How to improve the quality of links?

A link is something like a recommendation for your site and is the most important means of off-page optimization. The more links leading to a resource, the better it is perceived by the search engine. But there are subtleties here too. Some links are important, others are useless and even harmful. Instead of hundreds of meaningless links, it is better to place one good one. Moreover, incorrect work with the reference mass can lead to sanctions from search engines. The process control in Yandex is carried out by the Minusinsk algorithm, in Google - Penguin.

How to check if a link is of high quality? This is done in different ways. It is important that it leads from a thematic resource. For example, if you are promoting a website about selling flowers, it would be strange to link to it from a resource selling concrete structures. But the wedding salon website will be an excellent donor.

Some unscrupulous owners of competing sites may use dishonest tactics to harm your resource. For example, they may buy a large number of links to your site from bad sites. Is it possible to fight this? Yes, that's what search engine tools are designed for. In the Google and Yandex webmaster panels, you can view links that search engines know about. You can also use third-party services, for example, ahrefs.com, to analyze incoming links to your site.

How many internal and external links can I add to a page?

To begin with, outbound links transfer some of the weight of the page they are placed on to the page they link to. This information will help you better understand what is written below. Representatives from Google and other search engines claim that there are no restrictions on the number of URLs placed on any given page. They also say that the quality of links plays a greater role in promotion. However, given that the weight of the page on which it is located is transmitted along with the hyperlink, the optimal number of internal links per page is 10–50 pieces. Please note that this quantity is indicated without taking into account links in the menu, breadcrumbs, or footer of the online resource.

It is also important to say that hyperlinks need to be placed wisely - they should help both visitors and web crawlers better understand the structure of the site. It is also worth making sure that the URL leads to pages that are related to the content of the material in which it is posted.

As for outgoing hyperlinks pointing to third-party sites, there should be a minimum of them. And ideally – none. After all, why transfer the “weight” of your blog, online store or portal to another site? 

How to improve the quality of links?

— Place hyperlinks only to those materials that will interest the visitor. For example, if you are creating internal blog linking, articles should have URLs that link to other publications on a similar topic or issue.

— Use anchors (texts behind which the link is “hidden”) correctly - they must be relevant to the material to which they lead.

— If possible and does not contradict information from previous recommendations, try to put internal links to materials posted in other categories or sections. This will help educate visitors about other topics on the site, increase the time they spend on the online resource, becoming familiar with these topics, and thereby improve behavioral factors.

—Make sure there are no circular or broken hyperlinks on the pages.

We, like search engines, want to see in the search results only high-quality, convenient and beautiful sites that fully meet the needs of users and contain interesting and useful content. And unlike search engines, you and I have every opportunity to make these desires come true. 80% of our work is focused on these factors. Another 20% remains to work with the site’s link mass, which, despite the statements of search engines, is still a significant metric when ranking sites.

External links can be divided into several categories: 

• Natural links that can be obtained through high-quality and interesting content. This could be articles, photo or video content, a blog or forum. Natural links are the most valuable for search engines.
• Permanent links are bought on special link exchanges, and with proper selection of donor sites they look natural to search engines.
• Rented links are also purchased from link aggregators, but unlike eternal links, they require a monthly payment for their support.
• Links from social networks (Facebook, VKontakte, Twitter, etc.) have proven themselves to be excellent when promoting in topics that involve the involvement of a large number of users (sites with video or audio content, blogs, information portals). Search engines now pay much more attention to them than before, considering them natural user links. They work quickly and reliably, because search engines have a special pool of fast bots that completely bypass social networks.