Did you know that only 39% of websites contain backlinks, yet backlinking plays an essential role in SEO?
Google Search has built a reputation for producing quality results. The first page in the search engine results pages (SERPs) offers the top ten pages for that query.
One of Google’s quality control indicators is backlinking. Yet, many pages don’t benefit from a qualified third-party source.
This article examines the importance of backlink tracking in SEO to boost your quality score.
Read on to discover what backlinking is and how it works. Learn how to track backlinks with the right SEO tools. And enhance your SEO performance to improve your site’s rankings.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are also called inbound or incoming links. They are simply links to your web pages from another website.
According to Google’s guidelines, a key indicator of quality is an endorsement from other quality sites. The idea is that a ‘good’ site will only promote other ‘good’ websites.
This follows Google’s original PageRank algorithm that not only looked at the content on a page but how it interacted with other domains.
The more inbound or backlinks from top websites the higher your PageRank. That in turn can strengthen your Google Search ranking.
What Is Backlink Tracking?
How many backlinks does your website have? What percentage are quality links? How many does Google see as spam?
Backlink tracking helps you identify all of your inbound links and assesses whether they will benefit you.
Artificial Intelligence helps to produce accurate results. You can spot spam issues immediately. You can also track backlinks in relation to keywords or search queries.
SEO Performance and Backlink Tracking
Google hates spam.
It defines spam backlinks as any attempt to manipulate PageRank using a ‘link scheme’. That includes hiring so-called SEO experts to create false links from fake websites.
Knowing what sites link to your pages plays a major role in discovering this spam. But that’s not all they do as Google checks for sites that:
- Create text ads that bypass PageRank checks
- Use unnatural and keyword-stuffed links
- Are low-quality directory sites
- Automatically redirect links
How then can you check backlinks? Are there any tools you can use? How much do they cost?
SEO Tools to Check Backlinks
Googling ‘check backlinks’ produces thousands of results all with subtle differences.
You’ll notice that some offer a basic backlinking service i.e. the total number of internal links along with URLs. The best SERP checker tools aim to provide a range of additional services to help your SEO.
For example, some sites send you daily updates on newly acquired inbound links. Each gets a spam score breakdown.
The secret sauce lies in the database that the service uses. The more links it holds the more accurate results it gives. Filtering those results must be intuitive and easy to understand.
Yet, what do you do if your site has hundreds of spam links?
Removing Spam Links
Disavowing is the technical term for removing spam links from Google.
Google’s documentation states to list each spam link and domain in a text file. Next, visit Google’s Disavow Links page and upload the document.
However, the best SERP tools include this feature as standard. All you have to do is click a button!
SEO Boost Tips and Advice
Backlink tracking helps you identify what pages link to yours and to separate the good from the bad.
Combined with other SEO tools, these services will give your SEO a major boost. That includes removing spam links.
Learn more on how to boost your SEO on our blog.
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