Which number is important for backlinks?
-
I'm getting very confused. What is the important number regarding backlinks to my site?
The Moz number vs. Hubspot grader spits out vastly different numbers. For the particular site I'm trying to improve, I don't have Webmaster Tools installed yet (waiting for webmaster to do as it doesn't have asynchronous code on it).
Also apologies for novice question but I remember once being told that offpage SEO and specifically the amount of external backlinks is responsible for 75% of your SERP. Is that still the case?
-
Howdy,
Great question. A couple of metrics that I like to focus on are "# of unique linking root domains" to a site, and also overall Domain Authority and Moz Trust.
It's not really about the pure number of links. Even a spam blog can generate millions of backlinks without moving the rankings. Instead, it's more about the breadth, quality, trust and topical relevance of the sites linking to you.
If there's one metric that most agencies use for benchmarking, it's Domain Authority, but I'd be careful with this as it can fluctuate from month-to-month and should be thought of in broad terms instead of as a precise number that you track from week to week.
I think this blog post by Dr. Pete perfectly answers your question better than I could myself. It's well worth a read.
http://moz.com/blog/whats-better-on-page-seo-or-link-building
Let us know if you have any questions. Best of luck with your SEO!
-
I'm not sure what number you're referring to, but would suggest that you need to be a little cautious in these post-penguin days.
I'll answer the simpler part of your question first. You asked if external backlinks were responsible for 75% of your SERP.
I'd suggest taking a look at the following Whiteboard Friday with Rand on the latest Ranking Factors survey:
http://moz.com/blog/weighting-the-clusters-of-ranking-factors-in-google-analytics-whiteboard-friday
Domain + Page level link features account for just under 40% according to the survey which suggests that while they are still the dominant factors, their influence is diminishing.
You really should resist the temptation to see link building as a numbers game. The days of being able to throw a whole bunch of cheap links at a page and watch it rank have gone - at least where you want a sustainable ranking.
Try to think about quality, over quantity, and think about the context and relevance of the linking site to your own. Try to think of it as building relationships rather than just links for the sake of links.
Keep your target audience in mind when you look for link opportunities and find those links that are likely to provide you with relevant traffic.
Hundreds of links with exact match anchor text from loads of rubbish sites are unlikely to do you any favours.
-
The number of links can be looked at as the total number of links, the number of links from a domain (one domain can have many links to your site) or the number of C Blocks (which suggest whether IP addresses are linked). Make sure you are comparing the same unit of measurement.
Another good backlink resource besides the ones you are using is MajesticSeo (they have a free tool you can try).
Links are very important, but there is no set value (at least that Google will tell). Moz and SearchMetrics have recently released ranking factors; you might be interested in taking a look at those.
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
How to Get Free High Quality Backlinks To my Blog
hello, i would like to get quality backlinks to my blog youtubewala.com , anyone please suggest me to bet backlinks to my site. my web site is related to youtube to mp3, youtube to mp4 , online youtube video mp3 converter
Link Building | | vidi03940 -
Backlinking and Redirect links
Can anyone properly explain that whats the basic differnce between redirects? and backlinks? my site lottery sambad is getting some 301 redirects, is that good or bad??
Link Building | | Mubashir_Baloch0 -
Backlink not index on MOZ
Hi All, help me... why backlink for https://gobiz.co.id/pusat-pengetahuan/aplikasi-kasir/ at https://aldhifajar.com/spots-aplikasi-kasir-simple-untuk-setiap-jenis-usaha/ not index at Moz? how it problem on web?
Link Building | | masirwin9180 -
Backlink Transparency with SEO Agency
Hello everyone. I recently started working with an SEO agency and today they gave me an updated keyword report which showed some increase in rankings. I was not aware that any backlinks had been created yet so I asked for a report of the links. Their response is below and I am just wondering if this is normal practice being I have not worked with any type of SEO agency yet. "
Link Building | | wonderd24
Hey Daniel, We release a small report on them which the guest blog team will do soon. We don't reveal all backlink sources unfortunately because people have tried to bother the webmasters we have and basically steal our techniques. But rest assured you will be ranking at the top of the pack with our methods 😃
"1 -
How do stop lost backlinks from website?
I have checked my backlinks through ahref tool. Daily some backlinks are removed bases of ahref tool, so how can stop removing backlink of my website. Please suggest me.
Link Building | | surabhi60 -
Ideal number of internal links
Hi everyone,
Link Building | | KBB_Digital
I've been trying to find discussions on this topic, but I've only been able to find a couple of posts and they're a couple of years old now, so I'm looking for a more up to date answer. I've been doing some research lately & I'm trying to get a gauge on how many internal links I should have ideally on my website before Google suggests that I'm trying to do the wrong thing. I know previously it was suggested to keep it under 100, but, I did see Matt mention it on this video (http://searchengineland.com/googles-matt-cutts-we-dropped-the-100-links-per-page-guideline-but-we-may-take-action-if-it-is-too-spammy-178197) that it's no longer 100 links, but his answer is vague (which is what it might come down to). We're a digital marketing agency & ideally going to try write pages for our services targeted to each of the main cities around Australia & ideally they would all be linked in the footer of the website (with a nice layout, dropdowns, etc...). Looking for other peoples thoughts & opinions.0 -
Press Releases as Backlinking
After analyzing one of my competitors I notices they show up in PRweb as one of their top rated back linking sites. My question is using prweb or something similar okay to use for backlinking? Would they help at all? Also, since they distribute content, would I get penalized for duplicate content?
Link Building | | floridaoutdoorsrv0 -
Quotations about importance of social media and backlinks
Hi all, I'm looking to put together a presentation on SEO and I'm wondering if anyone knows any good quotes that relate to the importance of having content on your site that people want to use and share. I'm looking for something like this: “Today’s marketing success comes from self-publishing Web content that people want to share. It’s not about gimmicks. It’s not about paying an agency to interrupt others.” David Meerman Scott “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” but ideally something that illustrates in terms of numbers how much more traffic and seo benefits a site can expect from having good guides, pdfs and news stories that people want to share. Thanks so much for any helo you can offer. thanks, David
Link Building | | AnthOrange0