Backlink quality and quantity have been a topic of debate among many digital marketers. Most of them argue that quality is the only thing you should focus on for improving rankings. They also claim that worrying about the quantity of backlinks is just a waste of time. There are also groups who claim that quantity matters more than quality. They argue that the quality does not matter as much as the quantity as much if at all.
Which of these groups is right?
Well, let us find out. However, before we dive into the juicy details, let’s briefly discuss what backlinks actually are. Well, to simplify things, backlinks are essentially links that redirect you from one website to another one. They are present in directories and social media sites. Web content and blog posts are a couple of content forms where you will find backlinks in abundance. Websites relevant to your niche and industry are ideal places where these links come from.
The reason why backlinking has become as popular as it has is that they make a huge impact on your SEO and website’s Google rankings. The higher quality backlinks you use, the better your results will be. Isn’t this what everyone wants, raising passive traffic for their website to improve their ranks in search engines?
So, the question arises again, what matters more, backlink quality or backlink quantity? As the two arguments are in a huge tug of war battle, let us discuss the ins and outs of both arguments before jumping to any conclusions.
Quality Backlinks
Backlinks that come from high domain websites that searchers and search engines trust are quality backlinks. Proponents of quality backlinks claim that trustworthy websites add value to the content, which essentially improves rankings. Create backlinks that are relevant to your website’s niche and searched often on the internet.
The real question, however, is, are they worth the hassle and time? Well, like all things in life, there is some good and some bad. Let us discuss both.
The Good
As the name implies, high quality backlinks benefit SEO rankings and domain authority because of their quality. In addition, these links guarantee that your website is not linking its viewers to spam websites, an important part of a successful link building strategy. With quality backlinks, you are well aware of what you get. Over time, the high-end links build trust, reliability, and authority, generate traffic, and benefit your website in the long run. Brian Dean’s study proves backlink authority is closely associated with Google page ranking.
It is also telling us that the authority of a domain has a stronger relation to rankings and is more important than a page that lives on it.
The Bad
Besides their upsides, high quality links can prove to be futile for businesses that are relatively new. Newer digital businesses do not have the kind of domain authority that well established businesses do. Therefore, creating traffic by using these links takes up a lot of time, time that you can use in other aspects of a business.
Despite their downsides for newer businesses, high-quality backlinks do get you the relevant audience for your niche even if they do not come in huge quantities.
Quantity Backlinks
Since you know where quality backlinks come in handy and where they do not, let us shift our attention to quantity backlinks. First, remember, when people talk about the quantity backlinks, they do not mean that they generate links from shady and spammy websites. All they mean is that the links are from medium to low domain authorities from somewhat reliable websites. Things like relevance and anchor texts do not matter as much, and the focus is on merely getting the link.
These low profile links generate lots of low commitment traffic. Traffic comes in plenty with these links, but understandably, the quality is not good.
The Good
As strange as it may sound, focusing on quantity instead of quality can be a good thing at times. Firstly, it makes the process ten times quicker. Secondly, if the links are even somewhat reliable, your rankings will improve as well. This saves time, and, the quantity of referring domains correlates to a website’s ranking on Google.
If you implement the quantity correctly and in strategic manner, your ranking will no doubt improve. Therefore, despite what the naysayers say, quantity backlinks are not a waste of your time.
The graph above shows how number of referring domains will impact page ranking on Google. The more links to your website, it is more likely to improve page rankings of your website.
The Bad
Quantity backlinks can be quite risky at times as you may generate backlinks from dangerous spammy websites by accident. This becomes a huge detriment for websites and hurts SEO in more ways than one. In addition, whenever you generate several links while focusing on quantity rather than quality, the links as a whole will not be as valuable. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing; however, you should know about it.
The Verdict
Wondering which backlink type has the upper hand. Well, the answer is neither. There are different types of link building strategies, and both backlinks have their place in them. Some businesses may find the quantity to be more pertinent to their needs, while others may find quality to be a bigger asset. Mostly, people tend to fall somewhere in the center of the spectrum.
There are quality links that will benefit your site, at the same time, those plenty lower quality links could yield influence on your ranking but study shows a lot of authoritative websites. Statistics show many authoritative websites have certain number of low quality backlinks from various sources.
Falling to one or the other side is a mistake that you should avoid at all costs. The pros always choose the middle ground and opt for backlinks of medium quality. You may be looking for a definite answer, but this will prove to be the safest and most effective solution for your backlinking strategy.
Bottom Line
In all honesty, there will still be debates among people who want to choose a definite side when it comes to backlinking, and the worst part is that there is no stopping them. In life, reality does not choose sides; it is mostly present dead center. It’s the place where true success actually happens.
By knowing that both quality and quantity strategies are useful in their own right, you can build a strategy that suits your business the most, making sure that it is free from risks and generates tons of traffic. Keeping the backlinks aside, make sure that the quality of your own content has a high standard as lower standards could lead to penalization.
