In this article you will find a definition of netlinking , how it works and what are the benefits of netlinking.
Definition of netlinking
Netlinking is an SEO technique that aims to boost the SEO of a website. It is one of the essential components to obtain a good natural referencing.
An effective netlinking strategy will consist of obtaining links from partner sites (also called backlinks) to your domain name to give it authority. This acquired authority will have a multiplier effect on the content which will then be all the better referenced the higher the authority.
Netlinking is one of the three essential factors that determine the positioning of your website in search engines. The other two being the content (quality, length, mesh) and the technical quality of the site (respect for SEO rules, performance, and display speed)
How does netlinking work, how does it work?
An important parameter that defines the display order of the results of a search carried out by an Internet user is what is called the PageRank or popularity index.
This index created in 1997 and named after its creator Larry Page, measures the importance of web pages. The higher the PageRank, the more important the page will be considered by Google and the better its ranking will be in the search engine results pages (SERP).
An SEO technique in the early days of SEO, therefore, consisted of acquiring the maximum number of inbound links regardless of their origin or their quality. These were the heyday of research directories.
With the appearance of Google Penguin in 2012, this technique is now considered fraudulent and has become completely prohibited.
What are the success indices of a good netlinking?
Today, if you want to obtain a good SEO it is necessary to integrate several factors into your netlinking strategy so as not to be penalized by Google’s algorithms.
The Trust Flow
The Trust Flow is an index that was created by the Majestic analysis tool. It is a trust index that represents the number of quality backlinks or links that point to your website. The more high-quality and numerous external links, the more your website will have a high Trust Flow.
Topical Trust Flow
The Topical Trust Flow is a subset of the Trust Flow and which adds the notion of thematic to the quality of a link.
Google in its algorithms has defined about 800 categories which allows it to assign themes to websites. We find themes like Business, Art, Sport, Computers, etc. You can consult the list of the various topical trust-flows here.
Why the Topical Trust Flow is important, quite simply because if a referring site in a given topic points to another site of the same category, this increases for Google the confidence that it can bring to the target site in this topic.
Semantic proximity in netlinking
Finally, the semantic proximity in the creation of backlinks is the last element that determines the quality of a link to increase traffic.
To illustrate what I mean by semantic proximity, let’s take the example of a site (A) that talks about auto mechanics, which has a very good confidence index (high TF) and which is well identified by Google as a referrer in the theme of the automotive sector.
If I want to strengthen my site (B) which also talks about auto mechanics and transfer authority to it to move it up in the search engine results pages, I can for example try to create a link from a page of the site (A) which talks about gearbox repair and which will point to a page of site B which also talks about gearbox repair.
The transfer of authority will be much more efficient than if my link points to a page talking about draining for example.
It should be remembered that for Google it is more natural for a site to link to a target site that talks about a very similar subject.
This is why it is better to acquire a link from a page with strong semantic proximity and an average Trust Flow rather than a link from a page with a strong Trust Flow but with average semantic proximity.
Does the volume of a site’s traffic matter in determining the quality of a link?
From what we know about Google’s algorithms and from what we have measured in our experience it seems that traffic is not an element taken into account by Google in determining the power of a backlink. Indeed it seems that only the page rank, the semantics, and the thematic are taken into consideration.
In summary
In summary, to acquire maximum authority with a link and therefore improve the natural referencing of a site, you must:
- That the link comes from a site with a high trust index.
- That the link comes from a site classified in the same category as that of my site,
- That the link is from a page that talks about the same thing as the page I want the link to point to.
When to netlinking?
In SEO it’s all about timing. In an SEO and organic traffic acquisition strategy, if netlinking is essential, it must be programmed at the right time.
Indeed the netlinking will confer popularity to a website. The consequence of this will be to increase the indexing and the performance of the keywords of the site in question
However, if the website has no or little content to index, the effect of netlinking will be almost zero.
This is why it is essential to program a netlinking campaign to ensure the editorial maturity of the site you want to reference. And this maturity will be determined by the technical quality of the site, but above all by the presence of editorial content in sufficient quantity and quality.
A strategy for developing visibility and SEO optimization will therefore be articulated in three phases:
- the first which will consist in creating or redesigning a website while ensuring that it complies with the rules of referencing,
- the second, which will consist in producing quality content regularly,
- finally the third, once the editorial volume begins to become sufficient, capitalize on this content by programming the netlinking campaign which will truly boost the site on the first page of Google.