What makes for a good, quality SEO backlink? Here are 9 things to look for…

A backlink is a link from any other website to your website, and they’re good for SEO. Well, mostly – I’ll get to that clarification in a few hundred words time.

Google interprets backlinks like little stamps of authority that can also add context about what you do, and who might be interested.

For example, let’s say there are two identical websites for two identical wedding florists in Yeovil called Sally’s Flowers and Neil’s Blooms. Sally’s Flowers doesn’t have any backlinks pointing to it, but Neil’s Blooms has links from:

• A Somerset blogger who wrote about her wedding suppliers
• 3 British flower farms who include Neil’s Blooms in their approved florists lists
• 3 West Country venues who include Neil’s Blooms as an approved supplier
• 5 different articles on 5 different online wedding magazines
• 8 wedding directories
• 3 Yeovil wedding photographers who all credit Neil’s Blooms in their relevant portfolio projects

And now you are Google. Hello, Google, ya lil robot you.

Francine is sat on her sofa and has just Googled “wedding florist Yeovil” – now we know that both Sally and Neil make the cut – but based off all the evidence you have, who are you putting top? Don’t worry, I know you’ve picked Neil, unless you’re being a silly goose, you silly goose.

And that’s why backlinks can massively help your SEO. It’s not as simple as more backlinks = rank higher = more traffic, but it is as simple as fewer backlinks = more competitors who could beat you.

Now, we’re about to get into the qualities of a good quality backlink, but before we do…

 

What is search engine optimisation (SEO)?

SEO is the process of optimising a website to appear higher and more often in the results of search engines – mainly Google. In fact, until this very blog right here, I used to only mention Google as that search engine.

However, right now we’re seeing an explosion in the use of AI tools like ChatGPT as a search engine, so I should change all my advice, right?

Nah, not just yet.

Search engines largely rely on a few different factors when it’s deciding on where and how highly to rank your website:

• The technical performance
• The content (well, words) on your website
• The context, like how many people visit, and how long they stay

Backlinks are one of those context factors, as they place your website in the context of the larger world by looking at where it’s connected to other websites and who they are.

And if you’re wondering what the difference is between “SEO backlinks” and just “backlinks”, we’ll dive into that one right now.

 

1. The backlink is a link that actually counts towards your SEO

Time to clarify this blog’s opening sentence. Some backlinks just do not count towards your SEO – these links have a tiny string of text in their code that basically tells Google “hey babes, this doesn’t count, ok?”

The HTML for a normal link looks like this:

<a href="[The link address]">The text that is linked</a>

The a is HTML code for a link.

The href stands for “Hypertext Reference” which I totally had to Google, despite building websites since I was 12 years old when I created my Neopets hints & cheats website.

It basically means “This the address that I want your web browser to reference when it sends you towards this link”. It’s often also called the link’s target.

The HTML for a link that does NOT count towards your SEO has a tiny addition:

<a href="[The link address]" rel="nofollow">The text that is linked</a>

Hey you pesky rel="nofollow", what are you doing?

Well I’ll tell you, that tiny bit of code is telling Google that the rel (relationship) should not be followed. The relationship doesn’t count, just like the one between Eliot & Lauren on the recently concluded series of Married at First Sight Australia.

No Follow links are a useful tool for a website manager, they could be used by:

• A news organisation that does not want to grant a commercial benefit to a private company
• A blogger who wants to write a scathing review for Sally’s Flowers without benefitting their SEO at the same time
• A directory that wants listed businesses to pay to receive an SEO benefit
• Social media platforms who don’t want people to spam their sites with crap links to try and hack an SEO benefit

What’s more, they’re not the only type of backlinks that come without that magical power because of rel attributes:

• rel="sponsored" – for links that someone is being incentivised to create
• rel="UGC" – for links that indicate this is user generated content is about the target link brand

Now, according to some websites, rel="UGC" backlinks could count towards your SEO, but as per Google’s own documentation; “Links marked with these rel attributes will generally not be followed.”

So if you are specifically working on backlinks for your SEO, avoid No Follow, Sponsored and UGC links. That’s not to say they’re not valuable, they’re just not what we’re looking for now.

And that’s also why from this point on, I’m switching from typing “backlinks” to “SEO backlinks”, with SEO backlinks being ones that are not marked up with those special rel attributes.

BTW, these are also sometimes called “do follow” or “follow” backlinks. I should’ve worked that in earlier. Soz.

 

2. It is your first SEO backlink from the referring website

Having multiple SEO backlinks pointing from one website to your website is definitely a good thing – but it’s the very first link that has the greatest impact.

This initial SEO backlink creates the connection, adds the context and gives the stamp of approval. So whilst I would NEVER tell you to turn down additional links from a website where you already have links, I will tell you that it’s not the greatest priority.

We each only have so much time and/or money, and it’s more likely to have more benefits for your business if you have 10 links from 10 websites, rather than 10 links on 1 website.

 

3. The linking website and/or the linking website page has a lot in common with your website

If you’re the Yeovillian Neil behind Neil’s Blooms, it probably won’t help you too much to have a backlink from a mountain tour company in Nepal.

In general, you want to have as much in common with your SEO backlink referrer as possible, so generally aim to have at least one of these shared qualities:

• Location
• Target audience
• Values
• Processes
• Materials & tools
• Selling points

Sometimes, a link from a bland or off-topic website can be saved by the context of the single page where the SEO backlink is found. For example, it might be that the head of that Nepalese mountain tour company has just come back from an unusual holiday to Yeovil, and is writing a blog about “Unmissable independent businesses that are very welcoming to Nepalese travellers!”

Ok, that is very unlikely.

Instead, let’s say it’s a link from the very multi-topic website Eventbrite, and the SEO backlink is contained in a event description for the best floristry workshop in Yeovil. Much more likely, and a lovely backlink that most people can grab.

 

 

4. The linking website adds context not already provided by other SEO backlinks

The sum of all your SEO backlinks is often called your backlink profile. A healthy backlink profile contains those stamps of approval for all the most important aspects of your brand.

I like to picture this profile as a spider or radar diagram, sorta like football player stats that I remember seeing over the shoulder of my Pro Evo loving housemates back when I was in uni.

Actually, let me boff out a quick example in my trusty PowerPoint…

 

 

So. We’ve ditched Neil now as he’s had too much attention and it’s going to his head.

I want you to see this diagram as a visualisation for an imaginary independent Bristolian shoe brand that specialises in sustainable and vegan footwear for trail running and hiking.

The scale represents the amount of SEO power (sometimes called SEO juice or backlink juice (not by me though as those terms give me the ick)).

We want that yellow polygon in the centre to be as even and circular as possible.

Right now, the brand looks to be lacking in some hiking-related backlinks, so I’d suggest the brand owner seeks out specific backlink-building opportunities in that area – like teaming up with a hiking brand or reaching out to bloggers and publications about hiking.

I’ve reviewed hundreds of small business websites in my 9+ years of running this web design company, and a surprisingly common backlink profile challenge I’ve seen more than a few times, is something more like this…

 

 

I’m not sure why, but many sustainable and vegan-focused brands tend to be very heavy on links from sustainability and vegan-focused sources.

I’m not sure if it’s because there are more accessible resources in this area, or because the brands themselves seek out opportunities in this area. Still, it’s a neat quirk that I wanted to highlight – and now I totally want you to check your SEO backlinks for this phenomenon too.

 

5. The linking website is big, old, & busy

Google loves Authority. It’s the A in their EEAT acronym, and part of the main 4 qualities of helpful content, which Google itself says it wants to appear at the top of search results.

In general, a website that has loads of pages that have been published over a long period and are viewed by tonnes of people also has a high level of authority.

I do keep using that stamp-of-approval analogy, but more authority from the source of your SEO backlink kinda acts like a bigger stamp.

 

6. That SEO backlink is sending people to your website

If lots of people are using an SEO backlink to visit your website, and then they’re engaging with your website, that’s a pretty solid indication that the link is important and good.

A well-used SEO backlink is almost universally agreed to be better than a rarely-used SEO backlink. Many SEO people say that the more used the link, the greater the SEO juice too.

I won’t say that though, because of the aforementioned ick.

SEO backlinks from big websites are nearly always better than those from small websites, but they also tend to be harder to get – so don’t get trapped putting all your SEO eggs into this basket.

 

7. The SEO backlink is not hidden or smooshed away

Google can kinda ‘see’ where an SEO backlink is on a website, and many sources say that this position is taken into consideration.

For example, a link in a website footer likely has less impact than one at the top of the homepage.

Thing is, you don’t often get to choose where a link is on someone else’s website, so I would still go for an SEO backlink buried in the conclusion of a blog post over no SEO backlink at all.

 

8. The text with the SEO backlink is descriptive

Remember this fella?

<a href="[The link address]">The text that is linked</a>

Well, SEO backlinks with helpful text like this:

<a href="studiocotton.co.uk">Studio Cotton, the best web design company in Bristol</a>

Are better than SEO backlinks like this:

<a href="studiocotton.co.uk">click here</a>

Having specific text that makes it totally clear what the SEO backlink is and where it goes is called descriptive text, and Google wants it. In fact, a link without descriptive text is flagged in Google’s own SEO checking tool, Lighthouse – and you can read more about that here.

I mean, you can read more about that from Google’s Lighthouse documentation: Links do not have descriptive text.

 

9. You didn’t buy the SEO backlinks for the purpose of playing the system or tricking Google into ranking your website higher

Don’t buy backlinks. Just don’t. It’s not worth it.

There are many many websites out there where you can purchase SEO backlinks from totally random sites for pennies, and I don’t want you to do it. Google doesn’t want you to do it either.

I bet you might even have a spam inbox overflowing with sketchy emails trying to sell you these cruddy links right now.

Buying SEO backlinks can lead to penalisation from Google – and it doesn’t always happen immediately. Those naughty links you purchase today might be fine for the rest of the year.

Next year though? Boom. Gone. Google found out and now – NO TRAFFIC FOR YOU.

Plus, it can totally fluff up your SEO backlink profile. Do you want this?

 

 

No. Nobody wants this. So don’t buy SEO backlinks unless you love crypto, tibias, and remedies for certain biological accoutrement.

 

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So there you have it, a nice list of what makes a good, quality SEO backlinks to help you prioritise your own SEO backlink-building efforts.

If you’d like to know more about SEO backlinks – I’ve got you, babe. Here are some favourites from our Studio Cotton blog archive:

• SEO backlinks for beginners: Why? Where? How?! Please?!!!
• 7 simple and free SEO backlink building tips using only your existing contacts and relationships
• 6 ways to create mutually beneficial SEO blog content with your small business mates

And if you want to check your own SEO backlink profile, check out these free backlink checkers, as featured in my other blog: 7 FREE SEO tools I check when someone tells me their SEO sucks

• Ahrefs free backlink checker
• SEO review tools free valuable backlink checker

And if you wanna chat more about SEO backlinks, I wanna hear from you. Drop me a DM on Instagram via @studio.cotton, and whilst you’re there, dive into 9+ years of bitesize website advice advice. See ya laterz, alligator.