Backlinks are an integral part of Search Engine Optimization. It is these backlinks that help secure a good ranking for a website in SERPs. Every business, be it a clothing brand or a food chain, has a website or online presence. Since the market is becoming increasingly competent these days, it is essential to make sure that the site does well.
Many believe that it is ‘the more, the merrier’ case with the backlinks. Websites run after mediocre sites with questionable authenticity for the backlinks.
The question then becomes; is it really the number that matters?
The answer to it is not black and white. We will have to look at a few things to conclude as to how many backlinks can make a difference.
Here are a few:
The quality
The type of backlinks for a website has a lot to do with the actual change in the ranking or the traffic of the website.
Google credits websites that are sourced by high authority websites. For instance, if one site has multiple backlinks from somehow low authority websites and the other site has a single backlink from a high-authority website, the latter will be credited more.
Many times, websites running after every petty backlink end up hurting themselves. The easily obtainable backlinks that one gets online are either broken or spammy. If a site is accommodating either, it will affect it severely. Spam content on a website can make it vulnerable to the hacks and other black hat techniques. Broken links if left unchecked can downplay a website’s ranking as well.
Therefore, it is vital to ensure that the backlink you want is neither of the two and is from a credible website. You can buy backlinks cheap from high quality sites.
The quantity
In the race of getting more backlinks within no time, many people opt for buying them instead. Buying links is not preferable, but it does not harm the website in any way either.
Many websites are selling backlinks online. Note that not all of these websites are trustworthy. Many of them sell broken or spam containing backlinks. Since you are buying the links in bulk, you may find it difficult to spot the harmful ones.
So, make sure that you buy backlinks from websites that have good reviews for example Healthy Links.
Black Hat techniques; the no-go area
At times, the websites having plenty of backlinks are still not able to make it to a good Google ranking. The possibility is that the site has been penalized.
Websites often get penalized because of a plethora of reasons. The one relevant here is Private Blogging Networks (PBNs). Private Blogging Networks are a type of a black hat technique that connects a website with a number of other websites for backlinks. You must be wondering what is wrong with that, right?
The websites that are portrayed as backlinks are created explicitly for this purpose. These are basically expired domains that once had a good authority in Google. If a website is found to be a part of a Private Blogging Network, it is penalized.
Another reason why the websites are penalized is the rapid gain in backlinks in a specific period. This is why buying backlinks is a slippery slope. If a website gains 100+ backlinks overnight, Google algorithms can easily detect unusual activity. And the chances are that any unusual activity will be penalized by Google. Once your website gets penalized by Google, it becomes tough to recover its old position. Therefore, it is always recommended to follow the guidelines set by Google promptly.
Summing up
In a nutshell, no specific number of backlinks can guarantee a change in the performance of a website. Although the number of backlinks does matter but understand that it is not the ONLY thing that matters.
Before concluding how many backlinks you need to improve the performance of your website, it is essential to audit the ones you already have. Use a monitoring tool to check how many healthy backlinks you already have to analyze the situation better. Sometimes all it really takes to make a difference in the performance of a website is removing a couple of broken backlinks your website has.
Focus on getting good quality backlinks from high-authority websites. It is the quality of the backlinks that matters more than the quantity.
So, stop running after every other website and start doing smart work.
Leave a Reply