlink, and to protect the site’s reputation as a reliable media vehicle.
“Social media and sites like Wikipedia are not good sources for high authority links,” notes Bittner. “Though the sites themselves are high in authority, most of the links are nofollow.”
Many sites that still advertise guest posting opportunities use nofollow code, and most comment sections now come standard with nofollow so marketers don’t comment on posts just to gain a backlink.
As a result, check the nofollow status of sites you are considering first. Browser plugins exist that can show a site’s nofollow status, and of course you can always check yourself in the site code.
6. Target Org and Edu Sites
Finally, here’s a tip for getting more mileage from your backlink development efforts: Go beyond .com domains when it makes sense.
“Look to .edu and .org sites for high-quality backlinks,” advises Bittner. “Google ranks these high in authority.”
Backlinks still matter for marketers; they are an important ingredient for building a strong reputation with Google, and for related metrics such as Domain Authority and Domain Rating. But not all backlinks are created equal. The process of securing backlinks also now revolves almost entirely around building true expertise, authority and trust.
