Anatomy of a Link

What's a Link, Really?

To figure out the secret sauce behind a perfect link, first we need to break it down to its key ingredients. You probably know that a hyperlink points readers and search engine crawlers to another page, like this one here.

If we dissect it down to the code, the anatomy of a link would look something like this:

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Don't worry, we're going to discuss these elements in detail below.

What's The Point Of Having A Link?

1. Referral traffic

Your links on high-traffic websites can bring in a lot of referral traffic for your site. Referral traffic provides you a steady source of traffic outside of search engine hits and drives qualified leads to your website, which may increase revenues as these users are likely to purchase a subscription or buy your product. Win-win, right?

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2. SEO Benefits

Over the last decade and a half, numerous authorities have shown a direct and positive impact of links improving the search rankings of a page. In fact, 2 out of 3 of Google's top ranking factors are links and content. As Google sees a lot of people wanting to check out your page, it'll rank you higher. That's why high quality links are an awesome way to increase your rankings over time.

Got It... So What Does A Perfect Link Look Like?

The first thing you need to know is that not all links are created equal. Google has a somewhat secretive combination of factors it uses to gauge whether your page would be useful and authoritative for a "reasonable surfer". So what are the elements of a great - no, a perfect - link?

Anchor Text

This is the textual representation of your hyperlink. Most major search engines use the anchor text to determine the relevance of a keyword to a page. So if you want to rank well for a particular keyword, use that as your anchor text. But make sure that it sounds like a natural part of the rest of content.

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There are different types of keywords you can use. Branded keywords include your brand name or a variation of your brand name.

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Partial match keywords are those where your keywords are a portion of the search query.

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Exact match keywords refer to those which perfectly match all the keywords of a search query.

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Finally, general keywords are those which are non-branded and can be used to describe any player in your niche, with the idea being that ranking on top for such keywords establishes bona fide authority for your business.

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IDEAL LINK PROFILE

Your ideal link profile should roughly follow this distribution.

  • 60%

    Branded Keywords

  • 25%

    Partial Match Keywords

  • 10%

    Exact Match Keywords

  • 5%

    General Keywords

Domain Authority

Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how well a website will rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). Think of it as Moz's way of making sense of Google's PageRank. The higher your website's domain authority, the better your chances of ranking well.

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How do you improve your DA? Usually, the best bet is to get an inbound link from a website with a high Domain Authority. That's why some of the most desirable publishing platforms are The New York Times or Forbes, since their backlinks improve your DA more than a run-of-the-mill publisher.

However, you shouldn't just look at DA as the sole benchmark of authority. Other reputable SEO thought leaders have their own algorithms to assess a website or page's authority.

Ahrefs uses Domain Rating (DR) as a proprietary metric to show the strength of a target website's total backlink profile (in terms of its size and quality).

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Majestic SEO uses Citation Flow and Trust Flow to determine the quality of a site. Citation Flow determines how influential a site is while Trust Flow determines how trustworthy a site is in terms of its neighborhood as well as outgoing links and other metrics.

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A FINAL NOTE ON DOMAIN AUTHORITY

You should remember that Domain Authority is not a comprehensive measure of a website's quality and legitimacy, which is why we do not rely on this single metric alone in determining if a website is spam or not. It is just one of the many metrics Link Building HQ uses to assess a website's trustworthiness before considering it for a backlink.

URL

A significant component of a perfect link is the URL of that link. Poor URLs face some or all of the following issues:

  • Experience a lot of redirects
  • Are obstructed by a robots.txt file
  • Include red flags like keyword stuffing
  • Contain malware or viruses

A perfect link avoids all of the above, because Google may choose not to follow the link or not pass any PageRank to it. That's why we encourage our clients to follow an optimized URL pattern that is most likely to be rewarded with higher page authority.

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Relevance

Relevance is all about how naturally connected your content is to the page that's linked to you. Imagine if you're the owner of a small restaurant in Kent and are looking to establish a digital presence. Would it make more sense to get your link published on an article in The Guardian called "Top 10 Budget Restaurants And Cafes On The North Kent Coast" or an article by, say, a car magazine?

You may not have full editorial control about how your link appears on a page, but an effective link outreaching strategy ensures you land on relevant platforms.

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Link Placement

The placement of your link can make or break all SEO efforts. Links that are placed within the main content, especially those in the top or middle section, are more likely to be clicked on by users. As a web surfer, you must have experienced this, too. You are more likely to click on a link that is surrounded by useful content (contextual link) than a "Terms of Service" link, banner advertisement or links unrelated to the main article.

That's why contextual links have higher link equity and are rewarded accordingly, while links on the sidebar or footer are rewarded less.

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How Would LINK BUILDING HQ Create the Perfect Link for me?

Link Building HQ goes above and beyond in creating the perfect link for you. For us, you're always more than just a one-time client. That's why we create your ideal link profile and devise a comprehensive strategy about which keywords to use, what kind of anchor text to enter, and where to place your link.

We don't focus on just the target website's Domain Authority (remember: that's just one factor out of many). While we want you to get the best SEO result from each link, we also want you to get a sizeable amount of referral traffic. That's why our target websites already have significant organic traffic, making it more likely that users will click on your link and visit your page.

Link Building HQ has perfected white hat link building down to a science. From our prices to the relevance and quality of links, we are your one stop shop for all your link building needs. Our return on investment may just prove us to be the best business decision you make. So save time, effort and money and order your first link today.

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