If you previously studied SEO, you of course also learned about backlinks. When you are looking for backlinks, you will be advised to look for backlinks that have high DoFollow and PR (c). Several years earlier, until 2014, PageRank was still one measure of the quality of a website.
The higher the PageRank score, the better the quality of the website. Why do backlinks have to be from DoFollow websites and high PageRank?
Many articles discussing backlinks at that time provided lists of high DoFollow and PageRank websites to be used as sources of quality backlinks. Even though Google removed the PageRank toolbar in 2013, PageRank score updates were still ongoing for some time.
Other Terms Related to Backlinks
Talking about backlinks, there are lots of terms related to backlinks. Here are some of them:
1. Link juice
This is another name for link equity, link value, etc. which is basically value that is passed from one page to another via a link. This value depends on many factors and both internal links and backlinks convey this value. The concept of link juice is based on PageRank.
How PageRank works has evolved a lot since it was first published, and PageRank continues to be part of Google Search's core ranking system.
2. Linking Root Domains
Linking root domains refers to the total number of unique links from the main domain that link to your website pages (regardless of which page the link leads to). If you refer to Ahrefs, linking root domains is the same as referring domains—more precisely, total unique referring domains.
3. PBN (Private Blog Network)
PBN is a series of websites created solely to provide links to other websites with the intention of increasing the organic search visibility of the websites that receive these links. The idea is that the PBN website will provide link equity or link value to the main website, which will increase its authority and, thus, increase its ranking.
Using PBN is considered an attempt to manipulate the algorithm. Therefore, Google considers this action a link scheme that violates the Webmaster Guidelines (now called Google Search Essentials). This makes it an SEO tactic that is considered unethical (black hat SEO).
4. Link Scheme
A link scheme, link scheme, or link scheme is basically a scheme or series that is built to obtain links. Another term related to this is link farm. Link schemes currently have a negative connotation because they are considered the same as spamming.
5. Spam Score
Spam score is a metric that Moz uses to assess the link quality of a website. Spam score is calculated based on the percentage of similar websites found by Moz that have been penalized or blocked by Google.
- A score of 1%-30% is considered low
- A score of 31%-60% is considered intermediate
- A score of 61%-100% is considered high
The higher this percentage number, the greater the possibility that a website is a spam website because there are many similar websites that are like that.
Moz claims this calculation is based on their machine learning model which identified 27 common features among the millions of sites that Google blocked or penalized in their data.
6. DR and UR
DR (Domain Rating) and UR (URL Rating) are proprietary metrics from Ahrefs. This metric plots the strength of a website's backlink profile on a logarithmic scale from 0 to 100, where 100 indicates the highest strength.
Ahrefs states that there is a correlation between a website's DR and the number of keywords the website ranks for. They explained that DR can be used to estimate a website's ability to get organic traffic from Google. The important thing to remember here is, correlation does not indicate causation
What makes a high-quality backlink?
In fact, PageRank wasn't really removed, it was just not available to the public, but it is still used internally at Google as a ranking factor. To be able to study backlinks in more depth, you should know what is meant by backlinks, DoFollow and also PageRank at that time.
This article does not provide a detailed or in-depth explanation of what is meant by backlinks, DoFollow and PageRank, it is only an introduction to make it easier to understand the discussion regarding backlinks that should have high DoFollow and PageRank.
1. Backlinks
Backlinks are one of the off-page SEO techniques. Backlinks, also called inbound links, inlinks, incoming links or backlinks, are simply links or hyperlinks found on other websites that lead to your web page or website.
Backlinks have very important SEO value because they can affect PageRank, website ranking and also visibility in search engine search results (SERP).
2. DoFollow
DoFollow is one of the values of the rel attribute on a link. By default, all links are DoFollow, unless you add the rel="nofollow" attribute.
DoFollow links allow search engine robots (search engine bots) to follow links and arrive at the web page the link leads to. In contrast to DoFollow, NoFollow links instruct search engine robots not to follow the link.
3. PageRank
PageRank is an algorithm used by Google to determine how important and relevant a website page is based on the number and quality of inbound links. At that time, Google's PageRank score was still available and could be known to the public via the PageRank toolbar, however, currently, it is no longer available to the public.
Now, PageRank is only used internally at Google. PageRank is a value range from 0 to 10. Understanding PageRank at that time as an important ranking factor and applying that knowledge today can still be useful.
The fact is that inbound links still play an important role in SEO strategies to this day. Even though you no longer get access to PageRank scores from Google, there are several SEO tools that try to recreate the PageRank algorithm based on inbound links such as PageRank Checker.
4. Backlinks must be DoFollow
Why should backlinks DoFollow? This is related to the SEO value (link equity or link juice) which is forwarded or transferred from the web page where the link is located to the web page or website to which the link leads.
Many articles state differently that what is meant by the SEO value of a link refers to PageRank, authority, credibility or page rank. This SEO value can only be passed on or transferred by DoFollow backlinks.
NoFollow backlinks cannot forward or transfer SEO value. That is why the source of backlinks is always DoFollow websites. If your website has NoFollow backlinks from websites that have good authority and high Pagerank, your website still does not get the transfer of SEO value. NoFollow websites cannot help other websites rank better in SERPs.
Are NoFollow backlinks less or not useful for driving better SEO? NoFollow backlinks are still useful because they can bring in a lot of traffic if they come from websites that have large traffic. Traffic is also an indicator to search engines that a web page is useful and important. However, NoFollow backlinks have a smaller role compared to DoFollow backlinks in driving better SEO.
5. Backlinks must be from high PageRank websites
Why should backlinks come from websites with high PageRank? This also has something to do with SEO value (link juice). SEO value is closely related to the quality of backlinks. Quality backlinks come from websites with high PageRank scores at that time.
The higher the PageRank score of a website, the more quality the backlinks and the more SEO value (link juice) that can be forwarded or transferred. Several SEO articles state that if the backlink comes from a website with a low PageRank, there will be no transfer of SEO value.
A large number of backlinks from websites with low PageRank can put your website at risk. Google will assume you intend to manipulate PageRank or website ranking in search results (SERP). Your website will be penalized. Read more about Google Pinalties.
Rumors are growing that Google will no longer provide PageRank scores to the public to prevent misuse. Google wants to stop spammers who use PageRank to make illegal money and manipulate links to increase artificially to get a high PageRank. Until now, PageRank still exists and is used internally at Google.
Conclusion
Backlinks are important because Google can find many other website pages when crawling and indexing various "content" on the internet into their database because of backlinks. SEO practitioners agree that the way backlinks work for websites is like a vote. Through backlinks, we can provide information to Google that a website has information or content that is relevant, useful and credible.
Backlinks are especially useful in the context of SEO because basically backlinks are a ranking factor and contribute to determining the quality of the content of a website page. However, not all backlinks are considered equal. Why? The reason is, Google has a special ranking system for assessing backlinks and understanding the relationship between websites built via these backlinks—one part of this system is PageRank.
So, make sure the backlinks you get or receive are relevant backlinks. Apart from being a ranking factor, there are other benefits of backlinks which can contribute additional traffic which is called referral traffic.
That's a brief explanation about backlinks and how to get them. What do you think about backlinks? How big a priority is backlink management in your daily work as an SEO? Share in the comments column, OK!