What is a natural link

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What is a natural link

Natural links are simply those we create without a netlinking strategy. Since it should come naturally, a site has placed a backlink to yours without you having asked for anything. Or without you having done anything for it. Here are some pointers on what a natural link is and how to consider it in your SEO strategy.

Complete freedom

A natural link is a link that occurs organically (not easily perceived as being placed by your company). When a link has tracking parameters, exists as part of sponsored or paid content, or redirects through JavaScript or monetization tools, it is no longer a natural link. A natural link exists as a reference to a content, website or source.

A race with search engines

Search engines have understood that natural links allow them to identify relevant pages in the vastness of the web. That’s why their algorithms rely on links to establish the popularity of pages. SEOs are trying to get a multitude of links that they would not have obtained in a natural way. Knowing that, search engines adapt to try to best discern a natural link from another. This pushes the SEO world to consider new options to promote a site, such as linkbaiting.

Be careful

Most unnatural backlinks are here to game the popularity system and get higher rankings without adding any real value (spam). Any link intended to manipulate a site’s PageRank or ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines. This includes any behavior that manipulates links to or from your site. Unnatural links would not exist in a world without Google, and are rarely useful to the user.

Regarding what is allowed and not allowed when it comes to natural linking, remember: if you want to have a site that does not get a nice manual penalty, look at what is done in your field of activity among your colleagues. Focus on their natural link profile, it will give you good ideas to get some yourself.