There is no exact scientific answer to the question of how many backlinks do I need to rank higher in Google as it comes down to many ranking factors that are unique to each website. To come up with an accurate strategy that is custom-made for your website, you must orchestrate data from various sources. Generally, the number of backlinks you need to rank higher depends on the competitiveness of your niche, your website authority, and the authority of your backlinks. Also, the number of backlinks of your competitors impacts the number of backlinks you need to rank higher. Rest assured, be cautious with link acquisition, as quality always outweighs quantity.
How Many Backlinks Do I Need to Rank on Google – An Overview
Backlinks are the cornerstone of SEO. Inbound links are actually endorsements from other sites that signal to search engines, such as Google, that you have published valuable content on your website that others want to link to. Google naturally ranks valuable content higher in search engine results.
Website owners understand the importance of high quality links, as backlinks are still the top-ranking factors in Google’s algorithm. Google’s algorithm is complex and keeps updating to evaluate the relevance and quality of backlinks.
Backlinks Are Still the Real Deal
Google’s objective is to deliver the best results, which means that it only wants to rank authoritative and trustworthy sites. This is where the importance of backlinks comes in. Understandably, you must focus on technical SEO, too, such as mobile friendliness, webpage loading speed, and URL structure. Also, on-page factors, such as keywords, high-quality content, and metadata optimization, will only get you so far.
Whenever you see a website outranking other sites, backlinks are almost always the underlying reason. Resultantly, to rank higher in Google, good backlinks can help you close the competitive gap by establishing enough relevant backlinks and leveling up the playing field.
Rest assured; the fact remains that top backlinks, such as quality backlinks, and the more backlinks you have pointing to your business website, the higher your website will rank in SERP rankings, which subsequently will boost the organic traffic to your website.
Which Backlinks Are Best For A Healthy Backlink Profile
If you want to rank higher in Google, you must focus on establishing a healthy backlink profile first. Whenever we speak about a healthy backlink profile in SEO, we are referring to more than quality backlinks. The truth is that if the backlink profile of your website only comprises high-quality backlinks, it isn’t actually healthy.
Now, why is that?
We are here to tell you that it all comes down to how Google views natural backlinks. Google doesn’t want website owners to build backlinks to rank higher in Google; instead, Google wants website owners to create outstanding content and earn all backlinks based on merit. This aspect indicates that creating valuable content and gaining backlinks from reputable sites is fine.
A Healthy Backlink Profile Equals A Diverse Backlink Profile
In order for you to get a clean pass of health from Google, your backlink profile must be natural to Google. This aspect indicates the importance of building a diverse backlink profile that includes backlinks from a wide range of sources, including the following:
- Forum comments
- Media outlets
- News sites
- Social media profiles
- Business and other directories
The underlying reason why a diverse backlink profile appears more natural to Google is that diverse links actually mimic what happens when users who are genuinely interested in your niche or product or service would like to link organically to your content. On the other hand, if your backlink profile only comprises backlinks from high-authoritative websites, Google would definitely see nothing but spam.
Quality vs. Quantity: The Classic Debate
We know what you are thinking: are fewer backlinks bad and more backlinks better? Understandably, accumulating more backlinks looks like a great strategy – however – you must always prioritize quality over quantity. At the time of building high-quality backlinks that will help your website rank higher, you cannot calculate directly the potential “value” each of the backlinks will pass, but you know that the more valuable the backlinks are, the more link equity they will pass on and affect your ranking efforts.
How to Assess the Value of A Backlink?
Here are a few aspects to assess when gauging the value of a backlink:
Domain Authority
Domain Authority, also referred to as DA, is an important metric for evaluating the quality of a backlink. This metric was developed by Moz, and the typical DA score ranges from zero to a hundred. The DA score provides an estimate of a site’s ability to rank in Google. On that note, if a backlink pointing to your website has a high DA score, such as 54, it carries more link equity than two or three inbound links with DA scores of 25.
It is important to mention here that achieving a high DA score exhibits a long-term commitment, which involves so much more than link building, such as high-quality content and a good website user experience.
Backlink Traffic
Apart from assessing the domain authority of the backlinks in your backlink profile, you must also assess the traffic of the backlinks. You should aim at securing backlinks from websites that attract high levels of organic traffic and are essentially viewed as trustworthy and authoritative by Google as well as other search engines. This trustworthiness translates into much greater link equity when such a backlink points to your website.
On that note, backlinks, even when they are fewer in number but are coming from high-traffic websites, will generate significant improvements in Google rankings as compared to backlinks from sites that are less known and have less organic traffic.
Backlink Relevance
Apart from DA and website traffic, the relevance of the backlinks also holds great value when it comes to assessing valuable backlinks that will actually help you move the needle and rank higher in Google. On that note, the relevant backlinks are exponentially more valuable as they originate from websites that are closely related to your specific niche.
This relevance also encompasses the content that surrounds the backlink along with the used anchor text. If the backlink is embedded within niche-relevant content, Google finds it easier to crawl and index. Subsequently, this contextual alignment increases the chances for link authority to be passed on to your website, which in turn increases the chances for your website to rank higher in Google.
Pro Tips for Building Valuable Relevant Backlinks
- Audit the linking sites in detail to ensure they are aligned with your niche.
- Use the Ahrefs tool to assess the profile and content of the sites to establish they are reputable.
- Reach out to bloggers with personalized outreach emails and elaborate on the benefits of backlink exchange,
- Make sure to use keyword-rich anchor text that contextually fits within the content.
Nonetheless, you get the point: by selecting relevant backlinks, you can make sure that the link juice of the sites is transferred to your website, which will help you rank higher.
Characteristics of High Value Backlinks
Before we proceed to answer the question of the number of backlinks that you need to rule your niche’s SERPs, let us explore the key features of high-value backlinks first, as high-quality backlinks are the most impactful sources that can elevate the authority of a site and reputation in Google. When other websites will point to your content, Google will see that your website content offers enough value to be recommended by a broader audience.
It comes down to the following three pillars that make high-value backlinks:
First Pillar – Relevance
As we mentioned earlier, relevance is a crucial factor in good-quality backlinks as it connects your content to sites that share a common subject matter. Whenever a referring domain addresses the same subject matter and links to your website, Google can tell that your content is contextually important. It is important to mention here that when it comes to relevance, the backlinks that are the most valuable are those that carry topical relevance, which means they cover topics that are highly related to your website content and hence boost authority and relevance.
Second Pillar – Authority
Authority refers to the substantial trust, also known as link juice, that is transferred from the referring domain. If your website connects with an authoritative and influential website, such as a valuable news outlet or an established blog, these backlinks can significantly impact how Google weighs your content. For instance, if you secure a backlink from an educational website, it immediately tells Google that your website offers high-value and reliable information.
Such solid backlinks strengthen your website’s domain author and boost the chances for you to earn more organic backlinks.
Third Pillar – Organically Earned Links
It all comes down to naturalness links that you earned authentically through white tat tactics instead of black hat tactics, such as forced placements or link farms. When it comes to naturalness, the anchor text distribution must appear natural, too, which means that it must feature a fine balance of keywords, generic phrases, and branded terms.
How Many Links Does It Take To Rank High in Search Results?
Now that you know what a healthy backlink profile looks like and what high-value backlinks can help you improve your website ranking, the next question is, how many links do I need to rank high in search results? Many website owners are thinking about the same question, and the answer is that it depends.
However, there are some methods that you can use to determine the level of SEO competition as well as the number of links needed for your website to rank higher.
Method #1: Assess the Number of Backlinks for Similar Pages
To understand the number of backlinks you need to rank high in Google, you will certainly need more backlinks than your competitors. Some niches are more competitive than others, which means that you will need a larger volume of high-value backlinks pointing to your site. You can also use Ahrefs Site Explorer to analyze the backlink profiles of your competitors.
Once you know who your top competitors are, you can assess their backlink profiles. Subsequently, you will need to at least match but ideally surpass the numbers of your competitors to rank higher. You will also need to ensure that the backlinks you build are of better or similar relevance and quality.
Method #2: Assess the Number of Backlinks for Your Main Keyword
The key to ranking high in Google is to target the right keywords that can not only help Google but also users understand the value and relevance of your content. Again, you can use the Ahrefs’ Keyword Explorer function to determine the number of backlinks for your main keyword. You will be able to see various results that are linked with your selection keywords along with important aspects, such as the following:
- Cost-per-Click
- Search Volume
- Difficulty
On the keyword “Overview Page,” you can gather more in-depth information about the target keyword, such as the following:
- Keyword ideas
- Traffic potential
- Search volume
- Keyword difficulty
- Global search volume
On the SERP overview feature, you can assess a list of the top-ranking pages for the chosen keywords, along with the number of backlinks they have. On that note, to rank higher in your niche’s SERPs, you will need to create better content than your competitors and also obtain a greater number of high-quality backlinks.
How Many High Quality Backlinks Do I Need to Stand Out?
You should know that you need to be careful with the pace of backlink acquisition to stand out in your niche. A sudden increase in backlinks can make your website look suspicious to Google and also increase your chances of getting a Google penalty and lower rankings. If you have a new website, you might want to add fewer backlinks each day, week, or month instead of focusing on gathering as many backlinks as possible.
On the other hand, if you have an established website, you can add more backlinks as you will be working with a larger backlink profile. The key is to focus on the rate with which you acquire more backlinks instead of the number of backlinks, as the rate will affect your website’s ranking.
An ideal pace would be between 5% and 14% of adding backlinks from referring domains each month. Rest assured, to stand out in your niche, you must aim for a blend of quality and quantity while focusing on high-quality and relevant backlinks.
Final Thoughts
When it comes to how many backlinks do I need to rule my niche’s SERPs, we recommend a balanced and rather methodical strategy that reflects organic growth. Opt for an approach that will help you boost your website’s credibility and align with Google algorithms. Several factors come into play when impacting your website’s rankings, such as the competitiveness of your primary keyword and the quantity and quality of your backlinks.
To save effort and time, you can leverage our link-building services and let our experts help you with website ranking improvements.
FAQs
How can I improve my SERP ranking?
You can improve your SERP ranking by creating valuable content and reaching out to niche influencers. Also, post on niche-relevant and authoritative sites to improve your SERP rankings.
How can I rank number one on Google?
There are several things you can do to rank number one on Google, such as improving your on-site SEO, integrating target keywords in your content, monitoring your technical SEO, and improving your website user experience.
What are good backlinks?
To rank higher in Google, you must focus on acquiring backlinks from websites with higher domain authority. The focus should be on quality over quantity for effective link-building.
