| 14 min |
Your backlink profile provides information about which pages link to content on your website. A targeted backlink analysis helps you to recognize which links could be harmful. This is important to avoid being penalized by Google. We show you here how to check your backlinks with the help of backlink analysis tools and how you can find new, good backlinks and create them for your site.
What is this backlink in the backlink profile?
What influences backlinks
So what is a backlink profile now?
How do backlinks build up in general?
Generate backlinks according to the rules
The backlink check: Checking and evaluating your backlink profile
Why are backlinks so important for SEO and Google?
Conclusion
A backlink profile is an important part of your OffPage optimization. But to understand what it is exactly, you should of course first know what a backlink is.
This is relatively easy: A backlink is a link from an external website to your own. This can be not only to the home page, but also to all subpages.
Backlinks can be characterized in many ways. Roughly speaking, they are divided into follow and nofollow links. In addition, a distinction is made whether they are start page links or deep links. In addition, it is important where they are placed on the corresponding link-giving website. Here, the links can appear in the body text, in the footer and in the sidebar. Depending on where they are found on the page, the links are weighted. In addition, the anchor text, i.e. the phrases with which your page is linked, plays a major role. If hard keywords or keyphrase link texts are used too often, this has a considerable influence on how the search engine evaluates your page. Anchor texts should fit as naturally as possible into the text, as Google has always fought against manipulative anchor texts. In addition, the quality of the backlinks plays a major role. This is determined by the origin, i.e. the website on which the links are placed. This is especially important in link building, as the individual link types are weighted differently and can therefore have different effects on your own website.
A follow link from the body text of a relevant, high-quality source is the jackpot. However, a follow link from a site that is not up-to-date, irrelevant to the topic and not well maintained can even harm you, as Google considers it inappropriate. A nofollow link, on the other hand, is of little use to your website, but still belongs to a natural backlink profile.
The sum of all backlinks pointing to your website is your backlink profile. It is especially important that you make sure that it looks “natural”. This term may seem a bit strange in this context, but it is actually quite simple. A “natural backlink profile” means that you pay attention to the fact that it is about different, mixed backlinks. Therefore, in your profile you need to have both follow and nofollow links as well as links from different sources and page placements to ensure a balance.
Unnatural backlink profiles, on the other hand, often give the appearance of fraud. In practice, this typically means that black hat measures have been used to buy targeted links on link platforms designed for this purpose, links originate from dubious sources or have promotional purposes, but are not marked accordingly for users. Such tactics are harmful for you, because the Google algorithm can now detect violations of the quality guidelines quite well. At worst, this will lead to a lower ranking of your website.
It is easiest if your website already has a lot of traffic. If your content is seen by many users, the chance that it will be shared and linked to increases. This way, it automatically spreads across the web. If your website content does not spread so easily, you can also help it along. However, you have to be careful that you only use measures that are compliant with the rules and cannot be penalized. Otherwise, you will more or less score an own goal, as the Google algorithm will recognize this. As a result, your site may lose traffic and rank lower in search results. Therefore, learn in the next paragraph how you can avoid this.
Especially points one and three are important in connection with your backlink profile. Backlinks are supposed to help users to get topic-relevant pages and additional information. Moreover, they should not be used for the only reason to improve your own ranking, but to add value.
The so-called white hat methods help you find and generate backlinks according to the rules – unlike their counterpart, the black hat methods.
The keyword that is particularly relevant here is content outreach. But one thing needs to be clarified right away: Backlinks don’t build overnight – they take time, patience and persistence. Once you’re aware of that, you can start with outreach:
Finding the right websites takes time…lots of time. But extensive research will really help you, as your acquisition will not only allow you to analyze potential sites to publish your content on, but also to check the existing backlinks of other sites.
For example, have a direct look at the backlinks of your competitors. With the help of a targeted backlink analysis, you can also find suitable pages for you. Afterwards, you can approach the corresponding webmaster yourself and ask whether one of your topics is also interesting for him.
A benchmark analysis can therefore help you. In addition, you can see how you stand in direct comparison with your competitors. Keep in mind, however, that quality of the selected pages comes before quantity. You should not simply write to every webmaster that you find or that is in the backlink profile of your competitors. There are three characteristics that should go directly into the selection of your research sites:
Take a good look at the page where your content is potentially linked. It’s best to look directly for an article to which your content would fit as a addition. This way you make the webmaster’s work easier. Otherwise, you can also offer to write a new article for him, which he may publish on his page. However, it can happen that the webmaster is not interested in publishing other people’s content. Most of the time, it is easier to add a specific article and link your additional content here.
Also, think carefully about the arguments you can use to sell your content. Does the webmaster have a certain attitude towards life, which is visible in his texts – can you respond to this? Or is the content you offer the must-have through a cool infographic? At best, think about several arguments.
Then look for contact details of the webmaster. Do you find a phone number? Perfect! A direct, personal contact is always the best way. This is the best opportunity to exchange sympathies. If you only find an e-mail address, that’s not bad either. Here, too, you can explain to the webmaster why a link to your website will be a real gain for him and his users.
…and do not confuse persistent with annoying.
Also offer alternatives if it turns out that the webmaster was not satisfied with the first proposal. Try everything within the realm of possibility, and always ask for promised hyperlinks. But remember, always remain polite, calm and friendly. Nobody will grant a wish to a choleric interlocutor.
Relationships are the be-all and end-all and must be cultivated. Especially if you manage to win well-known websites with a high visibility and a lot of traffic for you, you absolutely have to maintain contact with your contact person. Keep them up to date on all content that may also interest them, and proactively ask if content is needed. Think long term!
It can happen that, despite your compliant behavior, links appear on spammy or poor quality websites. This is the nature of the internet – content spreads automatically, without your own intervention. Moreover, links are often used as a means to harm competitors. So you have to be very careful here! Therefore, you must regularly check your backlink profile and clean it out.
With the Disavow tool of the Google Search Console, you can have harmful links declared invalid. This removes them from your backlink profile.
The first question you might ask yourself in this context, or maybe even before, is: Where can I view my backlinks?
The most helpful tool for this is the Google Search Console. Via the tab “Links” you can view the “External Links“. Here you will get detailed information about your most linked pages, but also about the top linking pages. So you get a detailed listing of your backlinks.
The only disadvantage of the Google Search Console is that you have to check all backlinks manually. You can make this easier by using link research tools, but these are often subject to a fee.
There are several factors that will help you analyze and evaluate your backlink manually. These include:
Backlinks are the indication that your content is relevant for users and therefore spreads on the internet. They are a kind of digital recommendation, which shows that your website is authentic and popular. Google also recognizes this signal or recommendation and therefore values the content as more important. Backlinks are therefore also one of the ranking factors and thus have a direct influence on your positioning on the search results page (SERP). This is due to the fact that Google is more easily and quickly aware of your page through many links. Especially a link from a popular domain brings you
If you want to rank well within the SERP of a search engine, you should not only rely on OnPage optimization, but also on OffPage optimization. Backlinks are essential as a digital recommendation to become more visible not only for the search engine algorithm, but also for the user. So you increase your awareness and the traffic on your website – if that’s not two birds with one stone.
Google evaluates backlinks as a recommendation of content by an external site. Thus, content is classified as thematically relevant. If a user now searches for something in this direction, pages with enough backlinks, i.e. recommendations, are positioned higher up, as they are perceived as more relevant. Google thus interprets a higher added value in these pages.
A natural backlink profile always works if it is a mixture of different backlinks. Therefore, in your profile, in addition to follow and nofollow links, there must be links from different sources as well as page placements to ensure a balanced relationship.
With the help of a backlink analysis, you can see if your backlink profile is natural or if it contains possible toxic (harmful) links. It is important to remove this type of backlinks from your profile, otherwise you will be penalized by Google.
To identify suitable link-giving pages, it is very helpful to also look at the backlink profile of your competitors. This way, you also have an idea in which directions you should research.
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