No matter what you read or hear Google still pays a lot of attention to backlinks. Let’s face it they are the superhighway infrastructure that Google uses to crawl and add page after page of content to its index system.
The other aspect of a backlink is that they help the search engine evaluate the relevance and quality of content they are crawling.
The problem is that not all backlinks are built equal and some can add more value to websites than others and even harm your search rankings more than others.
One of the most powerful and effective backlinks out there are contextual links. They are purported to be at least 5 times more powerful than any other link which is why curating contextual backlinks is a vital part of any link-building activities you do.
For that only they are perhaps harder to get than other backlinks as they can impact search rankings domain authority.
Using its fab algorithm google can determine how relevant the contextual backlink it based on the similarity of the two sites in the link itself.
Some black hat SEO techniques tried to circumvent this by building backlinks from irrelevant sites to get that link juice flowing.
The google penguin algorithm update in 2012 changed all that. Relevant links became the important metric and the penguin update become part of the core algorithm that Google uses.
The links on your website can tell google a lot about your business.
Contextual Links
So what is a contextual backlink and what makes a contextual backlink so special?
A contextual backlink is one that you acquire naturally and appears naturally within the blog post or web page. Quality contextual backlinks will appear naturally in the text that surrounds them.
The reason why search engines love these so much is that they appear genuine and honest and is totally contextual to the content meaning surrounding them.
The other benefit from the search engine perspective is that a contextual link in a piece of content enhances the user experience on the blog and adds relevancy.
Topical link relevancy is of great importance for search engines. It has to be relevant links.
Adding contextual backlinks to your content can be one of the quickest ways to boost your website performance.
As many things in the world of SEO though it is not easy to get contextual backlinks from high authority website owners.
There are methods though that can bear fruit and if you add them to your link building armoury you can encourage authority websites to play ball and link back to you.
Contextual Link Building
Broken Link Building
One of the easy ways to start to acquire high-quality contextual links back to your website is using broken links.
As a link-building strategy, broken link building can be broken down into the following steps.
- Look for high-quality relevant websites in your niche and look for any broken links.
- Create a relevant, quality piece of content that can replace the content broken in the link.
- Publish that as blog post content on your blog.
- Inform the owners of the website that they have a broken link but you have solved the problem for them with this great piece of content.
There are tools out there you can use to find the broken links such as Ahrefs and Moz
Content Curators For Contextual Link Building
One useful way of getting contextual backlinks is by connecting with content curators. Content curators use search engines and social media channels to find useful content that is worth curating. They are basically site owners in the same niche as yours.
Using email outreach you can try and connect and build a relationship. A relationship of this type will very often leverage a contextual backlink in one of their blog posts.
Guest Posts
Another way to leverage high-quality contextual backlinks from authority websites is by using the guest post method. With guest blogging or guest posting, most people think to get links in the author bio.
Although this is a valid link it is not as powerful as a contextual link. In your guest post content, you should try and include a few contextual backlinks in the content itself. Remember though it has to appear natural.
The steps needed to be successful with guest posting are pretty straightforward;
- Do your research – find a relevant blog you want to post on and research it well.
- Pitch your idea to a person, not the website – find the owner and connect with the site owners.
- Check who else has written guest posts for the site.
- Check out the guidelines for the site.
- Create a high-quality guest post.
- Respond to any comments on your blog posts.
HARO – Help A Reporter Out
This is a relatively new way of obtaining contextual backlinks and is a free service to use.
The site covers all niches and has reporters who are looking for industry experts to write a story for them.
If the reporter uses you as the source you will get a contextual backlink to your website.
These links are full of link juice and are great for SEO but they are quite hard to get and it may take you a few pitches to get a successful outcome.
Contextual Backlinks – FAQ
What are SEO Contextual Backlinks?
Contextual backlinks are just hyperlinks to another website but the link is buried in the text or content on the page. They are more relevant in the eyes of Google and SEO as they make up part of the relevancy of the content.
Are contextual links good for your website?
Because the contextual link is buried in the text it means a lower bounce rate on your website because the reader will see as part of the text. Unlike other links that might be found in the sidebar or footer.
What is contextual link building?
Contextual link building is a quick way to boost your site search performance. Links surrounded by relevant content are getting to be more and more important in terms of SEO and search performance.
What Does Linking To Content Actually Mean?
The contextual link is the clickable text that is part of your written content on your blog post or article.
Can you have an internal contextual link?
Internal links are links in your content that link to other pieces of content on your website. You can create contextual links in your own content to link to other pages on your website.
Are backlinks including contextual backlinks still important in 2021?
Backlinks are one of the core foundations that makes up the Google algorithm. There have been countless studies done in the SEO world that show that links and contextual links are important in organic search performance. To that end, contextual link building should be a vital part of your link-building strategy.
Can I Buy Contextual Links?
Like most things in life of course you can buy contextual backlinks and have that as part of your contextual link building strategy. However, paid links are not usually as worthy as those types of links that you can procure yourself through your own link-building efforts.
