Backlink Quality or Quantity – What Should Be Your Focus?
Backlinks or links that flow into your website from other websites are still as vital as it used to be many years ago for succeeding in SEO. Search engines have always considered backlinks valuable signals for determining the quality of websites and web pages. With time, Google has changed the perspective of evaluating backlinks, which some marketers have misunderstood as a step towards diluting the importance of backlinks. 
To determine the health of websites, Google looks at the backlink profile and on being impressed awards higher ranks in search results. However, the links you acquire have to demonstrate high quality because Google recognizes and values only high-quality links collected in good numbers. Therefore, building a healthy link profile is the top agenda for any SEO company including Buffalo SEO Kotton Grammer.
Confusion might arise regarding the number of backlinks that is to impress Google because there are no defined numbers. Indeed, the number should neither be too small nor so big that it raises doubts among search engines. While fewer links correspond to low-quality websites as it shows that few people have shown interest to share links with it, too many links would make Google suspicious about some clandestine link building activity because the high numbers are too good to be true. For Google, quality comes first followed by quantity. Use your experience to work out the optimal numbers that can work in your favor.
No Compromise With Link Quality
A few good quality links are worth much more than several poor-quality links. Right from the time of acquiring links, you must stick to this philosophy. But doing it right the first time is not always easy because it takes time to judge link quality that might not be possible still at the time of acquisition. To ensure that the link profile remains healthy and free from poor quality links, you have to weed out inferior links from your inventory by periodically reviewing the list and analyzing each link carefully to ascertain its quality.
Knowing how to measure link quality is significant learning for marketers and they must be well conversant with conducting link audit to ensure a healthy backlink inventory. What parameters you should consider for measuring the website quality that determines backlink quality will become apparent on reading this article.
PR or Page Rank
PR or Page Rank is a much-used jargon in SEO and is the name of a tool that Google uses for determining backlink quality. The tool uses a scale comprising of 10 positions that correspond to link quality. When a website acquires a link, it demonstrates that the sender of the link has been impressed by some quality of the site and felt interested in connecting with it. The vote of the sender website has gone in favor of the recipient website because perhaps there is some merit in it. As the content is valuable, it encourages sharing, and in the process, the content might even go viral.
Google takes note of the happenings and construes that your website has good quality to qualify for better ranking. Google also takes note of the quality of the website from where the link comes because the value of that website influences Google's evaluation of link quality. When the offering website has impressive credentials, your site is in good company and fit for earning good ranks.
DA or Domain Authority
Since the quality of the link donating website is also factor to consider for adhering to the good practices of link building, you must judge its Domain Authority before deciding to accept links. Just as a person is known by the company he or she keeps, Google looks at the quality of the websites from where you acquire links and when it sees that the offering website demonstrates high domain Authority, it accepts the links as high quality.
To determine Domain Authority, you have to judge the authority it exerts in its niche, how much relevant it is and the possibilities of ranking for focus keywords. These metrics relate to the root domain of the website and not the web pages. When you focus on Domain Authority, you are sure about the quality of source website right at the time when you are acquiring the link, and it reduces the chances of inferior links crowding your backlink repository. Consider the relevance of the link and not only the Domain Authority because you have to connect with websites that have matching interests as irrelevant links are poor quality links.
PA or Page Authority
Page Authority is as essential as Domain Authority, and it signifies the extent of influence that passes on to the website that receives the link. Neglecting Page Authority would undermine your efforts in link building because you might fall for inferior quality links. When you receive links from websites with high Page Authority, your content is likely to enjoy high sharing in large numbers across the network of sites linked to the donor website. The Page authority reflects the value of a specific page that search engines use as the yardstick to judge the quality of sites, and when you receive links from sites having high Page Authority, your ranking will go up.
To judge the Domain Authority and Pager Authority that underlines link quality you have to use some tools that make the task easy.
Why You Need Link Audit
In spite of trying to judge the website quality first before accepting links from it, it is almost impossible to ensure that you have taken only good quality links. Periodical checking of the backlink profile is necessary to be sure that the link profile is free from poor quality links. A link audit is a process that comprises collecting and analyzing link data to identify inferior or unnatural links so that you can remove it from the inventory. Google Analytics and Google Webmaster tools are useful for conducting a link audit.
Nurturing quality backlinks of optimal quantity is a sure way of placing your website in the top slots of search ranking.
Barrack Diego
Barrack Diego is a freelance content writer. He has written many informative articles on different categories such as Web Design, SEO and Business. He is very dedicated to the industry and loves to share his knowledge and experience with his friends and colleagues.