A Definition of Quality Backlinks

First of all we need to define backlink quality. Like most things in SEO, we do not have a fixed set of rules, procedures or definitions. In fact, there is no such thing as a fixed set of rules and definitions which define backlink quality. The debate is, as usual, open and ongoing. You will find other definitions and opinions that differ from what you'll read in this article. Remember, SEO is more an art than it is a science: it has no fixed boundaries. Definitions and best practices you read about online are often based on empirical evidence, which is why things tend to change quickly.

In search engine optimisation, a quality backlink is DOFOLLOW. When a backlink is DOFOLLOW, both search engines and people are allowed to follow the link. DOFOLLOW backlinks pass so-called link equity (or link juice) which is beneficial to the website they target. The benefit of a DOFOLLOW link is an increase in authority. DOFOLLOW backlinks also confer reputation.

In case you are wondering, let's explain what link equity is before moving on. We mentioned how SEOs informally refer to this metric as "link juice." Link equity is a search engine ranking factor. The concept is one of passing value and authority from one page to another. The value of link equity depends on many factors, such as the linking page's authority and topical relevance. Links which pass link equity are a signal that search engines use to determine a page's rankings in the SERPs.

Secondly, backlinks should sit within the context of a sentence. In other words, links should be in the central area of the article or blog post, and will be less important if they are in the page footer. The website sourcing the backlink should be of high-quality and topically relevant to our page.

A third quality factor is anchor text. The highest quality backlinks use relevant keywords in the anchor text, pointing to a website. Anchor text confers a reputation.

Ideally, a backlink will feature all these qualities. Unfortunately for us, most backlinks do not meet all these criteria. It's quite rare to have backlinks that meet more than a couple of them. Therefore we would be wrong if we focused our attention on this kind of backlink quality as our only objective.

We determine backlink quality based on a spectrum of options. A backlink can be valuable even without all those qualities we would so much like for them to have!

To Summarize:

A quality backlink is one both search engines and users can follow (it does not have a NOFOLLOW Attribute). It is contextual - placed in the content of the web page because the author believed it is a backlink of value for the reader who can follow it and learn more on the subject or learn something new. Lastly, a high backlink quality will strengthen our backlink profile, increase authority and confer a strong reputation.

The essence of backlink quality

We base backlink quality both on an individual level and as part of a website's backlink profile. We'll address backlink profile issues in another article of this series. Earlier, we described the ideal backlink. In fact, we stated the best possible backlink to our website would be:

• DOFOLLOW and would pass link equity;
• naturally positioned in the body of an article or blog post;
• theme focused and on-topic with our website;
• characterised by use of keyword-rich anchor text .

Unfortunately, there is no set of rules to establish backlink quality that you can follow: you must evaluate each link. In many cases, you'll need to look at the quality of each link. Website context will play a significant role. Remember, proper Search Engine Optimisation is a delicate balance between the science of ranking and the art of understanding what is happening in the surrounding digital ecosystem. We've spoken about DOFOLLOW backlinks and their benefits, so there is no need for further explanations. What we didn't mention earlier is the opposite of DOFOLLOW, which is NOFOLLOW. All Backlinks from comments in blogs and forums are NOFOLLOW.

Definition of Nofollow Links

Nofollow are backlinks where the webmaster has decided to apply a particular HTML attribute (rel ="nofollow") search engines can read and understand. When we apply the rel= "nofollow" attribute to a backlink, we ask the search engines to ignore the link and not follow through to the linked website. With the rel ="nofollow" attribute, we are taking our distance from a website: we are telling the search engines we don't trust the target website, or we do not want to credit it with the link juice it would get, had we not used the rel="nofollow" attribute.

Speaking about NOFOLLOW backlinks, we specifically used the word ask in the previous paragraph because late last year, in September 2019, Google announced how the NOFOLLOW attribute would evolve and introduced two new backlink attributes:

• The rel="sponsored" attribute to identifiy advertising, sponsorship or similar links;
• The rel="ugc" attribute to identify user generated content links, such as comments and forum posts.

Moving forward, Google will treat these three attributes as hints. Ranking signals now may include NOFOLLOW links. Therefore, search engines may not ignore them, as has been the case up until now.

Position of the Link

The position within an article or blog post is a backlink quality signal. Editorial backlinks are the most valuable. An editorial backlink is a citation by the author, creating a connection between two pieces of content. A backlink in a page footer or a directory type list will have a much smaller impact on our search engine rankings.

Topical relevance

We touched base on the relevance of referring sources earlier in this article. Let's elaborate on the concept of relevance. Search engines detect how "close" two pages are, based on their topical nature. Interlinking between sites on football and sports can be a strong quality signal. Links between software and gardening are more dubious; therefore they are potentially less relevant.

Anchor text relevance

Anchor text is the text of a link users click. Search engines use anchor text as a signal to determine relevance to the linking page. In other words, anchor text is a signal search engines use to determine how the content on the receiving end of the backlink is relevant to the linking page. So, for example, let's consider an article about antivirus software. A link to a page selling hardware would include the word "computer" or something similar - for example anchor text containg the word "hardware". Therefore, backlinks which have keyword-rich anchor text are valuable. But having a link profile with mostly keyword-based anchor text that is over optimised will hurt more than help.

Backlink quality signals you should look for in an SEO Audit

In an SEO audit, we seek spam backlinks to disavow. A SPAM backlink will have shallow values of Trust Flow. Spam backlinks will often sit on websites with unrelated Topical Trust Flow and they may have an aggressive anchor text pattern, so we must check that too. For an SEO Audit, it makes more sense to run a domain level backlink check. Therefore you should run a domain level query for the same website. Select all the backlinks with a value of zero and download them for further analysis. Here's a tip on how to identify low-level backlinks: When the ratio between Trust Flow and citation flow is much less than 0.5 there could be a quality problem.

Click on TF0 to select backlinks with a value of Trust Flow equal to zero. Click on Export Data, and Majestic will prompt you to download the data in a format of your choice. Proceed to segment the data to analyse anchor text and topical trust flow. Depending on what you find, a second iteration could be necessary. Understanding the quality of your backlinks can be a challenging activity.