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There’s a lot of different factors that will improve your SEO rankings, and sometimes it’s hard to put your finger on it. What exactly is it that’s giving your website a boost? This article will dig into link echoes and link ghosts, showing you exactly what they are and how they can affect your SEO rankings. Once you know about them, you can take advantage of them.
What Are Link Echoes And Link Ghosts?
First of all, you need to know what link echoes and ghosts are before you can use them in your SEO strategy. The terms ‘link echoes’ and ‘link ghosts’ can actually be used interchangeably. They both refer to a link that pointed at your website but is no longer available online. There could be a few reasons why they’re no longer up online:
- The website that was linking to you has closed down, meaning the link is no longer accessible.
- The website may have taken itself down for maintenance, making the link temporarily unavailable.
- The link may have been used in a contest that has now expired, meaning the link is no longer available.
- The website was updated, and during the process, the link to your site was deleted.
- The content may have been deleted. AcademAdvisor shows how content can change all the time thanks to style changes, mistakes and so on.
These are just a few reasons why there’s a link echo to your site, but it’s not an exhaustive list. There are all kinds of reasons why that link isn’t there anymore.
Why Are They Important?
‘Link echoes and ghosts are more important than people realise’ says content writer Jessica Bramley from Oxessays. ‘Even though the link doesn’t exist anymore, Google knows the link was there.’
Links are important to your SEO. If more sites are linking to you that means your site must have something of value. Google pays attention to that. The more links you have on other quality websites, the higher your own ranking will be. This is true even when that link doesn’t exist anymore. It was there, and the fact the link has gone doesn’t change the fact you were worth linking to.
How Google Uses Your Links to Improve Your SEO
There are a few different factors Google will take into consideration when it comes to your SEO ranking:
Website performance: No one knows quite how Google ranks websites. However, it’s possible that they pay attention to how a website performs. If the site doesn’t send people back to the search engine, then they’re clearly a quality site. Even if the link disappears, it could be that they allow the site to keep their ranking.
SERP factors: There are many other factors that play a part in determining your rank. Google won’t tell you exactly what they do, but there’s a lot to it. It could be that the link echoes are only playing a small part in your SEO rankings. It’s not a likely possibility, but it is there and will have an effect.
Link echo ranking factor: It is clear that Google sees link echoes as their own kind of signal that tells them that a website has worth to them. If there’s the echo of a link, it’s clear that that link did have value at one point. That means they know that the site still has value and that the disappearance of a link doesn’t disprove that.
What Does The Mean For You?
As you can see, it’s important that you build up links with other quality websites, in order to up your own SEO rankings. What you now know is that even if that link is deleted or the site goes down, later on, you’ll still get the benefit of that link.
This means that you need to ensure that your site is one worth linking to. If you haven’t already, it’s time to think about how you create content. Many site owners hire writers from agencies recommended by sites like State of writing and Paper fellows. This ensures that the content you’re writing is deemed top quality by Google.
It’s also worth offering to backlink to other sites too. The more you can do this, the more they will return the favour. Building up good relationships with other sites is crucial. If you do this, ensure that you’re using a tool like Cite It In to ensure that you’re citing sources for the link correctly.
Now you know what link echoes and link ghosts are, and how you can take advantage of them. Make sure you’re building up relationships with other sites and getting your link shared on them. Even if that link disappears in the future, it’ll count for you in the SEO rankings. Get those links out there.