Stellarseo.com | 615-953-9493 Naturally, one of the first questions that is asked when discussing a link building project is "How Many Links Will It Tank to Rank My Site?" In this guide we talk about the basic framework needed to answer that question, while setting up your site properly for to achieve optimal results.

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Stellar SEO

2. How Many Links Will It Take To
Rank My Site for “insert keyword
here”?

3. How Many Years Will A Drug Dealer
Be Locked Up For?
(keep reading, this will make sense very soon!)

4. Was He on Federal Property?
How Much Was He/She In
Possession of At The Time of Arrest?
Did They Commit Additional Crimes
In the Course of Dealing?

5. Is This Their First Offense or Do They
Have a History of Arrests?

6. What Does Any of This Have To Do
With Link Building?
4 Words:

7. “Aggravating” and “Mitigating”
Factors

8. An “Aggravating” Factor is one That
Works Against You.
A “Mitigating” Factor is one That
Works in Your Favor

9. Your History and Case Specific
Details Will Greatly Influence The
Final “Verdict”

10. Aggravating Factors Will Reduce
the Effectiveness of New Links
Being Built.

11. Mitigating Factors Can Make Each
Link More Powerful and Impactful.

12. Before We Dive Into That, Let’s Start
With the “Numbers”

13. Ask The Following Questions and
You Will Be One Step Closer to Your
Final Answer

14. What is the Median Number of
Unique Referring Domains Pointing
to the Root Domain of The Top 5
Competitors for “your keyword”?

15. What is the Median Number of
Unique Referring Domains Pointing
to the Exact URL(s) of the Top 5 Sites
Ranking for “your keyword”?

16. How Many Unique Referring
Domains are Pointing To Your Root
Domain and the URL You Want to
Rank for Your Keyword?

17. How Many NEW RDs Are Needed to
Your Root Domain and Target URL
to Bring Your Site Up to the Median
Numbers of Your Competitors?

18. Let’s Take A Look At A Real Life
Example.

19. To Find The Information, Let’s Head
Over to Ahrefs.com
Our example keyword will be:
“Kitchen Cabinet Door Knobs”

20. When I Search
“Kitchen Cabinet
Door Knobs”, I Get
the Following Sites:

21. For The Sake of
Demonstrating, We Will
Review:
● Signaturehardware.com
● Thehardwarehut.com
Both of these sites have an internal
page ranking for the target keyword.

22. The first thing we will check is the number of
RDs (referring domains) to the ranking page for
signaturehardware.com
As you can see above they have 7 “Referring
domains” to the exact page that is ranking.

23. Next we will check the number of referring
domains to any pages on his site.
As you can see above they have 3.65K “Referring
domains to their site in total.

24. Now we will complete the same checks for
theharwarehut.com
As you can see above they have 1.25K “Referring
domains” to their site in total and 7 RDs to their
ranking page.

25. We would repeat this process for the
top 5-10 sites for each unique
keyword we want to target.

26. Using Our Examples:
7 is the Median Number of Links Pointing
Directly to the Ranking URL.
2,450 is the median number of RDs to the site in
total.

27. To Be Very Clear…
This is only the first step of many in developing a
clear, numbers backed plan.
I am not telling you to go out and build 2450
links and you will rank.
Do not stop here!!!

28. Now That You Know How the
Numbers Stack Up - What’s Next?

29. What Are Your “Aggravating”
Factors?

30. Does Your Site Have a Manual or
Algorithmic Link Penalty?

31. Does Your Site Have an
Over-Optimized Anchor Text Profile?

32. What is Your Sites’ Typical Link
Growth Velocity?
How Does This Compare to the
Growth of Your Competitors?

33. How Good Are Your Existing Links?

34. Is Your Site Filled with Thin, Low
Value Content?

35. Is The Type of Content You Are
Trying to Promote Similar to
Ranking Sites?

36. For Example - Are the Top 5 Sites
Long Form “How To” Guides and
You Want to Rank a “Sales Page”?

37. There Are a Number of Additional
Questions You Can Ask Depending
Upon Your Situation, But Those Are
a Great Start.

38. Now That We Know What’s Wrong,
Let’s Look at What’s Right...aka
“Mitigating Factors”.

39. Does Your Site Contain Primary
Research Data or Case Studies of
Value to Your Industry?

40. Do You Have Long Form Content
That is More Valuable, Recent, and
In Depth Than Your Competitors?

41. Do You Have Content That Better
Answers a Query Than the Ranking
Sites?
Example: You have a how to training
video, your competitors have short
blog posts.

42. Do You Have Good User
Engagement?
Ctr’s, time on page, social shares,
etc.

43. Does Your Site Show Steady Link
Growth over 6-24 Months?

44. Is Your Site “Older” Than Most of
Your Competitors?

45. Do Your Competitors Have Good
Links or Just a Lot Of Them?

46. Again, The Questions Will Vary By
Case, But If You Aren’t Asking Any of
Them, You Aren’t Giving Yourself a
Fair Shot at Ranking.

47. So,
How Many Links Will It Take to Rank
Your Site?

48. You Should Aim to Reach The
Median Number of QUALITY Links
Pointing to the Root Domain of Your
Competitors.

49. You Should Aim to Meet The Median
Number or QUALITY RDs Pointing
to the Ranking URLs of Your
Competitors As Well.

50. All While Checking Off Every
“Aggravating” Factor and
Maximizing Every “Mitigating”
Factor.

51. In Doing So, You Will Find That
Ranking for Your Main Keyword and
Many Related Terms will Happen
Much Faster and with Fewer Links
Than Estimated.

52. Said Another Way:
Prepare for the Worst - Then Work
Hard So You Never See It.

53. Beyond the Median, there are
many additional checks that
should be carried out to further
screen competitor links.
We don’t have time to cover that
in detail here today though.

54. Planning and Research are Essential
to Link Building.
If You Aren’t Checking All the Boxes,
You Aren’t Making the Most of Your
Investment.

55. Whenever You Develop A Well
Thought Out and Cohesive Link
Building Strategy, The “Synergistic
Effect” Will Multiply Your Results.

56. 100 Links Optimally Built to
Deserving Pages Can Outperform
500 Links Haphazardly Acquired and
Sent to Less Than Optimal Content.

57. If You Would Like To Learn How To
Get The Greatest Impact From Every
Link Built, Stayed Tuned for Part
Two and Three of This Free Link
Building Training.

58. If You Need Assistance:
The Checks Discussed Here Today (
and many more) Are Part of Our
Managed Link Building Service.

59. Visit https://stellarseo.com/link-building-services/ to
setup a time to discuss your project.