Some link builders focus only on a website's authority score when pricing their services. But in reality, the value of a link goes beyond just that score.
Why does a backlink cost $25 on one site and $250 on another, even if they have the same Domain Rating or Domain Authority score?
Well, to make your website successful, you need links from high-quality sites that offer real value to visitors. Before we start your link building campaign, we figure out which links will provide you the best ROI by asking these 10 key questions:
1. How relevant is the site?
We want to build links on sites that are aimed at a specific niche and audience. For example, a tech website shouldn't have food recipes on its front page.
2.Does the organic traffic look healthy?
A traffic chart should show sustained growth at a reasonable pace. Sites losing traffic or going through random peaks and valleys are all red flags.
3. Where is the traffic coming from?
If your website targets people in the U.S., having backlinks from sites with U.S. traffic improves your local visibility. In this example, you don’t want links from sites in Asia for example.
4. How good are the site’s metrics?
DR and DA scores are important metrics but not the only metrics to consider. We also weigh sites based on their spam scores, referring domains and how much traffic they get.
5. How good is the content on their site?
Low effort, poorly written, and spammy content full of exact-match anchors are all red flags. We look for sites that consistently publish interesting content.
6. Is the site part of any link network?
We cross reference a site to lists of known link networks and PBNs – and run various other tests – to make sure these are real publications that grew organically. We avoid sites built to game Google’s algorithm.
7. What are the site’s link policies?
Some sites will insert random links in all of their content, add links to old articles or remove links after a while. We look for permanent link placements on sites that thoughtfully use contextual and relevant links throughout their content.
8. When was the last article published?
Blogs and websites need content to stay alive. We avoid working with sites that do not publish high-quality content regularly.
9. Does the site rank well?
Websites that rank well for a lot of niche-related keywords is a great sign. It shows that Google recognizes the site as valuable and useful.
10. What is the age of the website?
We avoid recently-created websites. These haven't had time to build authority or an audience yet.
We've learned that securing one link meeting all ten criteria is more valuable than obtaining ten links meeting only five. Recently leaked Google documents (*) show their preference for link quality over quantity. This checklist helps us prioritize backlink quality.
