• Menu
  • Skip to right header navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary navigation
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer

Before Header

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

The Social Media Hat

Always On Top Of Social

  • Coaching & Consulting
  • Community
  • Speaking
  • Articles
    • Digital Marketing
      • Influencer Marketing
    • Social Media Articles
      • Facebook
      • Instagram
      • LinkedIn
      • Pinterest
      • Twitter
      • YouTube
    • Social Media Tools
    • Virtual Events
  • Newsletter
  • Search
  • Coaching & Consulting
  • Community
  • Speaking
  • Articles
    • Digital Marketing
      • Influencer Marketing
    • Social Media Articles
      • Facebook
      • Instagram
      • LinkedIn
      • Pinterest
      • Twitter
      • YouTube
    • Social Media Tools
    • Virtual Events
  • Newsletter
  • Search

Building a Natural Backlink Profile

You are here: Home / Digital Marketing / Building a Natural Backlink Profile

September 17, 2013 //  by Mike Allton

Reading Time: 3 minutes

For anyone that is building links or actively seeking out backlinks for their site, one of the most important things to keep in mind is the look of your backlink profile. The term backlink profile refers to the list of links that are pointing back to your site from external sources. It is important to consider what this list looks like to search engines like Google as you can receive penalties or punishments for a backlink profile that doesn’t appear to be “natural”. To protect your site from incurring these penalties, it is important to understand what looks natural in the eyes of the search engines.

Healthy Mix of Anchor Text

One of the first things that will be scrutinized in your backlink portfolio is the mix of anchor text being used. There is no exact science to the precise percentage of each type of anchor text you should have, but there are some generally accepted approximations. The most natural looking anchor text you can have is branded (your company’s brand) anchors or exact URLs, and as such the majority of your anchor text should be comprised of these two anchor texts.

Along with branded anchors and URLs, your second most used anchor text should be made up of long-tail keyword and partial-match keyword anchors. These types of anchor text may include the keywords (or a portion of them) that you are trying to rank for along with some other relevant words or phrases so that they are not an exact match of the search term you want to rank for.

Finally, it is necessary to include a percentage of anchor texts that are exact matches of the search term you are trying to rank for. However, this percentage should be significantly lower than the previous two and it seems to be shrinking with each Google algorithm update.

Vary Your Landing Pages

Another characteristic of a natural looking backlink profile is a profile that includes a variety of landing pages. The most natural landing page for your links is your home page and it should be where the majority of your links point. Links with a branded anchor text that point to a home page are some of the most natural looking links you can have.

However, adding some deep links that point to other pages on your site can help round out your backlink portfolio and help it appear more natural. The key here is to make sure that you don’t have too many links pointing to a particular landing page and that you don’t optimize too much for one specific portion of your site, as this could appear to be unnatural.

Acquire Links from a Balanced Assortment of Sites

This aspect of your backlink profile refers to the types of sites you are receiving links from and the quality of those sites. Obviously you want to avoid spammy sites and link schemes, but at the same time you don’t want to only target sites with high page rank or domain authority (DA) as this appears unnatural. Linking to some smaller (but still quality and relevant) sites as well, will present a more natural picture. Often times these smaller sites can actually provide more SEO value than high DA sites as they may have a more engaged audience that is more likely to boost the value of your links through social sharing.

Diversify Your Links

Finally, it is important to pay attention to the kinds of links you are getting and make sure there is plenty of diversity in the links you are building. Focusing too much on one particular type of link can appear unnatural and get you into trouble. It is important to have a healthy mix of links from guest blogging, links on social media platforms, links in respected and trusted directories, etc. It is important to avoid concentrating on one specific technique too much and instead you should employ a wide variety of link building strategies. As long as the link is relevant to where it is placed and it fits naturally, it can add to the validity of your overall backlink profile.

When building links and growing your backlink portfolio, it is important to keep these factors in mind. By adhering to these guidelines you can build a backlink profile that appears natural to Google and other search engines. Building a natural looking backlink profile will not only increase your traffic and rankings in the SERPs, but it will also keep you from getting penalized or punished.

Image courtesy of infocux Technologies, Flickr.

Related

Category: Digital MarketingTag: Blogging, SEO

About Mike Allton

Mike is an international keynote speaker, an award-winning blogger & author at The Social Media Hat, and Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse where he strengthens relationships with social media educators, influencers and partner brands. He has spent over a decade in digital marketing and brings an unparalleled level of experience and excitement to the fore, whether he's delivering a presentation or leading a workshop.

Join The Community!

34,720 savvy marketers have signed up to get the latest social media insights and ideas. Will you?


Previous Post: « Watch for HootSuite Security Emails
Next Post: HootSuite is Ready for iOS7 with Gorgeous New App »

Primary Sidebar

Work With Mike

Work with Mike Allton in a consulting capacity, or to speak at your next event.

Meet Mike

Mike Allton is an international keynote speaker & consultant, and an award-winning blogger and author at The Social Media Hat, where he has been educating businesses and organizations on the best use of content marketing for reaching and converting target audiences. Mike is proud to serve as the Head of Strategic Partnerships at Agorapulse, where he builds relationships with influencers and brands around the world.

Since 2012, Mike has worked with over a hundred brands and executives to help them identify and implement successful strategies. As a certified NLP Coach & Practitioner, he helps YOU achieve excellence. Work With Mike

Partnership Unpacked

Featured Posts

The Science Behind The Effectiveness Of Word Of Mouth

March 29, 2023 //  by Mike Allton

Tips for B2B Influencers on how to harness the power of word of mouth.

How This Serial Entrepreneur Became A Product Influencer w/ Norm Farrar

March 27, 2023 //  by Mike Allton

Partnership Unpacked, Episode 14, with Norman Farrar

Influencer Marketing in 2023

How To Be An Amazon Influencer

March 26, 2023 //  by Mike Allton

Learn how to be a successful Amazon Influencer in 4 steps.

More Like This

  • 6 Tips for Partnering With Many Content Creators at Once
  • How To Develop Profitable Relationships With Big Brands w/ George Thomas
  • Influencer Marketing Trends & Insights For CMOs w/ Gordon Glenister

Footer

Recent Posts

  • The Science Behind The Effectiveness Of Word Of Mouth
  • How This Serial Entrepreneur Became A Product Influencer w/ Norm Farrar
  • How To Be An Amazon Influencer
  • 6 Tips for Partnering With Many Content Creators at Once
  • How To Develop Profitable Relationships With Big Brands w/ George Thomas
  • Influencer Marketing Trends & Insights For CMOs w/ Gordon Glenister
  • How to Craft a Sponsorship Pitch No Brand Will Ignore w/ Justin Moore
  • How Influencer Marketing Can Help You to Define the Best Content Marketing Strategy for Your E-Commerce Business in 2023

Marketing Resources

  • Marketing Hyperdrive Podcast
  • The Virtual Event Strategist Podcast
  • Partnership Unpacked Podcast (Coming soon!)
  • How To Craft Your Marketing Plan
  • The Ultimate Guide to the Perfect LinkedIn Profile
  • Social Media Spring Cleaning
  • Social Media Planner
  • Get The Newsletter
  • Home
  • Virtual Event Strategy
  • Mike Allton, Your Next Keynote Speaker
  • Mike Allton’s Newsletter
  • Work With Mike
  • Privacy Policy
  • Disclosure

Site Footer

Partnership Unpacked Podcast

  • Listen on Amazon
  • Listen on Apple
  • Listen on Google
  • Listen on Spotify
  • Listen on Stitcher
  • Social Media Articles
  • Digital Marketing Articles
  • Social Media Tools & Resources
  • Virtual Events Articles
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter

Copyright © 2011–2023 The Social Media Hat · All Rights Reserved