All About Link Building & Backlinking Websites In Australia

The ever-changing landscape of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) keeps businesses and marketers on their toes. Internet users are growing by around five per cent every year (over 222 million between 2020-2021, and that’s not including social media), and most people now realise strong SEO is non-negotiable. With 75 per cent of searchers never going beyond the first page, achieving a top rank has never been more desirable for standing out and growing a site’s audience.

As an original SEO factor, backlinks were once the foundation of Google’s PageRank algorithm, and alongside a solid site structure would be all a website needed to swiftly climb up the SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). Today, Google’s algorithms are considerably more complex, and backlinking is just one of the hundreds of factors used to determine page rank – but they remain a key ranking signal.

In the now-saturated Wild West of digital marketing, the efficacy of link building is often disputed, however, many studies have proven it is a powerful way to improve website authority and should therefore be a top consideration for anyone serious about SEO.

If that’s you, read on.

It is important to note backlinks must link to other websites, or they are considered internal links, which are a different tool (but when used strategically, can also have a positive effect on SEO). Only the recipient of the backlink gains the boost to authority, so unfortunately peppering hundreds of links to credible websites will not be enough to improve your own page ranking – they have to link to you.

There are a few different types of backlinks including dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and ugc.

Dofollow backlinks pass authority from the source page to the linked one, while nofollow pages do not. The latter is used when you are not seeking to endorse the content on the page you are linking to, and tells Google that you are not vouching for it.

Nofollow can also include the ugc and sponsored attributes. Ugc is useful for user-generated content – consider someone plugging their own website in the comments section of your blog post. As you are not necessarily an advocate for their content, you can simply change their link to ugc without needing to remove the comment entirely.

Finally, the extremely useful sponsored attribute offers the opportunity for site-owners to advertise with affiliate links on other credible pages, identifying them as sponsored partners.

Since the early days of Google, link exchanges have been a popular method for obtaining reciprocal backlinks and involve reaching out to relevant websites with an offer for a link to their page in exchange for a backlink to yours.

Certainly, there is a community-driven appeal to this “you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours” arrangement, but as you can imagine, it is not the most efficient of methods. Despite this, according to ahrefs almost half of all the highest organic ranking pages on Google have reciprocal links in place, so it is still a trusted and viable avenue.

So onto our most common link building question!

Here is where it gets a little confusing. Google claims that DA is not a factor in its ranking algorithms, instead having a similar metric for each individual page (as opposed to the entire domain). However, a high DA does correlate with more linking power, whether directly or indirectly. Regardless of the arbitrary score number, the easiest way to look at it is backlinks from reputable sites with high traffic are going to be the most valuable and beneficial for your page rank.

Rarely are these backlinks the ones available for bulk purchase. As a rule of thumb, the cheaper the backlink, the less it is worth, and those dirt-cheap backlinks from questionable sources are not only going to be largely ineffectual at increasing your page ranking, they might even be a detriment to it.

Buying backlinks was once against Google’s T&C, but as it is difficult to differentiate between a paid and organic link, these days backlinks simply have a high or a low score, and too many low scoring backlinks will position your page as less than credible.

Nowadays, purchasing backlinks has been streamlined with the use of sponsored placements, and is an effective way for businesses to increase their traffic and visibility through partnerships with relevant pages that have good authority.

So, yes, you can buy backlinks, but it is vital to ensure they are high quality. Does it come from a reputable page? Is the content relevant to your site or your audience? Will it improve the value of your content? These considerations will ensure purchased backlinks will work for you rather than against you.

This is an (extremely) simplified explanation for how search works, and how Google knows what to show you on the SERPs in relation to your entered keywords. It’s how, when you type in, “40 under 40 perth", Google knows to rank Business News first.

Google has and likely always will prioritise pages with good content because it is near-impossible to “game the system” – there are no shortcuts to high-quality writing.

So, the better, more relevant, and higher quality your content is, the more chance you have of appearing when people search for you. The adage still rings true: content is king. It determines your site structure, provides value to your audience, and ultimately, is going to be what influences conversions. Many website owners ask whether backlinking or content is better for SEO. Usually, the correct answer is: pursue both.

Great content is how you earn great backlinks. Without it, there is no incentive for other pages to link to yours. And, if you have informative, relevant and engaging content, there is no reason you should not be using it to leverage link building where possible. Look at similar websites in your space, identify any pages that currently link to you or have in the past, and nosy around your competitors for inspiration. Your success will likely hinge on the strength of your content.

Google has and likely always will prioritise pages with good content because it is near-impossible to “game the system” – there are no shortcuts to high-quality writing.

This is where professional content writers come in. A reputable writer will conduct exhaustive keyword and competitor research to know exactly which content is going to resonate most with your audience. Content will be written in an engaging, interesting and informative way, adhering to best-practice SEO principles to ensure the highest possible search engine ranking.

SEO is a complicated field. Google prefers a particular content structure to easily identify the value and relevance of a page. Titles, paragraphs, even images need specific consideration and execution. Experienced SEO writers will produce and optimise your content for the search engines, so you can get back to the actual running of your business.

When enlisting a professional, it is worth looking at their existing body of work and ensuring they have a history of producing results. Many writers are capable of putting together good content, but without a sound knowledge of SEO, will there be any traffic to read it?

Combining these two metrics, a robust backlinking and SEO content creation strategy can improve ranking by some 41 per cent. For website owners looking to improve their position, this is an unmissable opportunity – and Business News is here to help.

Sitting at the very top is the consistent publication of engaging content, comprising a massive ranking factor of 26 per cent on average. In fact, the study found Google often rewards high-quality content with a first-page position mere days after publishing, making it by far the quickest way to increase traffic.