Do CSS/web award galleries offer valuable backlinks to improve your domain authority and ultimately your SERP? I often come across this question from clients who are working on backlink building and there is often some debate as to whether CSS gallery backlinks hold much value in 2018.
As a rule of thumb, backlinks should be relevant to your site. So if you run a craft brewery, for example, will a backlink on Unmatched Style have much value to you? It will provide you with a do-follow backlink which is still valuable but the link isn’t going to be very relevant to a brewery. That said, it isn’t a completely irrelevant backlink that won’t hold any value the link is still from a high authority domain with a high trust flow, which is important.
CSS Galleries Help Organically Develop Links
CSS galleries shouldn’t be viewed as a source of a singular link only as they can help build organic links. This is only true if your site is worthy of being on a gallery in the first place. You may find your site on other blogs who link to you after finding your site on a CSS Gallery. We’ve featured many sites at Lakewood that were found on CSS galleries. Our article ‘5 Outstanding WordPress Websites’ links to 5 other sites that were mostly found on sites such as Awwwards. So by submitting their site to Awwwards, in turn, generated a completely organic link.
Spend Time Preparing Your Site
Before you spend time submitting your site to galleries around the web spend some time seeing what other sites are being accepted and which are winning ‘Site of the day’ awards. You need to have an outstanding site if you want to organically get links from other sites, let alone to get accepted to the gallery.
Follow trends but try to build something unique, break boundaries and push what is possible on your site. The results will pay for the time invested. Don’t just focus on the design but make sure that the code is clean and the site is functional and easy to use.
Ensure that your site can cope if you do get an award. Sites such as FWA and Awwwards could send tens-of-thousands of visitors to your site overnight if you get a ‘Site of the day’ award, so ensure that your server is capable.
Which Galleries to Submit to?
There are hundreds of galleries around the web today, and many more appearing each month. There are many services such as the ‘CSS Gallery List‘ will submit your site to 100+ sites for a fee, this can save time but doesn’t guarantee you will be accepted. We find the ‘CSS Gallery List’ does submit your site to some premium galleries such as CSS Design Awards which is a paid gallery. So the fee you pay actually covers the cost of some submissions, seemingly.
The big sites such as Awwwards and FWA are both more costly and if you are in it just to get a backlink you can get a do-follow link by creating an account at Awwwards. You should only really consider these sites if your site is worthy.
Conclusion
So CSS Galleries do offer valuable backlink opportunities even if the gallery itself doesn’t allow indexing of links. The exposure allows organic sharing and linking of your site and the feature itself also gives you some credibility especially if you work in a creative industry.
Need help building links and site authority or need your site getting ready to submit to some of the leading CSS galleries? Get in touch with us.
