Topical Relevance

A relevant backlink makes contextual sense between the linking page, the destination page and the audience likely to encounter it.

Key points

• Site-level relevance
• Page-level relevance
• Sentence-level context
• Audience overlap
• Natural destination choice
• Avoid forced anchors

Use several signals together

A strong evaluation combines relevance, editorial quality, visibility, placement context and the purpose of the link.

Inspect the real page

Third-party metrics summarize aspects of a site; they cannot replace looking at the page where the link will appear.

Apply the same checks when buying

Marketplace listings are starting points. The underlying publisher should still pass the same quality review.

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