Some people still think a link is a link, is a link and that any backlink pointing to your website is of the same value. Nothing could be further from the truth. Google has complied extensive data about all websites on the web. This data creates a link profile and based on that, weighs a certain amount of power on the link itself. So what does that mean?
In the early days of Google when they still had Pagerank links were more universal. If a site with a Pagerank of 6 linked to you, it had the same power for your site as it would with any other regardless of topic or niche.
Now with new algorithms and a better understanding of the web, Google has weighted these links with new metrics. Although all Google algorithms are highly secretive, other SEO companies have tried to replicate them using metrics that they call Page Authority or Trust Authority, etc.
Let’s look at a real life example using social media. On Facebook, someone might make the post “Super bored right now. Can anyone suggest me a movie on Netflix?”
You’ve seen this post a thousand times and the poster is going to get a thousand answers.
Now looking at this example, we have 3 good answers for something to watch. However, let’s say that Jim is a friend from camp that doesn’t know me that well. He doesn’t know that I am a big fan of comedies. Since his answer isn’t a comedy, I’m going to ignore it.
Carl is a co-worker. We kind of know each other, but not super well. But he knows me enough to know I would enjoy Iron Man. So I am going to consider his option.
Now Matt is someone I’ve known my whole life and we’ve seen ton’s of movies together. Therefore I am going to take his recommendation the most seriously and thus watch Super Troopers.
This is basically how Google works on rankings. The Facebook question is the same as a Google query and the Google algorithm ranks those responses (the websites) according to the history of the website, how much trust Google has in the website and how on topic the website is. Just like I ranked Matts answer as the highest because of our history, my trust in his movie choices and the fact that he also enjoys comedies.
So when looking for sites to link to you, it’s important to find those with a good age (history), that are an authority (how many quality links on topic are pointing to them) and is on topic (in the same niche as you either directly or indirectly).
I use Open Site Explorer when determining if I want to approach a site for a link. It gives me all of the metrics we discussed.
Aside from links, the amount of Social Media love you get is another contributing factor to your rankings in Google. Let’s look again at the Facebook example of selecting a movie. In this case, I have a preference to comedies, but enjoy all kinds of different movies. As well in this scenario, let’s assume I know each of the people responding fairly equally and have about the same amount of trust in each of them.
Now this time around I am having a struggle as all 3 suggestions seem good and are all from people I trust. However, if you look at the amount of likes for each, Making A Murder seems to have the most social engagement. Thus I would watch Making A Murder.
Google takes the amount of Social Engagement into account the same why we would in this scenario.
Before we briefly discussed links that are topically direct and indirect. What I mean by this is let’s say you have a blog about Horror Movies. Direct topic links would come from other websites that also dealt in specifically Horror Movies.
However, you can also target indirect topics. Movie sites that deal with all genre’s of movies would still be beneficial to your site. Websites that are about just Horror would benefit your site. Sites about Zombies would benefit your site, etc.
Websites that deal with Shoe’s would have no benefit to you if your site is about Horror movies. As well sites that deal with a broad range of topics would be of no benefit to you. You will get these off topic links at some point, and that’s ok, just don’t waste your time or breath pursuing them.
Now that you know what kind of links you want to get and how those links would affect your rankings, you have to go out and get them. Sure some will come naturally, more and more so as your traffic grows, but you have to get the ball rolling someway right?
You could try and find links using Google operators like “your topic” + “submit site” in your Google search. The problem is, you probably won’t find many sites of merit. But you might find a few that will give your site a little juice.
Instead you should do some outreach. Find some direct and indirect on topic sites and email the owner asking for a link. You’d be surprised how often this can work. The right way to do it though is to be polite and to the point and express what benefit they would have to link to you.
Maybe they have a great movie blog, but there Horror section is a little weak and thin. If that was the case they may wish to link to your Horror movie blog to give their readers something they want that they can’t offer. There is a benefit.
If you can’t think of benefit to why other sites would link to yours, maybe your site just isn’t worthwhile. Look within the community and see what other sites are missing and grow that aspect of your site in order to give them a benefit to linking to you.
Another tip when reaching out is to say something along the lines of “I noticed that 4 sites are no longer working on your links page, would you consider switching one out for my site?”
You’ve performed a service and done something nice for another website owner, they might do something nice and give you the link.
Getting links from social media is fairly easy considering you A) have great content thats engaging and B) are active in the community. If you are not getting social love, try looking into the kind of content that is and do your best to replicate the kind of content that is getting love. Your content might not be that great or it might be coming of forced and sound like a sales pitch.
Hopefully this gives you an idea of how Google rankings work and the relationship that links, trust, authority and social signals has on building your brand to increase your ranking position.