What Are the Best SEO Metrics for Linkbuilding?
Effective link building practices entail focusing on links with high relevance and quality. This is because relevant links can have a greater impact on SEO than unrelated ones.
Typically, link builders rely on metrics like domain authority (DA) and domain rating (DR) to identify the best websites for outreach. However, these shouldn’t be the only metrics you track.
Keyword rankings and organic search visibility
One of the biggest questions SEO metrics for linkbuilding clients ask is how long it will take to see results from their link building efforts. This is a valid question, as SEO requires time and effort to produce high-quality content that appeals to search engines and users.
Fortunately, there are some metrics that can give you an idea of how effective your link building campaign is. These metrics include keyword rankings and organic search visibility. Organic search visibility is a percentage of clicks that a website receives from search engine results pages. This metric is calculated by using current rankings and estimating click-through rates. It is commonly found in the organic rankings section of many SEO tools.
A robust search visibility score empowers businesses to dominate search results and capture more prospects. However, higher visibility also means more vulnerability, as competitors will have to work harder to outrank you. Therefore, businesses should focus on finding keywords with backlink gaps and creating informative content to drive qualified referral traffic.
Domain authority
Domain authority is an important metric to track when you’re conducting SEO work. It helps you predict how well your website will rank in search engine results pages (SERPs). However, it’s not the only factor that determines your SERP ranking.
It’s generally agreed by experts that a domain authority score should be treated as a general guide rather than a definitive metric. That said, there’s still a lot of value in knowing your DA score and analyzing your competitors’ scores when shaping your link building strategies.
Essentially, a site with a higher DA score is more likely to rank well in search engines, given that it has a large number of high-quality backlinks. As such, many SEO professionals regularly check their DA score and the DA score of their competitors to help inform their strategies.
Trust flow and citation flow
Citation flow and trust flow are two metrics that can be used to assess the quality of a website’s backlink profile. They are trademarked by Majestic SEO and provide a good snapshot of the current state of a website’s backlinks. However, they cannot be used as a standalone set of data and should only be considered in conjunction with other metrics such as domain authority.
Both citation and trust flow are based on the number of links a website has, but different approaches to linkbuilding will result in very different scores. For example, a new website with a high citation flow could have lots of links but they could be from low-quality directories or spammy sites.
On the other hand, a site with a high trust flow may have only a few links from authoritative and trustworthy sources. Ideally, you want a balance between the two metrics to ensure that your website is getting valuable links.
Page authority
Page authority (PA) is a predictive SEO metric that indicates the potential of a web page to rank well in search engines. It incorporates a number of SEO factors, including backlinks and domain authority, to calculate a score. While PA does not directly influence SERP rankings, it can help predict performance and guide optimization strategies.
PA should be used in conjunction with other SEO metrics to provide a full picture of a site’s health. It is important to note that a high PA does not guarantee a high ranking, and it can fluctuate for many reasons.
Using a variety of metrics to evaluate websites and pages is critical for effective linkbuilding. This holistic approach enables agencies to identify opportunities for continued optimization and anticipate broader campaign results. By highlighting PA trends in monthly SEO reports, agencies can show clients the value of their investment and demonstrate their expertise in boosting search visibility. A steady increase in PA over time is also a powerful indicator of the impact of an agency’s work.