What is an Inbound Link?
An inbound link is a link from another website to your website. Inbound links are also known as backlinks, incoming links, or inlinks.
Why are Inbound Links Important for SEO?
Inbound links are important for SEO because Google sees them as a sign that the web page linked to has high-quality content and is trustworthy:
“For example, one of several factors that we use to help determine this is understanding if other prominent websites link or refer to the content. This has often proven to be a good sign that the information is well trusted.” - Google
This goes specifically for inbound links that don’t have the “nofollow” attribute. These types of links pass PageRank (PR) from the linking page to the linked page. PageRank is the value Google assigns to individual web pages to rank them in the search results.
Now over 20 years old, PageRank is still being used by Google, and it has gone through several updates over time. Here at Ranktracker, we did a very simple study to test whether inbound links are still as important… and found that they are.
SEO Best Practices for Building Inbound Links
So how do you build inbound links? Below, we discuss some of the most important best practices to follow.
1. Aim for Authoritative Pages/Websites
When you strive to acquire inbound links, it’s best to get them from authoritative pages or websites.
The authority of a website is the amount of credibility that it has established. It means that its information can be trusted, is worth being linked to, and deserves to rank in search engine results.
So when it comes to link building, an inbound link from an authoritative page is worth more than a link from a page that has no backlinks itself.
That means you’ll ideally build links from pages that have a high authority already, or from pages (or websites) that have a good chance of gathering high-quality backlinks in the near future.
Here at Ranktracker, we have the Domain Rating (DR) metric that represents the website’s overall authority. DR is purely based on the amount and value of a site’s incoming links.
You can check it for free with our Backlink Checker.
2. Get Backlinks from Relevant Pages
According to Google, if “other prominent websites on the subject link to the page, that’s a good sign that the information is of high quality” (emphasis ours). In other words: getting links from other websites is great, getting links from other related websites is better.
That same rule applies on a page level.
If your article on the best coffee grinder gets an inbound link from an article on coffee recipes and one from an article on money-saving tips, the link from the article on coffee recipes will be worth more.
So when building inbound links, go for links from websites with content that’s related to yours.
3. Don’t Overoptimize Your Anchor Texts
Anchor text is the clickable part of a text that contains a link to another page. Often, the anchor text informs the user what the linked page is about. In the first sentence of this paragraph, “anchor text” tells you that the page linked is about anchor texts.
Just as anchor texts tell users what to expect when clicking a link, they tell Google what the linked page is about. SEOs have seen this as a chance to further optimize pages by using keywords for all the anchor texts linking to those pages, but we recommend against this practice.
The more you try to manipulate your anchor texts, the more likely Google will notice and penalize you for it. Aside from that, you’ll have little to no control over your anchor texts if you use white-hat link-building tactics, which brings us to our last tip.
4. Don’t Go Black-Hat
Even though black-hat link-building strategies are often effective and still widely used, Google’s algorithms are becoming increasingly better at spotting them.
That means that the time and money you invest in these tactics today may all have been for nothing when Google catches on and starts ignoring your “black” links. Or even worse: your site could receive a manual penalty.
White-hat link building may require more time and effort but the results will be lasting and risk-free.
FAQ
What’s the Difference Between Inbound and Outbound Links?
Inbound links are links from pages on other websites to your website, while outbound links are links from pages on your website to other websites.
What Makes a Good Inbound Link?
A good inbound link is a link that:
- Comes from an authoritative page
- Comes from a page with content related to the content on the page it links to
- Has an anchor text that describes what the linked page is about in a natural way
- Doesn’t have a “nofollow” attribute
- Is placed near the top of the page, within the body of that page
How Many Inbound Links Do I Need to Rank?
As is often the case in SEO, the answer is: “It depends.” What it depends on is mostly the number and quality of inbound links that the top-ranking pages for your target keyword have, as well as their overall website authority.
By analyzing those, you can estimate how many inbound links your page needs to be able to rank.
You can use our free SERP Checker for that.
