SEO Backlinking Process

To boost the rankings of a well-optimized website, backlinking is an excellent tactic. However, backlinking alone will not usually improve your rankings, so our process focuses on optimizing your website pages first, and then using backlinks to boost them.

What is a Backlink?

The term backlink simply refers to a link from one website to another. For example, this is a backlink to a website called ReDoSites. When you click on this link, you will be taken to ReDoSites.com.

Backlinks are like votes of confidence from one site to another. The more backlinks a website has, the more authoritative it is considered to be by search engines like Google.

Important Parts of a Backlink:

Here is the HTML code for the above backlink:

<a href="https://www.redosites.com/">this is a backlink</a>

In this code, the red text is the URL, which is the website page you will be redirected to when you click the link. Ideally, you want to have your website’s URL embedded in this code on other high-quality websites.

The green text is the Anchor Text, which appears in the link. Anchor text is important for SEO because it provides Google with some information about what the URL is about. This anchor text tells Google that ReDoSites is about “this is a backlink,” which is not ideal for that specific site. A better anchor text might be something along the lines of “fast page loading websites.”

The green text is the Anchor Text. It is the visible text that appears as a link. Anchor text is crucial for SEO because it provides Google with context about the linked webpage’s content. In this specific example, the backlink to ReDoSites suggests to Google that ReDoSites is about “this is a backlink,” which isn’t the most relevant or informative description for that particular website. A more appropriate anchor text would be something like “fast page loading websites,” as this accurately reflects the content and expertise of ReDoSites.

What is Domain Authority & Page Authority?

Domain Authority is not a Google term, but an SEO term that describes a website’s ability to rank well on Google. The SEO industry uses it as an aggregated estimate of the benefit a website receives from backlinks. Although Google does not specifically use such a metric, all the elements of Domain Authority appear in their ranking algorithm.

High Domain Authority

While a high Domain Authority (DA) doesn’t guarantee top rankings, it indicates that your website has the potential to rank well. DA considers various factors, including the quality and quantity of backlinks to your site and your website’s overall SEO health. However, it doesn’t directly assess the relevance of your website’s focus keywords.

For instance, if your plumbing website has a high DA, it doesn’t automatically mean you’ll rank well for the search term “water heater repair” if your website hasn’t been optimized for that specific keyword.

Page Authority

Page Authority (PA) is analogous to Domain Authority (DA), but it applies to individual pages rather than the entire website. Typically, your homepage has the highest PA, which is why it often appears on the first page of Google search results. Other pages on your site often have fewer backlinks, leading to lower indexing rates.

Like other SEO aspects, Domain Authority is constantly in flux due to changes in the DA of websites linking to yours. If a low-quality website links to your site, your Domain Authority could decrease. This aspect is not the easiest to control.

How Does Domain / Page Authority Work?

Example: A webpage with a Page Authority (PA) of 35 out of 1000 (abbreviated “PA 35”) is linked to your website. As a result, a portion of that PA is transferred to your webpage, boosting its overall PA score. To achieve a PA of 35, your webpage may require backlinks from numerous PA 35+ pages, each contributing a fraction of their PA to your page. The same principle applies to Domain Authority (DA).

It’s crucial to note that your website’s internal pages can also exchange Page Authority. This highlights the importance of “contextual links,” which are links embedded within the main content of a page, such as paragraphs of bullet points, rather than in the navigation bar or footer.

While Domain Authority (DA) is generally expressed on a scale of 1 to 100, it doesn’t follow a linear progression. This means that the difference in ranking power between websites with different DA scores is not uniform.

For instance:

A DA 20 website has approximately 10 times the ranking power of a DA 10 website.
A DA 30 website has roughly 100 times the ranking power of a DA 10 website.
A DA 40 website possesses around 1,000 times the ranking power of a DA 10 website.
A DA 50 website holds about 10,000 times the ranking power of a DA 10 website.
So on and so forth…

This nonlinear relationship implies that acquiring a single backlink from a DA 20 website generally holds similar weight to obtaining 10 backlinks from individual DA 10 websites.

What's the Difference Between Outbound Links & Backlinks?

An outbound link is a link on your website that directs users to another website. Conversely, a backlink, also known as an inbound link, is a link on another website that points to your website. In the first paragraph of this page, the backlink to ReDoSites is an outbound link from the Third Marble Marketing website.

Google considers the Domain Authority (DA) and other factors of linked websites as "votes" for both sites. If your website contains outbound links to high-quality content, Google infers that your content must also be of high quality, as you are referencing reputable sources. This can positively impact your DA.

When a high-quality, well-respected website backlinks to your website, it transfers some of its "quality" to your website, enhancing your DA. However, if your website contains outbound links to spammy content or if spammy websites backlink to your website, Google may lower its opinion of your website and consequently decrease your DA.

In essence, outbound links demonstrate your website's credibility and willingness to share valuable information. Backlinks, on the other hand, indicate that other websites recognize your content as authoritative and trustworthy. Both types of links play a crucial role in search engine optimization (SEO) and can significantly impact your website's ranking potential.

What is Third Marble Marketing's Entity Strategy?

SEO backlinking process at Third Marble Marketing

All of the content we develop is designed to fit within what we call an “SEO entity.” This refers to the relationship between a website’s primary target page and its sub-pages (everything shown in the blue box above illustrates an SEO entity).

By interlinking high-authority external pages (such as 5-10 blog posts), relevant keyword-rich websites, and the contents of a client's entity, we greatly enhance the credibility and trustworthiness of their website.

This is crucial for SEO success, as Google values experience, expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) when ranking sites. Therefore, by ensuring that the client's site is associated with reputable sources that meet these standards, we improve its chances of ranking highly in search engine results pages. To learn more about our “entity” processes, please visit our Entity Map page.

This is the reason we sell our SEO services in blocks of 10 pages. It allows us to focus on creating funnels of backlinks to high-valued pages of your website.

We hope this helps!

Learn More About Our SEO Entity Maps Here