Michal Suski

Quick Wins in Link Building – “The Surfer Style”

You might be familiar with classic link building; the process of acquiring as many backlinks as possible each day. Often, you could easily reach the hundreds, and they might be low-quality, but the quantity was what mattered.

If you’re still doing this, you need to stop because everything has changed over the past few years.

SEO tends to consist of three main factors; optimizing the visitor experience, content, and off-page ranking factors (backlinks and mentions). This little guide is all about link building and how to find those quick and easier wins.

Valuable links matter – how to recognize them

When I refer to valuable links, what I mean is that they have been placed on a visible page on Google search results. That is to say; they are high ranking pages.

This is because the value of a link will increase when it is higher in the rankings because it will generate a greater amount of organic visibility and traffic to the site.

I don’t need to remind you that the more visible keywords and traffic, the better the outcome for your business.

It can be difficult to calculate the value of a link, especially as SEO is something that is constantly evolving and changing with the market.

There are a few pieces of advice that tend to stand strong through all the changes, however.

The first of these is that the page you are linking from should be related to the desired topic and have optimized piece if content to increase visibility.

The content needs to be high quality, and it doesn’t necessarily matter if it isn’t particularly long provided that the text is rich with information and contains the required keywords to boost your ranking.

Google is stricter than ever in terms of content, and going about things half-heartedly won’t do you any favors.

Always make sure you link from the strong subpage, and remember that the page you are linking to is the one that should appear in search results.

Google devaluated links with minor visibility

You’ll find there is one thing I might repeat a few times in this article; quality over quantity.

It used to be that acquiring hundreds (even thousands) of backlinks was the best way to boost your reach and traffic.

However, this isn’t the case any longer, and analyzing the total backlinks is quite misleading.

Link evaluation
Link evaluation

You can only determine the true power of domain backlinks after you have evaluated them through a screening process, using tools.

Without these, the process can be time-consuming, so you might as well use them and let it show you how your backlinks are working.

If anything, using popular tools and discovering more about your backlinks should show you that there is more power in a few strong and well-placed links than 1000 poor quality and widespread ones. Not only that but…

…using loads of low-quality links can lead to Google devaluating the page you are linking in the first place.

Mike Suski

Link intersection

One of the excellent features is that it allows you to compare pages of your choice and intersect the backlinks to the domains in question.

It’s perfect for competitor analysis – which I explore in the next section. Use it for uncovering linking patterns and websites that link to your competition but not you.

Each of the backlinks will need to be analyzed to find out if it’s an important one or can be discarded, which can be quite a lengthy process if you have hundreds of backlinks or more.

That’s why having tools that can do the job for you are so useful, and can save you a heap of time and hassle.

How to make competitor analysis better

It’s so important to keep an eye on what your competitors are doing – no doubt about it.

Learn from your mistakes (and theirs) as well as ways in which you can boost your own business.

Surfer is able to provide you with backlinks that are commonly found on top-ranking pages using a keyword of your choice; giving you the boost that you need to get started.

Missing Common Backlinks
Missing Common Backlinks

There is a one-click audit that provides you with a complete breakdown of the domains that are commonly linked together but not yet with your page.

Every backlink that comes through is carefully evaluated according to the traffic to the linking subpage and any indirect traffic.

It is an unfaltering metric, especially compared to DA or TF where the calculations are mere indicators and values can be fake.

Moz.com subpage traffic
Moz.com subpage traffic

The process allows you to discover who has the strongest backlink and where you can get one for your page.

This way you can also increase traffic and really start to reach a wider audience.

It’s important to remain sharp and in touch with what your customers want, which is part of what competitor analysis is able to achieve.

Indirect traffic for backlinks – represent its Off-Page strengths

Surfer has a unique value proposition that is able to save a great deal of time. This comes in the way in which it analyses indirect traffic for backlinks.

It is a metric that works by showing the total viability and organic traffic for each backlink in questions.

It can help you to find backlinks that are sending out some strong vibes but are actually weak in terms of their own Google visibility.

High indirect traffic and low visibility
High indirect traffic and low visibility

Indirect traffic is relatively self-explanatory right? It is traffic that comes from a source that is related to the URL in question. But does not come as a result of using it directly.

If you decide to take on the task of analyzing indirect traffic without the help of Surfer, you will find that it takes an exceptionally long time to get any results.

It’s time that could be spent on other areas of your business, and let the tool do its work can really boost your progress.

Find free links that will give you a boost

You can use Surfer SEO to analyze your keyword, or related keywords. Look for pages that are linking a lot.

The results are displayed on a chart. Each of the peaks on it shows you that there are multiple pages linked there. You have to ask yourself; if that many web pages are appearing there, why can’t yours?

Links - Unique External
Links – Unique External

These links are incredibly strong because of their visibility and the fact that they rank so highly on related keywords, and this is true even if they are no follow links.

As I have mentioned before, you need backlinks that are both strong and high-quality. It is exactly what you will find with the chart.

In fact, I have even carried out a short study to show have effective this form of link building can be, and we discovered a whole load of opportunities as a result.

Through this, we were able to acquire six no-follow backlinks and two text mentions – which are quite impressive results.

To clarify, in case some of this language is new to you. No follow link is defined as a link that doesn’t count as a point in the page’s favor. This means that they won’t help your search engine rankings but, as long as you aren’t spamming them on a massive scale, they won’t hurt them either.

Position in SERP vs Backlinks Count
Position in SERP vs Backlinks Count

Some have claimed that no follow links are completely useless with regards to SEO, but they are actually incorrect.

Google states that they don’t generally follow them.

But this statement leaves room for the interpretation that there are some that they do – and it’s true.

Combined with your target keyword, the no follow link might not have as much impact as a do follow.

To conclude

Link building can take a good deal of time and effort, but it doesn’t always have to be – does it? Use the smart tools to help you analyze and go through backlinks.

You can cut down massively on the time and be met with accurate results. Backlinks are part of what makes businesses strong, and not having any could be hurting you more than you thought.

There’s quite a lot to the process, and it might seem daunting at first. The process of good link building can become quite routine. These quick wins don’t necessarily take much for you to implement, but the impact can be huge. With the right backlinks, you could experience a massive increase in traffic and organic reach.

Michał Suski

Digital marketing and websites quality enthusiast. Skilled SEO and successful team leader. Former Head of SEO at one of the top polish agencies KampanieSEO.

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