1. Follow vs. No-Follow Backlinks
Site owners can specify if an individual link passes link equity or not. A no follow link does not pass link equity – colloquially called “link juice” – to the linking domain, while a follow link does. While followed backlinks are much more desirable, no follow links from high-quality websites can still be beneficial to enhance your brand.
(Interestingly, local SEO strategy views follow and no follow links from relevant, localized websites as equally valuable.)
2. Authority of the Linking Domain
Backlinks obtained from linking domains of high authority usually offer more value (link equity) than links from low-quality, new, or spammy websites. Backlinks from spammy websites should be avoided whenever possible.
3. Link Relevancy
Google knows if a backlink is irrelevant to your website's content. If a gluten-free bakery in California links to your brick-and-mortar hiking gear shop in Colorado, the backlink is not extremely relevant and will likely not pass as much link juice as a backlink received from a mountain climbing site.
4. Link Location
Website architecture is significant to Google, as is the positioning of a link on the page. For example, a backlink tucked in the footer of a page may not pass as much equity as one added toward the top of a relevant blog post.
5. Anchor Text
Anchor textis the visible characters or words that display a hyperlink within content, often underlined and uniquely colored. In the previous sentence, “anchor text” is the anchor text for an outbound link. Certain anchor text is deemed SEO-friendly, passing more equity than others. Succinct, relevant, and non-generic text is preferable.
For example, linking to this blog post with the anchor “importance of backlinks for SEO” is preferable to linking with the generic text “click here.”
