Link Building Checklist for 2017 [eBook]

Links: one of the most important parts of the Internet. Literally though, without them navigating the Internet would be a very big pain. Do you know another reason links are important? They’re a top ranking factor for Google.

Because of this, following certain guidelines when building links is of utmost importance. Therefore, if you want to get the most out of your links, follow the following 5 guidelines and see your ranking improve.

1. Brand Understanding

Before you do anything, anything at all, you have to know the Brand. Be it your own or one you’re working with, you have to analyze the website, the Brand itself, its history, its products and services, everything. Think of this as the foundation for your link building; once you know the Brand, you know which industry-relevant websites you can use.

2. Resource Selection

Just as important as knowing the Brand, you need to know which resources are relevant and which to stay away from. When choosing websites to link back from, use these factors:

• Site Relevancy: This is a new PageRank of Google, so the first consideration is to figure out if the website is relevant to the Brand or not.
• Site Domain Authority: The higher a website’s authority, the better it looks for Google’s eyes and the bigger impact it’ll have on your search engine rankings. In other words, a backlink from Shopify is much more valuable than a backlink from a no-name blog.
• Spam Score: No one likes spam and Google penalizes sites with high spam scores. The takeaway? Stay away from spammy sites.

3. Link Anchor Text Creation

For those who don’t know, anchor text is the clickable text you’ll come across online that points you to a specific link, and is used to get a good idea of a page’s theme. As such, definitely use keywords in your anchor text, but keep it natural and don’t overdo it. Some examples of anchor text are:

• Branded Anchor Text: Branded anchor texts use the Brand’s name in it and are the safest to use.
• Keyword Rich Anchor Text: These are good for telling Google what’s on the linked page.
• Generic Anchor Text: As the name states, these are generic anchor texts, such as, ‘click here.’
• Brand+Anchor Text: Another safe option, this one has the Brand’s name and some keywords.

4. Link Placement

Where a link is located in a page is of extreme importance because the goal is to get users to click on them. Go for link placement in the content body, not in other places like the footer or sidebar.

5. Link Attributes

The two most popular link attributes are ‘Nofollow’ and ‘Dofollow.’ These are pretty literal; ‘Nofollow’ provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines “Don’t follow links on this page” or “Don’t follow this specific link.”, and ‘Dofollow’ does the opposite.

“As good as these guidelines are, they’re just the tip of the iceberg. For a more in-depth explanation for each (and bonus ones), download and read the full eBook!”