I believe it’s more effective not to strengthen the top-ranked site through my webpage support. It’s better to create a personal network of relevant links that can challenge these high-ranking sites, rather than assist my competitors.
While there’s nothing wrong with acquiring some easily accessible links that a competitor might already have, it’s crucial to focus on building a superior set of personal links. Picking up some common links along the way should not be a problem.
## Build Better Link Networks
The search engine results pages (SERPs) are essentially a collection of sites with their own unique backlink networks. Through years of analyzing SERPs and backlinks, I’ve learned that it’s possible to bypass existing link networks and establish a more relevant set of links. Competitors’ high-ranking backlinks aren’t always the benchmark for the best links.
The key difference between my link network and others’ is my aim for my backlinks to be more relevant to the pages they connect to, pointing towards specific, relevant pages rather than just the homepage. These links should originate from more relevant neighborhoods and avoid mingling with irrelevant ones.
## Don’t Join, Build
Rather than integrating into existing link networks and becoming part of an established link neighborhood, I prefer to create my own network of relevant sites, separate from existing ones. This can help make my pages stand out with a better-quality backlink neighborhood, provided it’s more relevant and superior.
Often, competitor backlinks aren’t remarkable, so why replicate them? Striving for superiority should be the foundation of your backlink strategy planning.
Create a relevant link graph. This principle explains why a page with fewer inbound links can sometimes rank as well as or better than a site with thousands of inbounds. Beyond a certain point, factors other than the sheer number of links, like on-page ranking signals, come into play.
If checking backlinks is necessary, consider exploring the backlinks of major sites advertising within the top rankings, rather than only examining those of the top ten. Also investigate backlinks of non-competitive businesses whose audiences overlap with yours.
## Are You a Leader or a Follower?
Challenge the conventional belief that simply following the leader will help you surpass them. How does that logically work?
Being a follower does not equate to leading. True leadership involves finding improved methods of achieving goals.
If you aim to lead in your field, it requires exceeding competitors’ efforts and identifying fresh, superior contributions to the discourse, including in the realm of links.
Instead of trailing competitors’ link strategies, explore alternative avenues. In my experience, this approach has led me to discover excellent ways to acquire links that propel me to the top.
It’s increasingly less about having the most links and more about having the most relevant ones.
Content and relevance in links are now more critical than ever before. This is the new landscape.
