How Many Backlinks Do I Need? – The Definitive Guide

Let’s face it, most SEO experts hate building backlinks.

Why?

Because generating a large number of high-quality backlinks is challenging. It can sometimes take over ten hours to get just one link!

Nobody (trust me, nobody) wants to build backlinks when they don’t need to. So, this leads many to ask the question – how many backlinks do I need?

It’s a simple question with a complex answer. This post will show you how to know exactly how many links you need to dominate on Google.

What Are Backlinks?

Let’s start with the basics – what are backlinks? Backlinks are hyperlinks from one website to another. Unfortunately, despite improvements, Google is still not intelligent enough to differentiate good content from great content.

This is where backlinks come in.

Google utilizes backlinks as recommendations from one website to another. Most of the time, the best piece of content has the most recommendations (backlinks).

As with everything SEO, quality is better than quantity. Many factors influence the quality of a backlink, including:

• Website quality
• Website domain authority (don’t worry, I’ll cover what this means in a bit)
• Anchor text (the text of the link, for example, “this” is the anchor text)
• Number of links on the page
• Nofollow VS dofollow
• And many more factors which you can read about here

Beware of Link Spam

If you are in the digital marketing field, you have undoubtedly received an email like the following:

So, you are probably wondering, why can’t I just buy a bunch of links for $10/link?

Like most things, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. When you buy links in bulk, the links are not very high quality. If you have a high number of low-quality backlinks, not only will you have poor rankings, but you may even face a Google penalty.

So, as a rule of thumb, never buy backlinks. You’ll thank me later.

What Is Domain Authority?

I can’t talk about backlinks without talking about domain authority. So, what is it?

Domain authority is a backlink grading system created by Moz that considers the number and quality of backlinks to your website or webpage. The score is shown on a 1-100 graded scale, meaning it gets progressively more difficult to improve your score. For example, it is much more challenging to move from a 40 to a 50 than a 10 to a 20.

It is important to note, Google does not directly use the domain authority score in its algorithm. However, we know Google takes backlinks into account, and domain authority is the best backlink grading system.

How to Check Your Domain Authority

Thankfully, you do not need to subscribe to any service to check your website’s domain authority. All you need to do is visit this link and enter your website. You will then be presented with a screen similar to the following.

You can see your domain authority in the top left corner, followed by the total number of backlinks to your site, and the number of unique websites linking to you. Additionally, Ahrefs also allows you to view your top 100 backlinks for free.

How Many Backlinks Do I Need to Rank – The Guide

With the terminology out of the way, let’s answer the question – how many backlinks do I need to rank? You can determine this in three easy steps.

1. Identify Your Keyword

The best way to find your keyword is through complete keyword research. However, I don’t want to keep you for too long, so you can check out a guide to keyword research here.

Okay, let’s say you have your keyword, and for this article, let’s use the keyword “best office chairs.” Begin by simply doing a quick Google search with your keyword.

Then copy the first result into a note or spreadsheet.

2. Identify Its Difficulty

There is more than one way to complete this step. If you have access to a paid tool such as Ahrefs or SEMrush, you can simply use your Site Explorer tool. However, if you don’t have either of these tools, don’t worry – I have a free solution for you.

You will want to use Ahref’s free backlink checker tool, which you can find here. For the purpose of this article, I will be using the free tool.

Begin by checking and writing down the domain authority of your competitor’s website. You can do this by simply entering the URL you copied from the previous step.

Next, you will want to check the backlinks to that specific page. Write down the domain authority of each backlink.

*For the purpose of this guide, I will be using the first six results only. When applying in real life, ensure you record ALL links.

3. Calculate How Many Backlinks You Need to Rank

Now that you have the data, it’s time to calculate the magic number. Below is the formula you should use to determine the number of links you need:

First, you will want to average the domain authority of every backlink to your competitor’s page.

So, from the above, your number would be 41.

Second, you will want to compare your own website’s domain authority to the authority of your competitor’s site. Use the chart below to find your number:

• If your domain authority is 30+ more: -5
• If your domain authority is 20-30 more: -3
• If your domain authority is 10-20 more: -1
• If your domain authority is +/- 10: 0
• If your domain authority is 10-20 less: 1
• If your domain authority is 20-30 less: 2
• If your domain authority is 30-40 less: 3
• If your domain authority is 40-50+ less: 5

In this case, my domain authority was 31 and CNet’s was 92, meaning there is a 61 point difference; therefore, my number would be 5.

Take the number you got above, add the total number of links to your competitor’s page, and boom! You have your number.

So for the “best office chair” example, we would need 1303 links. (CNet’s backlinks (1298) + our domain authority number (5) = 1303)

If you want to maximize the effectiveness of each link you build, ensure the linking site has a domain authority higher than the average of your competitor’s backlinks (41 in this example).

How to Get These Backlinks

Now that you know how many backlinks you need to rank, how do you get those links? There are hundreds of tactics to earn backlinks, but I will cover three of my favorites below.

Guest Posting

Potentially the oldest method there is, guest posting is a great way to earn authentic backlinks. Despite what many will tell you, the best way to guest post is not Googling “{Your Industry} write for us.”

This will inevitably lead you to a poor-quality website. Instead, I recommend you utilize your connections. Reach out to someone you know in your industry and offer an incredible post idea for their blog.

If they say yes, write a very comprehensive article. This will not only impress the blog you are writing for, but it also shows Google the piece of content is legit – leading to higher link quality.

When you are writing this post, include a link to your website naturally. Ensure it goes with the flow of the article and doesn’t stand out. The more apparent it is, the more likely Google will ignore it.

This is one of the easiest ways to generate links, but it also takes a lot of time. For example, if you write 1000 words per hour, the average link will take you around 4-5 hours to build.

HARO

HARO, an acronym for Help A Reporter Out, is a free service where journalists gather quotes, stories, and advice from industry experts. When you sign up here, HARO will send you an email three times per day with different opportunities to pitch yourself.

You simply read the requirements and pitch yourself to the email provided.

Here is a great email script to get you started.

Hello [JOURNALIST NAME],

My name is [YOUR NAME]. I am the [JOB POSITION] at [YOUR COMPANY], [A Short Description of your business]. [A REASON OR TWO WHY YOU ARE QUALIFIED]:

[GIVE ONE-THREE PARAGRAPHS ON YOUR ANSWER]

[ADD A CONCLUSION SENTENCE]

Let me know if you need anything else!

[EMAIL SIGNATURE]

Here is a real-life example:

Don’t expect to get a link every time you pitch. It will take many attempts to get a link, but it is worth it.

Why?

Most of the journalists write for VERY authoritative websites. Meaning you will get a VERY high-quality link.

Podcast Building

This method is relatively new. With the sharp rise in the number of podcasts, everyone is looking for a quality guest to have on their show. When you are a guest on a podcast, they will often post about it on their website with a link to your business.

This is a win-win situation for you. You get to promote your business in front of an audience, and you get a backlink! I consider this the modern version of guest post link building.

Here is an excellent guide for how to utilize this new and innovative method.

Conclusion

You now know how many backlinks you need and how to get them. However, it is essential to remember that backlinks are not the single key to ranking. You will also need to have excellent technical SEO and create great SEO-optimized content.

If you implement the process above, you will always have confidence in the number of links you need to render your best results.