A link neighborhood is an interconnected ecosystem of links around a webpage. This neighborhood includes not only the links on a webpage—internal and external—but also the sites that backlink to the same webpage. The more interconnected a link neighborhood is, the better it is, as the links on a given webpage indicate to web crawlers and readers alike that it’s a trustworthy site. 

Like neighborhoods in reality, link neighborhoods come in all shapes and sizes, good and bad. When you move to a new house, you don’t want to be in an unsafe neighborhood next to unfriendly neighbors or isn’t close to your favorite amenities. Similarly, you don’t want your website content that isn’t interconnected or is “bad.” The better and more interconnected it is, the better your content can perform. With that in mind, let’s look at some factors that can influence your link neighborhood and how you can improve it. 

Your Neighborly Relationship with Backlinks

Most people don’t live in homes in the middle of nowhere. Most people have neighbors — some will bake cookies for their neighbors, others may not even know their last names. Ideally, in a friendly neighborhood, you’ll have a relationship that is more like the former circumstance. In a link neighborhood, other websites are your neighbors, and instead of baking cookies for you or lending a stick of butter now and then, they publish backlinks. 

Backlinks are any link published on a different website that leads back to your website. Backlinks are everywhere on the internet. People may publish them on social media. News articles will backlink to credible sources from which they found their information. You can also build backlinks through link building, the practice of outreaching website owners and collaborating with them to publish backlinks.

However, not all backlinks are created equal in the world of SEO. Suppose you have a real estate website and a body-building website backlinks to an article of yours titled “Key Safety Metrics for Neighborhoods.” In this circumstance, readers on the site may be confused about how this backlink may be relevant, especially if they’re researching ways to be fitter. 

In addition, credibility is another crucial factor in backlinks. If you build links to sites that continually have low metrics and aren’t established trustworthy sources, the “link juice” you share with them won’t shed a positive light on your website. Instead, it’s best to find a balance between relevant and credible backlinks in order to see positive impacts on your website.

Bad Link Neighborhoods: What Do They Look Like?

The best way you can tell if your content is in a bad link neighborhood is if it has the following characteristics:

• No external links: If you don’t include external links, your readers may feel lost about the subject you’re discussing and look elsewhere. 
• No internal links: If you don’t include internal links to other areas of your website, search engines won’t recognize your website as well, they won’t crawl your website as a whole, and readers will be less likely to move elsewhere on the site
• External links that don’t follow EEAT: Experience, expertise, authority, and trustworthiness (EEAT) are characteristics you should have in your external sources. Otherwise, search engines won’t consider your information credible. 
• Misinformed and poorly written content: Not only is grammatically incorrect and misinformed content a good way to scare off readers, but Google won’t reward your site if it doesn’t publish high-quality and informed content.

Ultimately, put yourself in your users’ shoes. Would you investigate a website further if it was written poorly, didn’t include helpful links or information, or wasn’t relevant to your original search query? If so, you can start making changes to help your users better.

What Is a Good Link Neighborhood? 

Conversely, a good link neighborhood typically shares the following characteristics: 

• Accessible: Content that has optimized headers to make skimming easy for readers, has easy-to-read writing, and prioritizes the user experience will naturally draw in more readers. 

• Healthy amount of external and internal links: Although creating content with internal and external sources is essential, it shouldn’t overwhelm the content itself. Use enough links to inform your readers and influence the Google algorithm without overwhelming them.

• Relevant and authoritative backlinks: As mentioned, users will only come to your website through backlinks if your source is relevant to the original website they came from. You’re also more likely to see results if the backlinks come from authoritative sources that users are more likely to trust.
• Trustworthy and credible information: The more informed your content is from trusted sources, the more readers and Google will trust the neighborhood you cultivate. 

Once you start building a good link neighborhood, it’s only natural for traffic to follow.

How Does Google Reward Good Link Neighborhoods?

For better or for worse, HOAs exist to keep your neighborhood safe and friendly. Like your HOA, Google’s mission is to ensure that all websites are friendly for everyone to inhabit. The search engine does this by rewarding sites that follow the aforementioned good neighborly practices. For example, if you publish content with information credited to authoritative external sources, Google will assume your site is credible as well and boost the page in the SERPs where searchers can easily find it, thus boosting your domain authority. 

The same treatment applies in reverse — if credible sites publish backlinks to your site, Google will more likely recommend it to searchers looking for trustworthy information.

No-Follow vs Do-Follow Links in Link Neighborhoods

Google also can better evaluate your link neighborhood based on your use of no-follow links. A no-follow link is an HTML code that instructs Google not to crawl the link. This means that your site won’t be affected by any of the “link juice” from a link. On the one hand, this tool can be useful if you want to use a sponsored link or a link to your competitor. On the other hand, you shouldn’t use this tool when you want to credit useful information from unbiased and trustworthy sources or your own internal sources. You want Google to credit these links.

How To Cultivate Good Link Neighborhoods in Online Content

Building a good link neighborhood doesn’t happen overnight. It’s something you consistently have to maintain when building online content that ranks. It’s best to first start by asking yourself what you want your link neighborhood to look like. What internal links do you want search engines to crawl? What are some authoritative sources you want to build links to? What external sources can help inform your argument? After answering these questions, you can start crafting new, relevant content. 

If you notice signs of bad neighborly habits after looking at your previously published content, you can always go back and update it. This process is essential if you want the keywords used in the article to rank. Otherwise, that content may be considered wasted space in Google’s eyes. 

 

Frequently Asked Questions About Link Neighborhoods

What Is a Link Neighborhood?

A link neighborhood is an interconnected ecosystem of links around a webpage, including internal links, external links, and backlinks.

Why Is a Link Neighborhood Important?

A good link neighborhood enhances a webpage’s trustworthiness to web crawlers and readers, indicating a reliable and reputable site.

How Do Link Neighborhoods Affect Webpage Performance?

The more interconnected a link neighborhood is, the better the content can perform, as it suggests a trustworthy and authoritative site.

What Are the Characteristics of a Good Link Neighborhood?

A good link neighborhood is well-interconnected, consists of reputable and relevant links, and does not contain links to or from low-quality or unsafe sites.

How Can a Poor Link Neighborhood Affect A Website?

A poor link neighborhood can harm a website’s reputation and performance by associating it with low-quality or untrustworthy sites.

How Can You Improve Your Link Neighborhood?

You can improve your link neighborhood by ensuring your content is well-linked internally, obtaining backlinks from reputable sources, and linking to high-quality external sites.

Can Internal Links Influence a Link Neighborhood?

Internal links are vital for a link neighborhood as they help organize content within the same website and improve navigation for users and web crawlers.

Are External Links Beneficial For a Link Neighborhood?

External links are beneficial as they connect your webpage to other authoritative sites, increasing your content’s overall trustworthiness and relevance.