Starting a new business is an exhilarating journey filled with many challenges, one of which is making your presence known in a crowded digital landscape that continues to grow more competitive.

For startups, mastering Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) can be a game-changer, propelling your brand from obscurity to online visibility. Among the various elements of SEO, link building and domain authority are pivotal, yet often misunderstood, components.

SEO isn’t just a buzzword; it’s a critical tool that helps startups compete with established players in your industry. A well-executed SEO strategy can elevate your website’s ranking on search engines, drive organic traffic, and ultimately, increase conversions.

With a formidable SEO strategy in place, you won't have to spend a fortune bidding on paid advertising and sponsored posts. Instead, you can rely, at least partially, on organic traffic to help improve results on the search engine algorithms.

In this blog, we’ll demystify link building and domain authority, breaking down their significance and how you can leverage them to boost your startup’s online presence.

Whether you have a new website or you’re looking to refine your strategy, understanding these concepts is crucial for building a robust foundation for your digital marketing efforts.

Okay, let's explore how you can harness the power of link-building and domain authority to put your startup on the digital map.

What is link building?

Link building is the process of acquiring hyperlinks from other websites to your own. A hyperlink, commonly known as a link, is a way for users to navigate between different pages on the internet.

Search engines use these links to crawl the web; they follow the paths of these links to discover new content and to understand the relationship between different pages.

While internal links are important for navigating your website, backlinks are absolutely pivotal for an effective SEO strategy.

In essence, building links is about creating a network of links pointing to your website, which signals to search engines that your site is a credible and valuable resource.

Think of it like you're getting a vote of confidence from other websites, helping you climb higher in search results. When reputable websites trust you enough to link to your site, your reputation and authority in the digital space grow.

The difference between dofollow and nofollow links

You should note the key differences between do-follow and no-follow links, as they directly impact your link-building strategy, link-building process and search engine ranking.

Dofollow links allow Google and other search engines to point back to your website or blog. Nofollow backlinks differ in that they suggest that the origin website doesn't recommend the destination website, aka, your website.

The most important differences can be summed up as follows:

1. Dofollow Links:some text
   • Pass Authority: Do-follow links allow search engines to follow them to the linked site, passing along "link juice" or authority. This helps improve your site’s search engine rankings.
   • SEO Benefit: These links from referring domains are highly valuable for SEO because they contribute to your site's domain authority and overall search engine ranking.
2. Nofollow Links:some text
   • Do Not Pass Authority: No-follow links include a special attribute (rel="nofollow") in the HTML code, instructing search engines not to follow the link. As a result, they do not pass any authority to your site.
   • Limited SEO Benefit: While nofollow links do not directly contribute to a site's search engine rankings, they can still drive traffic and increase brand visibility. They can also signal a diverse link profile, which is beneficial for SEO.

What is domain authority?

Domain Authority (DA) is a metric, developed by Moz, that predicts how well a website is likely to rank on search engine result pages (SERPs). Your DA is scored on a scale from 1 to 100, with higher scores indicating a greater ability to rank.

A few important points to note about Domain Authority include:

• Predictive Metric: DA is not used by search engines themselves but is a helpful indicator created by SEO professionals to estimate your site's ranking potential.
• Based on Multiple Factors: DA is calculated using multiple factors, including the number and quality of backlinks, the overall quality of your website’s content, social signals, and its SEO performance.
• Comparative Tool: It's most useful as a comparative tool to gauge the strength of your website relative to competitors. A higher DA suggests a stronger, more authoritative site that is more likely to perform well in search results.
• Not Static: DA can change over time due to new backlinks, search engine algorithm changes, or competitors' website improvements.

Domain Authority helps you understand your website's relative strength and ranking potential, providing insights that can guide your SEO strategies.

What is domain rating?

A similar concept to the above, Domain Rating (DR) is a metric developed by Ahrefs that measures the strength of a website's backlink profile on a scale from 0 to 100.

A few important points to note about Domain Rating include:

• Backlink Focused: DR is calculated primarily based on the quantity and quality of external backlinks pointing to a website. High-quality backlinks from authoritative sites have a greater impact on increasing your site's DR.
• Comparative Metric: DR is useful for comparing the backlink profiles of different websites. A higher DR suggests a stronger, more authoritative site with a comprehensive backlink profile.
• Impact on SEO: While DR itself is not used directly by search engines, it correlates with higher search engine rankings, as strong backlink profiles are a significant factor in SEO.
• Fluctuates Over Time: Like Domain Authority, a site's DR can change as new backlinks are acquired or lost, and as the backlink profiles of other sites in Ahrefs' database evolve.

How to improve domain authority via link-building

The best way to improve your website's Domain Authority (DA) through link building involves acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks from authoritative websites.

Create High-Quality Content

Create content that is informative, engaging, and valuable to your audience. High-quality articles, infographics, videos, and research reports are more likely to attract backlinks.

Your content should also remain relevant over time. Evergreen content continues to attract backlinks long after its initial publication as its relevance never fades.

Guest Blogging

Writing guest posts for authoritative websites in your industry and making sure that these posts include backlinks to your website is a great link-building strategy.

You should also network with bloggers, creators, and influencers in your niche. Fostering and developing strong relationships can lead to more guest blogging opportunities and natural backlinks.

Outreach Campaigns

Outreach campaigns involve using tools like Moz and Ahrefs to identify websites that could benefit from your content.

When you find said websites, send personalised emails and messages to bloggers, influencers and creators explaining why you believe there is a partnership opportunity and how your content can benefit your readers.

You can also use backlink checker tools such as SEO Rocket's Backlink Finder to seek out backlink opportunities.

Broken Link Building

You may have broken links negatively impacting your website's search engine ranking. First and foremost, you should resolve all broken links on your own website. Finding broken links on your website is as easy as connecting to Google Search Console and reviewing the Page Indexing Report.

You can then use tools like Ahrefs and Screaming Frog to find broken links on other websites in your niche and reach out to site owners to offer solutions such as providing them with content from your site as a replacement.

Skyscraper Technique

Find high-performing content in your niche with a lot of backlinks. You should develop more comprehensive, updated, or engaging versions of this content.

Reach out to sites linking to the original content and suggest they link to your improved version as it offers more benefits to their audience.

Local SEO and Listings

Getting listed in local business directories and niche-specific directories with accurate and consistent details is a great way to link back to your website. Even established brands can benefit from being listed on high quality niche-specific directors. For example, we're on Design Rush, a trusted B2B marketplace platform that connects businesses with top agencies.

You should also engage with your community at local events, sponsorships and conferences to network and secure backlinks from local brands and websites.

Monitor and Analyse

Of course, using SEO tools to monitor link-building strategy and backlink profile is key. You should analyse the SEO and link-building strategies working best for you, and refine tactics based on performance data and trends.

What are the qualities of a healthy link profile?

Links are Earned

When links are earned naturally, they are editorially placed in another website's blog due to the high quality of the content. If your content is the most comprehensive and informative on the web, people will naturally link to it and your website authority and search engine ranking will grow.

As such, sometimes the best way to build links is to create the best possible content in your content marketing efforts.

High-Quality Backlinks

Getting backlinks from reputable sites carries more weight and positively influences your search engine ranking and domain rating.

Backlinks that come from relevant websites to your niche or industry will also lead to increased organic traffic - leading to target and valuable engagement. At the end of the day, high-quality links matter far more than a multitude of link spam.

Relevant Anchor Text

You should keep your anchor texts relevant and balanced. A mix of branded, exact match, partial match, and generic anchor texts helps avoid over-optimisation penalties.

They should also fit seamlessly into the existing text and not seem out of place purely for backlinking. The anchor text should read naturally and fit the context of the blog.

Contextual Relevance

The contextual relevance of external links going back to your website is key. Backlinks should be placed in the body text of a blog rather than in footers or sidebars for best results.

Editorial links in low-quality and unrelated posts won't do much for your website's authority, no matter how many low-quality websites generate links to your site.

Geographical Diversity

If you operate as a global brand, diversifying your links can showcase a wide-reaching audience coming from multiple regions.

If, however, you're a strictly local brand, it makes way more sense to focus on requiring backlinks from local directories and region-specific websites.

Consistency

When you have a consistent history of acquiring high-quality backlinks from relevant content with no significant drop in quality or relevance, it's a clear example of sustained value and relevance.

Staying focused on your link-building efforts leads to more backlinks over time and eventually a high domain rating that improves your brand's reputation and authority.

Things to Avoid When Link Building

Excessive link purchasing 

Purchasing links might seem like a quick way to build backlinks, but it violates Google's Webmaster Guidelines. Search engines can penalise your site if they detect paid links, leading to a significant drop in rankings or even removal from search engine results.

Low-quality links

Avoid obtaining links from spam-filled low-quality websites or those that are not relevant to your industry. Links from unrelated or spammy sites can harm your SEO performance and reduce your site's credibility.

Link exchanges

Google's quality guidelines advise against excessive or mass link exchanges and similar partnership programs that exist solely for cross-linking. This suggests that smaller-scale exchanges may not necessarily trigger link spam alerts.

Neglecting the user experience

Focusing solely on link quantity without considering the user experience can be detrimental. Links should be placed on pages that provide a good user experience, as search engines consider factors like page load speed, mobile-friendliness, and overall usability.

Automated link-building tools

Automated tools that generate backlinks can lead to a large number of low-quality, irrelevant links. This approach can quickly result in penalties and harm your long-term SEO strategy.

Duplicate content

Creating duplicate content across different sites or even within your site can lead to penalties. As such, make sure all of your content is original and provides unique value to your audience without just serving as a blatant copy of what already exists.

Ignoring nofollow links

While dofollow links pass SEO value, nofollow links still hold importance. They can drive traffic, build brand awareness, and diversify your backlink profile. Ignoring them means missing out on potential opportunities.

Choosing quantity over quality

A large number of low-quality links can do more harm than good. Focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks from authoritative and relevant sites, even if they come in smaller quantities.

Not diversifying links

Relying heavily on one type of link source (e.g., guest posts only) can limit your link profile's diversity and make it appear unnatural. Aim for a varied backlink profile including editorial links, directory listings, social media, and more.

Wrapping Up

As you enter the competitive digital landscape, you need every advantage to make your startup stand out and attract your target audience. Mastering link-building and understanding Domain Authority are pivotal steps in building a strong online presence.

By focusing on acquiring high-quality, relevant backlinks and steadily growing your Domain Authority, you can significantly enhance your website's visibility and credibility.

Remember, link-building isn’t a one-time effort; it’s an ongoing process that requires consistent effort, creativity, and strategic planning. Whether you’re creating valuable content, engaging in guest blogging, or leveraging the Skyscraper technique, the key is to earn links naturally and ethically.

A healthy link profile, characterised by diversity, relevance, and quality, will not only improve your search engine rankings but also drive targeted traffic and build trust with your audience. 

By investing in link-building and understanding the dynamics of Domain Authority, you can lay a solid foundation for long-term success in the digital realm.

At SEO Rocket, we take charge of your SEO strategy - from link building to keyword research and content marketing, we do it all. If you'd like to learn more about how we can help you boost your online visibility and website authority, reach out and book a call today.