Did you know the quality of your financial advisor website backlinks matters a great deal both in terms of search engine optimization (SEO) as well as the quality of your site’s user experience from a visitor’s perspective?
Even if you are aware of the importance of website backlink quality, you might not understand what to look for. Let’s take a look at the top signs that indicate your backlink quality is up to par.
Mind the Link Location
Certain links on pages are more valuable than others. The positioning of the link on the page largely influences its value in the context of SEO.
Web pages have five primary sections:
- Body content
- Header
- Footer
- Left sidebar
- Right sidebar
Each section has the potential to contain external links that transmit “juice” to the destination page. Though few know it, solely the links within the body content portion of the web page have value in the context of SEO. Furthermore, backlinks within the body content part of the site are safe from potential alterations within Google’s search engine algorithms.
The bottom line is the location of the backlinks within your content really does matter. In fact, even the exact positioning of the backlink within the body content plays a role in how effective it proves for SEO purposes.
The higher the link’s positioning on the page, the more important that link is for the page’s content, ultimately making it that much more valuable for the online visitor. As a result, such links carry more value than links positioned lower within the content.
Add in the fact that the number of links in each part of the web page also plays a role in determining SEO success and there is even more reason to sweat this supposed small stuff. The impact of the backlink is partially determined by the aggregate number of links on the page.
Resist the temptation to load up your pages with an abundance of backlinks and the backlinks you implement will make a meaningful impact. In fact, there is even the potential for a page with an abundance of external links to appear to be a page that mainly exists for the purpose of selling backlinks, ultimately causing more harm to your SEO than good.
Anchor Text Relevance
The relevance of the anchor text matters a great deal. Anchor text is the clickable link text, typically blue in color and underlined. As Google crawls through web pages and pinpoints links, it relies on the anchor text as a means of determining whether the destination URL is even slightly relevant to the linking page.
The best links use anchor text that implements the target keyword for a page in a manner that has relevance to the linking page. In short, the anchor text should be relevant to the actual link. Furthermore, the anchor text should be relevant to the linking page’s content. If the linking page is not relevant, it will be considered low-quality.
So don’t fall into the trap of assuming the anchor text should be exactly the same as the primary keyword. This approach is severely outdated. Google’s launch of Penguin changed the SEO game, making it easier to identify indications of unnatural link building.
If the anchor text is overly optimized or if too many anchor texts are exactly the same, it is a red flag from Google’s perspective. You can bypass suspicion from the top search engines by switching up your anchor texts, featuring keywords, branded information, and contextual information.
Relevant anchor text that is diverse ultimately sets the stage for SEO success. In fact, there are some indications that Google evaluates the quality of links and ranks pages partially based on the text that surrounds the anchors. It appears as though Google analyzes the text to the sides of the anchor text, studying it for keywords, and subsequently ranks the page for those keywords/phrases.
Recognize the Value of Business Profile Backlinks
It is in your interest to create an internet profile for your financial advisor firm on all the web-based review directories. Create such a profile for your company and you will have the opportunity to establish a link back to your company’s site. Such links featured on the web’s business listings, online review directories, industry directories, and social media platforms make it clear to search engines that the site is well-established and features high-quality content.
If you have not yet added backlinks on these sites, the time to do so is now. From Yelp to Capterra, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Google My Business, Foursquare, and beyond, there are plenty of review sites and directories that provide you with the opportunity to add valuable backlinks.
Acknowledgment Backlinks
Acknowledgment backlinks are those provided when a website mentions your financial advisor firm’s site and links to it. Such a link will mention your company to recognize its merits and ultimately steer web traffic your way. The link might be related to a testimonial for your company’s services or overarching brand. Furthermore, the link can relate to a public speaking event where a representative from your company will appear or an event your firm will sponsor.
Opt for Do-Follow Over No-Follow
When someone adds a backlink to their site, they can use HMTL code to have the link as either “Do Follow” or “No Follow”, both of which communicate something unique. Do-Follow links communicate to search engines that they should notice and provide SEO value to the links.
No Follow links communicate to search engines that they should ignore the links and subsequently reduce their SEO value. Do-Follow links are superior as they transmit better signals to the search engines, ultimately providing more value than No Follow links. This is precisely why every link to your financial advisor firm’s site should be coded as Do-Follow.
