In the world of SEO, we hear a lot of circular debates, especially when it comes to backlinks. Let’s cut through the noise and focus on what truly drives results for your website’s search performance.
The core argument often boils down to this: Should you chase links from sites with a seemingly high Domain Authority (DA), or should you focus on relevancy and actual traffic?
The short answer, based on real-world SEO and the fundamental principles of Google’s algorithms, is that the obsession with DA as a primary metric is a distraction. You need links from pages that are both relevant and have traffic.
The Broken Logic behind “High DA”
Many SEOs are told emphatically in Reddit or on X that you need links from high DA (or DR, AS, etc.) domains. The problem? These are third-party metrics created by SEO tools (like SEMrush, Moz or Ahrefs), not Google. They are useful for comparison but are not Google’s actual ranking factors.
The true logical flaw often heard is:
“I can’t get links from high DA domains, so the solution must be to abandon the idea of quality altogether.”
Reality Check: You shouldn’t abandon quality; you should redefine it. If getting a link from a DA 80 site is proving impossible, focus on the factors that Google actually cares about and that are within your reach.
The Smarter Backlink Strategy:
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Forget DA: Use DA/DR as a tool to compare potential targets, but don’t let it be the single, unbreakable barrier.
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Target Pages with Traffic: The most powerful signal is a link from a page that actually gets organic traffic. If Google is sending visitors to that page, that page clearly has some measure of authority and relevance in Google’s eyes—a much stronger signal than a tool’s score.
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Relevancy is Down to the Link/Page: Your link should be placed on a page that is topically relevant to your content. A link from a low-DA page about “best digital marketing strategies” is infinitely more valuable to your SEO agency than a link from a high-DA page about “pet grooming” that has no topical connection.
PageRank: The Engine of Relevancy and Authority
To understand why this approach works, we must cite the algorithm that started it all: PageRank (PR).
Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, developed PageRank based on the principle that a link to a page is a “vote of confidence.” But not all votes are equal.
How PageRank Works (and Why Relevancy Matters):
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Authority Transfer: PageRank is fundamentally a measure of a page’s importance, calculated based on the quantity and quality of links pointing to it. A link from a page with high PR (i.e., high authority) passes more value (or “link equity”) than a link from a low-PR page.
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The Role of Relevancy: Crucially, PageRank is intertwined with Topical Authority. A page’s total authority (or link equity) is best passed to a linked page when the link is contextual and topically relevant.
As one of the debates in the SEO community points out:
“Relevancy is a constituent component of Topical Authority and PR, not a new signal.”
This is the key insight. Relevancy isn’t a separate, abstract ranking factor; it’s what makes the link’s authority transfer effective in the first place. A link from a relevant page about “link building strategies” to your post about “link building tools” validates your page as a trustworthy resource on that specific topic.
Actionable Takeaway for Link Building
Stop wasting time on sites with high vanity scores but no actual traffic or topical fit.
Prioritize Link Quality by Traffic and Context:
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Search for pages that are ranking: Identify content that is already appearing in the top results for your target keywords or related topics.
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Check their traffic: If the page receives organic search traffic, it means Google trusts it enough to rank it and send visitors.
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Ensure topical alignment: Does the page’s subject matter make it a natural fit to link to your content?
Focus on these criteria, and you’ll be building the kind of Topical Authority that Google actually rewards—not just chasing a vanity score that offers no real-world benefit.
