While we are trying to build backlinks, our efforts should be focused on those links that will pull traffic back to our site. Any link that is built for the purpose of the backlink by itself is not as worthy as traffic brining link. This would be a non-SEO recommendation. Despite the fact that links are extremely important for SEO, as a small business owner, or a company that doesn’t have a lot of resources devoted to SEO, you should focus on getting double benefit from all your outbound linking opportunities.
The potential of a website to funnel traffic back to your site should be the main merit on wether you want a link from that site or not. Prices of links vary from site to site, but majority of the links can end up in $150-250 range. The thing is, that link buyers saturated the link prices based on metrics such as Majestic’s Trust Flow or Moz Rank Page Authority.
These arbitrary metrics are often overvaluing the links, and give them only the inherent value of the platform that is observing them. This value doesn’t always translate into SEO value. Even though it gets pretty close. If you get caught up on metrics alone, and you’re not running very focused SEO campaign, you’ll be wasting money on links.
Understanding that website owner is working towards building a community or works toward dramatically improving their website, than their link holds tremendous value in the future. Numerous links that I’ve obtained over the course of time, became increasingly important for Alpha Efficiency. Due to the fact that they came from the websites that were “rising stars”, and once they became “stars”, those links literally pushed Alpha Efficiency in the SERPS, without me doing anything specific. This is happening when you’re playing the “SEO long game”.
This advice is especially valid when you’re promoting your content on social media or social bookmarking / sharing websites. You should focus only on those that will actually drive traffic back to you. Majority of the social media links are more or less worthless for SEO. So make sure not to over invest into social media for the SEO purposes, and to be extremely pragmatic about your promotion. It’s an utter waste of time to promote yourself, if you’re not getting something back in return. That’s why running for Instagram organic traffic is a big pain, while Twitter can still work for numerous people.
Always keep the traffic and visibility at the forefront of your mind, and SEO results will follow, even when you’re not actively working on it.