Your SEO strategy is almost there, but you’re missing a crucial piece of the puzzle. You need link building tools to help you find websites that will direct back to your site.

Websites that link back to your site are called backlinks, and search engines have strict requirements for them.

If your backlinks are low quality, then your website will be penalized. This means plummeting in SERPS or even having your entire website deindexed altogether.

And if you think you can bypass backlinking, think again.

According to industry experts, backlink-generated web traffic comes second to the power of search. In fact, backlinks may even hold 80% of the ranking weight as organic search engine traffic.

Yes, backlinks are a big deal. But not any backlink will do. It’s crucial that your backlinks are high-quality. Otherwise, search engines will penalize you for quality problems.

But don’t worry, it’s not going to come to that.

Because today, you’re going to learn how to spot those quality backlinks!

So let’s breakdown what you need to know to start building a high-quality backlink profile.

Use Link Building Tools to Find Relevant Backlinks

Imagine this all too common scenario: You start reading an article on content marketing, but want to check out a few more sources. Great! Your article is peppered with anchor text backlinking to more information.

Except, when you click, you’re directed to spammy web pages that are totally irrelevant to content marketing.

Not only are you annoyed as a reader, but ultimately, that website will be dinged for bad backlinking practices.

Don’t let this happen to you.

Years ago, webmasters got away with this when SEO was still fresh, but search engines have definitely caught on.

With every Google update, comes an even greater pressure for backlink relevancy. That’s why it’s crucial to analyze and research every backlink you seek.

But isn’t that a time-consuming process?

It’s used to be, but now you have link building tools to help you with the following:

• Scour the web for websites in your niche.
• Measure MOZ domain authority (DA) to gauge the overall authority level of that site.
• Find expired domains similar to yours.
• Crawl backlinks of similar sites, competitors, and similar expired domains to reveal more relevant backlink opportunities.
• Check the quality of your own backlinks.
• Check how many backlinks you currently have, have lost, or recently gained.

Remember, it’s all about the quality, so don’t rush it.

If you want to save time, an experienced SEO team can build your backlink portfolio for you. This way, you never have to worry about low-quality backlinks slipping in.

Your Backlinks Should Be High-Authority Websites

What do you think of when you hear the word “authority?”

Maybe teachers, leaders, scholars, or corporate bosses come to mind?

In SEO, “authority” is a big deal, but it’s websites, not people, who have authority. And the more authoritative the website, the better the backlink.

Online, authority websites are your trusted sources for the following:

• Industry topics: For example, popular marketing blogs like QuickSprout.com or Copyblogger.com
• Breaking news sites like CNN or MSNBC
• Editorial websites like the Huffington Post or Washington Post
• Government websites like state.gov or dhs.gov
• Popular personal blogs.
• Official websites for universities and research institutions. Always look out for websites with .gov and .edu extensions. They make fantastic backlinks!

Moreover, authority websites rank high in google, receive a healthy amount of monthly traffic, and also share these additional traits in common:

• Relevancy: Authority websites never contain content that’s irrelevant to their topic or niche.
• Updates: These websites frequently update with fresh, original content, increasing their ranking power in search engines. Remember: Google now uses “content freshness” as a ranking signal.
• High level of user engagement: Authority websites typically have engaged readers who frequently comment and share content, creating even more ranking signals for search algorithms.
• Quality over quantity: An authority website will typically have just a few quality backlinks on a page. A high number of low-quality backlinks only waters down website quality.

Your Backlinks Should Be Active on Social Media

Ranking in Google is all about creating signals for those picky algorithms.

Every time your content is shared, that sends a positive signal. The more positive signals you collect, the higher you rank.

That’s why it’s important for your backlinks to have an active presence on social media.

In fact, according to a study by Shareaholic.com, social media is responsible for over 30% of referral website traffic!

You learned earlier that heavy user engagement is a hallmark of an authority website, and that engagement is only multiplied with social media.

Every Facebook like, tweet, Pinterest pin, Linkedin share, and Google one up counts. So when researching backlinks to pursue, make sure to analyze the overall amount and quality of their comments, likes, and content.

You also want to analyze the backlink’s overall social media strategy in general.

For example, let’s say you’re pursuing a quality backlink from a high-authority marketing blogger. Their social media strategy should include some of the following:

• Daily tweets and facebook posts, with an additional presence on Linkedin, Google Plus, or Pinterest if relevant to the niche.
• Uses relevant, trending hashtags in their posts
• A healthy number of likes and reshares
• Valuable user engagement that adds substance to the post.
• Regularly promotes content. You want that high-authority source to share your guest post on social media!
• Diversifies social media pages with video, images, contests, listicles, behind-the-scenes action, and unique content.
• Has an email subscriber list and sends regular email newsletters.

You Need to Use These Linkbuilding Tools

As you can see, it’s important to develop relationships with your backlink sources. A healthy social media presence helps you stay in touch and track your backlinks. With such large audiences to promote to, you don’t want to lose those connections, right?

Stay connected with your backlinks by developing positive relationships. Follow them on social media to reshare relevant content you like. You can also join the conversation by adding valuable comments to posts as well.

The more you engage with your quality backlinks, the more you grow your own authority online.

So what are you waiting for?

You have the SEO goods. Now, you just need strong backlinks to take you to that next level. Consult with an expert today to start building that portfolio now.