Seven commands for a healthy link profile
Search engines judge a site partly by who links to it. These seven rules keep that picture natural and durable.
- Earn variety. Links from many different domains matter more than many links from one site.
- Keep anchors natural. Most people link with a brand name or a plain address. A profile full of exact keywords looks engineered.
- Stay on topic. The relevance of the linking page is a stronger signal than its raw authority score.
- Grow steadily. Hundreds of new links in one week are unusual for a real business.
- Watch for losses. Check lost links every month; many can be restored with a short, polite email.
- Fix what you control. Redirect old URLs that still have links pointing to them instead of letting them return a 404 error.
- Label paid placements. Search engines ask for rel="sponsored" on paid links. Following the rules protects the rest of your profile.