Link building is an absolutely critical part of search engine optimization. Without links from other sites pointing to your own, your long-term SEO is bound to come up short to some degree. When other people link back to your website, it lets search engines like Google and Bing know in one way that other people are interested in what you have to say. This, in combination with a variety of other metrics that they use, help assign rankings to every website on the internet. Whether you are guest posting on other websites or an organic backlink has appeared on the web, you want to be aware of how best to evaluate those links and whether or not to disavow them. We’ll discuss the three important criteria for evaluating links today.

Domain Authority

The most known criteria in evaluating links earned relates to domain authority. It is crucial to understand what constitutes domain authority when building or pinging links. In short, domain authority is a score that determines the likelihood of a given website ranking well in search. The higher the score, the better the quality of the site in this regard. Many people seek out opportunities to earn links on websites with high amounts of domain authority. While this is a good idea in theory, there is always more to consider and learn about a given website than just its domain authority.

Link Relevance

Perhaps even more important than domain authority with respect to how search engines associate content, the relevance of the site that is linking back to you matters greatly. While co-citation links can be used to connect two seemingly unrelated sites, an ideal link will come from a site that is relevant in subject material to yours. This helps further clarify for search engines what your website is about and in which niches it best fits. Search engines are lenient, though, and it is understood that most websites will have links directing to websites that are not directly related. Nevertheless, the ultimate goal should be to generate as many relevant links based on the category of your website as possible.

Link Legitimacy

It is crucial in today’s world of intense search engine scrutiny that all links pointing back to your website were in fact legitimately earned. This is a huge component of link building. One wrong move or deviation from this can spell disaster for your search rankings. In the past, buying or trading links was commonplace. Over time, search engines became more adept at identifying such bad behaviour and began punishing websites by nerfing their visibility in search. Regardless of whether you decide to guest blog on another website or ask individuals for a link back based on a mention of their brand, always be sure to avoid blatant purchasing or trading of links with other entities. Chances are that if they’re pinging links back to you through such an arrangement, then they’re doing so with others as well. This sooner or later will be discovered and there’ll be consequences for everyone involved.

What are some other attributes that you consider when evaluating whether to avow/disavow links, and who to target? Let us know below in the comments.