If not, you’re missing out on one of the core aspects of SEO. Backlinks are a proven ranking factor on search engines like Google, and they’re a notorious needle mover when it comes to search rankings. 

According to research by Backlinko, the #1 result on Google contains an average of 3.8x more backlinks than positions 2 – 10. 

In our experience, closing backlink gaps is one of the most effective ways for our clients to outrank competitors. 

Yet, link-building is difficult, time-consuming, and takes years to master. 

When polled, 52.3% of digital marketers report that link-building is the hardest aspect of SEO, and it’s not just due to time-consuming email outreach, either. 

A big part of the difficulty stems from how long it takes to establish a link infrastructure strong enough to consistently build links for clients. To do so, you need to build relationships with news outlets, media sites, and blogs from virtually every industry. 

As a result, not every digital marketing agency will have the capacity to offer link-building. 

The solution?

You can use white-label link-building services to A) offer link-building services to your clients under your brand name and B) not have to actually build the links in-house. 

It works by hiring another digital marketing agency to build backlinks for your clients. You then repackage the links under your brand name, and your clients get to receive valuable backlinks to improve their search rankings. 

In this article, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about white-label link-building, including how to pick the best provider for your needs, so stick around!  

Understanding the White-Labeling Process

First, let’s quickly define white labeling, as it’s not completely synonymous with traditional outsourcing (as some falsely assume). 

At its core, white labeling is a way for a business to offer products and services that it doesn’t produce in-house. 

Instead, the company outsources the creation of a product or service to another company. Once it’s finished, the original company rebrands it as their own and sells it to their customers. 

As a result, the customer has no way of knowing that the product or service they purchased was actually produced by another company. 

Do you know how popular grocery stores like Walmart often have their own ‘generic’ brand of products? 

In Walmart’s case, its Great Value brand offers all sorts of popular products at discounted rates, including things like paper plates, peanut butter, and a million other things. 

The catch is that Walmart doesn’t actually produce all these goods. Rather, they use white-label providers to produce each product (such as peanut butter) and then repackage them all under the Great Value brand name. 

To quickly summarize, white labeling is a form of outsourcing where you sell repackaged third-party goods and services under your brand name. 

The name ‘white label’ comes from old product labels (which were traditionally white) that said ‘Your Brand Here.’ 

How white-labeling applies to SEO and link-building 

In the SEO world, there are digital marketing agencies that offer white-label services like link-building, content creation, and technical SEO audits. 

These services come in handy for other marketing agencies who aren’t able to offer something like link-building in-house. 

Instead of forcing their clients to run SEO campaigns without any link-building, white-label services grant them the ability to offer things like backlink outreach without having to expand their workforce (or learn new skills). 

Since white labeling involves repackaging outsourced materials under your brand name, your customers won’t know that you’re not handling everything in-house. That means you’ll get the credit for all the links another agency builds for you, which is definitely a plus. 

Here’s a breakdown of how a typical white-label link-building process works:

1. An agency finds a white-labeling partner to work with to provide link-building to their clients. Both parties agree upon payment and the services provided before moving forward with the partnership. 
2. Next, the hiring agency provides the white-label agency with a list of backlinks they want to build for their clients. The agency will then build the links using a variety of techniques, such as digital PR, link insertions, and fixing broken links. 
3. Some providers will also create content to obtain backlinks, such as writing guest blogs, creating press releases, or designing infographics to attract shares. However, not every white-label agency will provide content creation for link-building, so check that they offer it beforehand. 
4. The white-label agency will provide results to the hiring agency. All reports will contain the hiring agency’s branding (or will be presented in a format that makes rebranding easy). 
5. The hiring agency then presents the rebranded results to their clients with the insinuation that they built the links without any outside help. 

The different types of white-label link-building services 

There are also three distinct types of white-label services that you can use when working with providers. 

They are:

• Managed services. This is where the white-label provider handles everything. In the case of link-building, the white-label agency would conduct the outreach, secure the link placements, and provide the results to the hiring agency. 

• Self-service. In this situation, the hiring agency handles the outreach by themselves, leaving the white-label agency to secure the link placements. 
• Hybrid. There’s also a hybrid model where providers and agencies can rotate between handling some outreach and leaving everything to the white-label agency. 

When Does it Make Sense to Use White-Label Link-Building?

White labeling is undoubtedly handy and yields many benefits, but it’s not always the right choice. 

Before you start researching white-label digital marketing agencies online, you need to confirm that you 100% need to white-label your link-building services. 

For example, let’s say you run a newbie digital marketing agency offering content creation and technical SEO audits to a handful of clients. At the moment, your clients are handling their link-building either by themselves or with products from other agencies. 

However, your business is humming along fine and you aren’t getting any complaints from your clients. 

At this time, there’s no need to add white-label link-building to your services. Instead, you should wait until A) your clients start requesting link-building or B) you begin to scale your business and want to add other services. 

Here’s a list of instances where it does make sense to use white-label link-building:

• Client demand. If a large number of your clients are asking for link-building, it’s time to consider white-label services, especially if your current staff can’t handle the extra workload. At a certain point, it’ll become extremely difficult for a digital marketing agency to remain competitive without offering link-building services (since backlinks are such an important ranking factor). 

• Lack of in-house expertise. While you may employ expert content creators, SEO auditors, and strategists – link-building may not be in their wheelhouse. The last thing you want to do is try to become a link-building expert overnight, as there’s way too much to know. If you don’t have any link-building gurus on hand, white-label services are the next best thing. 

• Cost-effectiveness. Hiring an in-house team of link-builders is incredibly expensive. Most industries face costs of $4,000 – $20,000 just to onboard a new employee, and that doesn’t include salary or benefits. For this reason, white-label link-building is far cheaper than hiring new staff. 

• Scalability. White-label services are great because they’re a scalable solution. As you grow your business, you can add new capabilities (like link-building) without having to expand your workforce, which saves a ton of money. 

If any of these situations apply to you, then it’s a good idea to consider working with a white-label link-building agency. 

What are the Benefits of White-Label Link-Building?

We’ve already mentioned that white-label link-building will yield many benefits for your business, but we haven’t dived into the specifics yet. 

Besides gaining the ability to provide link-building services to your clients, there are plenty of other perks to using a white-label link-building agency, so let’s take a closer look at them all. 

Access to specialized expertise 

Link-building is something that takes years to master, not only because of the skills involved (outreach, blog writing, etc.) but also the infrastructure. 

By infrastructure, we mean having existing relationships with news outlets, media sites, and blogs from virtually every industry. 

A vast link network is a necessity for any marketing agency claiming to offer link-building services. 

It’s also a major reason why smaller agencies choose to use white labeling to provide backlinks to their clients. While a small digital marketing agency may lack the connections necessary to build backlinks for a landscaping supply company, it’ll be a cinch for an experienced link-building agency. 

Seasoned link-builders also keep up with Google algorithm updates, which are extremely frequent and vary in impact. 

For example, the Core Update for March of 2024 was an infamous one, as it cracked down on spam and AI-generated content in a big way. 

If you aren’t able to keep up with these algorithm changes, you’ll have a tough time building links for your clients. Luckily, the best white-label link-building agencies are always well aware of these updates (and their potential impacts). 

Increased revenue 

There are two primary ways that white-label link-building will increase your revenue, which are:

1. It costs far less to outsource link-building services than to hire in-house, so you’re already saving money. 
2. You’ll generate more revenue by being able to offer link-building services to your clients, which can A) help you convert new clients and B) increase the bill for existing customers (assuming they choose to build links with you). 

While you’ll have to pay the white-label agency for their services, it still pales in comparison to the costs involved with hiring new staff. Moreover, you’ll start generating more revenue by the simple fact that you’ve expanded your service offerings. 

It provides benefits for your clients, too 

You aren’t the only one who will benefit from white-label link-building services. Since you’ll be able to start building high-quality links for your clients, they’ll also receive perks. 

In particular, high-quality backlinks will help your clients outrank competitors, achieve higher rankings, and generate more leads and sales. 

As a bonus, the happier your clients are, the more likely they are to recommend your services to friends and colleagues. 

You can focus on your core areas of expertise 

If your agency’s primary strengths are content creation and keyword research, the last thing you want is to bog your team down with learning how to build backlinks. 

By outsourcing your link-building to a white-label agency, you’re free to focus on what you do best. 

As a result, your team will fire on all cylinders. You’ll be creating outstanding content tailored to relevant keywords while your white-label agency builds valuable backlinks for your clients. 

This is a far better scenario than trying to handle everything on your own (and having your primary areas of focus not receive enough love). 

How to Choose the Right White-Label Link-Building Partner for Your Needs 

At this point, you should understand what white-label link-building is and how it can benefit your business. 

Now, it’s time to learn how to select the best link-building partner for your specific needs (and the needs of your clients). 

Here’s a step-by-step guide for researching and selecting a white-label link-building agency. 

Step #1: Make sure you have a basic understanding of link-building 

First, you should strive to educate yourself on the basics of link-building. 

Why should you do that when you plan on outsourcing the process?

It’s important to know the basics of link-building so that you don’t get ripped off. It will also help you understand the types of backlinks your clients need to outrank competitors and rank higher on the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

The last thing you want is to hire a white-label agency that builds extremely cheap, low-quality backlinks for your clients. Doing so will harm your agency’s reputation, and you’ll waste money hiring a white-label link-building provider that isn’t worth its salt. 

Here are some basic facts you should know:

1. Backlinks act as credibility votes on search engines for the quality and accuracy of content. 
2. Relevancy is an extremely important factor when determining the quality of a backlink. In other words, the page containing one of your links must relate to what you do in some way. 
3. You can determine if a backlink is worth pursuing by analyzing the website’s domain authority. 

To learn more, check out our Learning Hub post on the importance of link-building. 

Step #2: Determine your client’s backlink goals 

Before you start researching providers, you should come up with a game plan for your clients. In particular, you should determine:

1. How many backlinks do they need to build by analyzing competitors outranking them (how many more links do they have?) 
2. Which keywords your client wants to rank #1 for (and who is currently in those spots)?
3. What’s your client’s target audience, budget, and timeline to achieve results?

Once you have an answer to these three questions, you can move on to the next step. 

Step #3: Research providers and look for social proof 

Okay, now it’s time to search the web and start looking for white-label link-building agencies. 

Besides looking at individual provider’s websites, there are plenty of guides online comparing different white-label agencies, so take a look at them, too. 

Also, you should try to find social proof for every agency that you’re considering partnering with. This means looking for third-party reviews, testimonials, and case studies. 

The reviews on the provider’s website will undoubtedly be positive, so do some digging on third-party websites to find less biased reviews and testimonials.

Do you know anyone who uses one of the agencies you’re considering?

If so, reach out to them and ask for their two cents. One of the best ways to find a suitable provider is to ask colleagues, so browse through your network for contacts who may use white-label link-building. 

Step #4: Ensure they use ethical strategies 

Next, you need to make sure that they’re a clean provider. By that, we mean they strictly use ‘white-hat’ link-building techniques that don’t violate search engine guidelines. 

Some agencies engage in nefarious ‘black-hat’ link-building techniques that violate search engine guidelines. These tactics are extremely risky because they could land you a manual penalty from Google, which can cause your content to disappear from the SERPs entirely. 

Black-hat tactics may provide fleeting success for some clients, but they’re a ticking time bomb. 

Here are some red flags to watch out for when looking for white-label link-builders online:

• Using PBNs (private blog networks). These are vast networks of ‘dummy’ sites that only exist to feed links to a core site. 
• Offering backlink packages for dirt cheap prices. If you see 1,000 backlinks offered for $15, it’s clearly a bogus deal filled with garbage links. 
• Fake guest posting services that post on fake websites (that may be part of PBNs or link farms). 

Step #5: Look for transparent reporting 

Next, you’ll want to choose an agency that provides real-time reporting on campaign progress and quality metrics. 

This provides a level of transparency that ensures no foul play is taking place (such as faking numbers to make them look more impressive). 

Real-time reporting is a sign that an agency is trustworthy, and it’s handy to be able to check on the progress of your backlink campaign any time that you want. 

Step #6: Consider end-to-end providers 

An end-to-end provider is an agency that will A) conduct outreach B) create content and C) add the link placements (or ensure they get added by site owners). 

End-to-end service is great because it provides a seamless experience from start to finish. Also, it means the white-label agency will handle every aspect of the link-building process for you, freeing up your team to focus on more important tasks. 

Step #7: Check their own backlinks 

Lastly, it’s time to see if the agency puts their money where their mouth is. In other words, you should audit their website’s backlinks to see if they practice what they preach. 

Ideally, they should have a strong backlink profile with a solid domain authority score. If their metrics are less than flattering, it’s a sign that they aren’t the real deal. You should only work with a white-label link-building agency if they have flawless SEO and link-building metrics for their own website. 

White-Label Link-Building with The HOTH 

We’ve covered a lot so far so let’s briefly recap:

1. White-label link-building is where you outsource link-building services to another agency. From there, you repackage the links under your brand name to your clients. 
2. It’s a cost-effective way to add link-building to your repertoire, and it’s cheaper than hiring in-house. 
3. You should look for providers who A) have great backlink metrics and B) boast flawless reviews online. 

At The HOTH, we provide renowned white-label link-building services to other digital marketing agencies. 

Here’s what makes us different:

• We offer a wide range of effective link-building services (digital PR, outreach, insertions, etc.). 
• Our reports were built to be white-label from the ground up, making it effortless to add your own branding.
• We boast one of the largest link networks online consisting of 300+ news outlets and media sites. 
• Our team can build valuable backlinks for virtually any industry. 
• We have a proven track record and flawless testimonials.

Our customer service is also the best in the biz, as our clients NEVER have to wait long before one of our team members reaches out for assistance. 

If you’re ready to expand your services and offer link-building to your clients, don’t wait to try out our white-label services today.  

Besides link-building, we also offer other SEO products for reselling, so don’t wait to get in touch to discuss your options in more detail!       

The post The Definitive White-Label Link-Building Guide for Agencies appeared first on The HOTH.

Are there types of backlinks that occur in nature?

Whenever SEOs talk about natural backlinks, they’re referring to backlinks they had no part in creating, thus they occurred ‘naturally.’ 

Most of the time, this means another website found your content extremely helpful or interesting and decided to share it with their audience. You didn’t reach out to them to request a backlink, they did it on their own volition due to the strength of your content. 

Therefore, search engines like Google recommend that the only link-building tactic you take part in is creating awesome content that others want to link back to. 

That means things like outreach, digital PR, and buying links are all considered unnatural (although this is hotly debated, but more on this later). 

While this is undoubtedly a fantastic way to generate high-quality links, it’s not always feasible – especially if you’re facing a sizable backlink gap from one of your competitors. 

At the same time, there are other ways to generate natural backlinks besides just creating outstanding content (although that’s always part of the equation). 

Also, while Google’s algorithms have become quite sophisticated at detecting unnatural links, they aren’t 100% infallible. As a result, there are ways to build backlinks that appear natural to Google and other search engines, which is really all that matters. 

How do you do that?

Stick around to learn how to build natural backlinks, including unnatural practices to avoid at all costs. 

Understanding Natural Backlinks 

For a backlink to fall under the ‘natural’ category, a site owner has to decide to link to your website by themselves, without any outside influence. 

Email outreach, even when not offering money for a backlink, is technically still a way of influencing site owners to link to your content. 

Here are the primary qualifying factors for a natural backlink:

• Spontaneous. This means you didn’t ask for the backlink, pay for it, or participate in a link exchange to get it. Instead, you obtained the backlink purely because another person found your content valuable/relevant enough to share. It could be that a free tool you provide on your website genuinely provides value to their audience, or they could simply be fans of the content you produce. Whatever the reason may be, spontaneity is a key aspect of natural backlinks. 

• Relevant. If you want a backlink to positively impact your search rankings, it has to hold contextual or topical relevance to the linking content. Irrelevant links are devalued by Google’s algorithms, and they aren’t helpful to users. Natural backlinks are always relevant and serve a real purpose. 

• Diverse anchor text. Anchor text is the text that masks a naked URL in a hyperlink. Google likes to see anchor text that’s varied and natural instead of the same target keywords over and over again (which signals spam). Diverse anchor text is a sign that lots of websites link to your content without any influence on your behalf, which is why it’s important. 

We’ll clue you in on a little insider secret. 

As long as your backlinks check the last two boxes (relevance and diverse anchor text) and come from authoritative websites (NOT spam sites), Google really has no way of knowing how you acquired the link. 

This is good news because it’s not always possible to strictly build 100% natural backlinks, especially if you’re in need of lots of links to get on par with the competition. 

Besides those three factors, the following characteristics will also make your backlinks more attractive to Google:

• Domain authority. Your backlinks should always come from authentic, reputable websites that provide value to users. Checking a domain’s authority score is a good way to gauge its credibility and ranking power. You can use our free domain authority checker tool to vet websites before pursuing backlinks from them. A good rule of thumb is to only pursue backlinks from sites with authority scores at or over 20. 

• Backlink placement. Where a backlink appears on a web page is also an important factor. This is because links in the footer and sidebar are notorious areas for irrelevant, spammy links. Ideally, all your backlinks should appear in the body of a web page’s content. This signals to Google that the backlink is relevant and holds some type of significance to users. 

To recap, as long as your backlinks are relevant, appear on trusted websites, and show up in the body of the content – they will appear natural to Google. 

Why is Natural Link-Building so Important?

Next, let’s explore why natural link-building is a necessary practice. 

After all, can’t you find success by building unnatural backlinks?

While some websites are able to obtain short-term success with ‘black-hat’ (i.e., tactics that violate search guidelines) techniques, their success is fleeting. 

It’s only a matter of time before Google’s algorithms catch onto their link schemes, which will cause their online visibility to come crashing down in a matter of minutes. Google’s infamous 2024 March Core Update heavily cracked down on AI-generated content and website spam, which caused scores of websites to experience severe drop-offs in traffic. 

Constantly looking over your shoulder to see if Google’s caught you yet is no way to live, which is why natural link-building is a must (trust us; you’ll sleep much better). 

Here’s a look at some other reasons why natural link-building is a practice worth adopting if you haven’t already. 

Reason #1: Google values natural backlinks the most 

First and foremost, you should engage in natural link-building because it yields the most powerful type of backlinks. 

According to Andrey Lipattsev, a Search Quality Senior Strategist at Google “the algorithm prioritizes natural backlinks as a key ranking factor. These links are seen as genuine endorsements of your content’s quality and relevance, signaling to Google that your website is a trusted source of information.”

Translation: backlinks that appear natural will have the strongest impact on your search rankings. 

If you obtain unnatural backlinks from spammy websites that add no value to users, Google’s algorithm will devalue them, making building them a total waste of time. 

As proof that natural backlinks matter more, look to Backlinko’s study that found the #1-ranked organic position on Google has 3.8x more backlinks than positions 2 – 10. 

So, if you want to reach the top of Google’s SERPs, natural backlinks are a must-have. 

Reason #2: Natural backlinks raise brand awareness 

Natural backlinks won’t just improve your search rankings; they’ll also get the word out about your brand. 

How so?

It’s due to the nature (pun intended) of natural backlinks. 

Since other respected websites are linking to your content, it exposes your brand to their audience, who may be totally different from yours.

This is great because you may find new audiences who enjoy your content and want to consume your products and services, and you may not have found them otherwise. 

As a real-world example, here’s an instance where SaaS SEO juggernaut Semrush gave us a shout-out for the renowned quality of our white-label services:

They’re one of the biggest SaaS platforms in the world, hence their ridiculously high domain-rating (DR) score of 91 (the scale is out of 100). As you can see, they linked back to one of our case studies (they also linked to several other pages, but we’re keeping things brief), passing a truckload of link juice back to our site. 

Besides the SEO benefit, we also generate tons of referral traffic through our backlinks on Semrush’s site. This also exposes our content to an extremely wide audience since websites from all industries use Semrush’s platform. 

Reason #3: Sustainable backlink growth 

Natural link-building is a necessity because it provides much-needed sustainability to link-building campaigns. 

By creating high-quality content that attracts shares due to its usefulness and entertainment value – you’ll keep the links coming in. 

Without creating outstanding content, you’ll have to rely on coercive, manipulative tactics to keep generating backlinks, which can land you in trouble with Google. For example, some site owners try to skirt content creation responsibilities by setting up private blog networks (PBNs). 

What’s that?

A PBN is a network of dummy websites that only exist to link back to a central website. The websites on the network are just thin facades meant to give the appearance of a functioning website, but there’s no depth to them at all. 

Clicking around on a PBN site will soon shatter the illusion since they won’t have any new content or external links (and the content they do have is either extremely thin or plagiarized). 

Google has become extremely adept at identifying PBNs, so you’re much better off directing that time and energy toward creating helpful content. 

Take it from us; we’re a living testament to the power of natural link-building. 

Here’s a look at our referring domains and organic traffic:

As we continue to build our referring domains, our organic traffic follows (with some minor spikes and dips here and there in accordance with trends and other factors). 

The main reason why our referring domains continue to rise is the free tools and in-depth guides that we offer users. 

After all, we’re not just writing this guide out of the goodness of our hearts (although that’s part of it); it helps us continue to build our authority and grow our link profile. 

Reason #4: Diversify your backlink profile 

As stated in the intro, a healthy link profile contains links from a wide variety of sources. 

This means that if you only build backlinks via guest posts on top-tier websites, it could raise suspicions about link schemes to Google’s algorithms. The same is true if you use the same anchor text over and over again, especially if you use target keywords. 

Instead, you need to build a diverse link profile containing backlinks from:

1. Websites with varying degrees of quality (only including high-quality links screams manipulation) 
2. Relevant business directory links 
3. Forum backlinks (like Reddit and Quora) 
4. Links from social media platforms 

It’s equally as important that these links contain diverse anchor text, such as naked URLs, branded anchors, and natural anchors (hyperlinking neutral text that isn’t meant to advertise anything). 

The great part about natural link-building is that it handles all this for you, naturally (pun intended again). 

Whenever others link back to your content, the links are bound to A) come from a wide range of sources and B) contain diverse anchor text. 

Imagine that you create an extremely helpful video teaching others how to do something important to your niche audience. As word gets out and you promote it, others will most likely share it by:

• Linking to it on their social media profiles 
• Sharing it through their blogs 
• Including it on news websites and media outlets 

Google knows this, which is why it places so much importance on building diverse backlink profiles.  

What are Unnatural Backlinks?

Now, it’s time to look at the other side of the coin and analyze unnatural backlinks. In a nutshell, these are backlinks that you had a hand in generating, either through outreach, paying money, participating in a link exchange, or something more nefarious. 

It’s important to note here that Google’s rules about link-building are intentionally vague. If taken literally, virtually every link-building practice would fall under the unnatural umbrella. 

As a result, what qualifies as an unnatural backlink is a fierce source of debate for many SEOs. 

For instance, Search Engine Journal columnist Julie Joyce notes that “putting a link in a place where it adds value as a relevant resource. I don’t care if you pay for it, ask for it, tweet a link to it, or get it any other way. If it’s a good addition to someone’s work, it’s a natural link to me.”

While many marketers share this take, it’s undeniable that Google cracks down on practices like buying backlinks and link exchanges, so it’s still best to err on the side of caution when using such tactics. Buying backlinks, when done right, will benefit your search rankings and add value to users – and they won’t raise suspicion – but you’ve got to do it the right way. 

In our experience, we tend to agree with Joyce, because most link-building tactics are totally fine as long as they are relevant and add value to users. 

Other types of backlinks, though, are definitely unnatural and should be avoided whenever possible. Things like link farms and PBNs aren’t worth the trouble they take to set up and will land you in serious hot water if you’re caught.   

Here’s a list of unnatural link-building practices to steer clear of:

1. Using the same type of anchor text for every backlink
2. Cheap backlink offers (i.e., 1,000 links for $10) 
3. Beware of general directories (a few are okay, but don’t go crazy) – stick with niche directories instead 
4. Don’t spam forum comments with backlinks 
5. Do not buy links in bulk and publish them all at once 

As long as you avoid these spammy link-building practices, you’ll have a far lower chance of receiving a manual penalty from Google. 

In reference to buying links in bulk, publishing all of them at once will signal spam to Google. The smart way to buy links is to only publish a few at a time, which will appear far more natural. 

How to Earn Natural Backlinks 

Okay, now it’s time to learn the most reliable ways to generate natural backlinks, or at least backlinks that appear natural to Google and other search engines. 

The most reliable tactics include:

• Creating thought leader-worthy content 
• Building relationships with other websites in your field 
• Promoting your content through various channels 
• Interview industry experts 

Let’s take an in-depth look at each technique. 

Tactic #1: Create outstanding content that attracts shares 

Not only is creating great content the best natural link-building technique, but it also serves as the foundation for any successful link-building strategy. 

If you create content that’s original, entertaining, compelling, and genuinely helpful – it will ‘naturally’ attract backlinks from a wide variety of sources, granting you a diverse backlink profile, which is what Google wants to see. 

But what types of content should you focus on creating?

That’s a fantastic question, as certain types of content attract more shares than others. 

If you want to start generating backlinks like mad, try creating the following types of content:

• Free tools. A huge reason why our website generates so many natural backlinks is the strength of our suite of free SEO tools. We have tools for everything from keyword research to checking a website’s domain authority, all of which are incredibly useful for digital marketers. Regardless of your industry, try to brainstorm helpful free tools you can create to build natural backlinks. 

• Original research. Bloggers love statistics, and they’re always on the hunt for relevant studies, surveys, and other forms of research to back up their claims. Therefore, creating original research in your field is a surefire way to generate lots of quality backlinks. 

• Visual content like videos and infographics. Research has shown time and time again that visual content attracts more shares than static content. In particular, videos and infographics are two backlink-generating powerhouses, so utilize them whenever possible. 

• Guides and tutorials. Users take to search engines to answer pressing questions and learn new skills, which is why ultimate guides are so popular. You should carefully research topics beforehand to ensure you create guides for topics that your audience truly cares about. Master this, and you’ll start generating natural backlinks in large quantities. 

Tactic #2: Build relationships with relevant sites in your niche 

Relationship-building is an excellent way to build up your backlink profile. It involves sparking relationships with other site owners in your industry to create long-lasting backlink opportunities. 

You should create relationships with sites that:

• Accept guest posts and link insertions 
• Genuinely appreciate your content (and share it often) 
• Have a similar target audience but don’t compete for the same business 
• Share press releases and syndicate articles 

Building relationships with sites like these will lead to numerous backlink opportunities in the future, not just one. 

The best part?

When done correctly, relationship-building leads to natural backlinks. For example, if you’re buddy-buddy with a blog in your industry, they’ll be twice as likely to link back to your website without you even asking (of course, you would return the favor by regularly linking to their content, too). 

It’s definitely a long-term technique, but the benefits that relationship-building yields are undoubtedly worth the effort. 

Tactic #3: Promote your content like crazy 

While Google frowns upon intentionally building backlinks, they don’t have any qualms about websites promoting their own content. 

This means it’s perfectly okay to promote your new blogs, videos, and infographics through as many channels as possible. Whenever you release something new, promote it through:

• All your social media profiles 
• Industry forums 
• Relevant online communities
• Your newsletter (if you have one) 
• Email marketing 

The more attention you generate for your content, the more likely others are to share it of their own volition, providing you with natural backlinks. 

Tactic #4: Interview industry experts and get featured on podcasts 

Lastly, interviewing experts and going on a ‘media tour’ of sorts will help you generate natural backlinks. 

There are bound to be countless experts and influencers in your field, so see if you can track some of them down for an interview. It’s up to you how to format the interview (i.e., a blog post, video, or podcast), but ensure that you promote it to the high heavens. 

If the industry experts you speak with have large followings, you should be able to pick up lots of natural backlinks by interviewing them. 

Also, you can find relevant podcasts in your industry and see if you can snag a spot as a featured guest. Whenever you land a spot, request that the podcast owner provide a link back to your site in the episode’s description. 

Harness the Power of Natural Backlinks for Your Website 

Natural backlinks occur due to the sheer strength and quality of your website’s content, and they’re extremely important for ranking high on Google and other search engines. 

Unnatural backlink tactics like link farms and PBNs are best avoided altogether to avoid landing in hot water with Google. 

By creating outstanding content, building relationships with other sites, and promoting the heck out of your content, you can start generating natural backlinks for your website. 

Do you need help with your SEO and link-building?

HOTH X, our fully managed SEO service, is the solution to all your problems. Our team will handle every aspect of your SEO, and we know how to achieve outstanding results, so don’t wait to get in touch with us!       

The post Natural Backlinks: What They Are and How to Build Them appeared first on The HOTH.

One of the most common mistakes we see from fellow SEOs is trying to optimize a website’s homepage for every keyword they want to rank for.

This is NOT a good idea. 

In fact, it can dramatically reduce other web page’s ability to rank for important keywords, such as your product and service pages (which are where the money is at!). 

That’s not to say that you shouldn’t optimize your homepage to rank for some keywords, just not every single one. 

A successful SEO strategy spreads the keyword love across all your important pages, not just the homepage. 

You should also try to get these types of pages ranking for relevant keywords:

• Content (blogs, videos, etc.) 
• Landing pages and lead magnets 
• Product pages 
• Service pages 

In this article, we’ll teach you why going nuts with homepage SEO is a critical error, and we’ll show you what to do instead – so stick around!  

1. Why You Shouldn’t Optimize Your Homepage Too Much

Most businesses start out only offering a handful of products, and then gradually expand their lineup as they scale their operations. 

What does this have to do with optimizing your homepage?

It’s relevant because most new websites will try to rank their homepages for keywords closely related to their flagship products and services. 

This means that when they eventually expand, they try to cram a ton of new keywords into their homepage, which causes a huge mess. 

Here’s an example of what we’re talking about.

Let’s say that you start a new business that sells blue widgets in New York. Since you only sell one product, you optimize your homepage for it:

This works great until you start to expand. Once that happens, you start selling red widgets, big widgets, and small widgets. You also start offering widget repair services, management, and insurance. 

Complicating the issue even further, you decide to open new locations in Chicago, Los Angeles, and London. 

The problem?

Your homepage is optimized to rank for the keyword ‘blue widgets,’ and that’s it. 

There’s no way that Google will rank your homepage for:

• Blue widgets
• Red widgets
• Big widgets
• Widget Insurance
• Widget Repair
• Widget Management
• Los Angeles widgets
• Chicago widgets
• London widgets

Your title tag would have to look like this:

Yeah, that’s not going to work. 

Plus, Google usually only displays 50-60 characters of your title tag in the search engine results (this is a faked screenshot for demonstrative purposes only!).

In this scenario, you can’t have your cake and eat it, too. 

Instead, you have to pick a handful of relevant keywords to rank for your homepage and then create other pages (product pages, landing pages, blogs) to rank for other important keywords as your business expands into new arenas. 

2. Wrecked Rankings Because Of Keyword Cannibalization

Another reason why you shouldn’t rank your homepage for all your keywords is cannibalization. 

Keyword cannibalization occurs whenever you try to rank two web pages for the same keywords. 

For example, trying to rank your homepage and a blog post for the same keyword will cause cannibalization. 

Why is it called cannibalization?

Since Google’s algorithm will see that you have 2 pages trying to rank for the same keywords, it will become confused over which page it should rank – causing it to rank neither. 

For this reason, you can think of two identical keywords as ‘eating themselves.’ 

Another scenario is that Google chooses to rank a less important page ahead of a product or service page. For instance, if one of your product pages ranks for ‘buy glasses now,’ but your homepage does too, your homepage may outrank it. 

As a result, you’ll miss out on valuable opportunities to convert users with your product and service pages – since they’ll get directed to your homepage instead (or, more likely, will choose another result on Google that better meets their needs). 

Not only that, but keyword cannibalization will eventually drag down the rankings for both pages in the long term.

Here’s an example of what that looks like:

This is a screenshot from Ahrefs (an SEO tracking tool). Each colored graph represents a different page on the site.

You can see in this example that one page will start to rank, and then Google will drop it and try to rank another one.

This cycle continues, and none of the pages rank to their full potential because Google can’t figure out which page belongs on the SERPs (search engine results pages). 

3. Usability: Get The User To The Right Page From The Beginning

Picture this scenario. 

You have a homepage that you’ve attempted to rank for all your most important keywords. This means that every user who visits your website through a search engine will get directed to your homepage. 

Well, this isn’t good news for your user experience, and it’s highly likely that any clicks you do generate will click away from your site after a few seconds. 

Why is that?

It’s because users want to land on web pages that deal with what they searched for, not a mammoth homepage that lists everything. 

Let’s say a user searches for ‘affordable rakes’ online, which is one of the products you sell. However, instead of ranking a product page or blog post for the keyword, you’ve got your homepage ranking for it. 

Imagine the users’ confusion and frustration when they click on your result on Google only to get directed to your homepage. Rather than try to parse through all your inner pages to find what they’re looking for, they choose to click back to the search results and choose another site instead. 

This is why it’s imperative to only rank your homepage for broad keywords specifically related to your brand and industry. 

Keywords related to specific products and topics should go to your landing pages and content, NOT your homepage. 

Research shows that 60% of consumers will abandon purchases due to poor website user experience, so it’s crucial to provide a seamless experience going from search engines to your web pages.   

4. Conversions On The Homepage

It’s time to rethink your SEO goals for your homepage. 

Rather than trying to get your homepage ranking for tons of keywords, you should focus on making it a conversion-generating machine. 

In other words, your homepage should encourage users to sign up for your service or try out your products above all else. 

After all, as your brand grows and search rankings rise for other pages (like your content and landing pages), more users will naturally flock to your homepage. 

Knowing this, it’s a lot more powerful to optimize your homepage for conversions instead of keyword rankings. 

It will also grant you the freedom to do whatever you want with your homepage instead of filling it with thousands of words and keyword spam in an attempt to rank. 

Our homepage is a great example of this philosophy in action:

As you can see, we went with a sleek, super simple design. We let users know that we will simplify the ranking process for them, and we included two CTA (call-to-action) buttons to encourage them to book a call or create an account. 

Because of this, our homepage lands valuable conversions for us all the time. Yet, all those sign-ups and call bookings wouldn’t happen if our homepage was attempting to rank for every keyword relevant to our business.  

So, with all that said, how can you fix your website if you’ve tried to rank your website for umpteen keywords?

What To Do Instead

The fix is pretty simple – just build out separate pages for each specific topic (product, service, content, category, location) that you want to rank for.

For instance, you would build out a page for each product:

Products

/blue-widgets/

/red-widgets/

/green-widgets/

Service

/widget-insurance/

/widget-repair/

Locations

/widgets-los-angeles/

/widgets-chicago/

..and rank each of these pages for what they are actually about.

Essentially, you need a page on your site for every keyword topic you have in mind. If you don’t already have a page for a certain topic – you need to build it!

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to build out a page for every single variation of a keyword you have since Google often will rank one page for variations of similar keywords.

If you need help building out new service pages, check out our copywriting product, HOTH Web Copy. It’s where we craft original web pages that attract your target customer, explain the features, and encourage prospects to become paying customers.

SEO Strategies To Optimize Your Homepage Properly 

All this isn’t to say that you shouldn’t optimize your homepage for ANY keywords, just not every keyword under the sun. 

There are some keywords that you definitely should optimize your homepage for, such as broad industry terms and branded keywords. 

The idea is to optimize your homepage for these keywords without stepping on the toes of your other web pages via keyword cannibalization. 

Yet, if you followed the previous step above, your website should now feature specific web pages for individual topics, products, and locations. 

Doing so will make avoiding cannibalization a breeze since you’ll have different sets of keywords for each web page. This will keep all your SEO ducks in a row, so to speak, and it’ll prevent you from trying to rank two pages for the same keyword. 

Without further ado, here’s how to properly optimize your homepage for search engines. 

Conduct an audit on your homepage

Your first step should be to perform an SEO audit on your homepage. 

What’s that?

An SEO audit is an in-depth analysis of your homepage’s current performance on search engines. It will uncover your primary strengths and weaknesses, which will provide valuable insights for putting together a long-term SEO strategy. 

In a nutshell, an SEO audit is a health check-up for your website. It’s how you diagnose any potential issues that need repairing, such as indexing errors. 

Here are the steps you should take when auditing your homepage:

1. Check the homepage’s current keyword position rankings using Google Search Console (GSC). If you’re new to GSC, check out our guide on how to set it up. Take note of any keywords your homepage is ranking for that you weren’t aware of (especially if they’re relevant). 
2. Analyze the content on your homepage. Are you using your target keyword too many times? As a rule of thumb, your keyword should go in the title tag, H1 header, and the first 100 words of the content. Remove any excessive keyword usage to avoid getting flagged as spam. 
3. Does your homepage load quickly? You can use Google’s PageSpeed Insights to learn if you have any issues with loading speed, visual stability, or interactivity. 
4. Navigate to GSC’s Page Indexing Report to see if your homepage has any crawling/indexing errors. If there are any, follow the steps to resolve them immediately. 
5. Is your homepage designed well, or are there lots of clashing colors and visual themes? When in doubt, a simpler design is always better. Research has found that a website’s first impression is 95% influenced by design. 75% of users trust visually appealing websites over unappealing designs, which is something to bear in mind. 

Optimize your homepage content for SEO

Your homepage is your digital storefront. 

It’s the first impression many visitors will have of your brand. 

Therefore, the primary goal of your homepage content is to clearly communicate what you do to both users and search engines.

Let’s start at the top with your homepage title tag.

Your homepage title is the first element that search engines encounter. Keep it concise (60 characters or less) and descriptive. 

Include keywords that accurately represent your website and incorporate your brand name. Ideally, place your target keywords at the beginning of the title.

It could look something like this:

Why optimize your homepage title?

Optimizing your homepage title helps establish your brand name in search results. While your homepage may not directly rank for specific search terms, a strong title reinforces your brand identity and makes it easier for users to find you.

Content length and quality

Google views web pages that have less than approximately 700 words as ‘thin content,’ and it doesn’t provide them any favors in the search rankings. 

For this reason, SEOs have adopted the practice of including at least 700 – 1,000 words on every web page, including the homepage. 

Not only does this help you avoid the thin content label, but it also provides search engines with more context about your business and expertise. Provide valuable information that addresses your target audience’s needs, desires, and pain points. 

Here are some tips to keep in mind when drafting the copy for your homepage:

• Avoid keyword stuffing: Stick with natural language and readable formatting (short paragraphs and subheadings) over cramming keywords.
• Focus on user intent: Understand what your target audience is searching for and tailor your content to match it. This ensures that your content always scratches the right itch for your users. 
• Highlight your value proposition: Without being too wordy, convey what makes your brand unique and how you will benefit potential customers.

Optimize your headers

Headers and subheadings are crucial for online content, and your homepage is no exception. 

Headings are so powerful because they organize your content and make it scannable for readers. 79% of users will scan a page before deciding to read the entire thing, and subheadings are what make scanning possible. 

The last thing you want is for your blogs to feature massive walls of unbroken text. 

As a bonus, Google’s crawler bots also love subheadings, as it makes it easier for them to understand your content, too. 

Here are some tips to maximize the SEO potential of your headers:

Incorporate relevant keywords: Weave target keywords into your headers. This helps search engines understand the topic of each section.

Maintain a clear hierarchy: Use a single H1 tag for your main page title, followed by H2 tags for major sections, and H3 tags for subsections. This creates a logical structure that’s easy to follow.

Here’s a breakdown of header usage:

• • H1: Use only one H1 tag per page, typically reserved for your main page title. It should accurately reflect your brand and the page’s content.
  • H2: Employ H2 tags to introduce major sections within your content. Each H2 should represent a distinct topic or idea.
  • H3: Use H3 tags to break down H2 sections into smaller, more specific subtopics. This adds further clarity and depth to your content.

• H4: If you need to further elaborate on an H3 heading, use H4 tags, and so on (it goes to H6). 

Optimizing your headers enhances readability, improves user experience, and provides valuable signals to search engines about your content’s structure and relevance.

Optimize your meta description

Think of your meta description as an elevator pitch for your homepage. 

It’s a snippet of text that appears below your page title in search results that entices users to click through to your website.

Here are the key elements of a good meta description:

Concise: Keep it within 155-160 characters to ensure it’s fully displayed in search results.

Accurate: Clearly and accurately describe the page’s content.

Include a call to action: Encourage users to click by using action-oriented language (e.g., “Learn more,” “Discover,” “Find out how”).

Unique for each page: Don’t use the same meta description for more than one page.

Matches the content: Ensure the description accurately reflects the content on the page.

Here’s an example of a meta description for our fictional widget business:

“Widget World: Your one-stop shop for blue, red, & green widgets. We also offer repair, management, & insurance. Shop now!”

Optimize Image SEO

Humans are visual beings. While blank space on your homepage can make content easier to skim, incorporating visual content keeps viewers engaged and reinforces your branding.

Research shows that posts with images receive 94% more views than those with none. 

On top of that, images can be used as an alert for search engine crawlers to take note of your content. 

Choose the right file type 

File type impacts how quickly images load on your webpage.  Here’s a look at the most common file types:

• JPEG: Ideal for large photos and illustrations. Offers a good balance between file size and image quality.
• PNG: Best for logos, icons, and images with transparent backgrounds. Excellent for maintaining crisp details.
• SVG: Perfect for logos and scalable graphics. Retains quality at any size without increasing file size.
• GIF: Primarily used for simple animations and short video clips.

Image size also affects SEO

Image size is crucial for page speed. Large images can slow down your website, which is bad news for your user experience. 

Modern internet users have grown accustomed to instant gratification from just about everything, so they won’t stick around to wait for your web page to load. 

The solution?

Use image compression tools (like Adobe Photoshop, TinyPNG, or ImageOptim) to reduce file sizes without compromising quality.

Include your keyword in the file name 

Your image file name provides context to search engines about the image’s content. 

Use your focus keyword at the beginning of the file name, separating words with hyphens (e.g., “luxury-leather-handbag.jpg”). 

Avoid underscores, as search engines may not recognize them as word separators.

Optimize image alt tags

Image alt text (short for “alternative text”) is a brief written description embedded within the HTML code of an image on a webpage. It serves two primary functions:

1. Accessibility: It provides descriptions for visually impaired users using screen readers.
2. SEO: It helps search engines understand the image content and its relevance to your page.

Write concise, descriptive alt text while including relevant keywords. Imagine you’re describing the image to someone who can’t see it.

Example:

Instead of: alt=”image1″

 Use: alt=”Woman wearing a red dress standing in front of the Eiffel Tower.”

Add videos to your homepage 

Video is another content format that’s extremely effective at boosting traffic. 

The proof?

86% of marketers claim video content has driven more traffic to their websites. 

The great thing about video is that you don’t need Hollywood-tier production values to make it work. Instead, shooting some simple videos with a tasteful background on an iPhone will more than suffice. 

Popular video ideas for homepages include:

• Product and service demos 
• An introduction to your business 
• A fun illustration breaking down your value proposition 

It’s up to you what you choose to include on your homepage; just make sure that the file size isn’t too large. 

Add testimonials

Including testimonials on your homepage is a fantastic way to convey your expertise and competence. 

Social proof is an absolute must for any business in today’s age. 

According to research, a whopping 92% of buyers won’t trust a brand if they can’t find any reviews for it. 

Here are a few more reasons why testimonials are so powerful:

• Testimonials build trust: 92% of consumers read online reviews before purchasing. Testimonials demonstrate your product or service’s value from a customer’s perspective.
• Boost credibility: Genuine testimonials will validate your claims and build confidence in your brand.
• Increase relevance: Testimonials show potential customers that others like them have benefited from your offerings (and that they can, too). 
• Answer questions: Reviews often address common concerns and hesitations, which may serve as the impetus to visit your business.

Effective ways to incorporate testimonials:

Customer reviews: Display positive feedback from review sites as text snippets or embedded widgets. We actually do this on our website by embedding Google reviews:

Client logos: Showcase logos of reputable companies you’ve worked with.

Case studies: Briefly summarize successful projects or client stories.

Social media mentions: Embed positive social media posts about your brand.

Here’s an example of a testimonial on the HOTH home page: 

Source

We used a customer photo alongside a short, impactful quote. 

This enhances visual appeal and allows for strategic keyword placement for SEO.

Prioritize mobile optimization

With 70% of web traffic coming from mobile devices, optimizing your homepage for mobile is crucial for both user experience and SEO. 

The reason for this is that Google uses a mobile-first index, meaning it primarily uses the mobile version of your site for ranking and indexing. If your site isn’t optimized for mobile, it will likely rank lower in search results.

Here is what you need to consider when optimizing your site for mobile:

• Responsive design: Ensure your website adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes and devices.
• Content parity: Keep your content consistent between your desktop and mobile sites to avoid confusing search engines.
• Page speed: Optimize images and code to ensure fast loading times, as mobile users are less patient with slow-loading sites. Users are likely to abandon pages that take longer than three seconds to load. To learn more about optimizing homepage for page speed, check out our Free Page Speed Checker.

Get a feel for mobile-first design by exploring websites you’re familiar with. 

Start by analyzing their homepage layouts or other pages they’ve optimized. Take notes on how the content is presented and where key information is placed.

For example, check out one of our blog posts: How To Optimize For Featured Snippets And Rank In Position Zero. 

You’ll see that we have put the key takeaways and visuals further down the page, which caters to the scrolling behavior of mobile users.

Craft Compelling Calls to Action (CTAs)

You can have the highest quality homepage in the world, but if users don’t sign up for your service or leave their contact information, what’s the point?

This is why every web page needs a call to action (CTA). 

A CTA lets your visitors know in very clear language what it is you want them to do next, and they’re quite powerful tools. In fact, research has shown that including a CTA on your home page increases conversions by 121%.

Effective CTAs are clear, action-oriented, and tailored to your specific goals.

When creating CTAs, consider these key aspects:

• Clarity: Use simple, direct language that clearly states the desired action (e.g., “Get Started,” “Learn More,” “Sign Up”).
• Relevance: Align your CTAs with your company’s offerings and the page’s content.
• Urgency: Encourage immediate action by creating a sense of urgency or exclusivity (e.g., “Limited Time Offer,” “Book Now,” “Join the Waitlist”).
• Design: Make your CTAs visually stand out using contrasting colors, larger font sizes, or visually appealing buttons.
• Placement: Strategically position your CTAs in prominent locations where visitors are likely to see them.

Also, here are a few examples of effective CTAs for different goals:

Lead generation: “Get a Free Consultation,” “Download Your Guide,” “Request a Demo”

Product/Service promotion: “Shop Now,” “View Pricing,” “Start Your Free Trial”

Content engagement: “Read More,” “Watch the Video,” “Explore Our Blog”

Remember, the goal of a CTA is to guide users toward taking the next step in their journey with your brand. By crafting compelling CTAs, you can significantly increase conversions and drive meaningful engagement on your homepage. 

Pass Link Equity From Your Homepage 

Your homepage often holds the most authority on your website. 

As such, you can maximize its potential by strategically linking to other important pages. 

This will distribute its “link juice” (a fancy term for ranking power) and guide visitors deeper into your site.

Internal linking is an essential part of SEO and shouldn’t be dismissed when doing homepage SEO. Here’s why: 

• Improved user experience: Clear navigation paths make it easier for users to find what they’re looking for, leading to increased engagement.
• Distributed link equity: Internal links spread the authority of your home page and can drive more traffic to your service pages, product pages, or other valuable content. This can boost their rankings due to the link equity passed on by the homepage.
• Enhanced SEO: Search engines use internal links to understand your site’s structure and page relationships.

Here are some tips for passing link equity: 

Prioritize: Link to core service pages, top-performing blog posts, or other high-priority content.

Footer navigation: Utilize the footer as a secondary menu, including links to essential pages like “About Us” and “Contact.”

Contextual links: Incorporate relevant internal links within your homepage content to provide additional context and encourage exploration.

Calls to Action (CTAs): Use action-oriented CTAs within content or banners to direct users to specific pages.

Visual cues: Make internal links more engaging with buttons, images, or icons.

Build High-Quality Backlinks

Lastly, backlinks are a HUGE ranking factor for search engines, especially Google. 

What’s a backlink?

It’s an external link on another site that ‘links back’ to your content, which is where the name comes from. 

Search engines view backlinks as credibility votes toward the quality, accuracy, and trustworthiness of your content. 

As a quick example, if a trusted website like The New York Times links to your content, it’s a signal that your content is also trustworthy. 

Why is that?

The NYT is a major news publication that has rigorous publishing standards and quality checks, so they wouldn’t link out to just any old website. If The NYT does link to your content, it must be accurate and high-quality. 

That’s why Google uses backlinks as a crucial ranking factor. 

In particular, you need to build backlinks from relevant, authoritative websites in your field. 

To learn more about backlinks, check out our learning hub article on why link-building is so important for SEO. 

Summing Things Up 

To wrap things up, there are lots of reasons why you shouldn’t rank your homepage for every keyword you want to target. 

It leads to tricky issues like keyword cannibalization and frustrates users, which is why you should spread the keyword love to other pages on your website. 

That doesn’t mean that you can’t rank your homepage for important industry terms and branded keywords, just that you shouldn’t overstep your bounds. 

Do you need help creating new web pages for important keywords you’ve targeted?

Then you’re going to love HOTH Web Copy, our copywriting service featuring top-tier professionals, so don’t wait to check it out!

Also, feel free to schedule a call with one of our consultants to learn more about our SEO services and how to use them to reach #1 on Google.   

The post Why You Shouldn’t Rank Your Homepage (And What To Do Instead) appeared first on The HOTH.

Do they come from respected blogs, media outlets, and news sites in your field?

Or are they a mishmash of links coming from unknown web directories, sitewide links (i.e., header and footer links), and random websites?

If the answer is the latter, your backlink profile is having a health crisis, so to speak. 

That’s because the quality of your backlinks matters to search engines like Google, not just the quantity (more on the quality vs. quantity debate later). 

Some link-builders falsely assume that the number of backlinks they have matters most, which is why they don’t vet the quality of the links they acquire. 

Unfortunately, this is a mistake. Backlinks coming from low-grade websites won’t improve your ranking power, and they may actually harm it if the websites are deemed to be spam (i.e., fake websites that don’t have real content). 

In that scenario, you could land a manual penalty from Google, which will remove your content from the search results entirely. 

This means if your backlink profile is a random mess, your content won’t rank well, and you’re at high risk of getting nailed with penalties. 

Stay tuned to learn how to build high-quality backlinks that will help your SEO instead of hindering it. 

Understanding Backlinks and Their Importance for SEO 

A backlink is a link on another website that ‘points back’ to yours (which is where the name comes from). 

On search engines (especially Google), backlinks serve as ‘credibility votes’ for the quality and accuracy of your content. 

The idea is that if respected websites link to your web pages, it’s a sign that you produce high-quality content worthy of ranking high in the search results. 

For instance, if Stanford University decides to link to one of your blogs, your content must be extremely accurate, helpful, and insightful – which is why one of their backlinks carries so much weight. 

This is why backlink quality matters so much, as backlinks are essentially the equivalent of job references on a resume. 

If your website has links from major websites like educational institutions, news outlets, and respected websites in your field – your content will rank very high on Google’s results pages. 

On the flip side, if you’ve got a ton of backlinks from less-than-stellar websites that release poor content, it won’t help your SEO and may end up backfiring. 

Here’s a quick breakdown of the most common types of quality backlinks you should target:

• Editorial backlinks come from online publications such as Forbes or The New York Times. Editorial backlinks don’t have to come from major publications, either, as there are plenty of high-quality niche publications you can target. 

• Guest post backlinks occur when you write a guest post on another website, typically blogs in your field. Guest posts are mutually beneficial because you get to build a backlink while the site owner gets an original piece of content to post on their site. 

• Business profile backlinks are when you provide a link to your website on business directories like Yelp and The Yellow Pages. There are also plenty of niche directories that serve the same purpose. 

• Free-tool backlinks happen whenever another website links to a free tool housed on your site. For example, we have an entire suite of SEO tools on our website that scores of other sites link to all the time. Once again, this is a mutually beneficial process since we accrue backlinks while others get to analyze SEO metrics for free. 

What is a Backlink Profile?

Your backlink profile is a list of all the backlinks that point to your website. To search engines like Google, it’s essentially a snapshot of your website’s popularity and authority online. 

That means your backlink profile needs to be as ‘healthy’ and robust as possible to enjoy the best search rankings. 

Here’s what your backlink profile consists of:

• Backlink quantity. Your profile contains a complete list of every link pointing to your website, so it’s crucial to know how many links you have in total. 

• Backlink quality. This refers to the quality and relevance of the websites linking back to yours. Backlinks from high-quality websites carry much more clout than low-quality websites. Ahrefs’ Domain Rating is an accurate measure of a website’s backlink quality, but more on this in a bit. 

• Anchor text. The clickable text in a link is called anchor text, and the anchor text you use for your backlinks matters to Google. In particular, your anchor text should A) provide context to the linked page and B) not contain too many keywords. 

• Link diversity. This refers to the variety of referring domains you have providing backlinks to your website. A referring domain is the website providing the backlink. In general, it’s better to have a few backlinks from lots of referring domains than thousands of backlinks from the same domain. According to a study by Backlinko, the number of referring domains linking to a page correlated with higher rankings more than any other factor, which is why they’re so important. 

These are the components of a strong backlink profile, so you’ll want to pay equal attention to them all. 

Factors That Influence Your Backlink Profile

There are certain factors that determine the strength of your backlink profile. 

While quality is definitely one of them, there are several other important factors to consider, so let’s take a look at them all.  

Link quality

The quality of your links is the single most important factor for determining the strength of your backlink profile.  

Coming back to the quantity vs. quality debate, quality beats quantity 9 times out of 10 (the only time to target quantity is when a competitor has more backlinks than you, and even then you want to build average links at minimum). 

Why is that?

It’s because search engine algorithms have become sophisticated at identifying links coming from spammy websites. Whenever a link from a bogus site is detected, the algorithm will devalue its impact on your search rankings. 

This means that super low-quality backlinks are essentially meaningless and aren’t worth your time. 

If you build backlinks from spam websites that serve no purpose other than to manipulate search rankings, you could receive a manual penalty from Google, which is an SEO nightmare. 

When determining the quality of a link, the two most important factors are its relevance and authority. 

Relevance 

A backlink won’t be considered quality if it’s not relevant to your content in some way. This is because Google doesn’t want irrelevant links all over the web since they confuse users and provide a poor user experience. 

For example, imagine that you’re browsing a website that sells guitar gear. When reading a blog, you notice a hyperlink and decide to click on it. Instead of taking you somewhere related to guitar gear, you wind up on a travel website asking if you’re ready to book a trip to Paris – causing confusion and/or frustration. 

This is an example of an irrelevant link and why Google doesn’t want them populating the web. 

Backlink relevance can either be topical or contextual. Here’s a quick breakdown of the two:

1. Topical relevance means the website linking to you covers similar topics and themes. An example would be a guitar gear site linking to a forum for guitarists. 
2. Contextual relevance means the website isn’t normally relevant to yours, but the backlink is relevant in context. An example would be a guitar gear site linking to a news outlet. Normally, this wouldn’t make sense, but the news page in question is about guitar amps – which makes the link contextually relevant. 

Authority 

Next, a high-quality backlink has to carry a certain level of authority, which refers to the ranking strength of its domain. 

There are two metrics most widely used to measure a domain’s authority, which are Moz’s Domain Authority (commonly abbreviated as DA) and Ahrefs’ Domain Rating. 

They’re both third-party metrics because Google’s official domain authority metric is kept secret from the public. For years, Google claimed that they didn’t measure domain authority, but thanks to the recent leaks, we now know this isn’t true (their metric is called siteAuthority). 

To only measure the strength of a domain’s backlink profile, use Domain Rating. 

If you want to measure the overall SEO performance/ranking power of a domain, use Domain Authority. 

Both scores are calculated on a scale of 0 – 100, with 100 being the highest score. 

Authority score breakdown 

Here’s a guide for analyzing domain authority scores:

• 60 to 100: Sky-high authority. These websites are industry leaders like Amazon, major brands like Microsoft, and top news outlets like CNN. Earning backlinks from these types of websites will skyrocket your own DA. 

These super authoritative sites are also known as ‘seed’ sites because they’re the domains Google trusts the most. In fact, the authoritativeness of most backlinks is judged by their distance to seed sites. For instance, if you get a backlink from a domain that’s 2 links away from CNN, it’ll carry more clout than a backlink that’s 10 links away. 

• 40 to 59: Average authority. These sites are reputable and have a decent amount of backlinks. While not as impactful as higher DA sites, these kinds of backlinks are still highly beneficial. They mostly consist of niche websites and brands. 
• 20 to 39: Low authority. These sites are newer or less established, with fewer backlinks. Links from them have a limited impact on your DA.
• 0 to 19: Low to moderate authority. While these sites may not be industry leaders, they can still hold value. Assess the site’s content quality, relevance, and audience engagement before deciding whether to write off a backlink opportunity or not. For instance, a website in this range might be an innovative new company that’s about to take off, thus making them valuable link partners in the future.

Anchor text diversity 

Anchor text is the visible, clickable text in a hyperlink. It acts as a label for the linked page, and it should provide users with context for the web page they’re about to visit. 

While it may seem unimportant, anchor text actually provides crucial signals to search engines about the relevance of the linked page. 

In the past, SEOs would almost exclusively use target keywords as anchor text in an attempt to further boost their rankings. Google quickly caught onto this and now considers anchor text containing keywords as spam (they’re known as exact-match anchors). 

For this reason, SEOs now use partial-match anchors more often, which are a mix of keywords and other phrases. 

There are also:

• Generic anchors (like click here or read more) 
• Naked URLs (no anchor text at all) 
• Branded anchors (using your brand name) 
• Natural anchors (using regular words in the post as anchor text) 

Ideally, you should use a healthy mix of all these anchors to achieve a balanced anchor text ratio. 

Other factors influencing your backlink profile 

Besides authority, anchor text, and relevance, these factors also influence the strength of your backlink profile:

• Link placement: Where the link appears on the referring page also matters. Links within the main content of a page are usually more valuable than those in sidebars or footers.
• Dofollow vs. Nofollow links: Dofollow and nofollow are HTML tags that signal to search engines whether to count a backlink toward a site’s rankings or to ignore it. Dofollow links are the most powerful, but a natural mix of both is ideal.
• Link velocity:  The rate at which you acquire new backlinks is important. A sudden spike in backlinks can raise red flags for search engines. Acquiring a ton of backlinks at once is a sign that you either A) bought backlinks or B) are engaging in another type of manipulative tactic, like using a private blog network. Steady, organic backlink growth is the way to go. (If you do buy links, parse them out over time to make them appear natural).
• Social signals: While not direct backlinks, shares and mentions on social media can indirectly influence your link profile by increasing visibility and potentially attracting backlinks. It also shows Google that you actively promote your website, which is good for your SEO.

What Makes a Bad Backlink Profile?

Since you’re familiar with what a good backlink profile looks like, it’s time to learn what to avoid. 

A bad backlink profile won’t do your search rankings any favors and may cause your content to get removed from the SERPs (search engine results pages) entirely. Here’s a look at the top factors to avoid when building your backlink profile. 

Links acquired through “black hat” tactics

Black-hat SEO refers to engaging in tactics that actively violate search engine guidelines. These are techniques that aim to manipulate search rankings instead of genuinely providing value to audiences. 

Here’s a peek at some of the most common black-hat link-building tactics:

• Buying bulk packages of spammy links 
• Using private blog networks (an interconnected series of junk websites that exist solely to link out to other websites) 
• Using link farms (an interconnected series of junk websites that only link to one another) 

Google has become quite adept at identifying black-hat tactics, so it’s best to avoid them whenever possible. 

Linking from irrelevant sites

As stated previously, irrelevant links provide a poor user experience. This is why irrelevant links won’t help your SEO, so it’s not worth pursuing them. 

Stick to targeting backlinks from websites that hold either topical or contextual relevance to yours. 

Spammy or low-quality links

It’s crucial to remember that backlinks serve as credibility votes (or job references) for your content, and not every vote is counted equally. 

If this were a job interview, you’d want to have references from respected, professional contacts. In the SEO world, low-quality backlinks from spammy websites are the equivalent of using a job reference from an unemployed class clown. 

That’s why it’s not worth trying to build a large quantity of low-quality backlinks. 

Toxic backlinks

When does a backlink stop being low-quality and start becoming toxic?

This is a fiercely debated question among digital marketers and SEOs. 

The answer is that a backlink becomes toxic after the domain receives manual penalties from search engines for violating guidelines. Since they’ve already accrued penalties, getting links from them can damage your link profile, too. 

It’s important to disavow any toxic backlinks that cause you to receive penalties, but the process is complicated and easy to mess up. 

Your best route is to avoid toxic backlinks entirely to save yourself the hassle of putting together a disavow file. 

How to Analyze Your Backlink Profile 

Now that you know what a strong backlink profile looks like, how can you see if your profile stacks up?

Here are a few methods for analyzing/auditing your own backlink profile. 

Step 1: Use backlink analysis tools 

While it’s difficult to obtain a fully comprehensive look at your backlink profile, several tools can help you identify and collect a significant portion of data on your backlinks. Popular options include:

• Semrush
• Ahrefs
• Moz’s Link Explorer
• Google Search Console (offers limited data but a good starting point)
• The HOTH Free Backlink Checker Tool 

Step 2: Enter your domain

The good news is that using these tools is remarkably easy. All you have to do is enter your domain into the search bar, and you’ll be off to the races. 

Here’s an example using our free backlink checker tool. 

For this example, we entered our own domain. Here’s what comes up:

As you can see, we get a breakdown of our backlinks that includes:

1. Our total number of backlinks and referring domains 
2. Referring IPs 
3. Whether each link is nofollow or dofollow
4. Each backlink’s authority score 

Step 3: Assess the results 

Once you’ve chosen your preferred backlink analysis tool, dive into your link profile with these steps:

Mention the key metrics someone needs to look at when analyzing their backlink profile:

• Check the total number of backlinks and referring domains. This will give you a high-level view of your website’s popularity.
• Consult a website’s DA and DR scores. The higher this number is, the more valuable the link is. 
• Analyze your anchor text distribution. A natural profile will have a mix of branded, generic (e.g., “click here”), and keyword-rich anchor text.
• Root out toxic backlinks. Look for links from suspicious sources, irrelevant directories, or sites known for selling links. 
• Compare your backlink profile with competitors. Which reputable domains are linking to your competitors but not to you? These are potential outreach targets. You can also analyze the types of content or link-building tactics your competitors are finding success with. If you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em!

How to Improve Your Backlink Profile: Proven Strategies 

If you want to build a healthy backlink profile, you need to know the most effective strategies for building high-quality backlinks. 

There’s no shortage of techniques out there, but they’re not all equally effective. 

Here’s a look at the link-building strategies we’ve found the most success with after 14+ years of working with clients. 

Create and share high-quality content

The best way to build backlinks is to create outstanding content that naturally attracts shares. This tactic is so effective because you’ll build backlinks without having to do any outreach, which is time-consuming and complicated. 

The content types that generate the most natural backlinks include:

• Long-form blog posts. Comprehensive tutorials, how-tos, guides, and thought leadership pieces will attract links from other influencers in your field. 

• Original research and data. Bloggers are constantly on the hunt for new research and studies to cite, so conducting surveys and studies is a surefire way to generate lots of backlinks. 

• Visual content. Infographics and videos generate 650% more engagement than static content that contains only text. 

Take part in guest blogging

Guest blogging entails writing articles for other websites in your industry. While guest posting involves quite a bit of outreach, it enables you to:

• Reach new audiences: Other websites in your field are likely to have audiences different from yours, exposing your content to new groups of prospects.
• Build relationships: Guest posting allows you to connect with other industry leaders and influencers who may be interested in linking to your content in the future.
• Earn backlinks: Most guest blogging opportunities allow you to include a link back to your website in your author bio or within the article itself. 

Use the Skyscraper Technique

Backlinko’s Brian Dean coined this technique many years ago, but it’s still just as effective as it was during its inception. 

It involves finding relevant content in your niche that’s already accrued high-quality backlinks. Next, you create something 10x better by providing updated information, adding new insights, or creating something more visually appealing/concise. 

After that, it’s outreach time. Reach out to the websites that linked to the original post and show off your much better, updated version. 

Politely ask if they’d consider linking to your piece instead. If it truly is 10x better, the site owner will likely choose to link to your content over the original. 

Embrace digital PR 

Public relations professionals have been playing the link-building game for decades now. Before the internet, PR firms sought to build brand awareness by getting their clients featured in print publications, which is similar to conducting outreach to build links. 

Digital PR involves connecting with journalists, bloggers, and influencers in your industry to build powerful backlinks through guest posting and distributing press releases. 

Connecting with a PR firm can work wonders for your online visibility, as they’ll create campaigns to generate buzz and media attention for your brand – which will lead to lots of valuable backlink opportunities. 

HARO (now a part of Connectively) is another backlink goldmine. It stands for Help-a-Reporter-Out, and it’s a platform that connects journalists with subject matter experts to feature in their stories. Signing up will gain access to HARO’s daily emails (there are 3 a day) that contain queries from journalists. 

Responding to these queries can get you featured in a story, and you can request that the journalist add a backlink to one of your web pages. The competition is intense on HARO, so try to respond to queries as soon as you receive the daily emails. 

Start Building High-Quality Backlinks Today 

To recap, backlinks are an extremely important ranking factor for search engines like Google. They serve as credibility votes for the quality of your content, which is why you need backlinks coming from trusted websites. 

You should use tools to audit your current backlink profile to ensure its health. Once that’s done, you can move on to generating high-quality backlinks through guest posting, creating outstanding content, the skyscraper method, and digital PR. 

Do you not have time to build a robust backlink profile?

Don’t wait to check out our Link Outreach services. Our experts will build high-quality backlinks for you so that you can focus on more important things. 

Also, HOTH X, our managed SEO service, is your ticket to simple SEO success, so don’t wait to sign up today!    

The post Backlink Quality: How to Bolster Your Backlink Profile in 2024 appeared first on The HOTH.

Then, why not monetize that knowledge by promoting SEO products and services online? 

The best SEO affiliate programs out there will pay you generous commissions for every sale and sign-up you’re able to generate, which can translate into a highly profitable side hustle. 

As far as affiliate programs go, search engine optimization is one of the best products to promote due to how in-demand it is across all industries. 

For instance, when polled, 69% of companies say they actively invest time and money into SEO, and that number continues to grow every year (it’s already grown from 27% in 2021).

That means SEO products are easy to sell to many companies since virtually every business needs a strong online presence. 

Even if you aren’t a search engine expert, the best SEO affiliate programs will provide you with high-quality promotional materials that outline the nitty-gritty details. All you have to do is share your affiliate link with your following online, and you can start earning commissions promoting SEO. 

Yet, there are hundreds of SEO affiliate programs out there, which is why we’ve put together this list containing the cream of the crop – so stay tuned. 

What’s an SEO Affiliate Program?

An affiliate program is when a business uses third-party affiliates (which can usually be anyone willing to sign up, but some programs have requirements) to promote its products and services. 

All types of businesses make use of affiliate programs due to how effective they are at generating sales and building brand awareness. 

For example, the largest and most popular affiliate program is Amazon Associates, where ‘associates’ can promote Amazon products through their official links. It’s also one of the earliest programs, as it began way back in 1996. 

An SEO affiliate program is where affiliates (typically marketers and content creators) promote a company’s SEO products and services through various channels online. 

An affiliate could plug SEO services through:

• Videos
• Social media posts
• Blogs 
• Email 
• Website content (infographics, landing pages, etc.) 

Affiliates receive special links that they use to claim credit for their sales/sign-ups. 

Whenever a user clicks on their link and makes a purchase (or completes another desired action), the affiliate receives credit and usually earns a commission, although compensation methods vary. 

While most affiliates are compensated via a commission percentage (i.e., 10% of the total sale), some programs use fixed bonuses (i.e., $200 for every sale), while others pay their affiliates in free products, services, and discounts. 

The cookie window also matters for affiliate programs, as they determine how long you’ll have to claim credit for a sale made through your link. 

For instance, if you’re working with an affiliate program that has a 30-day cookie window, and a prospect clicked on your link but waited 31 days to seal the deal – you won’t receive credit for the sale. 

That’s why it’s in your best interest to look for SEO affiliate programs that have high commission percentages and lengthy cookie windows. 

The Best SEO Affiliate Programs for 2024 

Not all SEO affiliate programs are created equal. 

For every program that has high earning potential, there are a dozen others that are a waste of your time. 

We’ve taken the time to separate the wheat from the chaff so that you don’t have to, so here’s a look at the top SEO affiliate programs. 

Authority Builders 

One of the most trusted names in link-building, Authority Builders provides a combination of outreach, digital PR, and content creation services for its clients. 

They’ve helped thousands of clients clean up their link profiles and reach the top of their industry’s SERPs since 2016, and they’re continuing to gain momentum with their official affiliate program. 

Influencers, content creators, and knowledgeable SEOs are free to promote Authority Builder’s service offerings to individuals, site owners, and other marketing agencies. In fact, they have a special type of affiliate link intended for agency applications. 

Why would digital marketing agencies need Authority Builders products?

To expand their current service offerings to their clients without hiring anyone in-house!

Authority Builders offer white-label link-building services, meaning other agencies can resell their products under their own brand – all while their clients are none the wiser. 

Commission rate

You’ll receive a 10% commission for ALL purchases made by new clients during their first 90 days after signing up. 

Cookie duration 

Authority Builders features an impressive 90-day cookie window, granting your new sign-ups plenty of time to make purchases after they sign up. 

Mangools 

The team at Mangools is known for the suite of SEO tools that they offer, including KWFinder, the flagship tool that launched the business back in 2014. 

They offer an SEO affiliate program that’s available to anyone willing to promote their products. It’s free to sign-up, and there’s even a free trial so prospects can get used to the way Mangools’ tools work. 

SEOs from around the web flock to Mangools to take advantage of their tools for keyword research, rank tracking, and analyzing crucial search metrics. 

One of the biggest perks of Mangools’ SEO affiliate program is how easy it is to get started. 

There’s no approval process, so you’ll be good to go once you sign up for a free Mangools account. You’ll have immediate access to the affiliate section, and you’ll have access to branded promotional materials to aid your promotional efforts. 

Commission rate

Mangools offers a 35% commission for sales generated through your affiliate link. 

However, there’s a $150 minimum you must meet before you can cash out through PayPal. 

Cookie duration 

Mangools cookie window is a bit short, as you’ll only have 30 days to receive credit for sales made through your link. 

Hunter.io 

If you’ve ever conducted a cold outreach email campaign, you’re likely already familiar with Hunter.io. 

It’s a comprehensive email outreach platform that lets users identify potential clients, hunt down their email addresses, and launch cold outreach campaigns. 

Email marketing is still wildly popular (and effective), as evidenced by Hunter.io’s massive and ever-expanding user base. There are currently over 4 million active users on Hunter.io, and their affiliate program helps them continue to grow. 

Speaking of their affiliate program, it offers recurring revenue share for up to 12 months after a client signs up for Hunter.io. While the commission rate is a bit small, the revenue share helps make up for it. 

Unlike Mangools, there is an approval process involved, so you’ll have to make a case for how and why you intend to promote Hunter.io. 

Once accepted, you’ll receive an official affiliate link to include in your promotional content. 

Commission rate 

Hunter.io offers a 30% revenue share for up to 12 months for all new sign-ups. The only downside is there’s a 45-day delay between the time you land a sale and when you receive payment (made via PayPal). 

Why is that?

It’s to account for any possible refunds that take place after the initial sign-up, which is a bit cumbersome for affiliates eager to capitalize on the sales they generate. 

Cookie duration 

You’ll enjoy a slightly better cookie window than Mangools with Hunter.io, as you’ll have 45 days instead of 30. However,  the 45-day window is inevitable, as even if you land a sale, you’ll still have to wait 45 days to receive payment. 

The HOTH 

We’ve provided expert SEO services to over 200,000+ businesses since getting started in 2010, and we’ve been featured on major websites like PCMag and HubSpot. 

Our SEO products, services, and suite of free tools have over 4,500 5-star reviews, and we boast one of the largest link networks online. 

In other words, promoting our business through The HOTH affiliate program couldn’t be easier. 

All you have to do is introduce your network to our digital marketing services, and our top-tier offerings and promotional materials will handle the heavy lifting. 

We invite influencers, content creators, affiliate marketers, and other marketing agencies to promote our products across their various channels, and our program offers some serious benefits. 

Signing up is quick and easy, and you’ll have access to a whole host of branded HOTH promotional materials to help you market our services. 

Commission rate 

We offer higher commission rates than other programs, as you’ll earn a 50% commission for every sale made through your link. Once you reach the $10 minimum, you’re free to withdraw your earnings at any time. Also, there’s no cap on how much you can earn each month. 

Cookie duration 

It’s important to us that our affiliates receive credit for every sale that goes through their link, which is why we feature an unprecedented 120-day cookie window. This means even if a prospect waits over three months to make a purchase, you’ll still receive a 50% commission. 

Start Earning Extra Income with an SEO Affiliate Program 

The best SEO affiliate programs will provide a reliable way to earn extra money online, which is the type of side hustle everyone dreams about. 

After all, who doesn’t want to earn commissions while they sleep?

With our affiliate program, the hard part is done as soon as you introduce our SEO products and services to your network, so don’t wait to sign up now.    

The post The Best SEO Affiliate Program Options for 2024 appeared first on The HOTH.

To buy backlinks or not to buy backlinks, that is the question. 

Backlinks are crucial for building Google’s trust, generating referral traffic, and achieving higher search engine rankings – but they’re difficult and time-consuming to acquire. 

It can take months worth of outreach and networking to secure a single backlink, which is why many site owners choose to simply buy backlinks instead. 

Buying backlinks was the norm for years, but Google has never been a fan of the process. 

Why’s that?

It’s because Google views paying for backlinks as a ‘link scheme’ that violates its search guidelines.  

Backlinks are ‘credibility votes’ that vouch for the quality and accuracy of a website’s content, so if a site owner pays for a link instead of earning it based on the merit of their content – it can goof up Google’s ranking system. 

As a result, Google releases periodic spam updates to negate the effect paid backlinks have on search rankings. 

However, this hasn’t stopped site owners from buying backlinks, as the practice is still alive and well in 2024. 

While Google discourages the practice, the truth is you can still pay for backlinks in a way that appears natural and provides value to the website linking to your content. Read on to learn how.

Why Do Digital Marketers Still Buy Backlinks? Top 3 Reasons 

While it’s true that buying backlinks violates Google’s Search Essentials (formerly Webmaster Guidelines), so does nearly every other link-building technique. 

Even if you’re conducting outreach to write guest posts (which most marketers believe is a ‘white hat SEO tactic’, meaning it doesn’t violate Google’s guidelines), you’re still asking another site owner for a backlink, which qualifies as a link scheme. 

In other words, there’s next to no way to build links without ruffling Google’s feathers in one way or another. 

Despite the risk, there are plenty of reasons why digital marketers still choose to buy backlinks, so let’s dive into the top 3. 

#1: Buying links saves lots of time

Arguably the #1 reason SEO gurus choose to buy backlinks is to speed up the link-building process – which is infamous for being ridiculously slow. 

Google has a pie-in-the-sky attitude towards link-building, and it’s not always realistic. 

The idea is that with excellent content and on-page optimizations, you will generate backlinks based on the merit of your content alone. 

Don’t get us wrong, this is certainly possible, and websites accrue backlinks for this very reason all the time. 

The problem?

Generating links based on merit is too slow and unreliable.

SEO is fiercely competitive, and it often takes a large volume of links to bridge the gap between you and the competition. 

For example, if you’re trying to outrank another website that has 100 backlinks and you only have 10, you’ll need to build at least 90 links to even the playing field. 

The chances that 90 websites will link to your content based on its quality isn’t impossible, but it will likely take eons to do so. 

Even white-hat tactics that don’t violate Google’s guidelines take months to yield results. 

That’s why site owners choose to buy backlinks from a third-party service offering quality link placements from trusted websites. 

Buying backlinks is a quick and easy way to bolster your link profile, which is often a necessity for outranking competitors. 

#2: Increased keyword position rankings 

Including a target keyword in your content is no guarantee that you’ll rank for it on Google. While proper keyword placement is a necessity, it’s not something that moves the needle if you’re trying to outrank a stubborn competitor. 

Take it from us: we’ve helped countless clients finally get the best of competing websites that have been outranking them for years due to the backlinks we built. 

In fact, backlinks are almost always the deciding factor for higher keyword rankings in our experience. 

You can have the greatest content in the world with flawless on-page optimization, but if the links aren’t there, your competitors will get the best of you every time. 

Why is that?

It has to do with the way Google judges the quality, trustworthiness, and accuracy of a website. 

Google will only grant #1 rankings to websites that it trusts, and backlinks are how you build that trust. 

Using backlinks as credibility votes is what made Google special when it burst onto the scene back in the 90s, and it still follows that principle to this day. 

That’s where the concept of domain authority (DA) comes from, which represents how likely a domain is to rank on Google’s search results. The higher the score, the more ‘authoritative’ Google considers the website to be. 

As long as you acquire backlinks from credible websites (ones with high domain authority scores), they’ll always have a positive effect on your SEO. 

#3: Less effort, yet more conversions

With a stronger backlink profile, you’ll see a considerable influx of organic visitors, leads, and conversions from your landing pages, product pages, blogs, and other types of content. 

This leads to vast improvements to your domain authority, lead generation, and revenue generation. 

In short, links are valuable, and it takes a lot of hard work and time to build them organically. 

As with anything that’s valuable, like vegetables, it’s always easier to buy something than it is to cultivate it yourself. 

Therefore, buying links is the equivalent of buying an avocado at the grocery store instead of growing and harvesting it yourself. The end results are the same (you get valuable backlinks; you enjoy a tasty avocado), but you put in far less effort.   

What to Avoid When Buying Backlinks

All these perks aren’t to say there aren’t any downsides to buying backlinks. 

For instance, if Google determines that you’ve been paying for backlinks, they could devalue them all, which means you’ll have completely wasted your money. 

That’s why you need to err on the side of caution when buying backlinks. If you overstep your bounds – the house of links you built can come crashing down instantly. 

Should you get caught, your pages could appear lower in search results, drastically reducing visibility and organic traffic. In the worst-case scenario, your site will be removed from search results entirely until you disavow the offending links. 

Bearing that in mind, here are the top red flags to look out for when buying backlinks.

Unnatural link-building (PBNs)

If you want to get away with buying a backlink, it has to appear as if you earned it naturally.

We’ll cue you in on a little inside baseball: Google can’t distinguish a paid link from an earned one, which can work in your favor. 

They only tend to penalize websites participating in unnatural link-building, such as acquiring links from a Private Blog Network (PBN). 

These are networks of blogs that only exist to sell backlinks.

Since the only purpose of these blogs is to serve as link placements for other websites, they’re effectively dummy sites that offer nothing to users. 

In fact, some PBNs feature blogs that post the exact same content (even though Google can crack down on these quite easily). 

Whenever a website gets links from a PBN, they tend to get them in bulk – which raises a red flag to Google. 

For instance, if you suddenly receive 10,000 backlinks in one day from questionable sources, don’t be shocked when Google penalizes you. 

It’s much easier to fly under the radar if you only acquire a few backlinks a month, which looks much more natural.

Sitewide links 

Sitewide links appearing in your sidebar, footer, or navigation bar are easy for Google to identify as spam. 

So, if you’re buying backlinks, double-check that they aren’t sitewide links. 

You’ll be much better off with links that appear within your content, and thus only appear on one page at a time. 

Sitewide links may seem like a great way to get your backlink numbers up at first, but they do more harm than good. 

Backlink ‘packages’ from untrusted sources often contain dozens of sitewide links (sometimes that’s all they contain). 

Finding hundreds of backlinks for sale at low prices on freelancer marketplaces is possible, but is it a good idea? 

The answer is a definite no. 

Not only will buying links in bulk scream spam to Google, but these are often low-quality, spammy sitewide links that won’t boost your online visibility at all. 

If a backlink package seems too good to be true (like 100 backlinks for $5), it’s best to avoid it.

Unnatural anchor text ratios 

In addition to the quality of the website linking to your content, the anchor text you choose (or the site owner chooses) also impacts your SEO profile. 

What’s anchor text? 

It’s the text that contains a hyperlink. 

Copying and pasting a bare URL doesn’t always look nice, and anchor text provides a way to not only mask it – but also provide context for the page you’re linking to. 

For instance, instead of typing https://www.thehoth.com, we would use our brand name instead: The HOTH.

In that scenario, we used branded anchor text because the hyperlink text is our brand name. 

There are many different types of anchor text, and the type you use matters to Google.   

Particularly, you need a proper anchor text ratio for your links that uses a combination of the following anchors:

• Branded anchors
• Natural anchors (no keywords) 
• Exact match anchors (the anchor text is your target keyword) 
• Partial match anchors (keywords mixed in with other phrases) 

A mistake many SEOs make is to overdo it with exact match anchors, especially for their ‘money’ keywords. 

However, if every backlink uses exact match anchors, Google will quickly take notice and penalize you. 

That’s why anchor text ratios are necessary, where you mix exact match anchors with natural, branded, and partial match anchors. This will make your link profile appear more natural, which is what you want. 

The Risks of Buying Backlinks 

Buying backlinks might seem like a quick SEO boost, but it can be a risky move with real consequences:

Google’s Wrath: We’ve mentioned this above, but it’s worth stating again. Get caught, and your site could plummet in rankings or vanish from the search results entirely. If Google detects link schemes or a large number of unnatural links from harmful sites pointing to yours, they may temporarily deindex you until you disavow them. 

Low-Quality and Irrelevant Links: Many backlinks for sale come from sketchy sites that only exist to manipulate Google’s algorithms. Associating with these can hurt your site’s credibility.

Spam Alert: You risk linking to spammy content (like PBN sites that all post the same thing), damaging your site’s trustworthiness.

Money Down the Drain: There’s no guarantee of a return on investment. You could end up spending big for zero gains. While it’s rare for Google to deindex a site, it’s far more common for them to devalue paid links – which can be equally as devastating to your bottom line. 

Cleanup Headache: Trying to remove bad backlinks later is a nightmare that can consume time and resources. Disavowing links is no easy task and can cause all sorts of problems, like accidentally disavowing links or domains that were actually helping your SEO. 

Quick Fix, Lasting Damage: Short-term gains can lead to long-term losses, undermining your site’s reputation and SEO efforts.

With that said, we’ll show you how to buy backlinks the right way to avoid these issues. 

Buying Backlinks That Appear Natural and Boost Online Visibility

Okay, now that you know what not to look for, how can you buy backlinks that actually benefit your SEO?

We’ve already gone over how you need to avoid PBNs, backlink packages, and unnatural anchor text ratios, but where can you find high-quality backlinks for sale?

Generally, most SEOs stick to two types of backlinks that they purchase, which are:

• Link insertions (niche edits)
• Guest posts 

These two are your safest bets for buying backlinks without drawing any ire from Google. You should also go through a reputable, trusted dofollow link service (more on this in a bit). 

Here’s an overview of the steps involved in buying backlinks the smart way: 

Conduct a link gap analysis 

Before you start buying backlinks, you need to know where you stand in relation to your competitors. 

That’ll let you know how many high-quality links you’ll need to buy to outrank the competition. 

We can’t state enough how crucial this step is, and it’s something a lot of site owners fail to do. 

That’s because they falsely assume that it’s beneficial to build as many links as possible, which isn’t the case. 

If you build way too many links in relation to your competitors, Google may view you as a black sheep, which won’t reflect well on your rankings. To yield the best results, your link profile should contain roughly the same amount of links as the other top-ranked websites in your niche on Google.  

Conducting a link gap analysis involves analyzing the domain ratings and backlink profiles of the websites currently ranked above you on Google’s SERPs. 

You can use our free Backlink Checker and SEO Audit tools to help with the process. 

Take a look at not only the links they have but also their domain authority score. This will help you determine how many high-authority backlinks you’ll need to buy to outrank them.

Plan your anchor text ratio 

Before you start buying and placing backlinks, you need to determine your anchor text ratio first. 

This is how you’ll avoid using unnatural anchor text ratios that may penalize you. 

Making your links appear natural is the name of the game here, so you shouldn’t repeat the same anchor text repeatedly. 

Instead, cycle through the types of anchor texts that we mentioned earlier. 

On your homepage, you should opt for branded anchors more than others, but don’t forget to pepper in some exact match, natural, and partial match anchors. 

You should use partial match anchors for your inner pages (about us, services, blogs, product pages, etc.), followed by branded and natural anchors. 

Exact match anchors tend to draw the most negative attention from Google, so you should use them the least. 

That doesn’t mean you should completely ignore exact match anchors, as that would also be a mistake. 

Instead, you should save your exact match anchors exclusively for links directing to your highest-converting pages. 

Strategically roll out your paid backlinks 

The last thing you want to do is unleash a large batch of backlinks at once because that makes it easy for Google to penalize you. 

As we’ve already gone over, this is the reason why you shouldn’t buy large backlink packages or use PBNs. 

Even if you’re buying backlinks from reputable sources, you need to be strategic about when you release them. 

If you want your links to appear natural, assign specific dates for buying backlinks to keep your profile looking squeaky clean. For this reason, it’s better to buy links frequently than all at once. 

Also, don’t buy links at the same time each month, as that can also raise suspicion. The best way to keep a natural-looking backlink profile is to buy backlinks at random dates. So, instead of visualizing buying backlinks as a bulk purchase, think of them as a slow IV drip. 

The beauty of buying backlinks one at a time is that you can avoid overspending. For instance, you may discover that you overcalculated how many links you need to buy. 

If you’re buying links one at a time, you will discover this before you overspend, saving you money.

Wrapping Up: Buying Backlinks in 2024 

Buying backlinks goes against Google’s guidelines, but it can be worth it when done right. 

As long as you keep your link profile and anchor text ratios looking natural, you shouldn’t run into too many issues. 

Do you need help building a robust link profile for your website without having to think about it?

Then don’t wait to check out the HOTH’s Link Insertion and Link Outreach Services to simplify your SEO success. Our backlinks follow the cleanest practices, so you’ll be in great hands with us.  

The post Top Things to Know Before You Buy Backlinks In 2024 appeared first on The HOTH.

This rings true even in the age of zero click searches and generative AI. 

Despite a rapidly changing search landscape, generating backlinks remains a surefire way to boost your online visibility and outrank competitors. 

How do we know?

Research has found that the number of backlinks a web page has is directly correlated with the amount of organic traffic it’s able to generate. 

There have also been countless other studies and experiments proving the connection between high-quality backlinks and top search engine rankings. 

However, link building is also difficult and time-consuming, especially with all the outreach and content creation involved with guest posting. This has led to the recent surge in the popularity of link insertions, which provide a speedier way to generate backlinks.

Stick around to learn more about how link insertions work, including how to build a link insertion campaign for your website from scratch. 

What are Link Insertions?

Also called niche edits & link placements, a link insertion refers to placing one of your backlinks in an existing piece of content on topically relevant websites. 

How do you do that? By hacking the site and adding a link without the site owner’s knowledge?

No! 

You can add backlinks to existing posts by getting in touch with site owners from relevant websites. 

Link insertions are popular because the outreach is quick, you don’t have to wrack your brain trying to create any original content for them (as opposed to guest posts), and you can still obtain high-quality link placements to boost your search engine rankings. 

The challenge comes in how you convince site owners to insert one of your backlinks into an older piece (more on this in a bit). 

As long as you follow white-hat link-building tactics, link insertions won’t land you in any hot water with Google. 

How Do Link Insertions Fit Into Link Building? 

Link-building tactics have been a part of the search engine optimization process ever since the inception of Google, way back in the late 90s. 

Backlinks, which are external links pointing to your site, serve as ‘credibility votes’ toward the quality, authority, and trustworthiness of your content. 

To a search engine like Google, if relevant domains with high authority and top-tier content are linking to your blogs, homepage, and service pages – it’s seen as a sign that your website is of the same caliber. 

Notice that we said relevant domains, as you’ll want to acquire backlinks from related websites that publish similar content to yours. 

If you obtain backlinks from different niches or industries, they won’t add much value (also called link juice) to your link profile. 

While it may sound like a Legend of Zelda-themed cocktail, link juice is SEO lingo for the ranking power that gets passed from one site to another. Links from trustworthy, relevant websites will pass the most link juice to your site.

The relationship between website authority and backlink effectiveness

The authority of the websites you target for backlinks also matters.

What’s that?

Domain authority score refers to an SEO metric developed by Moz (not Google) that predicts how likely a website is to rank on the SERPs (search engine results pages). It’s a score ranging from 1 – 100, with scores above 50 considered ‘good.’ 

While domain authority score isn’t an official Google ranking factor, it’s a fairly accurate way to assess the ranking power of a domain – especially if you’re considering targeting them for a backlink. 

Since Google’s official PageRank data is kept under lock and key, third-party metrics like Moz’s domain authority and Ahrefs’ domain rating are the best tools we have for determining the ranking strength of a website. 

How important are backlinks for SEO on Google?

Next to the quality and relevance of your content, most experts agree the strength of your backlink profile is the second-most important ranking factor (despite Google’s claims to the contrary).

How Link Insertions Gained Popularity 

For years, tactics like guest posting, creating infographics, and outdoing competitor content dominated most link-building services as their go-to methods for obtaining backlinks. 

Link insertions were a thing, but they were largely seen as inferior to other methods like guest blogging. 

In fact, they went by the not-so-graceful name of link begging. 

However, the process was destigmatized in recent years when SEOs realized that adding backlinks to existing pieces of content is actually a viable tactic that involves simple outreach and provides impressive results.

As long as the linking domain has topical relevance to your content and has decent authority, backlinks acquired through link insertions will boost your SERP rankings just as well as any other technique. 

That’s because, outside of using unsavory black-hat techniques that can penalize you, it doesn’t really matter how you acquire backlinks from authoritative sites. As long as the link points to your content, it makes no difference how hard you worked for it.  

Link insertions are now equally as popular (and effective) as other tried-and-true link-building tactics like guest posting or article syndication.

While some link builders offer site owners money for link insertions, it’s crucial to note that this is strictly against Google’s search guidelines. Paying for links does qualify as a link scheme, and your site may receive a penalty if you’re caught, so proceed at your own risk. 

What are the Advantages of Using Link Insertions?

Now that you know more about the history of link insertions, should you actually bother using them? 

After all, if you’re already writing guest posts and targeting HARO placements, is it really worth adding link insertions into your existing repertoire?

It’s definitely worth adding link insertions into the mix, especially since they involve simple outreach, no content creation, and you can target a wide variety of websites – among other perks. 

So, even if you’re already generating backlinks through other methods, there’s no reason not to include link insertions due to how simple they are to target. 

Here’s a look at all the reasons why you should start using link insertions for your SEO: 

Quicker indexing 

A significant benefit of using link insertions is that you don’t have to wait for Google to index a brand-new post. 

Depending on the popularity of the website you’re writing for, it can take anywhere from several hours to several weeks for Google to index a new guest post. 

Unless you’re writing a guest post on a behemoth site like Wikipedia (which usually receives same-day indexing for new content), you’ll have to wait quite a while for your new guest post to appear in the SERPs. 

That means you’ll face a long wait between publishing the post and seeing its impact on your SEO profile. 

Link insertions are different because you’re adding a backlink to an existing page within Google’s index.

The result?

You won’t have to wait for your link profile to receive the sweet link juice from your newly acquired backlink. That means link insertions can provide near-instantaneous boosts to your SERP rankings, which is a big reason why they’re so powerful. 

You can target virtually any website in your niche 

Guest posts are pretty limited in that not every website accepts them. 

That seriously limits your options when looking for websites to target for guest blogging. This problem is worse for smaller niches that already don’t have many websites posting regularly on their blogs and social media. 

Link insertions don’t have this limitation, as you can target any website that has relevant content related to yours. 

For instance, let’s say you’re in the gardening niche, and you find a gardening site that briefly mentions biodynamic gardening in a blog post – which you happen to have an in-depth guide for on your website. 

This is a perfect scenario for targeting a link insertion. 

Since the article only mentioned biodynamic gardening in passing, your ultimate guide provides a meaty resource for further reading. 

That will improve their user experience, and it will update the content and make it fresh again. This is beneficial for the webmaster, as it gives an aging piece of content a chance to generate some more organic traffic (and maybe even a few leads and sales). 

The best part?

You don’t have to worry if the target website in question accepts guest posts or not, so you won’t have to waste such a golden opportunity.

It’s a white-hat practice when done right 

If you don’t offer money for link insertions, it’s largely considered a white-hat SEO technique that won’t lead to any penalties. 

As long as you offer value to the website in the form of updated content or exchanging link insertions/guest posts – you’re in the clear. 

The example listed above, where you add a link to an ultimate guide that enhances the existing content, is one of the absolute best ways to score link insertions. 

Google released a Link Spam Update back in late 2022 that cracked down on paid backlinks, so it’s best to avoid offering money for links outright. 

Instead, do what you can to update and add value to older posts on relevant websites. 

How to Target Link Insertions in 3 Easy Steps

Randomly selecting websites for link insertions won’t cut it, so you’ll need to develop a game plan if you want to find success. 

The typical link insertion strategy goes as follows:

1. Finding relevant websites with desirable SEO metrics to target 
2. Conducting an outreach campaign 
3. Placing the links with optimized anchor text 

Let’s take a closer look at each step.

Step #1: Finding the right websites to target 

Relevant links matter to Google, so you don’t want to link to your website in inappropriate places. Even when you find an appropriate website, you can’t just add a link to any page you find. 

Rather, you need to uncover the best opportunities for link insertions within their content. 

Remember the gardening website example that linked an ultimate guide to a relevant article?

Those are the types of opportunities you need to keep an eye out for when browsing websites within your niche. 

Do they mention any products or services you sell? Do you have any in-depth pieces that provide more detail for something they only mention in passing?

Targeting websites that have high authority and quality content 

Besides relevancy, you need to pay attention to a website’s authority and content quality. Otherwise, you may acquire a backlink from a website with less-than-favorable SEO metrics, which won’t do you any favors ranking-wise. 

This phase requires meticulous research to ensure the target sites align with your content’s quality and audience interests. Tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, and Moz are your best friends for doing this type of research, so don’t hesitate to use them.

You can also use our free SEO audit tool to quickly uncover crucial SEO metrics for any website, including the following:

• Link profile 
• On-page SEO 
• Performance 
• Usability 
• Social presence 

Once you’ve uncovered a handful of high-quality websites to target, you can move on to the next step.

Step #2: Conduct outreach to website owners 

Now it’s time to work some email magic by reaching out to site owners to request link insertions. 

Negotiating link insertions with topically relevant websites is a delicate process. Doing things the white-hat way, you’ll need to include how you plan to add value to their existing post. Here’s how you can approach it effectively:

Understanding the value proposition

Be clear about how the link insertion will benefit them and what you can offer in return. This could be reciprocal linking, sharing their content on your social media or writing an expert guest post for their website. 

Craft a personalized outreach message

By personalizing your outreach email, you’ll show a website owner that you have genuinely engaged with their content and care about what they do. 

Remember to keep your outreach emails short, simple, and to the point (there’s no need to beat around the bush). 

We recommend including specifics about where and how your link could be incorporated into their existing content. 

It’s also a good idea to personalize each email with the site owner’s name, relevant insights, and anything else that may sway them to open your email (such as a shared interest or a mutual contact).

Here’s an example of an outreach email:

Subject: Collaboration Opportunity with [Your Website/Brand Name]

Dear [Recipient’s Name],

I hope this message finds you well. My name is [Your Name], and I am the [Your Position] at [Your Website/Brand Name]. I’ve been a huge fan of your work on [Recipient’s Website/Brand Name] for some time now, and I’m super impressed by the quality and depth of your content, especially your article on [Specific Topic/Article Title].

While consuming your content, I noticed a spot where one of our posts could really help your readers out/solve their pain points. We recently published an in-depth article on [Topic of Your Article], which I believe is a perfect companion to your piece on [Their Article’s Topic]. Our article covers [Brief Description of What Your Article Offers, e.g., fresh insights, updated statistics, a new perspective, etc.].

Would you consider adding a link to our article within your post? I’m confident that it would add new value to a dated blog and provide your audience with more resources related to the subject. 

Please let me know if you would like to review our article or if you need any more information. I am also open to any suggestions for collaboration that might benefit both our audiences.

Thank you for considering my request. I look forward to the possibility of working together to provide our readers with even more comprehensive insights!

Best regards,

[Your Name]

[Your Position]

[Your Website/Brand Name]

[Your Contact Information]

Be flexible 

Be open to negotiation. Some site owners may have specific guidelines or requests for link insertions.

Show willingness to adjust your terms, such as the anchor text or the specific page you want to link to (more on anchor text below!) 

One backlink is a lot better than no backlinks, so don’t get too caught up in the details if the site owner isn’t able to accommodate 100% of your request.

Focus on building relationships 

Rather than treating outreach emails as one-offs, your goal should always be to form a long-lasting relationship with each site owner. 

Why is that?

It’s because a relationship will likely lead to multiple backlinks instead of just one. 

If you have an existing relationship in place with a relevant website, you can turn to them whenever you’re in need of more backlinks. This will save you the hassle of drafting cold outreach emails to site owners you’ve never spoken with before.   

Therefore, you should treat the outreach process as the beginning of a professional relationship. Don’t forget to nurture it by expressing your interest in future collaborations as you email back and forth. 

Follow up with a heartfelt thank you message after the link insertion and be sure to stay in touch with them for more backlink opportunities.

Step #3: Optimize the anchor text for the link placement 

Anchor text refers to highlighted, clickable text that contains a hyperlink. Since website URLs are lengthy and cumbersome to type, writing anchor text simplifies things and hints at the web page it directs to.   

For example, instead of typing out the URL for our SEO blog (https://www.thehoth.com/blog/), we would use anchor text to simplify it and reference the page it links to, like this: 

Master SEO with The HOTH Blog

Anchor text is also an important ranking factor for Google’s algorithms.  

In particular, anchor text needs to be informative, relevant, and keyword-rich. 

No matter what you do, avoid generic anchor text at all costs. Phrases like ‘buy now’ and ‘click here’ are too plain and don’t provide readers with any useful information. 

That’s because they don’t give the reader a sense of what to expect when clicking the link. Anchor text is the most helpful when it describes the page it links to. 

You should also do your best to include the target keyword for the page in its anchor text, as Google’s crawler bots will pick up on it. 

The Wrap Up: What are Link Insertions?

Unlock the power of link-building with link insertions—a smart, fast, and efficient strategy that will elevate your SEO game in a big way.

Skip the wait for indexing, streamline your outreach, and forget about crafting new content for every backlink.

Ready to soar to new heights with your link-building strategy?

Don’t wait to check out The HOTH’s Link Insertion services. Our SEO experts are masters at crafting top-tier link profiles that help clients outrank even the most stubborn competitors. Contact us now and see the difference for yourself!

The post Understanding Link Insertions And Their Impact on SEO appeared first on The HOTH.

If the answer is no or maybe, it’s time to brush up on your keyword research. 

Even if you’re an experienced SEO who’s researched keywords for years, there’s always something new to learn. 

That’s especially true if you’ve never used SEMrush Pro, as it comes with a fleet of tools built specifically for keyword research, which include:

• Keyword Overview for an in-depth analysis of any keyword
• Keyword Magic Tool for building a list of keywords 
• Keyword Manager for automated keyword clustering
• Position Tracking to monitor performance
• Organic Traffic Insights to gain a competitive edge 

This toolbelt is one of the most comprehensive and useful for researching keywords, and it’s definitely Batman-worthy. 

SEMrush makes it easy to uncover the perfect keywords to target for your business, and there are tools to monitor your progress. 

Keyword research is one of the most crucial aspects of SEO, as it informs your entire content strategy. 

The last thing you want to do is create content that’s not backed up by keyword research. If you do, you’ll likely waste hours of effort and hundreds of dollars on content pieces that nobody asked for – and you won’t generate any traffic. 

Conducting keyword research is how you get inside the minds of your audience to learn their wants and needs, so stay tuned to learn how to perfect the process with SEMrush Pro. 

The Importance of Regular Keyword Research 

Keyword research isn’t a one-and-done process. 

Instead, it’s something that you’ll need to do regularly to ensure you’re putting out the most relevant and valuable content to your audience. 

How often do you need to do it?

It depends, as the needs of every business are different. However, a good rule of thumb is to conduct keyword research once every six months. 

A typical process looks like this: you do enough keyword research to plan out six months’ worth of content on your calendar and then start the process over again once you start to run out of topics. 

However, some companies like to refresh their content strategy every three months, especially for industries that are constantly changing and evolving – like tech (and SEO, for that matter). 

What’s popular now likely won’t be in six months, and the keywords that your audience searches for will follow suit. 

Search trends are very much a thing, which is when certain keywords fall in and out of popularity. 

Also, the way people use search engines changes over time, which we’re about to see in a big way with the rollout of SGE. 

As such, many SEOs are shifting to longer, more conversational keywords to capitalize on AI-powered search – reinforcing the need for regular keyword research. 

Using SEMrush’s Tools for Keyword Research 

Trying to research keywords without at least a few tools is a nightmare, as you’re limited to things like Google autocomplete (which isn’t bad by any means, but it’s difficult to scale). 

The good news is that SEMrush has a tool for every aspect of keyword research, greatly simplifying the process. 

Here’s a look at how to conduct thorough keyword research using SEMrush Pro’s tools. 

Keyword Overview: Getting the low-down on any keyword 

When using tactics like Google autocomplete to find keywords, you’ll have no way to view their metrics. 

As a result, you’ll have no way of determining if the keyword is viable to target or not. 

What’s its CPC? Does it have a high keyword difficulty score? Is there adequate search volume to justify creating a new post around it?

These are all questions that you’ll be able to answer with the Keyword Overview tool. 

Enter any keyword that you’re interested in and hit the Search button. 

From there, you’ll see an incredibly detailed breakdown of the keyword, including its search intent, CPC, difficulty score, and more. 

The tool also provides suggestions for related keywords (including their metrics), the keyword’s search trend, and its popularity by region. 

In short, this tool will let you know if a keyword has the goods or not.

Keyword Magic Tool: Building a list of keywords 

Researching enough keywords to fill up your content calendar quickly becomes exhausting without a way to find lots of keywords at once. 

That’s why the Keyword Magic tool is so helpful: it spits out hundreds of viable keyword suggestions based on a ‘seed’ keyword. 

In this example, we chose gardening tools as our seed keyword. 

Voila, we now have many viable keyword suggestions to use as supplemental or primary keywords for brand-new content. 

Keyword Manager: Automated keyword clustering

Once you have a lengthy list of keywords, you’ll need a way to make sense of them all. 

In particular, you need to organize your list by grouping similar keywords together. You should split them into ‘themes’ that relate to the web pages you’re going to create. 

A popular way to do this is to designate certain keywords as primary topics and then list similar keywords in a ‘cluster’ with it for supporting topics. 

SEMrush’s Keyword Manager is your ticket to simplifying the process, as it features automated keyword clustering.

Once again, we chose ‘gardening tools’ as an example, and the tool provided a group of keyword clusters for us sorted by their ranking potential. 

Position Tracking and Organic Traffic Insights 

The whole point of doing keyword research is to improve your SERP rankings, which is why SEMrush included the Position Tracking tool. 

It’s how you monitor the success of your keyword strategy, as you’ll be able to view your position rankings for any URL. 

If you aren’t seeing the results you want after one round of research, it’s a sign you need to go back to the drawing board. 

The Organic Traffic Insights tool combines your data from Google Search Console, Google Analytics, and SEMrush into one location. 

With it, you can analyze your traffic at the keyword level, uncover ‘not provided’ keywords that actually drive traffic to your site, and even export your keywords to other tools. 

Master Keyword Research with SEMrush Pro 

An informed keyword strategy is the foundation for any successful SEO campaign, and SEMrush’s tools provide the insights you need to find ideal keywords for your business. 

With SEMrush by your side, you can peer inside your audience’s minds to learn about the types of content they crave. 

If you’re ready to take your keyword research to the next level, don’t wait to try out SEMrush Pro.  

The post Doing Your SEO Homework: Using SEMrush for Keyword Research appeared first on The HOTH.

For those that don’t know, Google Search Quality Guidelines is a 150-page document for Google’s search quality evaluators.  

These Google search quality raters are the people contracted by Google who are tasked to evaluate the quality of Google’s search results.  

Now that these guidelines have been updated, how do these changes affect the search engine results for your particular website? 

You may be wondering if this means a complete overhaul of your digital marketing strategy. 

Are you ready to find out?

Keep scrolling for our point of view on the most important takeaways:

Determining Page Quality 

Page Quality Rating or PQ is the grade determined by Google’s ratings.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Raters will determine whether pages have low or high PQ based on the quality of the website, the purpose of the page, whether it fulfills that purpose, and whether that purpose correctly meets the needs of the searchers.

Google’s overall PQ rating scale is composed of five levels: Lowest, Low, Medium, High, and Highest.

These guidelines basically outline the core conditions, performance, and web page elements that best determine the quality of a page. 

Let’s go into more detail about how this is done: 

Identifying Page Type and Purpose

Before assigning a PQ rating, raters must first determine the purpose of the page they are evaluating.

Raters then decide and determine PQ by what a page was created to:

• Share information about a topic
• Entertain
• Allow users to exchange or download files
• Express opinions
• Share multimedia
• Share personal or social information
• Sell products or services
• Etc?

Once they’ve determined what purpose the page is trying to serve, they should then be able to evaluate how well the page fulfills this purpose relative to the query that was made. Quality websites, those with a high PQ, will meet user needs when it comes to the purpose of the page.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Rating Your Money Your Life Pages (YMYL) 

Google classifies any pages that “could potentially impact the future happiness, health, or financial stability of users” as “Your Money or Your Life” (YMYL) pages.

YMYL is a vital part of the latest Google Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines, and its importance only increased from the July 2019 update. YMYL compared to E-A-T has become a priority for Google. 

Because of the nature of the impact that the content on these pages could have on users’ lives, these types of pages have the highest quality requirements. 

YMYL pages are identifiable by how often verifiable facts are written on a piece of content or website. These verifiable facts, also measured for authority and reputation, must be capable of impacting someone’s actions after they read a piece of content.   

Some examples of YMYL pages include:

• Financial transaction pages: pages for paying bills, shopping online, transferring money, etc.
• Financial information pages: pages that prescribe advice for investments, taxes, retirement, mortgages, buying insurance, etc.
• Medical information pages: pages that provide any medical, nutrition, or health advice
• Legal information pages: pages that provide any legal advice on topics such as divorce, adoption, migration, etc.
• Public/official information pages: pages that provide any information about Government programs, laws, events, etc.
• News articles or current affairs
• Other pages that touch on YMYL content 

The decision Google makes regarding YMYL is based upon the commonness of these important resources. YMYL isn’t always an objective identifier to be decided by Google’s raters. It is, however, a large part of Google’s measurement of verifiable, authoritative information. 

Evaluating for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-­A­-T)

As I briefly mentioned above, all aspects of a page are evaluated for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T). 

From a general perspective, this isn’t anything new from Google. Google has always expressed that they want you to make sure that you create high-quality content but that your content highlights any expertise that the author or website might have. This helps Google determine trustworthiness and authority.   

Under the July 2018 Google Search Quality Guideline changes, raters are to review the E-A-T of not only the Main Content (MC) and website overall but also the E-A-T of the creator of the MC.  

As you may already know, PQ plays a huge role in where a page ranks in Google’s organic search results. That’s why understanding E-A-T is vital to SEO success.  

This is not just for YMYL pages but for all web pages containing any type of content.

Reviewers will look for formal expertise, factual knowledge, and whether high-quality information is presented that matches the topic searched. Highly technical topics such as photography or learning musical instruments may require some evidence of formal expertise.

There are, of course, some topics that don’t require formal expertise, and Google recognizes these as well. 

For example, restaurant reviews, home remodeling, parenting, and other personal life experiences can be attributed to anyone with practical experience, so long as their content is detailed, comprehensive, and entirely factual. 

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Assessing Main Content Quality and Optimization

Main Content or MC is any part of a web page that directly helps the page achieve its goal. For example, helping an audience or solving a problem. 

Page 10 of Google’s Search Quality Guidelines states that webmasters directly control the MC of the page besides any user-generated content. MC can be images, text, videos, or even page features. It can be user-generated content such as videos, reviews, or articles that users have uploaded to a page. An example of that would be a forum. 

Raters are instructed to break down and identify the content of each page and assign it a rating:

High-Quality Content

To be considered high quality, your content should be:

• Clear and easy to determine
• Detailed and comprehensive
• Created with “a significant amount of at least one of the following: time, effort, expertise, and talent/skill.”

For example:

• Information pages should be “factually accurate, clearly written, and comprehensive.”
• Shopping pages should be quick and easy to navigate, therefore allowing users to “find the products they want and to purchase the products easily.”

Low-Quality Content

Pages receiving the lowest quality MC rating will have Main Content that falls into the following categories:

• Misleading
• Exaggerated or shocking
• Distracting MC with excessive ads
• Negative reputation
• Unsatisfying level of facts or clarity

Finding Website Owner Information

For raters trying to assess the E-A-T of the content creator, they are tasked with finding out the website owners, as well as who is responsible for the MC on the page If this section of your website isn’t clear, it could hurt your chances of ranking. Being open and honest with who writes your content and who owns your website can indirectly affect your Google ranking in SERPs.     

This information should be clear and can usually be found in the following sections:

• Home Page
• About Us Page
• Contact Us Page
• Customer Service Page

However, raters are not limited to official page labels. 

In such cases, the home page candidate that offers the most relevant information about the target URL takes precedence. 

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Reviewing Website Reputation

The connection between customer reviews and SEO is important to your brand’s online reputation. Reviews don’t just provide the social proof needed for potential customers to trust your products or service, it’s also a necessary factor for boosting your digital exposure. 

A website’s reputation is considered one of the top criteria for assigning a Page Quality rating. It’s one of the best demonstrations of a page’s effectiveness. 

As such, raters are instructed to find reputation information about the website, such as:

• Customer reviews
• News articles
• Wikipedia articles
• Blog posts
• Magazine articles
• Forum discussions
• Ratings from independent organizations

Google does not consider reviews or ratings written by the website or company being investigated.

Some of Google’s recommended review sites are:

• Yelp
• Better Business Bureau
• Google Shopping
• Amazon

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Page Quality Rating Guidelines for Mobile

Page Quality rating guidelines for mobile are one of the newest additions to Google’s updated Search Quality Guidelines.

The first step for rating PQ on mobile is to understand the needs of mobile users: which is to complete a task quickly and conveniently from their mobile devices.

In that sense, raters are instructed to rate PQ for mobile according to how well a query is answered, given a mobile user’s limitations.

When evaluating PQ ratings for desktops, raters look at the most detailed and comprehensive results.

But when evaluating a page for mobile, the rater must choose the page with content that Google can fit into what it calls a Results Block.

What is a Results Block?

A Results Block is another version of a Google Snippet, so to speak. It shows results from graded or rated activities. 

There are two types:

• Web Search Results Blocks are the most common and contain the title of the page, the URL, and a relevant text “snippet” of information about the page.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Special Content Result Blocks display relevant, non-text content directly on the search results page for demonstration purposes, such as an online calculator or translator.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

These Results Blocks are then evaluated for how succinctly they can answer a user’s query or question.

Classifying and Understanding Queries

Google’s guidelines go at length about the multiple types of queries and the details and examples related to these queries.          

To understand queries, raters should first:

• Determine locale
• Understand user intent
• Establish correct query interpretations
• Take note of query interpretations that can change over time

Determining Locale

Google uses the term “Locale” to refer to the user’s language and location. Actually. Google states, “Googlebot crawls IP Googlebot crawls with IP addresses based outside the USA, in addition to the US-based IP addresses.” 

Determining locale is crucial to making a more appropriate interpretation of a user’s query.  

For example, a user based in the UK may expect a different result for the term “football” than a user based in the US.

Additionally, a user based in the Philippines may expect a different result for “peso to dollar” than a person based in Mexico.

Classifying and Understanding User Intent

Google subdivides queries into the following possible user intents:

Know Query

A know query is a broad search to find information on a topic where the answer is typically longer, controversial, or more complex.

Example Know queries: [Serena Williams], [World Trade Center], [Kong Skull Island], etc.

Know Simple Queries

A know simple query is a search seeking a precise result where the answer is typically simpler or shorter. Such as, “what is this [insert word here].” In fact, Not only are Google searches being done by search engines, voice assistants, and manually, but Google launched an app in 2017 called Google Lens.  

This app is powered by AI and machine learning. It helps people identify objects through their smartphone cameras. This app also conducts searches for users. 

Example queries: [Serena Williams Age], [World Trade Center Height], [Kong Skull Island release date], etc.

Do Query

A do query is made to accomplish a goal or activity, which may either be to buy, download, interact with an app, etc.

Example Do Queries from Google:

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2022

Device Action Queries

Device action queries are commands meant for the device, such as calling someone, locating a file, opening a website, or listening to music on that device.

Google assumes that Device Action queries are made by users in hands-free mode, so these sorts of queries also have a high standard.

Example Device Action queries from Google:

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2022

Website Queries

These queries are made by a user looking to find a specific website or webpage.

These can be direct queries with a complete URL, such as:

• [http://www.ibm.com]
• [www.ibm.com]
• [ibm.com]

These can also be incomplete URL queries such as

• [Youtube]
• [Facebook login]
• [New York Times health section]

Visit­-in-­Person Query

Visit-in-Person Queries are queries made by a user looking for a specific business or organization.

For example:

• [McDonald’s Branches in Ohio]
• [Gas Stations close by] (given that the user has allowed geolocation)
• [Hospitals near me] (given that the user has allowed geolocation)

Establishing Correct Query Interpretations

A query can have different interpretations, which Google categorizes as dominant, common, or minor interpretations. 

Query interpretation is automatically enabled for all Google Cloud Search customers with no extra work for you. However, it would be best to structure your schema per Google’s instructions for optimal query interpretation.

Dominant interpretations are what most users would mean when typing a query. Common ones are what many users would expect to find from a query, while Minor ones are sought by a few users.

For example, a dominant interpretation of the query [apple] would be the company Apple. A common interpretation would be the fruit, apple, and a minor interpretation could be the name of a place in the US: Apple, Oklahoma.

There are also query interpretations that can change over time, such as a query for [iphone] which could have more than a few candidates, spanning the first model to the iPhone 4, 4s, up all the way to the most recent one.

Needs Met Rating Guideline

Raters assign a Needs Met rating depending on how well a page result has helped mobile users.

The Needs Met rating is composed of five levels: Fully Meets, Highly Meets, Moderately Meets, Slightly Meets, and Fails to Meet.

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2022

The Relationship between E­-A-­T and Needs Met

There is an important distinction between E-A-T and Needs Met ratings.

First, a Needs Met rating is based on how well the resulting landing page meets the query. On the other hand, the E-A-T rating is based only on the content of the landing page, regardless of whether or not it matches the query.

For example, the query [top Cancer cures] could lead to a high E-A-T page about Cancer from a reputable scientific journal, but the result that would get the highest Needs Met rating could be any article from a medical organization or professional that focuses on providing the answer to the user’s query: listing the top Cancer cures.

Overall Page Quality Rating Guide

Overall, Google identifies the top 4 most important factors for overall PQ rating:

• Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
• Main Content Quality and Amount
• Website Information (who is responsible for the website and authors its content)
• Website Reputation

The highest PQ rating will be given to pages that meet the top 4 criteria. On the other hand, the lowest PQ rating will be assigned to websites that don’t—such as those that harm, deceive, or make money with no attempt to provide any help to users.

Below is a breakdown.

Characteristics of Highest Quality Pages

• Very high-quality Main Content (MC)
• Very positive reputation
• Very high level of Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)

Characteristics of High-Quality Pages

• A satisfying amount of high-quality MC
• Clear and satisfying amount of website information (who is responsible for website, content, and customer service)
• Positive reputation
• A high level of E-A-T

Characteristics of Medium Quality Pages

• Pages that have nothing wrong with them but do not exhibit any exceptional content. In other words, it’s “Just OK.”

Characteristics of Low-Quality Pages

• Low quality or unsatisfying amount of Main Content
• Distracting and misleading content (such as disruptive ads or Supplementary Content, misleading titles, etc.)
• Negative reputation
• Not enough website information and E-A-T

Characteristics of Lowest Rating Quality Pages

• Harmful, or malicious pages
• Lack of “purpose pages” or no Main Content
• Deceptive page purpose or design
• Keyword-stuffed, copied, or automatically generated Main Content
• Misleading, inaccurate, or unauthoritative YMYL information
• No website information
• Highly untrustworthy, unreliable content
• Hacked or defaced websites with spam content
• Extremely negative or malicious reputation
• Content that promotes hate or violence

Source: Google Search Quality Guidelines 2021

Your Key Takeaways and Action Items

With all that background information and terminology, how does this affect you and your website’s results on search engine results pages (SERPs)? Below, we translated this information into actionable tips you can add to your own content marketing and SEO strategy.

1. Make sure your overall website passes Google’s quality standards.

Some characteristics of a good quality Google website are that it:

• has adequate website background information (webmaster, contact info, etc.)
• is optimized for mobile
• is https secure
• has good page loading speed
• has no spammy ads
• is updated
• has consistently high-quality content
• Etc.

2. Optimize your metadata and user-facing navigation to clearly demonstrate which page is your About page, which is your Contact page, geolocation, and so on. That way,  both crawlers, and human raters understand how to navigate your page and website.
3. As with your website, make your page content easy to navigate.

Write a title and meta description that clearly presents the page’s purpose, and make sure your Main Content fulfills this purpose.

Do not make Supplementary Content that could distract users from the main purpose.

Optimize your content for Google snippets. Write at least a snippet of text that you can use for a Results Block.

Your goal is to provide an adequate answer in the most concise manner possible—convenient enough for the mobile user to get the answer they need without having to scroll further or click more links.

For example, you can display a short phrase like “Google Search Quality Guidelines is the set of instructions that guide how Google’s Search Quality Evaluators should rate the quality of page results” and code it as a snippet for your comprehensive, 3k-word article about the topic.

Code all these page data properly in your schema markup so both crawlers and humans can easily tell which is which.

4. When you think about content topics, think about queries first. Plan your content outline and words around these queries you want to rank for.
5. Make doubly sure all your YMYL pages are written by E-A-T authors.

In the author byline, include relevant background information that will let users, crawlers, and raters know that the author of a YMYL content has the right expertise and experience to talk about their topic.

6. Optimize your pages and apps for voice commands.
7. Do not use any disruptive ads.

Having ads on your site is not by itself a reason to get a low PQ rating. However, the content on your page should adequately provide the answers to the query you are aiming to solve.

For example, in the query [how to delouse my dog], if all your page does is focus on promoting your canine delousing products without sharing any general steps to actually solve the user’s problem (delousing a dog), then you’ll get a low PQ.

On the other hand, if you give a detailed and comprehensive walkthrough of the steps, complete with backup info such as pictures or video clips, then you’ll most probably get a higher PQ rating. You can still insert an ad or a plug for your product, but the solution, not the product, should be the focus of your content.

Finally

And that’s it! There is a ton of information here, so we hope that’s not a lot to digest. If you’re a little unsure, book a call with one of our experts today for advice!

The above revisions don’t largely change most of the guidelines that tell you how quality raters evaluate websites. 

However, they are important enough for Google to update the document to let business owners, content creators, marketers, and advertisers that there are changes that they should be made aware of. 

Don’t forget to sign up for free, leave a comment, and check out our SEO tools and resources! 

The post Google Search Quality Guidelines: What You Need to Know appeared first on The HOTH.

It solves problems. It’s unique and intuitive. It makes life better for people.

But when people search for products, your solution remains buried in the results beneath inferior imposters. 

It’s demoralizing. It feels completely unfair. But in today’s article – I’m going to show you exactly how to fix it!

What to Expect From Our Guide to Boosting your Amazon Ranking 

Amazon has become a cornerstone for eCommerce, boasting over 9.7 million sellers worldwide that range from household names to family up-starts. We’ve even seen a huge amount of eCommerce success stories from people who went from humble beginnings to becoming million-dollar entrepreneurs thanks to Amazon.

And while it is still very much possible to have your own Amazon success story, there’s no doubt that the level of competition in the marketplace is sky-high.

In this crowded market, it will take some serious dedication to cut through the noise and get your product in front of your target customer. This means that not only do you need a great product, you also need a comprehensive understanding of Amazon’s SEO.

Since the marketplace’s conception in 2000, its search algorithm has flourished to become one of the most advanced, fully-fledged search engines on the web. 

Amazon’s search engine is incredibly popular with shoppers, and for many, it is their first port of call when searching for what they need. So, it’s crucial that your product is optimized for Amazon’s search algorithm and ready to be matched with hot, wallet-out, ready-to-buy customers.

In this guide, we’ll be covering:

• The Basics: What is Amazon SEO?

• What is Amazon’s A10 algorithm?

• How to master the algorithm: 6 tips

• 8 Strategies for a successful product listing

• 4 FREE keyword research strategies to rank your Amazon product

• Summary: Ranking factors to own Amazon search results

The Basics: What is Amazon SEO?

For a newcomer to eCommerce, “Amazon SEO’ might be a completely alien concept. Hell, “SEO” itself might just sound like total tech jargon to you. But, if you want to sell on Amazon an understanding of SEO is going to be important. And we promise – once we break it down for you, it’s really easy to understand!

So, what is SEO?

SEO stands for search engine optimization, and it refers to the process of getting your website or product to rank higher on a search engine.

What is Amazon SEO?

Amazon SEO refers to the optimization of your product listing to get your product to appear at the top of customer searches.

When it comes to selling your products on Amazon, you want your products to be as visible as possible, to as many people as possible – and Amazon SEO is what makes this possible.

The SEO process involves improving the format, wording, and media included in your Amazon web page or product listing in order for it to fit the preferences of Amazon’s search algorithm.

Amazon’s A10 algorithm can be used strategically to allow your products to appear at the top of relevant searches – allowing you to make more sales.

Therefore, the first step to understanding Amazon SEO is to understand Amazon’s A10 algorithm.

What is Amazon’s A10 algorithm?

As we know, if a browser sees your product at the top of their search results, they will be more likely to buy it. Most buyers simply don’t have the time or attention span to trawl through page after page of search results. Furthermore, they are more likely to assume the products at the top of their search are more popular amongst other buyers.

For your products to soar to their prime place at the top of search results, you will need to make sure you are up-to-date on the algorithms.

Amazon A10 is the backbone of the Amazon marketplace’s search engine technology. In fact, Amazon A10 is a subsidiary company of Amazon that works from Palo Alto in California. Their algorithm was developed to match customer search queries to the most relevant products.

The A10 algorithm focuses on “revenue-per-click”. This means that Amazon is prioritizing making sales and revenue, and thinks that the best way to do this is to match customers with the right product for their search. This makes sense – a sale is more likely to be made if a customer is quickly and clearly presented with exactly the product they are looking for.

If you have been selling on Amazon for a while, you might be more familiar with the Amazon A9 algorithm of the past. A10 works in a similar way, but with some core differences.

How A10 differs from Amazon’s A9 algorithm

Amazon’s A10 algorithm offers some notable differences from the A9 algorithm of the past. Let’s take a look:

• Where the A9 algorithm prioritized products that would produce a higher profit, the current A10 algorithm prioritizes the most relevant products for the search query. For the Amazon seller, this means paying attention to the most relevant keywords for your products and incorporating the right keywords in your product listings.
• A10 gives less priority to Amazon PPC (pay-per-click), so you will need to be more calculating and strategic if you intend to do a PPC campaign via Amazon advertising. A sponsored product will still appear at the top of searches, but you shouldn’t rely too heavily on them.
• A10 prioritizes Amazon sellers that have authority and can be trusted. The more positive reviews a seller has, the higher they are likely to appear in the algorithm. So it is highly important for sellers to encourage their customers to leave a review.
• The algorithm also takes into account how big your shop is. The more items you have in your shop, the higher Amazon will place you in search rankings.
• Continuing from the previous point, the more product categories your inventory fits into, the more Amazon will prioritize you too.
• Another insightful characteristic of the A10 algorithm is the emphasis on customers learning about your products from elsewhere on the internet. This is because you are bringing new customers to the Amazon marketplace. So Amazon sellers should maintain a presence across other platforms on the web, and use their Amazon link to direct people to their products or shop.
• You will need a strong sales history. The higher your sales velocity, the higher Amazon will place you on the search results page. This means you need to stay active on top of your inventory, get rid of slow-moving stock, and not settle for anything less than quick-moving sales.
• Clicks, clicks, clicks! The more people that are clicking on your listings, the higher Amazon will rank you. You can increase your click-through rate by paying extra attention to your product images, product names, and sales copy!
  

6 Tips for Mastering Amazon’s Algorithm

1. Use eye-catching images

If you don’t already know that Amazon has a whole list of product image requirements, now would be a great time to get to know. These guidelines include everything from technical specifications like pixel dimensions to background colors and lighting.

Generally, your product images should include a clear, in-focus, professional-looking image of your item in front of a white background. No other objects should be included in the photo, and the product should fill 85% of the photo frame. 

The photo is usually the first part of your listing that catches the browser’s eye in search results, so it’s important that it makes your product stand out from the rest. An attractive photo will also ensure as many users are clicking on your listing as possible, boosting your click-through rate and enhancing your position in the A10 algorithm.

2. Write enticing sales copy

You want your sales copy to tell Amazon customers exactly what your product is, and include every detail of why it’s useful and will fulfill their needs. If you are selling a product you truly believe in, it probably won’t be too hard to write a glowing description of why it’s so good. However, there are a couple of things to be aware of here…

The first is to write clearly and concisely. Don’t go overboard with the salesmanship, instead focus on the facts of what your product is, product features, and how it works. The A10 algorithm should be working in your favor to draw the exact right people to your listing, so you know potential buyers are already looking for an item like yours. 

Secondly, your sales copy is where you need to include your keywords. Your keyword research (stay tuned, we tell you how to do this later in the article!) should’ve provided you with a list of important keywords and long-tail keywords. 

You should try and scatter a mixture of these throughout your product page while avoiding keyword stuffing. You want your sales copy to read naturally to the reader while still helping your position in the Amazon search engine.

3. Use keywords wisely

So we’ve explained that you should be using keywords in your sales copy, but you might still have a few questions about how best to do it.

When writing your product sales copy, ensure you have your list of keywords on hand. Simply place these keywords where they might naturally appear in a description of your product. 

For instance, if you’re selling iPhone charging cables, your keywords may already relate to the product specification – e.g. USB-C, 2M, Fast, iPhone 13, MFi certified. In which case, you can easily write these words into your copy naturally.

4. More off-site traffic

The A9 algorithm led to a lot of Amazon sellers using discounts and deals to rise to the top of search results, however, this is less of a priority for the A10 algorithm. Instead, focus on bringing traffic from other websites outside of Amazon to your product. 

Creating a portfolio of varied off-site traffic directing to your products will not only help you rank higher on Amazon, but it’ll also help you rank higher on a Google search. A great way of doing this is getting bloggers to review and recommend your product. ]

Browse the internet to find bloggers and micro-influencers in your niche and reach out to ask if they’d like to review your product. Make sure that they include your Amazon link in their review, and you’re sure to receive some valuable off-site traffic that will push you to the top of the rankings. 

5. Strategic pricing

Strategic pricing means that you are pricing your products competitively, but not with such unrealistic deals that it begins to look too good to be true. 

A smart way of doing this is to have a look at your competitors. If they are pricing a similar item to yours at $20, price yours at $19.99. You don’t have to lose out on profit in order to make sales, you just have to be visibly cheaper than your competitors in order to get clicks. 

6. Hustle for reviews

With the A10, positive reviews have never been so important to your position in the algorithm. The algorithm works by weighing up each seller’s metrics, how much they fulfill the needs of Amazon customers, and how highly their customers rate them after their purchase.

Be relentless in your chase to get customers to leave a review after their purchase, as the more reviews (especially 4-5 star ones) you receive, the more likely you are to be hitting the first page of search results. 

8 Strategies For a Successful Product Listing

Now that we are all clued up on how Amazon’s A10 algorithm works, and know the tips to rank higher in searches – it’s time we took a more in-depth look at how to create a successful product listing from the ground up.

You can even treat this list of 8 strategies as a step-by-step guide for making the most of Amazon search engine optimization in your listing and creating a best seller.

Strategy 1: Consider FBA

FBA stands for “Fulfillment By Amazon”, and it means that your items will be stocked in an Amazon warehouse, and Amazon will deliver your items for you.

FBA products appear at the top of customer searches, as Amazon is responsible for the delivery. FBA may also mean that your item is available for prime priority shipping, which will make it more attractive to potential customers.

If you want a quick and effective way to jump to a higher position in search results, using FBA is it.

Strategy 2: Use search terms in your Amazon SEO strategy (AKA back-end keywords)

So you’ve got your product ready to go, you’ve got your Amazon seller account set up, you’ve uploaded your product to your shop, and you’re ready to start making sales. But, before you start naming your product, writing your sales copy, or even writing the information for your store – you should get to grips with your search terms. 

Search terms are the queries that customers might use to find your products. In fact, Amazon Seller Central offers a list of guidelines for how to use search terms effectively in your listings. These guidelines emphasize that no search term should exceed 250 bytes, which is a limit that applies to a newly-registered or pre-existing ASIN.

Those who have a bit more SEO experience could think of these terms as “back-end keywords”. If you are an SEO professional who has cut your teeth in Google optimization, you will probably laugh when you see that Amazon allows backend keyword tagging for products.

Welcome back to SEO 1999-style, friends!

You can add these terms for your products by going to your “Inventory”, clicking “Manage Inventory”, then click “Edit” on the product you’d like to add search terms to, then click “Keywords”. Now you can write your search terms in the “Search Terms” box.

Now, when creating your Amazon search terms you will want to tick as many boxes on this checklist as possible:

• Keep search term length under 250 bytes.
• Use various synonyms for your product.
• Use several spelling variations.
• Use abbreviations.

These tips account for all of the different ways that a potential customer may search for your product. For instance, if you are selling USBs, you will also want to include the search terms “thumb drive”, “flash drive”, “jump drive”, and “memory stick”.

In addition to covering everything on the checklist above, you should also be cautious of the following checklist of what NOT to include:

• Don’t include punctuation.
• Don’t forget spaces between words.
• Don’t repeat words in the same search query.
• Don’t use stop words like :”a”,”an”, “the”, “by”, “and”, “with”.
• Don’t include your brand name or any brand name in your search terms.
• Don’t include any ASIN in search terms.
• Don’t use profanity or offensive words.
• Don’t use temporary words such as “sale”, “new”, or “fresh”.
• Don’t use words that have subjective connotations, such as “best”, “great”, or “cheapest”.

As an example, if you were selling an eco-friendly bamboo and plastic chopping board, good search terms would look like this:

chopping board butcher block cutting board wood bamboo eco-friendly food grade plastic polypropylene non-slip antimicrobial BPA free natural stain resistant

Strategy 3: Optimize your Amazon product listings

What is listing optimization and why is it important?

At the heart of it, Amazon SEO is not all that different than SEO on Google, Bing, or any other search engine.

• You have a select number of fields in your product listing that you need to add your keyword phrases.
• There are character count limits you cannot go over.
• Your title and descriptions need to inspire the searcher to take action on your listing.

But the strategies change a bit when you are doing SEO on Amazon because it is a product finder, not a webpage finder.

How to optimize your product listing

As we’ve established in this article, to master the A10 algorithm your product will need to have the perfect combination of quality and relevance. Furthermore, the algorithm pushes products that have a high click-through rate. So, your product listing will need to be put together in such a way that it’s:

• Clickable
• Looks high quality
• Meets the browser’s search criteria
• Converts browsers into buyers

This involves optimizing your photos, product titles, and product descriptions, and using the right keywords. Strategies 4, 5, and 6 all cover how to optimize your title, description, and images. While you can find out how to use a keyword research tool later in the article. 

Lastly, when it comes to optimizing your product listing, you should make sure that you have filled out every possible field on your product page. Many of these fields have been shown to influence your position in searches. 

Strategy 4: Get your product title right

Similar to search engine optimization, the product title is an incredibly relevant ranking signal for Amazon SEO. The length of your title tag will vary based on your product category, but here is a rundown of the prioritized order of items you will want to include in your title.

• Brand Name
• Feature
• Material
• Key Ingredient
• Product Type
• Model Number
• Size
• Package Count
• Color
• Flavor

Hat tip to the Amazon Product Page Style Guides for reference.

Here’s an example of a pretty effective product title.

As previously mentioned, Amazon is a product-finding search engine. Because of that, your brand name is much more important to your success on Amazon than it is in traditional search engines.

For every product you optimize for success on Amazon, make sure your brand name is correctly spelled. In general, this is just good practice. But doing this will also help Amazon associate the products you want to sell with other products produced by the same company and increase your exposure in brand filtered results.

Strategy 5: Optimizing your product description

Amazon offers two types of product descriptions: Enhanced Brand Content and regular product descriptions. Traditional search engines will index both of these content types, but for your Amazon SEO efforts, it’s best to focus on the regular description.

In short: let your copywriter tackle the enhanced brand while you optimize the regular description. Keyword optimization should be done on both, with priority for visibility in Amazon being placed on the regular description.

Use Bullet Points

For those of you who have done traditional SEO for years, think of your bullet points as having the same potential benefit as your H-tags. Word on the web is that Amazon indexes the content in your bullet points, so optimizing them can help improve relevance and drive up clicks from the results.

As a best practice, try to use 1 keyword phrase per bullet point. Don’t be spammy, it’ll turn off your potential customers.

Strategy 6: Why product images matter

For many customers, a product’s images are the first thing they’ll see when browsing the results of their search query. Therefore, you will want your product images to be as clickable and enticing as possible. 

As we mentioned previously, Amazon also has a set of guidelines for product images, and we’d advise sticking to these if you want Amazon to rank you on the first page of a relevant search. 

Now, you should also pay attention to any specific image requirements for the relevant product category. For example, some items may require an image of nutritional labels or safety warnings. Amazon likes to change these requirements from time to time, so make sure you continue to check on Seller Central.

Another factor to bear in mind is prioritizing your images. You may have uploaded 5 images that perfectly illustrate every aspect of your product – and that’s fantastic! However, you will need to ensure you have selected the right one to be the front page image that advertises your product. This image should show the entire product clearly in front of a white background.

Outside of your prioritized image, your other photos don’t need to have a boring white background. It’s a great idea to show your product in its realistic setting, especially if you’re selling something like clothes, accessories, or homeware. 

Along these lines, you are also allowed to include some images that serve as graphics that illustrate key information about your product. Is your product easy to put together? Illustrate that with an explanatory graphic! Maybe your product is small and portable, unlike other similar products in your niche? Show that with a comparison graphic!

Lastly, you are allowed to edit your photos to make them more eye-catching and vibrant. However, Amazon’s rules say that your images should always be truthful to how the product looks in real life. Therefore, do not edit your photos so that the colors look completely different and risk being dishonest to a customer. 

Strategy 7: Use brand names tactically

You may be able to help your ranking position on Amazon by using brand names tactically. If you are selling branded products on Amazon and your main keywords include that brand name, make sure you use it in your product title and product description. 

Therefore, those customers that are searching for a product specifically from that brand will be more likely to find your product.

Strategy 8: Optimize your seller name

Many Amazon business wizards theorize that you may be able to boost your organic rank and ultimately your Amazon sales by including main product keywords in your seller name. However, please note that this will only work if you are selling one specific genre of product that falls under the same main keywords. 

4 FREE Keyword Research Tools to Rank your Amazon Product(s)

For any SEO campaign, keyword research and selection is a critical first step. There are a ton of premium tools out there on the marketplace that charge a hefty fee to help you find the right keywords, however, we’re here to show you how to do it for free!

There are as many as 5 alternative strategies to doing Amazon keyword research without using paid SaaS solutions. Below are three of our favorites.

Amazon Search Autocomplete

Leveraging the autocomplete function of Amazon’s search box is easy and obvious but is often overlooked or misused.

In digital marketing, we all tend to complicate strategy because easy solutions feel “too good to be true.” But in the case of autocomplete, that’s hardly the case. The Amazon search box is the best place to begin your keyword research.

Amazon Autocomplete, by function, helps consumers find what they want. But it also helps marketers discover dynamic keywords.

Install Keywords Everywhere on your browser to increase the impact of your autocomplete research efforts.

Keywords Everywhere displays CPC stats and competitive data on keywords. It peppers your research with potent stats. You’ll be able to view CPC and search volume stats on suggested Amazon search terms.

Soovle – The Amazon Keyword Tool You’ve Missed

Whenever I bring up Soovle, people think I’m pushing a new cooking method. While many old-school keyword researchers know Soovle, it’s still a drastically overlooked tool.

Soovle offers a search engine autocomplete experience from over 15 search engines. It displays autocomplete search suggestions from platforms such as Amazon, Google, Bing, Overstock, Walmart, and Yahoo!.

You can combine Soovle with Keywords Everywhere to enhance the fruits of your labors with keyword volumes, too.

Hover To Uncover With Amazon Quick View

It may sound like I’m referencing an episode title from the hit Fox show, Bones, but I’m really talking about the benefits of installing Amazon Quick View in your browser.

Amazon Quick View works as a Chrome extension. AMZScout performs Amazon product research. You can nab their tool here.

AQV gives immediate access to imperative search data. To activate AQV display, you need only hover over the product. A small window will open up that displays a slew of related keywords.

The HOTH’s Keyword Extraction Tool

Shameless Plug: Try using our keyword tool to find even more keywords. This free tool is powered by SEMrush and helps you to easily locate the high-volume words and phrases you need.

To use our tool, simply enter a keyword related to your product in the search bar and hit the button that says “view keyword research”. You’ll then be given a whole host of related keywords, each one paired with data on search volume, competition, results for each keyword, the cost-per-click (CPC), and whether it’s trending up or down. 

It’s pretty genius – but we would say that, right?!

Paid Amazon SEO tools

Of course, if you don’t think those free keyword research tools offer what you need, you may want to explore paid options.

In which case, we’d recommend:

Keywordtool.io

Keywordtool.io is available for around $89-199 per month. For that price, it will provide you with data on keyword search volumes, cost-per-click, competition, and search volume trends. 

You can also filter out negative keywords so that you don’t see results that aren’t relevant to your product.

Sellics

Sellics will cost you between $198 to $599 dollars. Yep! That makes it one of the most expensive keyword research tools on the market. For that price, you will not only get all of the keyword research insights you need but also information to optimize your ad spend and manage reviews.

Jungle Scout

Jungle Scout is a service available for $49 to $129 per month. For that price, you will receive an Amazon SEO toolkit that includes a keyword research tool, a keyword performance tracker, an SEO product listing builder, a tool for requesting Amazon reviews, a promotion manager, and many more handy tools to boost your search rankings and bottom line.

Avoid These Common Mistakes

3 of the most common Amazon SEO mistakes are:

Writing inaccurate information

Amazon’s A10 algorithm values the trustworthiness of each seller and will blacklist those who appear as scammers. For this reason, make sure you are writing honestly in your product title and product description.

Overstocking and understocking

The algorithm takes into account your sales velocity, which means you will need to keep a close eye on your inventory. 

Not doing competitor research

Amazon is a highly competitive arena for sellers, as the best value products will appear higher in search rankings. Always watch what your competitors are doing, and make your business decisions accordingly.

The Amazon Sellers’ Checklist

Lastly, before you run away and turn all of your products into bestsellers, you might want to be sure you’ve done everything on our Amazon seller’s SEO checklist…

• You have a seller name that incorporates relevant keywords where possible.
• You have used FBA where possible.
• You have completed every applicable field in your product listing.
• You’ve written a product title that includes brand name, the main feature, material, key ingredient, product type, model number, size, package count, color, or flavor.
• You’ve written a product description that includes the relevant key terms and long-tail keywords.
• You have used bullet points in your product description.
• You’ve used search terms for each product in accordance with Amazon’s guidelines.
• You’ve uploaded product images in accordance with Amazon’s guidelines.
• You have prioritized the best image to appear in search results.
• You’ve made your sales copy honest yet enticing.
• You’ve established sources for off-site traffic.
• You have priced your products strategically against your competitors without detracting from their value.
• You’ve chased up all past customers for reviews, and have an active process in place to encourage reviews after each purchase.

We know, we know… It’s a lot! But if you manage to tick all of those boxes in the checklist above then you will be giving yourself and your product the highest chances possible of achieving success on Amazon. 

If you’re new to the life of an Amazon seller then certain aspects of the checklist will take time – such as getting positive reviews. But with all of the other factors in place and a product you believe in, once you make that precious first sale it should all fall into place.

Summary: Ranking factors to own Amazon search results

Don’t worry if you feel like that was a lot to take in. The thing about “ultimate guides” is that they really do cover everything! And that’s what the summary at the end of an article is for, right? If you’re interested in learning more about how we can help you achieve success on Amazon, why not give us a call? We’re here to help.

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