9 Important Link Building Metrics to Use in Your Strategies

You’ve probably heard that measuring the success of your link building efforts is just as important as building the links themselves. But how do you know if your strategy is truly effective?

Well, after years of experience helping build and develop successful backlink campaigns, we’ve gathered our best insights on the link building metrics that matter most.

We’ll break down the 9 important link building metrics you should be using in your strategy. We’ll keep things simple and actionable, so you can immediately apply these metrics to enhance your link building campaigns.

What is Link Building in SEO? 

Let’s talk about one of the most essential elements of SEO. Link building is getting other websites to link back to yours. This is important because search engines, like Google, see these links as votes of trust and authority. 

The more high-quality links your website has, the more likely it is to rank higher in search results. In a study by Semrush, nearly all (92.3%) of the top 100 ranking domains had at least one backlink. 

There are several strategies to build backlinks:

• Guest Blogging: You create valuable content for another blog’s audience and include a link to your site. It’s a collaborative win that benefits both parties.
• Broken Link Building: Ahrefs found that 66.5% of the links to websites over the past 9 years are dead. Websites often have broken or outdated links. This is an opportunity for you to step in, offer a working link (your content), and help improve their site while gaining a backlink. 
• Competitor Backlink Analysis: If your competitors got links from certain sites, why not reach out to those sites and showcase your own valuable content? 
• Valuable Content Creation: When you offer higher-quality content, other websites are more likely to link to yours.
• Resource Page Link Building: Many websites curate lists of useful resources. If your content provides value, it could be included in these lists.
• Email Outreach: This is a direct approach where you reach out to other website owners, presenting your content as a useful resource for their audience. While it requires effort and personalization, it’s a proven way to build quality backlinks.

Building strong links takes time, creativity, and consistency, but the long-term rewards are worth the effort. 

9 Link Building Metrics That Should be Used

1. Domain Strength

Domain strength gives us an idea of how authoritative and trustworthy a website is in the eyes of search engines. We often use metrics to measure domain strength: Domain Authority (DA), Domain Rating (DR), and sometimes Authority Score (AS). 

Domain Authority (DA)

DA is a metric developed by Moz to predict how likely a website is to rank on SERPs. It ranges from 1 to 100, where a higher score indicates a stronger ability to rank. Although not a direct ranking factor used by Google, DA is widely used as a comparative metric for link building strategies.

(Source: Moz)

DA is calculated using a machine learning algorithm that evaluates multiple factors, such as:

• Linking root domains
• Quality of backlinks
• Overall site performance

Moz’s Link Explorer or MozBar is available to check your DA score. DA value depends on your industry and competitors. Instead of aiming for an arbitrary DA score, you should outperform competitors within your niche. 

Domain Rating (DR)

Domain Rating, or DR, is Ahrefs’ unique metric to measure the strength of a website’s backlink profile, scored on a scale from 0 to 100. DR works on a logarithmic scale, meaning each point becomes harder to earn as your DR climbs higher. Jumping from DR 20 to 21 is much easier than moving from 75 to 76. 

(Source: Ahrefs)

High-quality websites linking to you pass on more “link love,” boosting your DR. But beware, if a referring domain starts linking to a ton of other websites, the value of its link to you diminishes.

Yeah, and here’s two facts: 

• Nofollow links DO NOT contribute to DR. So, if you’re counting on them, you might want to reconsider your strategy. 
• DR doesn’t account for on-site SEO, content quality, or spammy backlinks. While it’s a great metric, it’s not the only one you should rely on.

Authority Score (AS)

AS, developed by Semrush, is a comprehensive metric on a scale from 1 to 100 that reveals more than just the surface-level strength of a website. Semrush crunches the numbers by blending data from three primary sources:

• Link strength: Quality and quantity of backlinks to the site.
• Website performance: Organic keyword rankings, which indicate how well the site performs on search engines.
• Spam indicators: Any signs of manipulation or spam within the link profile.

AS doesn’t just answer, “How many links does this site have?”. AS offers a more well-rounded analysis by factoring in organic traffic and potential spam risks.

(Source: Semrush)

2. Page Strength

The stronger the page, the better it can “lift” your online visibility. Page strength indicates the authority and potential impact of an individual page, not the entire site.

A page’s strength is the result of multiple elements working together:

• Backlinks
• Relevance 
• Traffic and Engagement
• Content Quality
• Technical Performance

Page Authority (PA) is a metric developed by Moz to predict how well a specific web page will perform in search engine rankings. This score, ranging from 1 to 100, correlates with a page’s potential to rank in search engine results pages. 

The PA score is determined using various factors from Moz’s web index, such as linking URLs, root domains, MozRank, follow/nofollow links, anchor text distribution, and more. You can check the PA of any page using Moz Link Explorer. 

URL Rating (UR) is another metric to measure page strength. Developed by Ahrefs, UR isn’t just about the number of links a page has. It’s all about the quality of those links. If a page has links coming from other strong pages with high UR scores, it’s going to have a higher UR itself. 

UR is page-specific. This means that while one page might have a high UR, that doesn’t necessarily mean the entire domain is as strong. You could have a page with a lot of high-quality backlinks, but if the website itself has a low Domain Rating (DR), the page’s UR could still outshine the domain’s overall score.

3. Anchor Text

Anchor text is the clickable text that forms part of a hyperlink, the words you see highlighted that you can click on to navigate to another page. 

So, what does this all mean for you? The right anchor text can help search engines understand your content and improve your rankings. 

You want to use anchor text that’s relevant to the linked page, but you also want to avoid looking like you’re trying too hard. 

Use a mix of different anchor text types. This can create a natural-looking backlink profile, avoiding over-optimization and making your link building strategy look organic and trustworthy.

When building links, use a variety of anchor text types: exact match anchors, partial match anchors, branded anchors, and even some naked URLs or generic anchors if appropriate. This diversity helps you build a natural and organic link profile, which is what search engines prefer.

Make it relevant. The anchor text should always be relevant to the page it’s linking to. This tells users and search engines, “Here’s what this link is about!” When users click on the link, they want to know they’re going to get what’s promised, and search engines use that same anchor text information to determine how relevant your page is to a search query.

If you’re linking to a page about “best link building software,” using anchor text like “link building tools” or “free link building solutions” makes sense. 

Keep your anchor text natural (and user-friendly). Nobody wants to click on a link that feels forced or out of place. Don’t stuff keywords or overuse exact match anchor text. It triggers a red flag for search engines, as it might look like spammy behavior. You don’t want that, right?

Use descriptive and actionable phrases. Consider using action-oriented or descriptive words. Give your users a reason to click. “Discover the best link building strategies” or “Read more about our comprehensive guide” can make the link feel more compelling.

How long should the anchor text be? There’s no one-size-fits-all answer, but generally, aim for short and sweet. Around 2 to 5 words is ideal. You want your anchor text to be concise but informative, giving enough context about the linked page without becoming too wordy. If it’s too short or too generic (like “click here”), you may not provide enough insight into what the link is about. If it’s too long, it can come off as unnatural or clunky.

Expert opinion

The objective is not to ‘make your links appear natural’; the objective is that your links are natural.

Matt Cutts

4. Referring Domains

Backlinks are like votes of confidence from other websites pointing to your pages. Every time another site links to yours, it’s like they’re saying, “Hey, this page is valuable!”  

But, not all backlinks are created equal. Referring domains are what truly matters when it comes to assessing your link profile.

Source: Semrush

A referring domain is simply a website that links to your site. If a single website links to you multiple times, it still counts as one referring domain. So, if you are developing a powerful link building strategy, the more referring domains you have, the better. 

• Websites with higher DA or DR are more trustworthy in the eyes of search engines. 
• Links from domains that are closely relevant to your niche carry more value. 
• Websites with a clean reputation, free from spam or penalties, are the best sources of backlinks. A backlink from a spammy or low-quality domain can actually harm your site more than help.

5. Number of Links

More backlinks often mean more opportunities for search engines to notice and rank your content higher. But of course, it’s not just about how many backlinks you get, it’s about how you approach getting them and how you strategically build them over time.

The power of quantity 

A site with more backlinks from various, relevant sources is seen as more authoritative by search engines. This means that the more quality backlinks you accumulate, the more valuable your website appears to both users and search engines.

When you build backlinks, you’re essentially saying to search engines, “Hey, people trust my content and want to share it with their audience!” The more people share and link to your site, the stronger your digital presence becomes.

How many backlinks should you build?

The number of backlinks you should aim for really depends on your goals, your campaign, and your industry. Some industries, like SaaS, are more competitive than others, so the backlink game can look different depending on where you’re at.

One thing’s for sure: you need to approach link building gradually. 

Getting hundreds of backlinks overnight can raise red flags with search engines and look suspicious. Instead, focus on building a steady stream of backlinks over time.

It’s about quality and consistency. A new site may start with 10 to 20 backlinks a month from authoritative domains. Your primary focus should always be on the quality of backlinks and the relevance of the domains you’re acquiring them from.

A few backlinks can go a long way

Sure, it’s great to have a lot of backlinks. But, a link from a respected website in your niche is far more valuable than dozens of links from low-quality sites. 

You can have a small number of high-quality backlinks and still see great results. 

You also need to keep track of the diversity and relevance of backlinks: 

• Are you getting backlinks from a variety of sources? 
• Are those sources relevant to your industry or niche? 

Expert opinion

The reality of SEO is the reality of any successful endeavor: It will take strategic, consistent, and sufficient efforts to rank well.

Viola Eva – Flow SEO

Flow SEO

6. Relevance of the Linking Page

Search engines are SMARTER than you think. When a page links to your website, its relevance to your content is a huge factor in how valuable that link will be. The more relevant the linking page is to your site, the more powerful the backlink will be. 

Okay, you don’t need a hundred backlinks from totally unrelated sites. Google cares about making sure users get the best, most relevant results. A link from a blog about technology pointing to your article about gardening—that link won’t carry nearly as much weight. 

However, don’t be fooled into thinking that fewer is always better. Yes, a link from a highly relevant site is amazing, but the number of relevant links still matters. More links from sites that are highly relevant to your content will only strengthen your position. 

The idea here is to focus on quality first, but then scale up with additional links from other reputable, relevant pages over time.

(Source: Create & Grow)

7. Link Position

Where your link appears on the page can significantly impact its value. In general, links that are placed higher up on the page, particularly within the body content, are more valuable than links tucked away at the bottom or in sidebars.

Sure, you might be able to get a link from a page, but where is it placed? The position of your link can make a huge difference in how much “link juice” is passed along.

Search engines give more value to links that appear within the main content of a page, especially those that are placed in the first half of the content. And, links in this section are more likely to be seen and clicked by users as well.

8. NoFollow vs. DoFollow Links

When a link is marked as Dofollow, it passes on link juice, basically, the authority and ranking power of the linking page—straight to the linked page. 

The higher the quality of the dofollow links you get, the more you’ll see your page climb the SERPs. 

A Nofollow link tells search engines, “I’m linking to this page, but I don’t necessarily want to pass on any ranking power.” 

But, don’t go thinking nofollow links are useless. 

While Nofollow links don’t directly influence SEO rankings the way dofollow links do, they can drive traffic and increase brand awareness. Nofollow links can also help build your overall link profile and give a more natural appearance to your backlink profile.

After all, a healthy mix of both dofollow and nofollow links looks more organic to search engines.

9. Spam Score

Links from low-quality, spammy sites can harm your website’s reputation and SEO. If a backlink comes from a site with a high spam score, it might indicate a risky link, one that could negatively affect your ranking or even get you penalized by Google. 

Spam Score, provided by Moz, helps you understand the likelihood that a site may have been penalized or banned by Google due to spammy practices. 

High spam scores = red flags

• A score between 1%-30%: Low
• A score between 31%-60%: Medium (it’s a bit iffy, but nothing major to worry about just yet)
• A score of 61%-100%: High – this is the danger zone. 

Source: Moz

But don’t panic. Just because a site has a high spam score doesn’t mean it’s guaranteed to be a spammer. It just means you should do a bit more digging. Is the site linking to you relevant? Does it have quality content? Is it trustworthy? These are the questions you need to ask before deciding whether or not to disavow a link.

Conclusion 

When I explain link building metrics to someone new to the process, I often tell them to track the right metrics, or they won’t know if your link building efforts are truly working.

That’s why many SEO experts recommend focusing on the metrics that really matter—those that help you measure the quality and relevance of your backlinks, rather than just the quantity. By understanding and applying these link building metrics, you can refine your strategy and see lasting improvements in your SEO.

I hope this guide has made link building metrics clearer and more actionable for you. If you found this helpful, feel free to share it on your social media to help your connections benefit too. And, I’d really appreciate it!