There is no set amount of backlinks as such that a site needs to rank on search engines for their relevant keywords. Some keywords are more competitive than others and therefore require more high-quality backlinks than others.
The more keyword focus and pages on your site you want to rank for, the more backlinks and strategy you will need. If your keyword has a low search volume, you may only need a few backlinks to make it rank. Any general number of backlinks provided as a target may be argued against because this will differ significantly from business to business.
Small businesses should be looking to curate more specific quality backlinks to get their SEO campaign off to a good start. With 50 quality backlinks, it would be fair to predict first page rankings for an average competition of about five keywords providing its done properly with the correct strategy.
The best approach to link building is not to race to get 50 backlinks but to create links consistently and naturally over some time. Link building should be an ongoing process that you should continue to work on, even after your pages have ranked to ensure they stay where they need to be, strengthen and sustaining is just as important.
If you stop creating content and backlinks simply because you managed to rank your page in the search results, you give your competitors a better chance of overtaking you.
What makes it more challenging to provide a more detailed answer to the question is that when deciding how many backlinks you need, you must remember, there are many variables, you have to do as many as it requires. And then keep topping up to stay ahead of your competitors.
How Many Backlinks Will I Need Per Keyword?
The best indicator of how many backlinks you will need for a specific keyword to rank, you’ll first need to look at how many backlinks each of your competitors has for that particular keyword too. You can check this information on sites like:
Ahrefs
Majestic
To rank for a specific keyword, page title or questions, you need to beat the competition. If you’re unable to find out exactly how many backlinks there are to specific pages that rank then a smart tip would be to calculate the number of pages on the site and divide the total number of backlinks, they have by that amount. It is just a rough estimation and does not compensate for the quality of those backlinks. Still, if you get as many backlinks of the same quality as the average number of the sites currently ranked well for that keyword, then it is fair to expect your website to rank well in the search engines.
Be Aware Of The Quality Of Your Backlinks
The most common mistake for beginners or those with little knowledge of digital marketing is to concentrate on the number of backlinks, rather than the value of them. You should always be with the understanding that not all backlinks are of equal value.
Having just one high-quality backlink could have the same effect as having 100+ bad backlinks of low quality. See, it’s not just a game of numbers. The site with the highest number of backlinks doesn’t always rank the highest. You need to strike the right balance between the number of backlinks you have and the consistency of the backlinks.
Make sure your content and backlink placements meet many of the following criteria :
- It should be from a relevant source and be relevant content-wise
- It should come from a trusted website
- It should send new traffic to your site
- The written content should be relevant to your industry
- You should include, or it should be placed with other links that go to authoritative sites
- They should not be easily acquirable – effort will be required to get a placement
- Not paid for – Not PPC or advertorial. You want to submit high-quality content that is publishable on a site where you don’t have to pay them to publish it.
Invest In SEO
To save time and money on backlinking, you could invest in on-site optimisation. This is where the pages of your website are upgraded and filled with good quality, informative content that search engines like google love.
RivMedia provides SEO services that could help you achieve your online goals. Get in touch to see if we can help you on your journey to success.