To start off I am going to tell you about what I believe are the top ranking factors in particular backlink factors 2015 as this is ultimately what will make your site rank…end of.

Backlink Factors 2015

• If obtaining links or building links you want to consider the domain age, typically, the old the domain the better as it is viewed as having history with Google and potentially long lasting links.
• Without doubt, the number of root domains you have linking to your site is a factor in the Google algorithm.
• Particularly if people are gaming the search engine results, having multiple sites hosted under the one web hosting company and under the same C-class IP will look suspicious. Therefore links coming for the same C-class IP will typically only count as one link.
• The number of linking pages also has an effect. For example a site wide link contained within a side-bar on a WordPress site will generally only count as one link in the eyes of Google. I would suggest not building these types of links as it again could be viewed as a dodgy form of link building. Instead relevant contextual links is what you are after (more on this here).
• Use of the ALT tag for images and image links. This is a good method to use to vary your link building and also looks neater to someone who is viewing the site that the link is coming on.
• Google still gives more weight to .edu and .gov domains. However, with that said, a spam comment on a student’s site that is a sub domain of the University or College will not necessarily be of benefit.
• Page Rank (PR) of the linking page will factor too. Although not as relevant now, I would still use it as an indication of the strength of the page. In general, the higher the PR the better.
• Authority of the linking domain plays an important factor. A link from a high authority domain will usually give a significant boost in search engine rankings. How do I know what a high authority domain is I hear you ask, simply use ahrefs.com. It will give you a basic overview of the site and show you some of the links too.
• Getting links from competitors is another factor that will create a powerful backlink. For example a competitor may have a link pointing to a site that you could potentially get a link from, this would be useful. Or if you somehow manage to get a competitor to actually link from their site to yours. This will be ultimate in terms of link profile and will give authority with regards to the niche you are in.
• Social shares are increasingly becoming more and more useful. Although not a massive factor in the grand scheme of things, but still carries some weight. In particular, Twitter shares have the most weight. Therefore, I would suggest you build your Twitter followers then post Tweets with links to your site promoting xyz product.
• Now, this is a biggy, relevant contextual links. Like this one seohello.co.uk. Contextual because the link is within this text contained within this paragraph/bullet point list. And importantly relevant, because they provide search engine optimization services. Thus, the content is of a related nature i.e. links and link building.

More to follow about backlink factors 2015…