What Is Link Velocity?

Aaron Haynes
Dec 14, 2021

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Link building is a critical SEO metric that may bring massive organic traffic to your website.

Link building is a tried-and-true method that benefits your website in a variety of ways. It raises your search engine ranks, increases website authority, and builds audience trust. The links connecting various internet resources allow Google to find your website.

When it comes to backlinks, one common question that everyone has is, “What is link velocity?” We’ve all heard about link building, but very few people discuss link velocity.

So, what is link velocity? Is link exchange good for SEO? What are links in SEO? What is link auditing in SEO?

In this post, we’ll go through the fundamentals of link velocity and its accompanying patterns, making it simpler to see its benefits in SEO and Google algorithms.

What Is Link Velocity?

The rate at which backlinks to your website or domain expand over time is referred to as link velocity. It is quantifiable in terms of new links obtained every month. Backlinking is another term for this procedure.

Although a higher link velocity does not guarantee you the top spot in search engine results, it does play an important function in assisting you to get there. As a result, every internet marketer should be aware of it

Link velocity is a key measure in SEO analytics, and as such, it must be monitored period of time. However, merely increasing link velocity will not suffice. Better results can only be obtained via the use of high-quality backlinks; thus, greater attention should be placed on the development of high-quality links.

The question now is, “How quickly should one think about building links?” and “Will generating too many backlinks harm my SEO performance?”

Understanding link velocity patterns holds the key to answering your queries. Link Velocity Trends (LVT) show whether link growth is increasing or decreasing. LVT may be bad or beneficial depending on whether your site gains or loses links.

Negative Link Velocity
The decrease in links linking to your new site or domain is referred to as negative link velocity. This change is frequently seen as a negative signal by search engines, resulting in a decrease in your SEO performance. Negative link velocity describes your domain’s lack of legitimacy on the web.

Positive Link Velocity
Positive link velocity indicates an increase in link growth. It denotes that the firm or product is always attempting to increase its popularity. It may also suggest that the firm is striving to enhance its link building by implementing best practices. Positive link velocity has a significant impact on your Google search rankings.

Optimum Link Velocity
According to the Google algorithm, link velocity growth should be ideal. Your domain should contain high-quality content to guarantee that backlinks grow organically. However, there are times when this isn’t possible. In such circumstances, you must earn backlinks for yourself, and you must do so in such a way that the rise in your number of backlinks is consistent. It should not be too quick or too sluggish. Earning too many backlinks in one month and then receiving no backlinks for the next month can harm your website’s performance.

Why Is Link Velocity Important?

You now understand that link velocity is the rate at which you may gain links to your website.

Don’t be too concerned with your company’s link velocity unless the links you’re constructing are problematic or unnatural, such as if you paid for them or utilized other black hat link-building techniques that Google frowns on (Loganix only uses white-hat link-building tactics.)

Link building is the most beneficial SEO technique, according to 13% of search professionals.

In general, the more backlinks a web page has, the more organic Google traffic it receives. If you can swiftly develop high-quality, relevant, and natural links, that’s fantastic! If this is the case, you should not incur any Google penalty.

According to Google’s own webmaster Jone Mueller, it’s not so much a question of the rate at which you gain backlinks over a certain length of time; Google is more concerned with how unnatural or problematic the links you obtain are (and may penalize your site if they find either type of backlink.)

In other words, did you pay for the links or did you develop them using white-hat link-building techniques?

Link Velocity FAQ

Is link exchange good for SEO?

A link exchange happens when two companies agree to swap links in order to increase SEO and site authority by essentially stating, “you link to me, and I’ll link to you.”

If you want to increase your authority and ranks (while reducing the danger of search engine penalties), the key is to focus on less hazardous techniques and tactics.

Above all, your link-building strategies should improve your customers’ experience on your site. Rather than focusing on SERP rankings and your website’s link profile, produce high-quality content that adds value to your users and consumers.

External links on your site can help with SEO, but they are not the main force behind your site’s rating. Linking to high-quality sites that are related to your content improves the entire experience of your readers on your website.

Content is king, and giving original and relevant material to your viewers on a continuous basis will win your site a place on the throne. When you link to high-quality material, you may position your website as a reliable source of information. In this instance, consider it a bonus if the other site reciprocates the link – the content comes first.

What are links in SEO?

A hyperlink (also known as a link) is a method for users to browse between sites on the Internet. Search engines utilize links to crawl the web. They will crawl the links between your website’s individual pages as well as the links between larger domains.

Search engines have considered links as votes for popularity and relevance on the web since the late 1990s.

Internal connections, or links connecting internal sites under the same domain, function similarly for your website. A high number of internal links going to a specific page on your site will indicate to Google that the page is significant, as long as it is done legitimately and not spammy.

The engines have improved their perspective of links, currently utilizing algorithms to evaluate sites and pages based on the links they discover.

Link building is crucial in SEO since it drives organic traffic via search engines, especially in competitive sectors. Link building may be extremely successful at driving more organic traffic when paired with solid technical SEO foundations, outstanding on-page SEO, fantastic content, and a nice user experience.

The desire for quality, relevance, and authenticity has never been greater. While low-quality, spammy link-building tactics might be effective, they should not be part of an organization’s long-term organic search success plan.

What is link auditing in SEO?

A link audit is a practice of examining the links that lead to your website in order to identify potential issues or opportunities in your backlink profile. A link audit, like an on-page SEO audit for your website, looks at your links to determine if they are optimized to help your site rank for your target keywords.

Link audits look at the source URL, referring domain, and anchor text, as well as whether or not link juice is being transmitted, to evaluate how much each link helps or harms your SEO, both individually and as part of your overall backlink profile.

What’s the big deal about links? It’s because they’re important.

Search engines consider links to be votes or recommendations for your site, and they transfer value from the connected site to the target site. As a result, SEOs devote a significant amount of link-building efforts in order to increase their backlink profile.

Are outbound links bad for SEO?

For a long time, SEOs have disputed whether or not outbound links influence your site’s organic search rankings.

There is no denying that referring to reputable sites can assist to contextualize your information and increase user confidence in your website’s pages. In addition, artificial outbound links might impair the performance of your website.

However, some SEOs feel that outbound links might have a greater influence than most people realize, and according to a research by Reboot Online, “external links remain a ranking factor and excellent SEO (Search Engine Optimization) best practice.”

While there is no confirmation on the precise degree of the influence that outbound links may have on a site’s visibility, it is reasonable to conclude that they are something that SEOs should be paying greater attention to.

Don’t forget: check out the other definitions (over 200) in our growing SEO glossary.

Summary

Hopefully, this article has given you a better understanding of link velocity.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel!

You just need to determine your rivals’ link velocity. Perform a “competitor link velocity” study.

Google is always striving to provide high-quality search results. Several new features have been added to the most recent Google update to help screen out bad websites. As a result, it is critical to stick to your domain’s linking pattern in order to get a high-quality listing with excellent outcomes.

With this, we discussed what link-building velocity is and why it is important in your overall holistic SEO approach. A high link velocity is not the be-all and end-all measure for your link-building efforts. However, it is an excellent benchmark for planning such actions.

It is critical to keep an eye on this measure in order to avoid any unwelcome attention from Google. As a result, if you are diligent and thorough when looking for relevant sites to develop backlinks, you will almost certainly fall within appropriate link-building velocity automatically. Finally, while considering your SEO strategy in general, you must adopt a holistic approach to ensure that you are using the most cost-effective strategies.

Hand off the toughest tasks in SEO, PPC, and content without compromising quality

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Written by Aaron Haynes on December 14, 2021

CEO and partner at Loganix, I believe in taking what you do best and sharing it with the world in the most transparent and powerful way possible. If I am not running the business, I am neck deep in client SEO.