What makes a good backlink?
Plenty of bad backlinks exist out there. Knowing what makes a backlink good is key to developing the right link-building strategy for your site. Good backlinks have high relevance, authoritativeness, and are effective in directing referral traffic to your site.
A good backlink meets the following criteria:
Relevance
Relevance Getting backlinks from sites that are relevant to your industry or niche are considered more valuable than links coming from unrelated websites. Backlinks from unrelated sites signal a lack of relevance to major search engines, like Google. Not only is it an indication of potentially spammy links, it also speaks to poor user intent, which is the goal for ranking quality websites on SERPs.
Authoritativeness
Backlinks from high-authority websites are much more credible and valuable. By looking at a website's domain authority - which is a score that predicts how well a website will rank on search engines. Authoritative websites can also be referred to as trustworthy sites, because they often practice ethical ways of link-building.
Diversity of backlink profile
A good backlink profile is one with links coming from a variety of sources, such as blogs, websites, social media platforms, and directory submissions. This indicates to search engines like Google, that your website is valuable and relevant for users across a range of platforms.
How does a negative backlink affect your website?
Also known as a ‘toxic’ or ‘bad’ backlink, negative backlinks can result in a decrease in search engine rankings, or even incite a penalty from search engines like Google. The significant drop in traffic can harm your website’s reputation and online visibility.
SEO managers and professionals are encouraged to monitor the status and quality of the backlink profiles associated with the websites they manage. Disavowing bad backlinks through Google Disavow Tool, or other third-party tools, tells search engines to ignore the link when determining the site’s ranking.