Why you need to build relevant links – and what is a relevant link?

A Digital PR term that is frequently used in the SEO industry is ‘relevant link’. However, it can be a term that is unclear to those outside these fields. So if you’re a website owner navigating the complexities of digital PR, or a digital PR new to the industry also seeking clarity on what counts as a relevant link, this blog should hopefully help you.

To put it simply, a relevant link is a backlink built on a relevant domain. But why do we need these?

The evolution of link building: from quantity to quality

Back in the early 2000s, black hat link building was popular because a do-follow backlink from any website could positively impact search rankings. This naturally led to widespread manipulation as website owners started to purchase backlinks in bulk from any available source or exchanged links with other website owners.

Why was this a problem? Backlinks are intended to signify that a website acknowledges another as an authority on a specific topic, endorsing its content or products. They were supposed to be organic votes of confidence, not rewards for buying the most links. This practice meant websites were building links on sites covering a range of topics from different fields and industries, which paid for links in return. This made relevancy a big issue.

This prompted Google to reassess how it evaluates backlinks, now analysing the relevancy of referring web pages before counting a backlink as genuine or link spam. Link spam will result in penalties or no positive ranking impact. What qualifies as link spam?

A few common examples are:

1. Buying or selling links for ranking purposes.
2. Excessive link exchanges (e.g., “Link to me and I’ll link to you”).
3. Advertorials where payment is received for articles that include links that pass ranking credit.
4. Links with optimised anchor text in articles, guest posts, or press releases on other sites.
5. Low-quality directory or bookmark site links

The value of relevant links today

Over the past decade, the focus has shifted from simply acquiring a large number of links, to obtaining high-quality backlinks from relevant and authoritative websites. Quality now trumps quantity. 

For instance, a website with 100 relevant and high-quality backlinks will likely outrank a competitor with 200 spammy links (bought, low-quality, non-relevant). This shift aligns with the move from “link builders” to “digital PRs”: it’s not just about building any link now; it requires PR tactics to get you there.

That said, quantity still plays a role when assessing the number of quality, relevant backlinks you have compared to your competitors. It’s important to strategically pinpoint where competitors have successfully acquired backlinks from authoritative websites that you haven’t yet managed to secure.

How to build relevant backlinks

Digital PR specialists now excel in securing backlinks from reputable blogs and publications. They achieve this by positioning brands as industry experts through insightful commentary or providing journalists with valuable data that enhances their stories. 

Three ways to check you have built a relevant backlink

• Aim for websites that are talking about your industry a lot
  When we talk about relevant links, we often refer to websites within your industry that Google recognises as credible and worthy of endorsement. It’s often clear which publications are authorities. 
  
  For example, a home-related website would benefit most from being featured in top-tier publications like Country Living or Homes & Gardens because the majority of their articles are centred on the topic of home.
• Aim for correct sub-sections of broad publications
  It’s also super important to consider the sections of the websites where you’re building backlinks. What I mean by this is if you’re aiming to get on those top-tier publications that cover a wide range of topics—like The Guardian, The Express, or The Daily Mail—remember they discuss sports, health, home, lifestyle, and many other topics. To ensure the most relevant backlink, aim for a link within an article that is under a more relevant subsection. e.g.
• Use a tool that helps define relevance
  After you’ve secured those obvious links on publications relevant to your topic and within the specific sections of tier-one publications, it can be tricky to decide where else to build links, or know which websites from the above are more relevant than others too. 

That’s why we developed a scoring tool that quantifies relevance. Since the two points above are subjective, our tool provides clarity on where to focus your efforts. Our Link Relevancy Score is calculated through assessing the HTML of the linking page and the linked domain to determine the topical relevance of the backlink to our client and their industry. By leveraging multiple AI and machine learning techniques, it generates an automated quantitative score which represents topical relevance. 

Read more about our link relevancy score.