When learning SEO, one of the most common words you will hear are incoming links and backlinks. Why is that? Because they have an essential role when it comes to rankings and SEO, especially with the Google search engine.
Backlinks are pretty hard to get; however, these websites that have strong incoming links from high authority websites have a higher level of trust and rankings in Google.
Here in this article, you will learn about backlinks, SEO Outreach and how to build them.
What is a Backlink?
A backlink is one that points from one domain to another domain. The website which does the linking out is known as the outbound link while the site that receives such link is called the inbound link.
With so many websites, the Internet is a collection of links and domains. The World Wide Web term came from the scenario where there are a lot of sites that are published on the Internet and then connecting with the use of links. This will form a web later on.
As such, a backlink is created when a site links to another website. It is entirely different from when links point to other pages located on the same website. These are referred to as internal links.
Importance of Backlinks
Have you ever asked yourself why website owners and SEO experts are crazy about link building and backlinks? What's so good about backlinks?
The answer is simple. Backlinks are one of the signals used by the ranking algorithm of Google to choose which pages are going to rank.
Until today, that idea is true. Backlinks are one of the ways that show a website is to be trusted. With more backlinks, you increase your ranks in Google.
Unlike before, all you had to do was get lots of backlinks. Now you have to focus more on quality backlinks and not the number of backlinks you are going to get.
Today, backlinks are still quite relevant. The sites with strong links are the ones who appear in Google's top positions.
Backlinks and Off-Page SEO
Off-page SEO is referred to as the process of gaining links or references from other sites in your niche to promote your site.
It is essential when you want to rank in search engines since backlinks are one of the factors that indicate how popular your website is. With a lot of high-quality backlinks, you are considered by algorithms as more popular than your competitors, so you get a higher ranking.
However, if you are planning on adding backlinks to your marketing strategy, you should know that it is not all about numbers. It does not matter how many links your site has. What matters most is where these links are from.
What Makes a Good Backlink?
Here are what you should look for when getting a backlink.
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The backlink must be from a related website.
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It should be a do follow.
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The website linking to you must have a high domain authority and high Google trust.
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It comes from a quality site.
What's a Bad Backlink?
We've listed the characteristics of a good backlink, here's what makes a bad backlink.
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It is a paid one.
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It's from a link exchange.
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It comes from a site that's low quality.
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It is from a website with low domain authority and Google trust.
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It's from a website with no original content.
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It's mainly used to manipulate Google rankings.
Be careful when building backlinks. A website with a lot of bad backlinks might receive a Google penalty, and the worst case scenario is that it will lose all of its Google rankings.
If you find that you have a lot of toxic links, you can disavow these backlinks so the Google algorithm will ignore them.
Good read: Do We Still Need to Disavow in the Era of Penguin 4.0?
How To Build Backlinks
Here are some ways for you to build backlinks and boost your Google rankings and search engine traffic.
Natural Link Building
This is probably the most efficient and safest way to receive backlinks from other websites. It's all about naturally getting links.
What does "natural" mean? Website owners like your content and your website, so they naturally link to your page.
It is quite efficient and works very well. However, for it to work, you should have a website with high-quality content that other sites will link to.
Google envisions websites to create and publish useful content. Other websites will link to these contents to show how they trust that site. These signals are then picked up by Google and shown in the search results' top positions. One way to create content aside from writing blog posts is with the use of infographics.
Infographics
Try creating infographics and represent your data in a visual format. These often receive backlinks especially if you have created an in-depth infographic.
Take the time and put in some effort in creating these infographics. If you do, you will give a good chance of going viral and receive thousands of new site visitors. And the best part? Authoritative sites will link back to you.
Blogger Outreach
You can also use email and connect with other influencers or bloggers within your industry. You can create significant and detailed content then contact bloggers who are covering similar topics. Afterward, create customized emails and let them know about your content and provide these bloggers reasons why they should link to your content.
Guest Posting
Another process to get backlinks is through guest posting. You can publish articles that you've created on other websites. Do so as a guest writer. In the article's body or the author bio, you can add a link that points back to your site.
All in all, backlinks are quite important for a website's sustainability and growth. If you want to rank in Google, backlinks are very much essential. Links are not just simple links. They matter to websites and in rankings. When you get it right, you can quickly go to the first page of search engines. How awesome is that?
