The new Netlinking: what if backlinks had a face?

ƒNowadays, backlinks are no longer simple vectors of popularity: they tell a story, carry a voice, embody an entity. At a time when Google is relying more and more on EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness), brands no longer have a choice: their netlinking must live up to their content. No more link exchanges on impersonal sites: a good backlink is built, chosen, earned. It must be the result of shared legitimacy, collaboration between credible media and sharing initiated by a proven author.

But in a context where publishers sometimes blur the lines, choosing good links can become a titanic, time-consuming and thorny job, as you have to check the KPIs one by one. At Cybercité we have chosen to direct ourselves as much as possible towards EEAT-friendly sites, embodied by real authors or brands.

What are the keys to getting as close as possible? We guide you:

1/ Check site traffic

When evaluating a site to place a backlink, traffic is often the first indicator to observe. But be careful, the number doesn’t tell the whole story!

→ volume does not rhyme with value : 100K visits mean nothing if they are clicks generated by keywords that have no connection with the theme of the site concerned. Sometimes, a proportion of this traffic can even be artificially generated to inflate a publisher’s kpi and at the same time the price of their backlink.

→ it is better to check a curve rather than the traffic for the current month : favor stable traffic over time. Check if this volume of visits has existed for a long time or if it has not shown a severe drop over the last 12 months (in which case, this could have been caused by a Google update).

→ dissect which pages are the most active : a site that captures all its traffic on only a small handful of URLs is not a good sign. If the site is efficient from an SEO and editorial point of view, then a whole set of content must perform

2/ Check the correct theme of the publisher site

Ideally, you should choose publishers whose theme is common to that of your site. Because a good backlink must have a coherent semantic context. To do this, check:

→ whether the publishing site is generalist or specialist in the theme. Preference should go to a single-expertise site. However, you sometimes have to know how to open your chakras, especially if your link campaigns aim for volume: in these cases, it is possible to publish an article and its link within a general site category. Just remember to check if the category has a good base of visibility in the search results!

→ check the presence of the site in the SERPs on key keywords of your theme: if there is volume in Google’s top 30, then yes you can consider that the site has more or less expertise on the subject. Beyond the 3rd page, we assume that it will be insufficient to convey semantically explicit popularity to you.

→ If you don’t have much time for all these checks, you can always rely on the TTF (Topical Trust Flow) analysis provided by the Majestic and Seobserver tools. Although the metric can be manipulated, it can give you a first idea in sorting the identified media.

3/ Analyze the popularity of the publisher

A site that receives links is, in theory, a “popular” site. But as with traffic, the raw number of referring domains is not enough to assess its value. What matters is the quality of the link profile.

→ always check the origin of the links: are they themed sites, credible, and themselves well positioned? Or obscure, off-topic, even toxic sites? A good popularity profile is based on consistent and legitimate links, not just stacked on top of each other.

→ as with traffic, it is necessary to observe the history of these links: a sudden drop in the number of referring domains can signal a penalty or a loss of credibility following a redesign or temporary expiration of the domain name. Conversely, too rapid growth is often the sign of an aggressive strategy… and potentially neither qualitative nor sustainable.

→ if you are short of time, there is another kpi from seobserver and Majestic which will guide you: the TF (trust flow). Even if here too the scoring can be manipulated, you can rely on it to start your thinking. This quality score ranges from 0 to 100 and the closer the site is to zero, the lower quality its referring domains will be. So look for at least sites whose TF exceeds 20, that will be at least that much!

4/ Check the existence of a proven entity

In a context where Google values authenticity and expertise, it is no longer enough for a site to publish content: it must be embodied by a competent author or brand.

→ who speaks on the site? Is it a media? A listed business? An author clearly mentioned? A site without legal notices, without an “about” section or without a known author is a bad signal for Google.

→ does the claimed expertise seem demonstrated to you? As an Internet user, would you trust this site? Check if there are speaking engagements elsewhere than on the site, publications or even a presence on professional networks such as LinkedIn.

→ do you see a “face behind the link”? At the time of the EEAT, the link must be a relay of trust (and this goes through a credible and clearly visible entity). Search on Google, and therefore outside the site, for the name of the brand or author to check if they are cited by third parties.

5/ No good link without a good strategy

A backlink is not an SEO patch that you stick on to look pretty. It must be part of a global strategy, thought out upstream, informed by the analysis of a sector of activity and structured in a brand identity logic.

→ market analysis is essential before launching into a campaign : who are your competitors? What are your micro-markets and/or top keywords? If you know who you’re fighting, it’s easier to quantify the artillery (and the budget that goes with it).

→ content strategy : Do not place your links in empty or artificial content. Produce (or demand) useful, informative, well-sourced and optimized content: what are your strengths, your innovations, your values, your differentiating elements? Master the art of story telling and create the desire to click on the outgoing link. Obviously, anticipate the SEO optimizations required for good ranking in search results: original subject, optimized title tag, rich and sequenced Hn titles, etc.

→ broadcast monitoring : make sure that the article carrying the link is well published, well structured… and above all indexed. Because spoiler: an unindexed page is a ghost link! Then monitor the performance of each new link and adjust your campaign over the 12 months of the year, focusing on the intensity during the identified seasonal peaks.

What if you took back control of your popularity?

You will have understood: in an increasingly demanding SEO environment, netlinking remains a fundamental lever… provided it is mastered! Sourcing a good link today means carrying out real in-depth work: choosing the right site, checking its legitimacy, its audience, its incarnation… and above all, including it in a coherent editorial strategy.

Do you want your brand to become THE reference? No need to multiply links, you just need to choose them carefully, deserve them and accept them. At Cybercité, we campaign for reasoned, qualitative and sustainable netlinking. If, however, we have given you the desire to professionalize your approaches, rely on our special white paper Netlinking 2025: it’s all in there!