Don't Link Build - Instead Get SEO Links With Link Reclamation
In an earlier article, we discussed that we don't do link building. We don't waste your time with something that takes so long to do with so little return. We do use a different option - Link Reclamation. When we do an SEO audit, we find how many other sites are linking to your website. But those links might not be carrying the best weight to them.
SEO Link Weight
Link weight refers to the weight or level of trust a link carries based on how it is linked back to and how frequently shared. Search engines rank that link better based on several factors, and one of them is naturalness.
"The objective is not to make your links appear natural, the objective is that your links are natural." - Matt Cutts (Head of Google Web Spam and 16 year veteran)
When another website links back to your website, there are 2 important parts in that link - the anchor text and the destination page that the link is pointing to. The anchor text is the actual text that is a different color (usually blue). In addition, the text is usually underlined. The destination page is the page on your website to which the other website is linking back. Sometimes that is your homepage and sometimes that is a page deeper into your website. The weight can change based upon these two options.
How Link Reclamation Works
Link reclamation only works on websites that are already linking to yours. The difference between link reclamation and backlinking is that a link to your page was organically referenced by another website. Link reclamation is making the way that link was referenced by someone else's website better.
Let's say for example that your website sells teeth whitening products under the product name "Bright White Teeth Cleaner." Another website found your website good enough to reference you by linking to your homepage using the anchor text "brighter smiles." This is a good link because it is relevant to your website, but it can be better. This is where we would see what the better anchor text and landing page would be to help improve the link weight - giving you a better link and improving your SEO in the process. After analyzing and finding the best changes to make, we would then attempt to reach out to the website owner and see if they would make the changes on their existing link.