High-quality backlinks from reputable websites help boost a site’s domain authority and search engine rankings. For local and small businesses, an effective backlink strategy executed by an experienced SEO agency improves website visibility and traffic exponentially. Backlinks have been a core part of search engine algorithms for decades. At a basic level, the number of quality sites linking back to a page helps search engines like Google determine authority and relevance for ranking purposes. Pages on websites with more backlinks from industry authority sites tend to rank higher in SERPs. It’s not just the quantity of backlinks, but the quality that matters most. Search engines analyze factors like the DR (domain rating) of linking domains, the relevance of the content, anchor text, and whether links use keywords or natural phrasing. Natural links from reputable sources boost rankings.
Relevancy for rankings
Backlinks also boost rankings for specific keywords when the linking page content is relevant. For example, a link from a landscaping blog about “best lawn care tips” pointing to a landscaping company’s service page on lawn treatments would pass strong relevancy signals. It boosts rankings for lawn care keywords. Agencies strategically pursue backlink opportunities, where there is topical relevance between the content and client offerings.
Balancing links across pages
SEO experts also understand that backlinks should be built across multiple pages on a website, not just to the home page. This thematically relevant link-building improves the strength of specific services and content pages on a site. For example, backlinks focused on a restaurant’s “gluten-free menu” page from sites discussing gluten-free lifestyles or celiac disease resources help that page rank for related searches.
Backlink analysis and monitoring is also a key part of professional link building. Agencies keep track of top linking sites, check link quality, watch for toxic links from poor sources, and use tools to quantify domain authority being passed. By continually monitoring backlink profiles, issues can be found and fixed while positive links are further strengthened over time.
Common backlink building tactics
- Guest post outreach – The top link-building technique is to write and publish guest posts on reputable, high-authority sites that accept contributor content. Place strategic contextual backlinks in these posts back to relevant pages on your site. Outreach is targeted based on topic relevance and domain authority.
- Interview/expert outreach – Agencies may leverage the expertise of a client or brand spokesperson to secure interviews with industry trade journals, popular blogs, news sites, and more. Interview write-ups provide great contextual backlink potential.
- Resource page outreach – Many sites have resource pages that link to useful industry content and tools. These are great targets for backlink outreach when you have resources relevant to their audience.
- Link insert outreach – Finding existing pages where a topically relevant backlink is added or requesting to add your site to content recommended resources lists.
- Branded infographic promotion – Creating unique infographics with backlinks that provide value and get shared across news sites, social media, and aggregators.
Professional SEO agencies near me have the manpower, technology, and experience to execute large-scale link-building campaigns using many of these tactics and more. Through proven outreach processes, they connect with hundreds of relevant sites and build a steady stream of authoritative backlinks at scale.
