#SEOCHAT Shop Talk about link building

In case you missed it, ‘Jeremy Moser’ moderated the instructional #SEOchat on Twitter. These tweets are jam-packed with information, yet you could miss them since they arrive and disappear so quickly. I endeavored to collect and cite all of those remarks.

Let’s dive in:

Q1. What tactics have acquired you the highest authority backlinks in your niche? #SEOChat

— Jeremy Moser (@jmoserr) October 20, 2022

A1

Publishing content on authority websites

A couple of major sites including Moz linking to something I said in a podcast

Roundup blog post where I’m intentional about whom to feature based on the strength of their website or where they work

HARO

Chima Mmeje

Q1 – HARO and outreach have helped us acquire some of our best links

Nat Miletic | natmiletic.eth

In the majority of cases, peer content (Things like task guides, industry data, etc.) In other cases, media-focused efforts (PR Stunts, finding/pitching on HARO etc.)

Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat)

Q2. What do you believe makes a backlink “good” or “authoritative”? Are there key metrics you analyze to determine the value of each link?#SEOChat

— Jeremy Moser (@jmoserr) October 20, 2022

It depends on the goal of the link. In most cases, people focus (solely) on SEO and ranking influence. I tend to look at not only Topical relevance, but whether the source site caters to existing/targeted audience, likely to convert etc. (stuff like DA don’t matter)

Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat)

Q2: A good backlink is relevant to my niche and trustworthy. We use ahrefs to assess it, but we look for the backlink profile and not just their DA and UR values

Nat Miletic | natmiletic.eth

Among the key factors: – relevant topic – DR higher than yours – proper mention (ideally, at least a paragraph dedicated)

Galactic Fed

Q3. DR, DA, AS, etc — are these metrics something you consider when doing link building? Why or why not?#SEOChat

— Jeremy Moser (@jmoserr) October 20, 2022

I don’t pay too much attention to them. 1) I prefer metrics at the page level. 2) I prefer to vet prospects for quality/relevance (content/audience) But – they can be of use to short-list (pick 50, sort desc, cut the top 5 out, work down the 45, removing fluff)

Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat)

A3: Definitely DR, but everyone is obsessed with DA. Personally, I like to manually examine the backlink profile rather than relying only on tools. I’ve bought domains that disappointed in the past

Sweepsify

Q4. Is your approach to link building more manual or passive? And why?#SEOChat

— Jeremy Moser (@jmoserr) October 20, 2022

I like to do both—and vary the focus depending on the market and competition level. Some industries are far easier to acquire organic links than others (some are so small or closed, it’s nearly impossible!). I like to hide a few acquired amidst naturally accrued ones

Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat)

Mine for my brand is passive. I just produce good content. But for my clients I do more manual

Seth Goldstein

A4: I would say that it’s manual in the beginning and then passive after the authority is mostly built. It’s better to try to see what opportunities flow to you to find your true audience, IMO. Not to be completely hands-off but more laid back.

Sweepsify

Q5. Nofollow links — most are either agnostic or hate them. Do you believe they are valuable to earn, or do you discredit nofollow links when analyzing a backlink profile?#SEOChat

— Jeremy Moser (@jmoserr) October 20, 2022

Definitely valuable if your goal is to build consistent authority, not just earn backlinks. I’ll take a no-follow link from TechCrunch and Gizmodo anyday

Chima Mmeje

A5. If it’s a site with a high readership, nofollow is just fine. You’ll get referral traffic regardless. I’ve seen content where its #1 source of traffic was referral because it was featured in the news, online mags, etc

Devin

Again, I go back to A1.. Traffic. Follow no follow links from earth links from mars…. Traffic and good traffic at that

Mordy Oberstein

Q6. The final Q of the day ?

What is most misunderstood about link building in 2022/2023?#SEOChat

— Jeremy Moser (@jmoserr) October 20, 2022

I blame the SEO industry for this TBH Educating audiences to think holistic content is enough Bullshit Content needs links and 9/10 times it won’t do well without it

Chima Mmeje

A6: Performance is not guaranteed. Some people assume that if it’s a high-authority site, you get tons of traffic. But what if they change their UX, add a paywall, or put it on an archive page? All of these affect performance.

Sweepsify

Pretty much the same as for 2020, 2015, 2010 etc. * Not all links are equal * G may ignore more links than you think * There’s no guarantee that a link will give the same value later * A link is a link – G don’t seem to negate solely due to low relevance

Lyndon NA (Darth Autocrat)

Thanks for joining #SEOChat today to talk shop about link building.

I hope you learned something new or found a new person in SEO to follow!

SEOChat will be back next week with a new host, stay tuned ?

— Jeremy Moser (@jmoserr) October 20, 2022

Jeremy’s Take: Relevance Beats Every Link Metric

Watch: Keith Bresee on taking Dave Ramsey from 280K to 2M visitors with backlinks.

Every link-building conversation eventually devolves into DA, DR, trust flow—vanity numbers from tools, not from Google. The thing that actually moves you is whether the link is relevant: does it live in content that’s topically adjacent to what you do? In an AI-search world the job shifted again — links are how you build and strengthen the entity associations the models use to decide who to recommend.

It’s not some stupid third-party metric like DA or DR or trust flow or anything else that matters about whether a link is valuable or not. What matters is whether it’s relevant.

Bradley Benner, Unscripted SEO Podcast

Chase a number and you get a number; chase relevance and you get ranked. Bradley Benner breaks down the entity-association model in his episode on relevance and the future of link building.