What You Need to Know About Link Relevancy for SEO

Links are an essential part of search engine optimization. They help search engines understand your website and how it relates to other websites. But not all links are created equal. The quality and relevancy of your links are just as important as the quantity.

For links to be effective, they need to be relevant to your website’s content. And this is where link relevancy comes in.

What Is Link Relevancy?

Link relevancy refers to how well a link’s anchor text (the text that is linked to your website) matches the topic of your website. It is also determined by the relevancy of the website that is linking to you.

For example, if you have a website about dogs, you would want to get links from websites that also talk about dogs. These would be considered relevant links. On the other hand, if you have a website about dogs and you get a link from a website about cars, then this would be considered an irrelevant link.

Anchor text is also a factor in link relevancy. The anchor text is the words that are used to link to your website. So, if the anchor text is “dog toys,” it makes sense to link back to a page about dog toys to make the link relevant.

Why Is Link Relevancy Important?

As we mentioned, link relevancy is crucial because it tells search engines what your website is about. The more relevant links you have pointing to your website, the higher your website will rank in the search results.

Link relevancy is all the more important following the Google Penguin update. This update changed the way Google evaluates links and now puts more emphasis on link quality over quantity.

Another algorithm update, Google Hummingbird, also takes link relevancy into account. This update better understands the meaning of searchers’ queries and matches them with the most relevant results.

All this points to the fact that if the links on your website are irrelevant and not of high quality, then your website will suffer in the search engine rankings.

Link Relevancy vs. Link Authority

Before we delve into how you can improve link relevancy, it’s essential to delineate between two related terms: link relevancy and link authority.

Link relevancy, as we mentioned, refers to how well a link’s anchor text and the website linking to you match the topic of your website.

Link authority, on the other hand, is determined by the quality of the website that is linking to you. A website that is considered an authority on a particular topic will have more weight than a less authoritative website.

Link relevancy and link authority, however, both play a role in determining your website’s ranking and both go hand in hand. When you link back to a high-authority website that’s also relevant to the topic you’re writing about and the anchor text, it signals to Google that your website is credible and can be trusted.

Link Building and Link Relevancy

It’s important to note that there are two ways to do link building on your website: internal and external.

Internal linking is when you link to other pages on your website. This is a good way to keep people on your website longer and improve the user experience. It also helps search engines understand the structure of your website and crawl it more effectively.

External linking is when you link to other websites. Earning relevant links from other websites can be challenging, but it’s worth it because it will help improve your website’s ranking and visibility.

5 Tips on How to Improve and Earn Link Relevancy

There are several things you can do to make sure the links on your website (internal links) and the links pointed towards yours (external links) are as relevant as possible. Here are some tips:

1. Do Keyword Research

Before you start building links, it’s essential to first do keyword research. This will help you understand what keywords and phrases your target audience is using to find your content.

You can use a keyword research tool like Google Keyword Planner to find the right keywords for your website. Once you have a list of keywords, you can use this list to help you determine which websites would be the best to get links from.

2. Evaluate the Links You Currently Have

The next step is to audit the links you currently have on your website and the links pointing to your website. You can use a tool like ahrefs to do this.

Ahrefs will help you see which links are high quality and relevant and which links are low quality and not as relevant. If you find any low-quality, irrelevant links, you can use ahrefs to disavow them.

Disavowing links means telling Google that you don’t want certain links to be counted towards your website. This is something you should only do if you’ve tried to remove the links yourself and have been unsuccessful.

3. Create Linkable Assets

Linkable assets are pieces of content that other websites are likely to link to. This could be anything from an infographic to a blog post to a video.

The key is to create content that is interesting, original, and informative. If you can do this, other websites will be more likely to link to your content.

When it comes to internal linking, make sure the anchor text (the text you’re linking) is relevant to the page you’re linking to. For example, if you have a page about “link building tips,” you would want to link to it using anchor text that includes phrases like “link building,” “link building tips,” or “how to build links.”

4. Find Relevant Websites to Link To

You can use a tool like Moz’s Link Explorer to find websites that are relevant to your website’s topic.

When you use this tool, you’ll want to look at the “Inbound Links” section to find websites that have linked to similar websites in the past. These websites are more likely to be relevant and link to you as well.

5. Reach Out to Websites Directly

This is an optional step, but when you have a list of relevant websites, you may reach out to them directly and ask for a link. This can be a time-consuming process, but it’s often worth it because you have a higher chance of getting a link from a relevant website this way.

When you reach out to websites, make sure you have a specific page or piece of content in mind that you want them to link to. This makes it easier for them and helps show that you’ve put some thought into it.

Improve Your SEO with Relevant Links and Quality Content

With all the tips mentioned, it goes without saying that the quality of your content is still the number one priority. No matter how many relevant links you have, if your content is poor, it’s not going to help your website’s ranking.

On the other hand, if you have high-quality, relevant content, even a few links can make a big difference. So make sure you’re creating content that is interesting, informative, and original.

If you need any help with your SEO or content, Ilfusion is here to lend you a hand. Call us at 888-420-5115, or send us an email at [email protected] to get started!

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