Your link profile plays a crucial part in strengthening the backbone of your website’s SEO. It significantly influences your domain authority and trustworthiness in the eyes of Google and other search engines.
If you don’t keep it healthy, your website may look spammy and even get penalized for manipulating search results.
In this guide, I’ll tell you:
- Exactly what link profile is and why it matters
- What a good/healthy link profile looks like
- How to audit your link profile (+ ways to improve it)
And more!
So, let’s dive into the pivotal role link profiles play in optimizing your online presence and SEO.
What is a Link Profile?
A link profile is the overall cluster of links directing to your website. Acquiring backlinks from high authority websites signals Google that those websites trust your site as a useful resource on the topic, helping you rank higher for related queries.
In addition to the total number of inbound links, your website’s SEO link profile consists of:
- The types of links pointing back to your site
- The anchor text of those links
- How those links were acquired
For example, here’s a quick overview of the backlink profile of ClickUp, a project management tool:
Why is a Good Link Profile Important?
High-quality links tell Google and other search engines: “This content is useful, reliable, and has actionable tips.”
Therefore, having a good link profile offers several SEO advantages.
- Your link profile serves as a significant ranking factor for Google and other search engines. The search engines will rank your content higher for relevant queries if they trust your website’s authority and credibility.
The more “votes” (high-quality backlinks) you have, the higher you’re page is likely to rank in the search results.
- Higher search rankings for target keywords result in higher organic traffic and leads for your business.
- When other authoritative websites link back to your resources and brand name, it improves your overall authority in the niche.
On the other hand, if your website has many low-quality backlinks, the search engines will cite it as a strategy to manipulate search results. They can also penalize your website for using such practices.
That’s why you need to invest in building a high-quality, relevant SEO link profile with links from high-authority websites in your niche.
What Does a Good Link Profile Look Like?
A good or healthy link profile has links originating from high-authority websites. The anchor text of your backlinks should be contextually relevant and not overly keyword-optimized. Additional key elements include:
- The links should be placed naturally with non-spam anchor text; not forcefully. For example, the backlink profile of goinswriter.com has no spam score when checking in Moz.
- Majority of the links should come from websites with topical relevance to your website.
For example, if you sell coffee makers, then your website should not have a link from a law related website. - There should be a variety in the type of links and anchor texts. Even branded anchor texts can have variations like the example below.
- Your SEO link profile should not have many links from low-quality sites. Even the few links you have from low DA websites should be 100% topically relevant.
For example, even the lower-quality links in goinswriter.com’s link profile come from highly relevant websites related to “writing,” which means – topical relevance is there.
Now that you know what a good link profile looks like, let’s look at how to analyze your link profile’s health.
How to Analyze Your Link Profile (And Ways to Improve It)
You can use SEO tools like Ahrefs, Moz Link Explorer, or Semrush’s Backlink Audit Tool to check the quality and health of your SEO link profile.
Here are a few factors you should analyze your SEO link profile for:
Check the link velocity
Healthy link profiles have a gradual upward graph of building backlinks. You should not see a sudden surge of backlinks at any point in time.
Referring domains’ gradual growth graph for ClickUp
Large spikes or drops in your link profile will look unnatural to Google and other search engines.
Check the authority and organic traffic of your referring domains
There should be a diversity in your referring domains, most of which should be high authority domains.
DR share of the referring domains of ClickUp
You should prioritize acquiring backlinks from websites that have a greater organic domain and page traffic. These are sites that Google trusts.
Domain traffic and page traffic of pages referring to ClickUp
Check the anchor texts
Along with your brand name as anchor text, there should be a mix of contextually relevant anchor texts. Some backlinks can also come from image-based links instead of text links.
Top anchor texts for ClickUp.com domain
Ensure that you don’t stuff keywords in your anchor texts. Overusing keyword-rich anchor texts can be seen as spammy and may be penalized by search engines.
Check your backlinks and referring domains for topical relevance
Just considering metrics like high DR and high organic traffic isn’t enough. What matters most is the relevance of the linking website to your niche and audience.
Check broken links and revive high-quality ones
A quick way to improve the health of your link profile is to identify broken links and reach out to publishers to rebuild high-quality backlinks you lost recently.
As you can see above, two lost links were top links in ClickUp’s link profile. For such links, you can reach out to the publisher with an alternate relevant resource and earn the link back.
We understand that not all links are created equal but a majority of your backlinks should meet the relevance, high-authority, and high organic traffic checkmarks. That’s the key to building a solid SEO link profile.
Ready to Build a Solid SEO Link Profile for Your Business?
Building a good SEO profile is an ongoing task. It is important to keep an eye on your link profile over time, ensure that it is natural and diverse, and keep optimizing it.
You should focus on metrics like:
- Link relevance
- Anchor text diversity
- Linking domain to total links ratio
- Referring domain authority and organic traffic
- Link placement
Are you finding it overwhelming? Then, take advantage of our link building services for the best results. Build better quality backlinks that cost less than setting up your in-house link building team. Connect with us now!
