Your website needs traffic – the more, the better. In order to do so, it must appear high in the search engine results.
how do you do that?
Of course, with search engine optimization.
So what happens after you’ve researched your content, added keywords, and beefed up your technical SEO?
What should I do then?
There is one important area to pay attention to. Building backlinks.
But how do you do that? What are backlinks anyway? Are all backlinks good backlinks?
To find answers to these questions and more, read on.
What is a backlink?
Backlinks are simple links from one website to another.
Backlinks, sometimes called “coming links” or “inbound links”, are one of the most important parts of search engine optimization.
A useful tool for web page authors, backlinks make it easy to cite statistics, source claims, add context, make recommendations, and more.
There is also another kind of link called an internal link, which is a link between pages within the same website. These also play a role in his SEO, which I won’t discuss here.
If you want to know more, follow this internal link to read a good search engine journal article on best practices for using internal links in SEO. (Do you know what we did there?)
Why Backlinks Matter
Now that we’ve explained what exactly backlinks are, it’s time for the $10,000 question. Why are backlinks important?
The most basic answer to this question is that your site’s backlinks pass through PageRank, and search engines use this (along with many other factors) in their algorithms to determine the quality of your website and how it ranks on the results page. It is meant to help determine
These indicate that your site is popular with users and are an important part of your SEO strategy.
Backlinks also play an important role in discoverability, as both users and search engine crawlers follow links to your page from external sites.
“Great,” you might say right now. “Get out there and start generating as many incoming links as you can, and your search results will start skyrocketing.”
slow down. You really didn’t think it would be enough, did you?
If search engine optimization was this easy, many SEO professionals would be looking for new jobs.
First, let’s talk about good and bad links.
What is a good backlink?
Back in 1998, Google was in its infancy and implemented an algorithm named PageRank. One of the things we considered when determining how well a web page matched a user’s query was backlinks.
But even in the early days, not all backlinks were created equal. The quantity of incoming links affects your search ranking, but quality also plays a role.
Let’s break it down: Quantitatively, the more sites linking to your webpage, the stronger the signal to Google that your content is valuable and worth linking to.
Generally speaking, if your page has more backlinks than similar pages, it will appear higher in organic search results.
This is because whenever a site links to your content, it inherently guarantees its accuracy and truthfulness.
But don’t think for a second that the site pointing to your webpage is a good thing. Not only are some links useless, they can actually hurt your search rankings. This means that you should pay attention to the quality of your inbound links.
It’s the internet version of judging someone by company.
For example, would you trust more a site linked from a government agency, a reputable university, or a respected foundation, or a site linked only from Uncle Joe’s Conspiracy Blog?
Clearly, the former will carry more weight, not only for visitors, but also for search engines.Thus, pages with fewer links from quality sites have more links from less reputable sources. It should come as no surprise that it ranks higher than its competitors.
Speaking of unreputable sources, if your site gets backlinks from link farms or other unnatural links, you really risk being penalized by Google. If you have spammy sites linking to your page, it’s best to disavow them so as not to be found guilty by association.More on this later.
But domain reputation isn’t the only thing that tells Google that inbound link A is more valuable than inbound link B. Also look at the relevance of the referrer site to the topic.
Why Backlinks Matter
If a fantasy football blog has an inbound link from ESPN and an inbound link from Crochet.com, Google will (logically) decide that the first link is more valuable.
There are a few wormholes you can track down when it comes to the impact of link placement, anchor text, and nofollow links on search rankings, but we’ll save that discussion for another day.
Be sure to read this article for a detailed explanation on determining the value of backlinks.
How many backlinks do you have?
Now that you know the importance and value of inbound links, it’s time to start thinking about the links you already have. How can you know which sites are directing traffic in your direction?
There are two ways to do this. One is just to let you know who is linking to your site and the other can be used to snoop on your competitors’ inbound links.
Check your links in Google Search Console
If you are a webmaster, Google Search Console should be your best friend. It’s packed with all kinds of useful tools and reports to help you track performance and fix problems. And it’s free.
After you create an account and verify your site, you can use it to track your backlinks. In the sidebar there is an option called “Links”.
Google Search Console screenshot, October 2022Click it to see details for both internal and external links. External things are what we are interested in now.
External Links allows you to run three reports: Top Linking Pages, Top Linking Sites, and Top Linking Text. You can use these to determine who is linking to you and from where.
Check links with third-party tools
The only downside to using Google Search Console link tracking is that you can only see site details.
But by using a third-party backlink checker like Majestic SEO, Semrush or Ahrefs, you can see what your competitors are doing and even steal some of their links.
Now that we’ve covered what backlinks are, why they’re important, and how to track them, let’s dive into the purpose of building backlinks.
How can I get backlinks?
There are several ways to get other sites to link to your site, but most of them require a little more effort.
The first and easiest way to get a link is to pay. However, before you withdraw your credit card, please note one important caveat: If Google discovers you are participating in a paid link building scheme, you will be penalized.
Buying links has long been a debate among SEO experts. Some people are in favor of buying links, while others argue that it’s not worth the risk.
The decision is yours, but our advice is to try organic link building before considering whether paid links are the path you want to explore.
The next way to create backlinks is to create. This usually means submitting your website to a business directory or commenting on a blog or forum with a link to your site in your signature. The quality of these links varies. For more information, watch the video below.
A better way to generate inbound links is to earn them. But of course, this is a little tricky.
To get backlinks, you need useful content that provides value to others.
For example, let’s say you have a web page listing your five favorite immersion blenders. This page can be of value not only to blender manufacturers, but also to anyone looking to buy a new blender or kitchen appliance website.
Stats content is a good way to attract quality backlinks. Statistics are a great way to prove a point and overcome objections.
By providing relevant stats about your niche, you can establish your site as one of the authorities and generate lots of inbound links. Alternatively, you can conduct a survey and publish the results as news on your blog.
You can then promote your news via social media. Others may find your survey data useful and may link to it from your article.
If your content is good and it speaks to a niche, it will slowly start generating backlinks.
But what if you can’t wait that long? What if I need a backlink now?
Promote your content to your target audience via social or paid campaigns. Someone may find your article useful and link to it.
Alternatively, use one of the third-party tools mentioned in the previous section to find relevant pages with many incoming links. Then, create better content than your competitors and ask your landing domain to point the link to you.
You can also look for broken links or links that redirect to 404 pages. If you find any of these on relevant sites, please email the webmaster. Also, don’t forget to suggest replacing broken links with pages on the same topic.
Be sure to read this article to learn more about these strategies and other information you can use.
start building those links
So, it’s a crash course in link building. At this point, you should have a good understanding of what backlinks are, why they are important, and how to build them.
Remember, like all SEO, this is a marathon, not a sprint. You are unlikely to see results overnight.
But be patient and look for opportunities to create great content and build links. You’ll see a ton of incoming links in no time.
Other resources:
