Building Guide Version 1.0 / December 2019

Backlink Building Guide

Why are important

Backlinks (links) is and has historically been one of the most important signals for to determine if a or a page content is of importance, valuable, credible, and useful. If Google deems a specific piece of content to have higher importance, be more valuable, more credible and more useful, it will rank higher in their Result Page (SERP).

One of the things Google uses to determine the positions in SERP is something called page rank, and it’s a direct correlation between the number of backlinks and page rank. Therefore, the more backlinks a website has, the higher the likelihood that the site will also rank higher on Google.

• Backlinks are one of the most importance factors of ranking in SERP • Backlinks result in higher probability of ranking higher in SERP

Backlink Building Guide Version 1.0 / December 2019

The different types of Backlinks

Currently there are two different types of backlinks, follow (also called dofollow) and .

A follow backlink means that Google's algorithms follow the links and the page rank on the receiving website increases.

A nofollow backlink is still a link and users can still follow it from one page to another, but Google does not consider nofollow backlinks in its algorithms i.e. it does not produce any effect to rank higher in SERP. The owner of the website decides if it’s a “follow” or “no follow” backlink. Common nofollow backlinks are links that website owners have no control over and are produced by others, for example, comment on blogs, forum posts or sponsored content. It should also be said that a nofollow backlink is better than no backlink at all as users can follow the link and contribute traffic to the website it links to.

Google also believes that it is healthy for to have a mix of both types because it is what a common website backlink profile looks like today.

• Two types of Backlinks: Follow and Nofollow. • Follow backlinks are part of Google's ranking algorithm and increase page rank. • Nofollow links are not included in Google's ranking algorithm and do not increase page rank. • A nofollow backlink is better than no backlink.

Backlink Building Guide Version 1.0 / December 2019

The most valuable Backlinks

Not all backlinks are equally important, which means you always want to receive, and focus on high-quality backlinks. Generally, a high- quality backlink can be more valuable than 1,000 low quality backlinks.

There are several indicators that Google believes to be a backlink of high quality:

• The backlink comes from websites with high authority. Obtaining a backlink from a high authority domain is considered worth more than a backlink from a less authority domain. For example, a backlink from volvo.com is worth more than a link from [Random Name] blog.com. The authority is often calculated with something called “Domain Authority” and is a number between 0 (lowest) - 100 (highest).

• The backlinks contains the keyword of the page it links to. All links consist of anchor text, which is the visible part of a backlink.

Anchor text in blue

Generally, you want the anchor text to contain the receiving page's keyword or topic related keyword, for example, a backlinks anchor text to the page Volvopentashop.com/MarinaDieselMotors would preferably contain the keyword of the page "Marina Diesel Motors" or topic related “Boat Engines”. There is a correlation between backlinks anchor text containing keywords of the receiving page and higher rankings in SERP of the page its linked to. • The website and page that is linked from is topic related to the page its linked to.

Backlink Building Guide Version 1.0 / December 2019

Google likes to see the pages that links to each other relate, so it will be a natural transition for the users. For example, backlinks from websites where the topic is about boats and links to Volvo Penta Marine, is considered more valuable than links from websites that writes about dog food.

• The backlink is a Follow Link. • The backlink comes from a domain that has not linked to the website before.

A backlink from a brand-new domain/website is considered more valuable than the same website links again, again and again. This means there is a diminishing effect of getting multiple backlinks from the same website. It is usually better to get 100 backlinks from 100 different websites than 1,000 backlinks from the same website.

Backlinks is the most valuable when they are:

• Coming from domains/websites with high authority. • The anchor text contains the keyword of the receiving page its links to. • Coming from a topic related website/page. • Is a follow backlink. • From a new domain/website that hasn’t linked before.

Backlink Building Guide Version 1.0 / December 2019

Best practice for Backlinks

Best practice for backlinks is that they should look, be placed and link differently.

1. Appearance The backlink should not have the same appearance (images or text only) and all anchor texts that links to Volvo Penta should not only contain the words “Volvo Penta”. Best practice is to have backlinks that have a variation keywords, sentences, and length (still relatively short). Having a variety looks the most natural from perspective because users write differently.

2. Placement Generally, the best placement of a backlink is in a text so users can naturally follow the link and continue to read more about the topic, product, or company. A good strategy is to not hide the backlinks on a page, for example, at the bottom of a page. A variety of placements is also the most natural and contribute to the most page rank.

3. Where backlinks link Generally, an entire domain/website benefits from the fact that there is a backlink linked to it, but to get more pages and keywords to rank higher in SERP, it is best practice that backlinks link to different pages. This will help spread an effect of authority to more pages if it is directly linked to them, and result in that they have a higher probability of ranking higher.

• A variety of appearances but still be related to the page its being linked to. • Placed naturally and users can find it. • Linked to different parts of a website.

Backlink Building Guide Version 1.0 / December 2019

Receive Backlinks naturally

There are many different strategies on how to receive backlinks, but the best and most basic is to create content that users want and is worth linking to. It can be blog posts, videos, pictures, surveys, exciting news, software and more.

• Create content that users want to link to.