How to Track Performance with Link Building KPIs
Good backlinks are a critical part of a successful SEO campaign. They are an indicator for search engines to establish that your website features reliable content. As a result, your website’s domain authority increase, leading to better ranking and increased web traffic.
By now, you know the importance of link building in SEO for KPIs. However, if you do not see any improvement in your link building campaigns, it is fair to take steps to track your results. Now you have reached a point where you must know what are the key elements of a successful link building strategy.
Without further ado, here is your guide to tracking the performance of your link building campaign with the help of the correct Link Building KPIs.
When it comes to SEO, backlinks are a crucial part of every strategy. Quality backlinks indicate to search engines that your page is a reliable source of information for other websites and individuals. Not to forget that quality backlinks also increase a website’s domain authority and drive organic traffic.
In this competitive time, you cannot leave any stone unturned. As you create a strong strategy, keeping track of link building KPIs is essential to ensure the proper use of your time, money, and effort.
How to Measure Link Building Success?
Link building can be arduous, yet it is an essential part of SEO. When it comes to tracking the performance of your links, simply counting is not enough. Various metrics and indicators are associated with these links. They can help you judge and be well aware of the value and performance of the potential link.
In a world filled with black-hat links, marketers selling guest posts, and ever-changing Google ranking factors, it can be hard to track the performance of your campaign. However, if you follow the right metrics and keep an eye on the relevant KPIs, you can nudge your investments in the right direction.
Link Building Metrics to Measure Your Campaign
Various metrics are associated with link building that you must be aware of to track the success of your campaigns. The right metrics can help you judge the value and performance of your potential link.
Yes, link building KPIs can be tricky to understand, but their metrics can be trickier to grasp. Different link attributes can determine the value of a link, especially when it comes to improving the organic search ranking of your website.
Here are a few best metrics for link building SEO that can help you achieve your link building goals and aspired outreach.
Run a Backlink Audit
The first step to measuring the success of your campaign comes with understanding your current backlink profile. This practice can give you a deeper insight into tracking the results of a link-building campaign. In addition, you can also track the gaps in your SEO strategy.
A backlink audit helps you identify any suspicious backlinks that may harm your website’s ranking and domain authority. A backlink audit can also help you identify high-authority backlinks that be important for relationship link building.
Here is all you need to run a foolproof backlink audit.
Source: Searchengineland.com
Check Authority Score
An authority score is an essential metric to measure a website’s quality and SEO performance representing its trustworthiness, domain authority, etc. However, you must not limit yourself to the scores.
If your niche is competitive, you can try earning backlinks from the websites with scores matching other domains in your niche.
Source: Searchenginejournal.com
See Niche Relevance
It is essential to focus on sites that are relevant to your niche. You can use these sites to benchmark your site’s scores. You must remember that earning backlinks from websites in your niche will not boost your rankings but also increase your chances of earning a penalty from search engines.
Number of Domains
It is common for a site to earn multiple backlinks for KPIs from individual domains. If you are working on attaining backlinks, you must ensure that it’s a quality domain. Remember that a higher number of referring domains is better than a higher number of referring links.
Check Toxicity
If a link is being used to manipulate rankings, a search engine such as google will consider it toxic. You must remember that if a good backlink can increase your website’s authority, a toxic backlink can do the contrary and may even lead to demotion or removal.
The factors that make a website may include the following.
Source: socialmediatoday.com
Analyze Anchor Text
An anchor text is a signifier of an attachment leading the reader from one destination to another. Your anchor text must provide context for the reader to where the link leads. Google prefers an anchor text with context rather than a simple “click here.” Relevant anchor text can also help your ranking.
Track your Organic Growth
The motive behind link building for KPIs is to increase the organic traffic on your website. Depending on the competition in your niche, it may take link building 3 – 12 months to show the changes you’ve been looking for.
Organic traffic growth is the best way for your website to measure the success of your link building campaign. The correlation between quality backlinks and increased web traffic does not need a tool in most cases, but you might have to wait the time.
Run a Keyword Position Analysis
Another way to analyze the success of your campaign is to run a keyword position analysis. If you are getting backlinks from high-domain sources, your site’s domain authority must likely have also increased.
As a result of increased domain authority, Google is more likely to notice your website and its content. After considering the keywords, it will determine whether to increase your site’s rank on the SERPs of those keywords.
Track the ROI of the Link
Like every campaign, an SEO campaign must also be done keeping your budget in mind. The costs for backlinks can be significant; as mentioned, it can also be time-consuming. You must keep track of your financial and human resources utilized in acquiring each backlink.
Once you go through this process for backlinks, you can consider all aspects of getting a backlinke every time and see it in comparison to what you give and what you get. This practice will nudge you into making link relationships and the right choices.
Growth of New Referring Domains
Link building is not an overnight process. However, after you spend a few months establishing relationships, you can expect referring domains to show up. Therefore, when you encounter the question of how to track link building success, you can track new referring domains to find your answers.
You can start by tracking the new number of referring domains acquired over a month to determine if your campaign of link building KPIs is moving in the right direction. As a result, you may also see an improvement in your search engine rankings.
Growth in Target Page Position in Google Search
Besides website traffic, another critical factor that makes one strive to achieve link building KPIs is to improve one’s Google rankings. Ideally, every website would dream of being on the top of the first page, which is why you must consider improving your Domain Rating (DR) to rank on the top.
Improved Google rankings are an indicator of the success of your link building KPIs. Link building with quality websites increases your chances of a high domain rating. As a result, Google recognizes you as an authentic source, and your rankings improve simultaneously.
Link Building KPIs to Track Outreach Campaign Performance
Outreach for link building can be very time-consuming. Therefore, measuring outreach efforts and simultaneously reducing errors is very important. To measure your link building KPIs, you need to keep track of every effort and its outcomes.
Measuring the performance of your link building campaign can tell you so much about the rise or fall of your efforts. Yes, there are falls too, but it’s betters to know and fix a fault than never knowing about it.
Here are a few link building KPIs you need to keep in mind before being knees deep into the pool of link building.
Prospects per Day
It’s a simple rule – effective link building leads to more traffic and increased domain ratings. Link building KPIs for outreach campaigns are the best way to track your progress. The first step is to direct your outreach team toward tracking the number of prospects every day.
If you are working with a general niche, you may not face any trouble finding the correct links and keywords. However, if you are working with a limited or specific niche, the right results can only turn up after tests and trials.
If you do not see a significant change in the number of prospects per day, the reasons may be one or more.
- Dead End Keywords
- Non-Existent Targets
- Strict Prospecting Requirements
Qualification Rate of Prospects
How Do You Report On Link Building Campaign Results? Well, the best way to see this is by looking at the qualification rate of prospects. Qualified prospects are the potential customers that are fit for your outreach campaign. They must be vetted before sending the email campaign begins.
Once it is determined that your prospect is fit for your website, you can use suitable methods to reach out to them. Creating a well-researched outreach list can help you save time and resources.
If you see your prospect qualification rate increasing after link building, it’s another indicator of the success of your link building outreach campaign.
Source: Hubspot.com
Email Communication Rate
Once you have a compiled list of prospects fit for your website, you can create an email campaign and start working on it right away. Remember that even the best email campaigns may bounce and fail to deliver.
If best practices for an email campaign are not followed, your hard work may also end up in spam folders. Therefore, if previous email campaigns failed to reach the right people or remained unopened, it’s time to look for essential link building KPIs.
As discussed earlier, good link building practices lead to an enhanced mailing list filled with the people fit for what you offer. As a result, when your emails reach them, there is an increased chance of them opening your mail and following through.
Response Rate
As we proceed further down the list, you learn more about the importance of link building KPIs. The most important of these link building KPIs are the changes in response rates. It reflects how well-received your pitch was among the prospects.
The response rates may differ depending on your niche. However, before panicking about how to track link building KPIs to make changes to them, you must see enough results to conclude.
A low response rate can indicate you to take the following actions.
- Change Your Audience
- Change the Content
- Change Your Campaign
Cost per Link
Another link building KPI you must keep in mind is knowing how to measure link building KPIs with your cost-benefit analysis. You can calculate your cost per link by adding all the costs invested in the link building campaign and dividing it by the number of quality links to get an estimated cost per link.
Analyzing the cost per link can help you maintain a healthy balance between cost and backlinks, helping your overall ROI. A detailed analysis can help you see where you are investing and the brighter image behind this investment.
Outreach Placement Rate
You must create content worth standing out to achieve buy-in from your link opportunities. If you have something valuable in your hands that is relevant to the other site’s audience of the link provided, they will likely provide you with a backlink.
If backlink opportunities are turning you down after continuous effort, you may want to consider revising your content. However, if you are getting placement effortlessly, this is a signifier of placement rate KPI.
This link building KPI proves the success of your campaign and the exemplary practices. Increased domain authority is an invitation for other quality websites to establish relationships with you. No website will deny your offer if your content is up to the mark and your domain rating is reliable.
Final Words
Link building can sometimes be time-consuming, financially challenging, and even exhausting; we get it. However, while you put so much effort into finding deeper insights into your link building KPIs, remember the long-term benefits of link building for SEO.
It’s not only about making your website link-worthy. You must strive to take it to a point where you attract links naturally. As you are aware, the guidelines by Google are rigid and will only rank the deserving website in their search results.
Now that you know how to measure link building success, you do not have to worry about your efforts going to waste. If you track your success with the help of vital metrics and link building KPIs, you can prevent the worst from happening.
