Backlinks are the #1 ranking factor, at least on paper. But you don’t have to believe it. If you do, this post is for you.

I’m not a big fan of building links, at least not the way everyone is treating and building it these days. However, I don’t deny that backlinks are absolutely useless. If done right, it can take you to places you’ve never imagined.

In this issue, we will explore the world of backlinks.

By the end of this issue, you will be able to:

1. Don’t get impressed by the number of links your competitor has
2. Learn to decode the real number of links any website has
3. How to build links that stay

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What most people who are investing in SEO are collectively doing wrong is failing to understand the concept. Even though you might have knowledge about what SEO is, you’d still need to clarify fundamentals related to backlinks. And the misunderstanding isn’t your fault, backlinks have been marketed that way. By tapping into your insecurity of allowing someone else to get ahead of you (by not building links for yourself).

Most people build links by guest posting or cold email outreach. What they fail to understand is everybody and their dog is doing this. There’s nothing wrong with guest posting & cold email outreach. It’s just that the conversion rate is way too low for even giving it a shot. What you’re not seeing is, the real number of links that are actually making an impact is way too less than what tools like SEMrush & Ahrefs show. They’re not ahead of you, not as much as you think.

Get less insecure from your competitor in 3 simple steps.

Step 1: Filter out scrappy links

If you use SEMRush or Ahrefs for analyzing your competitors, check out their backlinks profile & apply the following filters.

1. DR 30+
2. Do follow links
3. Link type: In content (links that are placed within content & not images or any such elements)

This will bring down the number of links that your competition is having a significantly small number. I’m sure you’re jumping right now. I told you, it’s not how you thought it would be.

Step 2: Export the data

Export the data that you have cleaned in the previous step. It’s now time to clean it further. Either do it yourself or hire a VA to remove the links from the following sources:

1. Scraper website
2. Links farms
3. Irrelevant domains
4. Spammy sites

Did you know that most spammy sites will happily give you a do-follow link? The idea is to get crawled by the search engines which won’t happen otherwise.

I know this will take time to evaluate, but it’s worth spending time here. You will be left with barely more links than you have unless you’re competing with Forbes.

Step 3: Create linkable content

Now that you have the links that actually make any positive impact, it’s time to differentiate. I have been obsessed with this strategy. Remember I said that I’m not a big fan of backlinks? I’ll tell you why.

People these days have commoditized backlinks. Relevant or not, backlinks are sold for $5 to a few hundred dollars. These links do more bad than good to your site. I hate such links, that’s why I never reach out to anyone for links. Instead, I create linkable assets. Like this & this one. It’s a one-time investment and forever ROI.

The Free SEO Resource page is one of the most visited pages on my site and that too without lifting a finger to promote that page.

Here are some ideas you can explore to create such linkable assets:

1. Case studies
2. Free tools & templates
3. Resource page
4. Infographics
5. Opinions & Insights
6. Roundups
7. Original research
8. Data visualizers

These are generic ideas, but good enough to

The whole point of building links is to drive traffic to your domain, not specific pages. If your priority is to drive traffic to specific pages, you’re thinking too small. Once you have people driven to your domain, you can drive them further internally, but the first step is to get maximum footfall. Internal links are an art itself, but that’s a topic for some other day.

Today’s action step → Analyze at least 2 competitor’s backlinks profiles and perform steps 1 & 2.

SEO this week (News Updates)

1. Build your SEO Second Brain to do more think less
2. Nobody saw this coming. Google Domains sold to Squarespace
3. While GA4 is 12 days from becoming standard, now you can integrate Google Adsense in GA4
4. Taking Generative AI to the next level, Google has introduced two tools to cater to 3 billion monthly users
5. ChatGPT is already a threat. Research finds that it can be used to spread malicious code

Clickworthy resources (from LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube & web)

1. How to avoid duplicate content in programmatic SEO?
2. If you doubt if SEO is dead? You should read this.

Tools Repository

1. Are you a video creator but don’t have a cool background? You might love this tool.

How can I help you?

I put a lot of effort to come up with a single edition of this newsletter. I want to help you in every possible way. But I can do only so much by myself. I want you to tell me what you need help with. You can get in touch with me on LinkedIn, Twitter & Email to share your thoughts & questions that you want to be addressed. I’d be more than happy to help.