Everyone still considers backlinks as the most important ranking factor. That said, we often come across many clients who tend to build thousands of backlinks for their websites, and still, the results could be better.

It's because of the common fact that most people don't perform backlinking following a particular protocol or order. A proper backlink is a complex process and requires much orientation in a tuned manner.

Below are several aspects and some parameters that one should bear in mind while building links for any particular website.

It is one of the most important metrics and KPIs often used in off-page SEO activities. Trust flow initially finds its existence from Majestic. In short, it is also referred to as the TF factor.

Trust flow denotes a score between 0 to 100, which determines how trustworthy the incoming links are, which are directed to your website or landing page. Trust flow is a relative score, and it's never judged based on the number of incoming links.

Mentioned below are some of the ways by which the trust flow can be improved for any given website:

● Acquiring a backlink from a high-domain authoritative website

● Acquiring a backlink from a reputed website

● Brand mentions from trustable sources

● Backlinks that will create a good user experience and value to the topic

Citation flow is also an important metric when it comes to backlink analysis. In short, it is also known as the CF factor.

Citation flow also denotes a score between 0 to 100; it determines the relative count of the quantity of the backlinks pointing to the website. CF factor ensures that good and valuable link juice is passed without spam.

Below mentioned are specific steps which will help in improving the citation flow factor:

● Tiered backlinks will help in improving the citation flow

● High authority link-building submission will help in hiking the CF score

● Proper off-page SEO will help in improving the score

● White-label link-building will help in improving the CF score

The golden ratio factor is the division of the TF score by the CF score. The ideal value has to lie between 0.6 to 1.5; it is to be noted that the more the value is nearer to 1, the more the benefit will be.

Mathematically, the Golden Ratio = TF/CF and the value should be between 0.6 – 1.5; the golden ratio factor is also considered a link juice equation.

Referring domains are a part of advanced SEO techniques, and based on a correlation study, referring domains contain a strong positive correlation and help a lot with website ranking.

It has also been analyzed that Referring domain values outrank the total number of external backlink values. Now the question is – What is a Referring Domain?

Well, referring domains are the unique domains from which you have successfully acquired a backlink. That said, a referring domain will only get counted as a referring domain if the link acquired is valid without any possible noticeable issues.

Why are Referring Domains an Important Factor?

Referring domains are an essential factor because it justifies the fact that link acquisition will occur once per domain, and it will be treated as a unique domain. Furthermore, referring domains will only be triggered if the acquisition is successful with a proper link juice transfer.

Below mentioned are the benefits of having growth in referring domain score:

● Better SERP visibility

● Enhanced SERP exposure

● Good ranking benefits

● Will make your website more competitive

● Will also help in ranking for the semantic terms if the referring domains for the page are high

Referring IP is an important metric for SEO link building. This also has the same functionality as the referring domain, where links must be acquired from a unique environment with good authority and less spam score.

The only difference lies within the fact that with referring IP, we also needs to acquire a link from a unique IP as well. In other words, we need to acquire a link from a unique domain, and the IP shouldn't be repeated.

Link juice is a relative term used for defining the strength or weight of the value passed with the backlink acquisition. Link juice is a virtual concept that helps define the SEO strength that can be acquired with any backlinks.

Practically speaking, link juice can be mathematically defined as –

Link Juice = TF/CF; Link Juice = Referring IP/ Referring Domain

Here are some quick facts:

● TF/CF score should be between 0.6 and 1.5 for maximum benefit.

● The TF/CF score should be tuned closer to 1; the more it is closer to 1, the more benefit it has.

● If the value of Referring IP/ Referring Domain domain is greater than 1, it will indicate that the link juice power is super high.

● If the value of referring Ip/referring domain is between 0.5 and 1, it will indicate intermediate link juice power.

● If the value of Referring IP/ Referring Domain domain is between 0.20 – 0.49, then it will indicate mild link juice power

● If the value of Referring IP/ Referring Domain is much lesser than 1, then it will indicate poor link juice

Some additional quick facts:

●Link juice of a particular page always gets divided in an equal ratio. Suppose you have a landing page with a link juice score of "x," and that particular page contains two outbound links (or internal links); then those two pages will get a share of "X/2" link juice on either page.

● Link juice value doesn't pass if a no-follow tag is used.

● Link juice is not affected by the speed of the website.

● Link juice is not affected by any technical SEO aspects.

● Link juice gets diluted if a no-follow tag is used for external links (this is based on the PageRank sculpting algorithm)

Mentioned below are types of processes that can be used for acquiring a link for off-page optimization. The process and strategies are discussed below:

This process is simple; it just involves acquiring a backlink from a high DA site. The following are the benefits of a high DA submission:

● Helps in improving off-site seo score.

● Helps in improving TF score.

● Helps in transferring good link juice flow.

● Helps in enhancing SERP visibility.

This process involves acquiring links on branded sites via media, brand wire, PR application, or content promotion. Brand links can help with multiple things, some of which are mentioned as under:

● It will help in improving the trust flow of your website.

● It will help with EAT algorithm.

● It will help in building trust with your audience.

● It will make your business more connected and help raise brand awareness.

Citation NAPL means listing your business on high authority websites, which are classifieds or business listings. The name NAPL means name, address, phone number, and link. This process works by finding opportunities on high authority sites where you can get a backlink, but you'll need to ensure the submission contains NAPL. Citations can help with the below-mentioned things:

● Citation serves as the basis of local link-building strategies.

● Citations also help in improving TF scores.

● It helps in referral traffic acquisition.

● It also helps with product awareness.

● Citation has a huge impact on domain authority and page authority and helps in improving them.

Link wheel is a process that works with article submissions or WEB 2.0 submissions, which are chained together and linked with a microsite. If you want to perform a link wheel, the steps are mentioned as under:

Step 1: We start by creating 5 WEB 2.0 or article submissions with at least 1600 words of quality content.

Step 2: We ensure each submission contains two anchor texts relevant to your main focus keyword or the search term you want to rank for. You can choose various types of anchors such as exact match, LSI, 2nd Tier LSI, partial match, long tail, or naked.

Step 3: Out of the five web 2.0's, consider one as a microsite (one which has the highest DA and TF).

Step 4: The next step is to start the link wheel process. Start with the first WEB 2.0 and connect the first anchor text with the microsite and the second anchor text with the next WEB 2.0 submission.

Step 5: We repeat the entire process for the next four WEB 2.0 and make sure we NEVER connect the last WEB 2.0 submission with the first one. This is to ensure that search engines might not track the footprint. With that being said, we connect the remaining anchor of the last WEB 2.0 with the landing page of your website.

Step 6: Now, moving over to the microsite, we connect the first anchor text with the homepage of your root domain or your website. And connect the second anchor text with your main money page or landing page.

Now, the above steps will help create your first link wheel architecture. The below-mentioned points are some of the benefits of creating a proper link wheel:

● Link wheel will boost your SERP visibility.

● Link wheel will help in ensuring link equity flow.

● Link wheel will also help in a faster index of your backlinks.

The champion list setup is an advanced version of the link wheel. The main concept has 4 clusters, with the first cluster containing 4 subsets of bookmark submissions, the second cluster containing 4 subsets of citation submissions, the third cluster containing 4 subsets of WEB 2.0, and followed by the last cluster which contains 4 subsets of WEB 3.0 submissions.

The exact steps for building a champion list setup, also known as set-P Model, are described below:

Step 1: We start by creating a first cluster containing 4 subsets of bookmarking or high DS submission. We make sure there is only one anchor text in all the submissions.

Step 2: We connect the first anchor with the second, the second to the third, and so on. Note* The champion list setup doesn't need to have a microsite.

Step 3: We connect the last subset with the first subset of the second cluster and check the image for a more proper understanding, ensuring the second cluster contains citation submissions.

Step 4: We repeat the above steps until we complete all 4 clusters, making the last connection of the fourth cluster and last subset connection with your landing page.

Once all the above steps are followed, this will make a complete champion list setup ready. There are several benefits of a champion list setup, some of which are mentioned below:

● Champion list setup will ensure more enhanced SERP exposure.

● It will help in improving the link juice quality.

● This will tend to provide better SERP visibility.

● This will make sure your links are indexed well.

● It will also help with semantic SERP exposure.

Champion List 2.0 is nothing but an extended version of a champion list setup. In the champion list 2.0 setup, the entire champion list setup will be counted as a supercluster; now, in champion list 2.0, there will be a total of 4 superclusters. Each supercluster will contain a complete champion list setup model.

In the champion list setup, the anchor connection of the fourth cluster was made with the landing page. But in the champion list 2.0 setup, the fourth cluster anchor connection must be done with the first cluster of the second supercluster.

One astonishing benefit of this complex setup is to ensure semantic keywords ranking in SERP. This will also help with natural voice search optimization for long-tail versions.

Contextual links are simple links acquired from a website with a proper context or a website where the user can add context in relation to their niche. This will help in improving the TF and CF score.

TBL is a type of WEB 2.0 submission with just minor modifications to the structure. The exact steps are mentioned below:

● The content should be approx 2000 words.

● There should be three anchors within the entire WEB 2.0.

● The first anchor should be an exact match keyword, and it will be connected with the main landing page.

● The second anchor will be an LSI keyword, and it will be connected with a high DA submission link which is previously made.

● The third anchor will be a long tail keyword which will be connected to an image submission.

TBL helps with multiple things, some of which are mentioned below:

● It will help in retaining link juice freshness.

● It will help with the freshness signal.

● It will help with link juice equity.

● This will definitely help in improving the SERP visibility.

This is a concept of link building in which backlinks are acquired by analyzing the referring domains of the competitors. A professional link-building consultant would definitely suggest this. The steps are mentioned below:

● We pick the search term or keyword you want to rank for.

● Use it and make a query in Google search (Be sure to set the location as preferred by you).

● Pick out the top 10 competitors based on Google SERP.

● Pick their full URLs and analyze them in ahrefs. Make sure the mode is set to URL mode.

● Now, ahrefs will show you the value of the referring domain.

● We repeat the above for 10 competitors.

● Now, we calculate the mean average of all the 10 referring domains and make a note of the mean value.

● The mean value which we will obtain would be your ultimate target for acquiring a link to your website.

● Now, we can use the link intersect model on ahrefs to find opportunities for acquiring a link, and once we reach your target of the mean value, it ends the process.

The main benefit of having this strategy is mentioned below:

● This helps in improving the referring domains, which helps in improving SERP visibility.

● This will also help rank the terms our competitors might be using (provided the semantics is done properly).

● RDP will also help in improving the DA and PA.

This is an advanced link-building in SEO that works in three clusters. It looks a bit similar to the champion list setup, but the setup scenario is a bit different. The exact steps are mentioned as under:

Step 1: We create cluster 1, which will contain 4 types of submissions chained with each other. They are namely- bookmarking submission followed by citation WEB 2.0 and lastly WEB 3.0.

Step 2: The last connection should be made on the first submission of the second cluster.

Step 3: We repeat the above process with three clusters in total and then link the last submission of the third cluster with your landing page. The overall benefit of having a KNN setup is that it maintains a strong link juice flow within a website's architecture.

This is a form of a tiered backlinking strategy. The process involves combining multiple submissions together for an enhanced effect. The exact steps are mentioned below:

Step 1: If we are creating bookmarking submissions, then we will use any of your previous citation submissions as the landing page within your bookmark submission.

Step 2: If we are creating citation submissions, then we will use any of your previous Image submissions as the landing page within your citation submission.

Step 3: When creating an Image submission, we will use any of your previous PPT or PDF submissions as the landing page within your Image submission.

The Silo strategy helps in boosting the SERP appearance. The best SEO companies globally will always suggest having a silo architecture. The overall benefit of having a silo architecture is mentioned below:

● It helps in forming a tiered network.

● It helps in maintaining link juice flow.

● It helps in maintaining link equity flow.

● It prevents spam flow if it persists.

In-link is basically an approach where high links are directed to a particular landing page within a website that carries the most importance. If you have one special keyword and typically want to focus on that specific page, then in-link is the strategy we would opt for.

The sole benefit of this process is getting the money page or the landing page well-ranked in search engines.

Link-building types also include WEB 2.0 submission. This is a common submission type that is similar to article submission. A proper WEB 2.0 submission must follow specific rules, and they are mentioned below:

● It is preferable if the submission contains at least 1700 words.

● It must contain three anchors: one exact match type, one long tail, and one brand keyword or semantic keyword.

● The exact match keyword should be hyperlinked with the mapped landing page.

● The long tail keyword should be linked with any tiered link (previous submission).

● The brand keyword should be hyperlinked with the homepage.

WEB 2.0 submission can provide a lot of added benefits, some of which are mentioned below:

● This submission greatly helps improve the rankings for the exact match search terms.

● It greatly helps improve the referring domain and IP value along with TF and CF scores.

● It helps a lot in improving the SERP exposure for the overall family of the keywords used within the entire website.

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WEB 3.0 is an upgraded version of WEB 2.0 submission, and it is much more powerful and helps in high SERP exposure. The main steps which are involved with web 3.0 submissions are as follows:

● The submission should contain approximately 1500 – 2000 words of quality content.

● There should be 8 anchors in equal proximity.

● The 1st anchor should be an exact match keyword.

● The 2nd anchor should be a partial match keyword.

● The 3rd anchor should be a phrase match keyword.

● The 4th anchor should be an LSI keyword.

● The 5th anchor should be a second-tier LSI keyword.

● The 6th anchor should be a semantic keyword.

● The 7th anchor should be a branded keyword.

● The 8th anchor should be a long tail keyword.

WEB 3.0 TBL is much like the standard TBL method, where all the anchors will be connected with some of the previous submissions. This will create a tiered network while enjoying all the benefits of WEB 3.0 submission.

Syndication is the process by which you can amplify your content across many social networks or high-engaging websites. Although, much utilization of the syndication is only recommended if you have a clear canonicalization setup for your website. One of the simple ways to create an amplification network is by using IFTTT syndication. The major benefit of syndication is that it will allow you to have proper brand exposure.

Podcast submission is among the most trending technique which helps in improving overall SEO performance. The process involves podcast submissions on various media outlets and podcast channels. Podcast submission helps in traffic acquisition and help in acquiring high authoritative backlinks. It also helps with strong brand exposure and brand awareness.

This is a very simple technique for acquiring a backlink, yet it is one of the most effective techniques. The exact steps are mentioned below:

● You definitely need a buzz sumo account in order to make this strategy work successfully.

● We would pick your favorite search term,

● Search the term into buzz sumo and find people who actively have a demand for the topic.

● Find the email id for the people who are actively looking for the content.

● Send them a mail proposing better content.

There are several benefits of using the skyscraper technique, some of which are mentioned below:

● It helps in acquiring high do-follow links.

● It also helps in improving the referring domains.

● It definitely helps in improving referring IP as well.

To conclude, we now have a scenario where we can see that there are several aspects for having a proper link-building architecture. At the same time, many KPIs also needed to be followed. A strong back-linking structure will not only help in ranking but will also help in acquiring the strongest SERP visibility.

Web 2.0 Submission allows the users of a respective niche site to access information for sharing, networking, and grouping. One of the main advantages of it provides quality do-follow backlinks, which in terms of SEO, produce great results.

It gives your domain a solid boost in terms of authority and trust. As it is considered a subdomain for your main domain, so technically, this yields a good page authority as well.

Also, keep in mind that relevance is often considered a great metric for link-building. In this way, you can build up your overall website authority.

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