How many backlinks does your website need?

Backlinks are still a crucial factor for website visibility on Google.

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The quantity and quality of backlinks can make a significant contribution to websites ranking higher in Google search results.

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But exactly how many backlinks does your website need to be successful?

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4 key findings

‍ 1. Number of backlinks required may vary : The number of backlinks required may vary. However, the quantity of backlinks is not the only factor for SEO success.

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2. Quality over quantity : The quality and relevance of backlinks trumps the quantity of backlinks.

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3. Different types of backlinks are important : Different types of backlinks should be considered in the link profile.

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4. Anchor texts influence search engine optimization : The anchor text of the backlinks plays an important role in search engine optimization.

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Method for calculating the required number of links

It is not possible to give a general answer to the question of how many backlinks a website needs as it depends on numerous factors such as the industry, competition and the website's specific goals.

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The stronger the competition, the higher the investments in SEO are usually. For me, a higher investment in SEO usually means a higher number of backlinks.

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If I as a company want to keep up in such a competitive field, in most cases I also have to rely on a higher number of backlinks.

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In order to get a rough estimate of how many backlinks are needed, I always recommend carrying out a competition analysis.

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For me, competition analysis is a central element in order to, on the one hand, bring a website forward in the search engines and, on the other hand, to better understand the link structure and strategy of the competitors.

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Backlink competitor analysis

Within a backlink competitor analysis, I not only look at the sheer number of backlinks that my competitors have, but also the quality of these links.

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Backlinks that come from sites with high domain authority (DA) are particularly relevant. These links are typically harder to obtain and therefore may be more valuable.

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The origin of the links is also an important indicator of the quality of a backlink profile (keyword: thematic relevance).

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The thematic relevance of a backlink is derived from how relevant the “topic” of the linking domain is to the topic of my linked domain.

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An example to illustrate: Imagine you run a dog blog and receive a backlink from a car tuning website. In this case, I would classify the thematic relevance of the link as low.

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However, if you receive a backlink from a veterinary clinic or a dog food brand for a dog blog, I would rate the thematic relevance of the backlink as high.

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In the examples above, the classification of thematic relevance is relatively clear. However, there are also cases where the classification is not entirely clear.

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In my opinion, the classification of thematic relevance is always subjective and unfortunately cannot be determined using clear quantitative parameters.

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Competitor analysis tools

To carry out competitive analysis, I recommend market-leading SEO tools like Ahrefs . These offer in-depth analysis options to examine the number and quality of competitors' backlinks.

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Ahrefs can therefore not only analyze the number of backlinks, but also the quality of the backlinks.

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This is possible on the one hand through the traceability of the Domain Rating (DR), but also through other quality parameters such as the number of referring domains or the ratio of incoming and outgoing backlinks.

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You can also use Ahrefs to determine which websites the links come from, which anchor texts are used and how the link profile has grown over time.

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This is important in order to understand how competitors within your own industry build their backlink profiles and how quickly they do this (keyword: link velocity).

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In addition to Ahrefs, there are also other tools that can be used. It is worth basing the competition analysis on several SEO tools, as different tools use different databases.

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For example, for determining the quality of backlinks, Sistrix can be a good tool to determine visibility using the Visibility Index (SI).

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In many cases it can also make sense to call in a professional SEO agency . On the one hand, this is because a competitive analysis requires several SEO tools, which can quickly cost several thousand Swiss francs in annual costs.

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On the other hand, to assess certain quality criteria I need a certain level of expertise and experience in order to correctly interpret the data provided by the tools.

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A competition analysis therefore always forms the basis of a solid backlink strategy and should be carried out seriously and comprehensively.

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What should you consider when building backlinks?

Below I will explain the most important factors in backlink building in more detail:

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Quality more important than quantity

First of all, it should be emphasized that it is not, as some might assume, the sheer number of backlinks that is crucial, but rather the quality of the backlinks.

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A few high-quality links from authoritative and relevant websites can have a far greater impact on search engine rankings than hundreds of low-quality links.

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For example, a link from a respected magazine, university or research institution may be more valuable than several hundred links from small, unknown blogs.

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When it comes to determining how many links should be placed, you should always be guided by the number of links from the top-ranked companies in your own industry.

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In principle, however, the principle “less is more” usually applies to link placement.

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Too many (poor quality) backlinks can send negative signals to a search engine like Google, which can not only lower your ranking but even make your website appear as spam.

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The right level of quality and quantity is therefore very crucial for the ranking of my domain and must be taken into account as one of the most important factors in link building.

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The importance of anchor texts

Anchor text is an important aspect in search engine optimization and especially in building backlinks.

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This is the visible, clickable text that links to another page.

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Anchor text can not only be important for better navigation for your website visitors, but also plays an important role in how the search engine interprets and ranks the content of your website.

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Search engines use anchor texts to better understand and classify the content of the linked page. This means that the anchor text gives Google clues as to what topic or topics the target page covers.

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For example, if many websites link to another page with the anchor text “web design,” the search engine will assume that the linked page is relevant to the search term “web design.”

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It is essential for me to consider natural variation in anchor texts when building backlinks. This means that not all links should have the same anchor text.

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From Google's perspective, a variety of anchor texts that come from different sites appear more authentic and natural.

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Basically, I differentiate between 5 different types of anchor texts:

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There are also numerous other anchor text categorization schemes.

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However, what is primarily important is not how I categorize the anchor texts, but rather that the categorization is consistent.

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Your goal must be to strive for the most natural distribution of the link profile.

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This means that the anchor texts contain both exact matches with a focus keyword (target anchor), as well as partial matches with thematically related terms (thematic anchor), as well as your own brand name (branded anchor), URLs and other forms of anchor texts.

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While anchor texts can be used to send relevant signals to the search engine, you should also make sure that the target anchors with an exact focus keyword, as well as thematic anchors, are not used excessively.

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Excessive use of these anchor texts is classified as manipulation by Google.

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In the worst case scenario, this can result in your keyword rankings being systematically downgraded.

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When using anchor texts, you should act strategically and ensure a balanced mix of different anchor texts.

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A strategically careful and thoughtful use of anchor texts in link building ensures that your website sends positive signals to a search engine, increases the relevance and authority of the website in the eyes of the search engine, and at the same time minimizes the risk of penalties due to unnatural link patterns.

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Distribution between DoFollow and NoFollow backlinks

Backlinks can basically be divided into two main categories: external and internal backlinks.

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While internal links are links within my own website, external links are links that point to my own website from another website.

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But what are DoFollow and NoFollow links?

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DoFollow and NoFollow links belong to the area of external links.

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1. DoFollow Links

DoFollow links contribute more to SEO because they transfer so-called link juice. This means that such a link passes on the “power” of the linking domain to my linked website.

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Basically, backlinks, regardless of their type, are DoFollow links by default.

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The more DoFollow links my website has, the greater the trust Google has in my website, because this increases the “authority” of the domain within the Internet (as defined by the Google algorithm).

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2. Nofollow links

NoFollow links are in contrast to DoFollow links and do not transmit direct link juice. This means that they do not transfer any link juice and are not taken into account by a search engine such as Google.

It is important to know that links are not automatically marked as NoFollow.

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If I want to mark a specific link as NoFollow because, for example, it is a spam link, i.e. a low-quality link that negatively affects the ranking of my domain, this process must be done manually, for example by changing or adapting the HTML code become.

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For me, it is important to build a natural relationship between both types of links in order to signal authenticity and trustworthiness to the search engine.

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For example, if 90% of all my backlinks are DoFollow links, search engines like Google may classify this as unnatural.

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A distribution of, for example, 70% DoFollow and 30% NoFollow, on the other hand, appears much more natural and therefore more trustworthy.

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However, there is no uniform distribution between DoFollow and NoFollow links that can be applied across the board for all keywords, industries, etc.

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As a rule, you should always derive the distribution of DoFollow and NoFollow links from the 3-5 organically best-ranked competitors.

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You can carry out such a competitor analysis of the competition's link profile, for example, using the site explorer of the SEO software Ahrefs.

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Backlink building for new domains

If your domain has just been registered, building backlinks is often a particularly challenging task.

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This is because you are literally starting from scratch and have not yet built any backlinks or brand reputation.

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However, there are a number of effective tactics and strategies you can use to quickly build your backlink profile and thereby increase your visibility online.

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I will explain some of the most effective link building strategies in more detail in the following section:

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Create high-quality content

First of all, for me, the creation of high-quality, informative and unique content is always my priority when it comes to a new domain.

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This strategy encourages natural links from other websites (if practiced correctly).

The link building mechanism is as follows: When you generate content that is both informative and useful to your target audience, the likelihood that other websites will link to your content increases.

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Content that can offer added value when shared, such as infographics, statistics or expert interviews, perform particularly well.

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This in turn can lead to visitors who, for example, reach your website from another site via such a link, staying on your homepage for a longer period of time.

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Creating high-quality content can not only promote the creation of natural backlinks from other, topic-relevant websites, but these backlinks can also increase the number of visitors and their stay on my website.

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Both backlinks and website traffic are perceived by Google as a very positive signal and can significantly improve your ranking for certain keywords.

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Basically, at this point I have to be realistic about the fact that organic link building often doesn't happen overnight.

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In order for this strategy to really work, a broad-based content strategy must be developed at the beginning that determines what content needs to be created and has the potential to attract links.

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In addition, the content must also be actively marketed, for example by running campaigns via social media or making other blog portals aware of your article via email outreach, which further increases the likelihood of links.

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Simply creating “good content” without a strategy and hoping that some article will trigger a viral wave of backlinks will not be successful.

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Lay a solid foundation through on-page SEO

Before you start looking into backlinks, you should make sure that the on-page SEO basics are implemented.

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This includes optimizing meta tags, creating a clean and logical URL structure, setting internal links, and making the layout user-friendly in order to maximize the time visitors spend on the website and improve crawlability for search engines.

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It is the on-page SEO measures that ensure that the content you create and the links you build through it achieve their maximum impact.

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On-page optimization is essential because Google analyzes the content of a page to determine whether a website is a relevant result for a search query.

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An important aspect of this process involves keyword research and contextualization.

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In the 90s and the beginning of the 2000s, keyword stuffing, i.e. the excessive use of certain search terms within a web page without any added value for the user, was a proven method for achieving better Google rankings.

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Of course, Google has now developed significantly as a search engine and banal keyword stuffing has been punished for many years.

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Nonetheless, using the “right” keywords in the right positions on a website still has a big impact on rankings.

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However, for me, today's on-page SEO is more about demonstrating broad expert knowledge in a specific area within my webpage or across the entire website.

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Only then will my website be classified as thematically relevant by the search engine.

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Due to their ads-based business model, Google always strives to find the most relevant result for a search query, which is why the algorithms look for content that has the highest possible probability that the searcher will find the information they are looking for.

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Let's illustrate this again using a practical example:

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Imagine you run a blog about traveling in Asia.

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If this blog has only published two articles about two different regions in Asia, the chance that someone who googles "Asia travel ideas" will be satisfied with the content presented is relatively small.

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The thematic relevance of my site is therefore classified by Google as low.

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On the other hand, if you have a travel blog about Asia that has published hundreds of blog articles and travel tips about each country, the respective capitals and sights, the chances are much higher that someone looking for "Asia travel ideas" will find what they are looking for.

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This blog therefore has a higher thematic relevance and will rank better than the first blog mentioned.

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Thematic relevance is therefore central to your on-page SEO.

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Creation of linkable assets

In addition to creating high-quality text content and building a solid foundation through on-page optimization, developing content that functions as "linkable assets" is very important.

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For me, a linkable asset characterizes content on a website that is naturally linked due to its uniqueness and the added value it offers.

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These include, for example, extensive guides, blogs, e-books, blueprints, web apps or other interactive tools.

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For me, well-placed linkable assets have the potential to attract a particularly large number of natural backlinks.

The data protection generator from SwissAnwalt.ch offers an example from Switzerland.

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With the help of this generator, companies in Switzerland could until recently create their data protection declaration free of charge and with just a few clicks and integrate it onto their own website via source code or text.

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When adopting the data protection declaration, Swissanwalt added a disclaimer at the bottom, which included a backlink to its own website.

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Although the data protection generator has no longer been available since the revised data protection regulations came into force, SwissAnwalt was able to achieve a domain rating (DR) of 87 almost exclusively through these links.

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For comparison: 20min., the most read daily newspaper in Switzerland, has a domain rating of just 83, according to Ahrefs.

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This was only possible because SwissAnwalt provided a linkable asset, in this case a data protection generator, which offered such great added value for a certain target group that backlinks were naturally created.

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My conclusion

In summary, for me there is no simple answer to the question of how many backlinks a website actually needs.

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Collecting lots of backlinks alone is not enough, because backlink ≠ backlink.

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From my experience, it is much more important to obtain high-quality and relevant links that strengthen the trust and credibility of a website and ultimately generate a natural link profile.

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Therefore, I think it is wise to always do a competitive analysis first. This not only provides insights into the number of links from the competition, but above all into their quality.

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In order to gain a foothold in search engines like Google, I recommend always focusing on your own site first before thinking much about backlinks.

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You should therefore first make sure that a solid on-page SEO basis is in place before you start creating a content strategy and corresponding content and linkable assets.

Nevertheless, success in building backlinks rarely comes overnight.

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It requires patience, persistence and a clear strategy.

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However, the benefits in the form of better rankings, more traffic and greater online visibility are well worth the effort invested.