Date First Published: 6th December 2022
Topic: Web Design & Development
Subtopic: SEO
Article Type: Computer Terms & Definitions
Difficulty: MediumDifficulty Level: 5/10
Learn more about what link velocity is in this article.
Link velocity is the rate a page or a website is getting backlinks over a certain period of time. It is usually measured in the number of new links gained per month or new referring domains per month. A high link velocity indicates that a website or page is very quickly gaining backlinks from other sites, whilst a low link velocity indicates a slow growth in backlinks.
Link velocity can help determine whether a website is gaining any more backlinks over a specified period of time and determine website performance. This is why it is an important metric for website owners to keep track of. However, building backlinks should be the main focus of ranking higher in the search results, not getting a high link velocity.
Although the quantity and quality of backlinks a page has is a major Google ranking factor, the rate that a page gains backlinks does not influence the ranking of pages. Some people worry that if they build high-quality and relevant links quickly, they will receive penalties from Google, but that is not true. Link velocity is not a term that Google officially recognises. John Mueller of Google said that "It's not so much a matter of how many links you get in which time period. It's really just… if these are links that are unnatural or from our point of view problematic then they would be problematic. It's like it doesn't really matter how many or in which time."
When it comes to link velocity, there is no exact ideal rate. Link velocity is not something that website owners have much control of and the link velocity of sites will often constantly vary. The best way for a website owner to determine their ideal link velocity is to take a look at a competitor's link velocity analysis and see the historical trends of top-ranking pages and then see how fast they have gained backlinks over the past few months and whether they have gained them at a similar rate.
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