What Is Link Velocity? Understanding Its Impact on SEO

Link velocity in SEO is the rate at which a page or a website gains backlinks. Link Velocity SEO is measured in links per month or referring domains every month. Before we understand the impact of link velocity in SEO it is necessary to figure out that the concept is about a couple of decades old. It dates back to 2003 after the discovery of a Google patent referred to as information retrieval based on historical data.

The patent also includes inputs on how search engines should target websites and generate views on what is link velocity in SEO? This is where the term link velocity SEO originated even though the patent does not explain the term anywhere. Rather it points to a spike in growth and outlines the fact that the search engine may lower the site score to reduce the efforts or spamming.

A lot of people feel that the impact of link velocity on SEO is enormous and it plays an important role in link building profiles.

The importance of link building in SEO

Still, there is a lot of confusion among experts about the importance of link velocity in SEO. A few argue that it is important and go on to say that it plays an important role in the rankings front. Others believe that it has no real effect be it positive or negative on the rankings.

The interesting aspect is when people trying to understand what is link velocity in SEO? Very rarely you will see someone worried about the impact of link velocity if they are focusing on natural white hat link building.

Irrespective of your stance on the issue, link audit service does not assure your website the number one spot on the Google Search engine results page. Even increasing your link velocity will not suffice. The focus always has to be on building relevant links.

The positives about what is link velocity in SEO?

The old patent of Google mentions sky growth and talks about a search engine lowering the website score if the backlink grows at an unnatural rate A few of the members in the search engine optimization community hold on to the fact that link velocity SEO is important

The general assumption is that having a higher velocity would be a good thing SEO-wise and has a positive impact on SERP rankings. This may turn out to be the case in the earlier days of link building. The impact of link velocity on SEO is when quantity is given prominence over quality. Currently, the assumption is higher link velocity may turn out to be bad for your website.

A careful observation at Google query freshness update released in 2011, that promotes topical content specifies another aspect of understanding link velocity. The topical content is relevant and timely to something current making it highly searchable. It may experience a spike in traffic and a lot of links can be generated fast. Google is expected to promote and reward that page as a rise in the impact of link velocity on SEO means a rise in the rankings.

This may lead people to believe that an upsurge in the site’s link growth may have a positive impact on SERP rankings. Even if it continues to be a ranking factor effective link-building tips would allow be not enough to help you rank better.

Arguments against how link velocity works

There are a lot of reasons why link velocity is a popular topic in the SEO community. There are numerous reasons to believe that it is not an actual ranking factor. For starters, it is based on an old patent filed in 2003, making it a highly unlikely part of Google’s algorithm. The worst part is that Google does not recognize the term link velocity at all.

For a lot of people link velocity SEO may be a make-up term. The general feeling is that it is the quality of links and not the mere rate of link acquisition that may force Google to take action.

You need to be aware that the link growth may look different for various websites. Though understanding link velocity shows no reason or correlation to believe that it has an impact on rankings. A few of the pages will grow their backlinks at a slow and steady rate virtually overnight and then stop getting many links.

Both these scenarios are not termed to be problematic in any way. It is not about the links or the speed at which it took place. It is all about penalizing those websites that showcase unexpended spikes over an extended period. The quality of links and the relevance of link-building pages are important. This is more beneficial SEO-wise than the rate at which the website gained random links.

The process of checking link velocity for a website or a page

The best way to check link velocity for a website or a page is using a site explorer. Just you need to enter the site name into the URL explorer and you will get the graphs showcasing the number of referring pages and domains over time. How link velocity works is the difference in the number of backlinks between a couple of consecutive months would be the site link authority

Though you may not consider it as an actual ranking factor, it is not going to hurt when it comes to the negative link growth of your backlink profile. The general assumption is that you want steady growth without drastic changes that may be termed algorithm manipulation attempts.

By now you have a fair idea of what is link velocity in SEO. There is no one single-size approach when it comes to good link velocity. An ideal way to determine what natural link growth for your site should be is to undertake a competitor link velocity analysis. Observe the historical trends of top-ranking pages along with your competitor sites. This is going to give you insights into how fast you have gained links over a given period.