Source: https://moz.com/blog/7-link-seo
Are your incoming links topically relevant to your site? Do they come from trusted or spam sites?
Topically relevant links
Links have a say on how websites rank in the search results. Search engines view them as “votes” and their quality is used to evaluate your pages. When thinking about links for SEO, consider these practical tips for topically relevant links:
Earn links with the right anchor text.
- Use good, descriptive anchor text when linking.
- Apply it to all your internal links, outlinks to other sites, and links from external sites.
- Avoid generic “click here” type links as well as the repetitive use of exact match anchor text.
Say NO to manipulative link building.
- This can over-optimize your links.
- Search engines may be able to tell when you are trying to “game” the system.
- Avoid at all cost all kinds of unnatural links.
Seek links from “expert” and relevant pages.
- Build relationships from topically relevant and authoritative sites.
- Look for pages that link to many authority sites.
- Examine if the page is relevant to your target topic.
- Check the title, body, related phrases, and intent of the page.
Use high quality content to attract links to your site.
- Regularly update your site with relevant content.
- Share your content on social media to reach wider audience.
A healthy backlink profile has to have a wide variety of links types. Make sure though that these links are topically relevant to your site. When link building, ask yourself if the link will bring highly qualified visitors to your website.