Five signs of a strong link
| Sign | What to look for |
|---|---|
| Relevance | The site covers your trade, your town or your customers |
| Real audience | People actually visit and read the site |
| Editorial choice | Someone decided to link to you, not a paid slot |
| Placement | Inside the main content, near related text |
| Natural anchor text | Your name or a plain description, not a forced keyword |
For a dental office, a link from the city business journal or the state dental association usually beats one from a huge unrelated site.
Links that look good but are not
- Directories that accept anyone who pays
- Guest posts on sites that publish anything for a fee
- Link swaps arranged only to trade links
- Private blog networks built to sell links
- Footer and sidebar links across thousands of pages
Google's spam policies name buying links, excessive link exchanges and automated link programs as link spam. Google says its systems detect much of this automatically and simply ignore those links, so you lose the money even when nothing worse happens.
How local businesses earn strong links
Good example. A dentist sponsors a school dental health day. The school, the local paper and a parents' group all mention it and link to the practice.
Bad example. The same dentist pays for 50 guest posts on general blogs that also sell posts about crypto and casinos.
Other good sources are supplier partner pages, professional associations, community events and local awards. Useful resources that others cite, like a pricing guide, earn links too.
How to judge a link before you pursue it
Ask whether you would want the link if Google did not exist. If it would send you customers or credibility, it is probably a good link. If its only purpose is ranking, skip it.
See what backlinks are. Our link building work finds and earns links that pass this test.