Why is your backlink profile so vital to search engine optimization?

With search engine optimization (SEO), your success depends on your ability to plan and execute this strategy effectively. There are many ways you can plan wrongly or set yourself the wrong goals, and there are many ways you can get your vision wrong.

You can evaluate your progress by studying a number of different metrics. You can check your search engine rankings for your target keywords, Your organic traffic and, among other things, your backlink profile. But what exactly is your backlink profile and why is it so important to SEO?

What is a backlink profile?

Your “backlink profile” is an overview of the backlinks that currently refer to your website. These backlinks can come from a variety of sources including publishers, nonprofits, and affiliate institutions, but they all point to your domain in some way. With the right tools, you can see how many links you have, where those links are coming from, how strong those links are, and other factors.

Why are backlinks important?

Why are backlinks such a big deal?

Ranking algorithm from Google is complicated, and we don’t know all about it, but we do know that domains and pages rated as authoritative or “trustworthy” are preferred. The higher the authority of a site or page, the higher it ranks on relevant terms.

How do you get that authority? One of the best and most direct methods is to build backlinks. A backlink from a website is viewed as a kind of trust signal – a vote of confidence that the target website is valuable to an audience. The more backlinks you earn and the stronger those backlinks are, the higher your ranking will be.

Related: 5 ways to optimize your content for better Google rankings

The downside, of course, is that you will face significant penalties if you are caught manipulating your rank by creating unnatural or spammy backlinks.

Backlink profiles are therefore indispensable tools to help guide your link buying and building practices – and to help you weed out “bad” links that might otherwise crash you.

How to rate your backlink profile

How do you rate your backlink profile? The simplest method is to use a Backlink Checker Toolwhich gives you a breakdown of all the links pointing to your website. All you have to do is enter your domain, and the tool will do the rest.

What to check

What exactly should you be looking for?

Related: The 7 Best SEO Tools to Help You Rank Higher on Google

You should check a number of variables, including:

• Number of links. First, check the number of links pointing to your site and to each of your individual pages (if you want to know this in detail). In general, the more links you have, the better. However, you may find that your strategy is focusing too much on one side of your website and not enough on another, more important, side of your website. It is also possible to have too many links pointing to your domain if those links are of poor quality or indicate spam.
• Current domain and page authority. Determine your current domain authority and the page-level authority of your key internal pages. The higher these numbers are, the higher you are likely to rank for your target keywords and phrases.
• Diversity of referring domains. It is not a good idea to rely on the same collection of domains for all of your link building needs; You see diminishing returns from links coming from the same source. If you want the best results, you will need links from a variety of sources.
• Referring domains strength. Hopefully your tool will also help you assess the domain authority of your referring domains. The higher these numbers are, the stronger your links will be. Optimize your campaign to get even stronger domains in your backlink profile.
• Spam indicators. Spam links are a big problem for SEO campaigns. Whether or not you created the links on purpose, a link that appears unnatural, substandard, or spammy could be removed – or penalized your website. Fortunately, backlink checker tools usually come with spam scoring features so you can flag and remove spam backlinks before they become a problem.
• Patterns and practices. Your number of links is growing, but how fast is it growing? Does it seem like the same publishers keep linking to you? You should pay attention to the patterns that are emerging in your link building strategy – and avoid making your links too repetitive, aggressive, or predictable.

If you want to see the best SEO results, it is important to do a backlink profile analysis at least once a month, if not more often. That way, you can keep an eye on the links you’ve created, make sure you’re not breaking Google’s Terms of Service, and fix issues before they become serious enough to compromise your SEO strategy.