Backlinks are known by several names in the marketing world. You may have heard them referred to as one-way links, inbound links, or incoming links. Popular search engines like Google crawl websites looking for various indicators of how popular and reputable a domain is. Websites with a high number of backlinks usually have higher organic search rankings.
This article will cover topics like what backlinks are, why they are important, and how to obtain them for your website.
Backlinks Defined
A backlink is a link from another website back to your website. These links are usually embedded in blog posts to provide the reader with more context about the information being covered. Studies show that less than 63% of the web pages on the Internet don’t have backlinks. This means that these websites are highly-coveted in the world of online marketing.
The Importance of Backlinks
Most marketing professionals view backlinks as a vote for particular websites. The more of these “votes” a website has, the more credible it will look in the eyes of Google. A website with lots of links referencing the site tells the Google algorithm that the content on this domain is useful, credible, and valuable to consumers at large.
The foundation of Google’s initial algorithm was steeped heavily in backlinks. While this algorithm has changed several times in the past decade, these links are still considered an important ranking factor. In fact, Google has reported that they are one of the top three factors considered when assigning rank to a website.
Quality Over Quantity
Some business owners make the mistake of thinking that all backlinks are created equal. In reality, there are varying degrees of link quality you need to be aware of. High-quality links are extremely powerful when it comes to drawing attention to your website. High-quality backlinks generally share traits like:
- These links are do-follow
- They originate from reputable and authoritative websites
- On-topic backlinks are the best
- Targeted keywords are used as the anchor text
Using the power of discernment is vital when attempting to have success. Seeking out links from any and every website on the Internet is a bad decision that can come back to haunt you in the future.
How To Attract High-Quality Backlinks
If you want to have success with backlinks, you need to work on convincing authoritative and popular websites to link to your domain. One of the first things you can do to improve your chances of obtaining quality links is creating linkable content. Content link blogs, surveys, quizzes, and videos are considered linkable assets.
You also need to find websites that offer guest posting opportunities. These websites allow you to post content that features backlinks to your domain. Instead of handling the work involved in writing this content, you need to reach out to marketing professionals for help.
Backlinks provide you with an opportunity to drive more organic traffic to your website. By using the tips laid out in this article, you can get more in no time.
