Table of Contents
- How to Filter Domains for Link Building
- Four Steps to Find Perfect Domains for Link Building
- 1. Defining Your Link Building Goals
- 2. Identifying Relevant Domains
- A. Use Google search operators
- B. Competitor analysis tools
- C. Industry-specific directories and resources
- 3. Understanding Domain Metrics
- A. Domain Authority
- B. Website traffic
- C. Website traffic trend
- D. Spam score
- E. Trust and Citation flow
- 4. Filtering Domains Based on Metrics
- 1. Define minimum thresholds for each metric based on your link building goals
- 2. Consider other factors in addition to metrics
- Build Backlinks Faster with Smarlinks
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How to Filter Domains for Link Building
If SEO is toasted bread, link building is the butter that turns it into a scrumptious breakfast. In other words, the more high-quality backlinks you have, the higher (and faster) your website will rank in those search engine results. That means more organic traffic and more eyes on your site.
But don't go thinking that all backlinks are created equal. Oh no, no, no. Some of those bad boys can actually hurt your rankings, while others can give you a serious boost. So, if you're looking to up your SEO game, you need to filter those domains based on specific metrics.
And that’s what we will talk about in this blog post. I’ll tell you exactly how to how to filter domains for link building, so you can rest easy knowing you're actually moving the needle.
Want to learn by practice? Get to filtering domains with Smartlinks right away 🪄
Four Steps to Find Perfect Domains for Link Building
Well, here’s the secret (not so secret) sauce, tested by my team and I for years. Let’s start with:-
1. Defining Your Link Building Goals
Before you start filtering those domains, you need to figure out your link building goals. Because if you don’t, it’ll be trying to sail a ship without a destination—you'll just be lost at sea.
So, to here are some example goals to make sure you actually make it to a shore:-
- Increase brand awareness
- Build relationships with influencers
- Improve social media engagement
Once you figure out where you want to go, you can fine-tune your domain filtering strategy. Example: Focus on domains with high domain authority and trust flow if you want to improve search engine rankings. Or, if you're looking to increase referral traffic, aim for domains with high traffic and engagement.
2. Identifying Relevant Domains
Identifying relevant domains is a crucial step in link building. You want to make sure that the domains you target are relevant to your website or business and will provide value to your audience. Here are some methods to identify relevant domains:-
A. Use Google search operators
One way to find relevant domains is by using Google search operators.
For example, if you run a website that sells specialty coffee, you can search for "coffee" + "write for us" to find websites that accept guest posts and are related to your niche.
B. Competitor analysis tools
You can also use tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz to analyze your competitors' backlink profiles.
By doing this, you can identify websites that link to your competitors and may be relevant to your business.
C. Industry-specific directories and resources
Another way to find relevant domains is by searching industry-specific directories and resources.
For example, if you run a health blog, you can search for health-related directories or resources to find relevant domains.
3. Understanding Domain Metrics
If you're looking to filter domains like a pro, you've got to understand the metrics that matter. Let me give you the lowdown on what's important:-
A. Domain Authority
This little number, cooked up by Moz, tells you just how authoritative a domain is based on the quality and quantity of those all-important backlinks.
B. Website traffic
The number of visitors that come to a website over a certain period of time, including both human visitors and automated bots that access the site.
C. Website traffic trend
The direction and magnitude of changes in website traffic over time, represented graphically using metrics such as the number of visits, pageviews, bounce rate, or time on site.
D. Spam score
A metric used to measure the likelihood that a website is engaging in spammy or manipulative practices, calculated by analyzing various factors such as the number of low-quality backlinks, duplicate content, and presence of malware or other security threats.
E. Trust and Citation flow
- Trust Flow: Developed by Majestic, it is all about measuring the quality and trustworthiness of a domain based on the quality of sites that link to it.
- Citation flow: This is a measure of the quantity of backlinks pointing to a domain, regardless of quality.
You can decide how many of these metrics you want to add to your checklist. When you’re starting, you can even keep things simple (but with the intention to level up).
4. Filtering Domains Based on Metrics
Here are two things you need to consider to filter out low-quality domains:-
1. Define minimum thresholds for each metric based on your link building goals
Depending on your goals, you may want to set minimum thresholds for the metrics we discussed above. For example, if your goal is to improve your search engine rankings, you may want to only target domains with a minimum domain authority of 30 and a minimum page authority of 20. But to make things even simpler, here are some industry benchmarks you can swear by:-
- Domain Authority (by Moz): Look for domains with a DA score of 50 or higher (DA is a Moz metric. You can also use Ahref’s DR here).
- Website Traffic (Covered by multiple tools; I recommend using Ahrefs): Seek domains with consistent traffic, ideally with at least 10,000 monthly visitors.
- Website Traffic Trend(Use Semrush, Similar Web, or SerpStat): If the traffic has been steadily increasing, it's a good sign that the website is growing in popularity and authority.
- Spam Score (Found in Moz): Strive to find domains with a low Spam Score, ideally below 3.
- Trust and Citation Flow (Found in Majestic SEO): Aim for domains that hit 20-30 or higher for these two metrics.
2. Consider other factors in addition to metrics
While metrics are important, they shouldn't be the only factor you consider when filtering domains. Use human judgment to consider other factors such as the relevance of the domain to your industry and content, the domain authority within your industry, the quality of content on the domain, and the trustworthiness of the domain.
Build Backlinks Faster with Smarlinks
Well, now that you know what filters to go through when picking domains, how about leveling up the rest of your link building game too?
Instead of relying on a laundry list of apps, use Smartlinks.
With it, all you have to do is:-
- Enter keywords you need backlinks for,
- Get matched with opportunities,
- Send a one-click backlink request,
- And voila!
You earn backlinks without dizzying prospecting, tiring outreach, or never-ending negotiations. Just focus on creating link-worthy content and Smartlinks does the rest.
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