Getting a ton of backlinks is very easy these days.
Just load up any link store that sells from their database, or send a simple outreach campaign…
You’ll be quickly swamped by replies like “u giv $50 I giv link”
The big problem: Links from most of these sites will be simply ignored by Google.
You gotta filter these opportunities, and pull out the ones that WILL have an impact on Google.
At We Outreach we’ve already figured that out.
I’m gonna give you our exact framework so you, too, can land links that outrank your competitors.
The 2-min link vetting framework
It uses a simple Google Sheet and you can grab a copy here.
Our UI is trash, I know.
But no worries because I’ll explain it.
Simply put: You enter some data about a link, and it will provide a pass/fail grade.
We honed this tool while building over 12,000 links for our clients, so you know you can trust it.
Just imagine an expert link builder looking over your shoulder, telling you which links to build and which to skip.
The vetting process has 3 stages:
- Assessing website power
- Verifying website power
- Future-proofing website power
Let’s break it down.
Assessing website power
The power of a link comes from 1) how many backlinks the linking website has, and 2) how relevant it is to your website.
We use DR for the backlink check, in the first part of the sheet:
You’ll have to judge relevance for yourself as it’s subjective. Keep in mind that page-level relevance is more important than the overall website relevance.
Verifying website power
The problem now is a website can have a high DR, yet a link from it may still be ignored by Google.
So we use how much organic traffic a website gets to “verify” this power.
If a website gets a lot of Google traffic, it probably means Google likes it.
Which probably means they pass value to wherever it links.
Stupidly simple logic, just as I like it 👌
We also check the outbound link profile for links to spammy niches:
These are link farms that sell way too many links.
I think Google is pretty good at identifying them, and ignoring the links… Meaning a link to your website is ignored, and pointless.
We won’t build links on sites that are too “link farmy” even if they have high DR and traffic, as in this example:
Now we can move onto the final stage of the vetting.
Future-proofing website power
We want to build links that are impactful right now, and also in the future.
If the website is high quality now, it usually means the owner has high standards and is trying to improve + grow the website.
Which means your link gets better and better over time.
The opposite is a low quality link farm.
A link there is iffy at best today, and gets worse over time.
The main check for this is actually the outbound link profile from the previous step.
A website that doesn’t sell a ton of shady links = An owner with high standards.
A website that sells links to everyone = An owner with low standards.
A few more vetting checks
Check out this article for a full breakdown of our framework.
It contains:
- A few more vetting checks
- How to balance quality and quantity of your links
- Examples of passing and failing links (many of them surprising)
