Your website needs traffic – the more the better. And to do that, you need to rank high in search engine results.
With search engine optimization, of course.
So what happens when you review your content, add keywords, and improve your technical SEO and you’re still not ranking the way you want?
There is one key area to focus on: building backlinks.
But how do you do it? And what are backlinks anyway? Are all backlinks good backlinks?
To find out the answers to these questions and more, read on.
What Are Backlinks?
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Backlinks are simply links from one website to another.
Backlinks, sometimes called “inbound links” or “inbound links,” are one of the most important parts of search engine optimization.
Useful tools for website builders, backlinks make it easy to cite statistics, source claims, add context, or make recommendations, among other things.
There is also another type of link called internal links, which are links between pages on the same website. These also play a role in SEO, but we won’t go into that here.
To learn more about this, follow this internal link to a great article in Search Engine Journal on best practices for using internal links in SEO. (See what we did there?)
Why Are Backlinks Important?
Now that we’ve explained exactly what a backlink is, it’s time for the $10,000 question: Why are they important?
The most basic answer to this question is that your site’s backlinks pass PageRank, and search engines then use this in their algorithm (along with many other factors) to help determine the quality of your site and where it should rank on the results pages.
They indicate the popularity of your website with users and are an important part of any SEO strategy.
Backlinks also play an important role in your visibility, as users and search engine crawlers will follow links from external websites to your site.
“Great,” you might say right now. “Let’s get out there and start building as many inbound links as possible to start skyrocketing in the search results.”
Slow down. You didn’t expect that was all it took, did you?
If search engine optimization were that easy, there would be many SEO professionals looking for a new line of work.
First, let’s talk about good and bad connections.
What Makes a Good Backlink?
In 1998, when Google was just starting out, it implemented an algorithm called PageRank. One of the things this took into account when deciding how well a website matched a user’s query was backlinks.
But even in those early days, not all backlinks were created equal. And while the quantity of your inbound links is factored into your search ranking, the quality plays an important role as well.
Let’s break it down: Quantitatively, the more sites that link to your site, the stronger the signal to Google that your content is valuable and therefore worth linking to.
And in general, if your page has more backlinks than a similar page, it will appear higher in organic search results.
This is because every time a website links to your content, they are essentially vouching for its accuracy and credibility.
But don’t think for a second that just any site that points to your site is good. Not only can some links do you no good, some can actually hurt your search rankings. This means you need to worry about the quality of your inbound links.
It’s the internet version of judging someone by the company they own – which makes sense if you think about it.
For example, which website would you trust more: one linked to a government agency, a reputable university, or a reputable foundation—or one linked to just your Uncle Joe’s conspiracy blog?
Obviously, the former will carry much more weight, not only for visitors, but also for search engines. So it should come as no surprise that a page with fewer links from high-quality sites will outrank a competitor with more links from disreputable sources.
And speaking of disreputable sources, if your site gets backlinks from link farms or other unnatural links, you actually run the risk of getting penalized by Google. If you have spammy sites linking to your site, the best thing you can do is to disavow them to avoid being seen as guilty of the link. We will talk more about this in a little while.
However, it’s not just domain reputation that tells Google that inbound link A is more valuable than inbound link B. It also considers the relevance of the referring site to the topic.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
If your Fantasy Football blog has an inbound link from ESPN and one from Crochet.com, Google will make the (logical) judgment that the first link is more valuable.
We can go into more wormholes about link placement, anchor text, and the impact of no-track links on your search rankings, but we’ll leave that discussion for another day.
Be sure to read this section for a detailed explanation of setting backlink values.
How Many Backlinks Do I Have?
Now that you know the importance of inbound links and their value, it’s time to start thinking about the ones you already have. How do you know which sites are driving traffic your way?
There are two ways to do this: one that just tells you who is linking to your site, and one that you can use to snoop on your competition’s inbound links.
Checking your links with Google Search Console
Google Search Console should be your best friend if you are a webmaster. It’s packed with all kinds of useful tools and reports to help you monitor performance and troubleshoot — and it’s free.
Once you create an account and verify your site, you can use it to track your backlinks. There is an option in the sidebar called “Links”.
Screenshot from Google Search Console, October 2022
Clicking on this will show you the details of your internal and external links. The outsiders are the ones we are currently interested in.
You can run three reports under External Links: Top Linked Pages, Top Linked Sites, and Top Linked Text. Using these, you can find out who is connecting to you and from where.
Checking links with a third-party tool
The only downside to using Google Search Console link tracking is that it only allows you to see details about your website.
But by using third-party backlink monitors like Majestic SEO, Semrush, and Ahrefs, you can also see what your competition is doing—and maybe steal some of those links.
Now that we’ve discussed what backlinks are, why they’re important, and how to track them, let’s get down to what you’re actually here for: building backlinks.
How Do I Get Backlinks?
There are several ways to get other sites to link to yours, but most of them require a little effort on your part.
The first and easiest way to get links is to pay for them. But before you pull out your credit card, be aware of one important caveat: If Google catches you participating in a paid link building scheme, you will be penalized.
Buying links has long been a topic of debate among SEO experts, and some will swear by it, while others insist it’s not worth the risk.
It’s up to you, but we advise you to try organic link building before considering whether paid links are an avenue you want to explore.
The next way to generate backlinks is to create them. This usually means publishing your site in business directories or commenting on blogs and forums with a link to your site in your signature. These links can be of varying quality. Watch the video below for more information.
A better way to generate inbound links is to earn them. But of course this is a little more difficult.
To earn backlinks, you need to have useful content that provides value to others.
For example, you might have a website that lists your five favorite immersion blenders. This page can be useful not only for blender manufacturers who will appreciate the praise, but also for people buying new blenders or kitchen appliance websites.
Statistical content is always a good way to attract quality backlinks. Statistics are a great way to prove and overcome objections.
By providing relevant statistics about your niche, you will establish your website as an authority and generate lots of inbound links. Alternatively, you can run polls and publish the results on your blog as news.
You can then promote your news through social media where others may find your research data useful and link to it from their articles.
If your content is good and speaks to the niche, it will slowly start generating backlinks on its own.
But what if you can’t wait that long? What if you want backlinks right now?
Promote your content through social or paid campaigns to your target audience. Maybe someone finds your article useful and links to it.
Or use one of the third-party tools mentioned in the previous section to find a relevant page with many incoming links. Then create better content than your competition and ask linking domains to direct their links to you instead.
You can also look for broken links or those that redirect to a 404 page. When you find one of these on the relevant site, send a notification email to the webmaster. And don’t forget to suggest that they replace the broken link with your page on the same topic.
For more in-depth information on these strategies and others you can use, be sure to read this article.
Start Building Those Links
So there you have it: a crash course in link building. By this point, you should have a good idea of what backlinks are, why they are important, and how to build them.
Just remember that, like all SEO, it’s a marathon, not a sprint. It is highly unlikely that you will see results overnight.
But stay patient, create great content and look for link building opportunities; you’ll have loads of incoming links in no time.
How do I get my first 100 backlinks?
The first step to getting backlinks is to determine the type of content you want to create and then find relevant websites that publish similar content. Then contact them and ask if they would be willing to post a link on their site pointing to your site.
How can I get backlinks naturally? 12 Secrets to Building Natural Backlinks
- What are natural backlinks? …
- Offer value instead of asking for links. …
- Keep your content targeted and purposeful. …
- Build something better. …
- Engage with influencers. …
- Attract influencers with ego bait. …
- Find potential topics on question and answer websites. …
- Branch out your content types.
How many backlinks does it take to rank a website?
A website should have 40 to 50 backlinks to the home page and 0 to 100 backlinks to each individual web page to be SEO competitive. However, the PageRank scores of these backlinks are important because the higher their value, the fewer links are needed to improve the overall ranking.
Do backlinks improve ranking?
Backlinks are basically votes from other websites. Each of these voices tells search engines, “This content is valuable, authentic, and useful.” The more of these ‘votes’ you have, the higher your site will rank in Google and other search engines. Using links in the search engine algorithm is nothing new.
How many backlinks should I get per month?
10 backlinks per month is a safe average for a new website. However, even 40 to 50 links per month is safe as long as they are built organically and according to search engine webmaster guidelines. A good strategy is to start with a small number of links and increase the amount each month.
How many links are good for SEO?
For most websites, and for most pages on those websites, the optimal number of links pointing back to your content should be around 20. As with everything else related to SEO, this number will be slightly lower or higher depending on the size of your city.
Do you need permission for backlinks?
Generally no, but you should check the “Terms of Use” section of the site to see if it has any specific linking prohibitions. If there are none, you can connect to the website, but make sure that the website opens in a different browser window.
Can I include links to other websites on my site? A link may take the user to another page within the same site (“internal link”) or to a completely different website (“external link”). You don’t need permission to link normally to another website’s home page. Deep linking.
Is providing a link to a website copyright infringement?
Creating a hyperlink is not a violation of copyright law, but it is a violation of the law to create a link that contributes to the unauthorized copying of a copyrighted work if the person making the link knew or had reason to know of and encouraged the unauthorized copying.
Can a link be copyrighted?
The court ultimately ruled that posting links to an infringing source could constitute copyright infringement if the website curators knew the link was to a technology bypassing program. See ID. at 341.
Posting another person’s original material on the website without their permission means copying, displaying, publishing and/or performing such work that could constitute a violation of the owner’s copyright.
Unauthorized sharing of hyperlinks can lead to copyright infringement if it results in copyrighted content, otherwise available only to a limited segment of the public, being shared with a wider â´new public: case C-466/12, Svensson v.
Does Google allow buying backlinks?
Google’s stance on buying links Google is explicitly against exchanging money for links. This exchange of money can happen in a number of ways, and Google is not saying that all of these so-called ‘link schemes’ will definitely cause a negative impact on a site’s search engine rankings.
Is it legal to link to someone else’s website or publish a permalink to someone else’s story?
Posting another person’s original material on the website without their permission means copying, displaying, publishing and/or performing such work that could constitute a violation of the owner’s copyright.
Is it okay to link to other websites?
A link may take the user to another page within the same site (“internal link”) or to a completely different website (“external link”). You don’t need permission to link normally to another website’s home page.
Is linking to a website copyright infringement?
Instead of directing users to a site’s home page where they can then navigate to the relevant page, a deep link sends them directly to the source page. This is common practice for referencing source material and backlinks. Deep linking is generally not considered copyright infringement.
Is it permissible to copy a page of 20 collected Internet web links from someone’s page and place it on your own webpage?
yes This is another example of personal use.
Do backlinks work for SEO?
Backlinks are important for SEO because they tell Google that another source finds your content valuable enough to link to it in their content. When a site gains additional backlinks, search engines conclude that the site has valuable content that is worthy of a good SERP ranking.
Is a backlink good for SEO? Yes, backlinks are 100% important for SEO.
How much do backlinks affect SEO?
Backlinks are important for SEO because search engines see all these votes of trust as proof that your content is valuable. If many sites link back to yours, search engines are more likely to show your content in search results, improving your rankings for related topics.
Are backlinks the most important for SEO?
Next to content, backlinks are the most important ranking factor for SEO performance. Many tests have proven this, and Google has repeatedly said that links are a key signal of trust for their algorithm.
Are backlinks still important 2022?
The short answer is yes, but they shouldn’t be your only strategy. While backlinks are not the only ranking factor, they are still very important. The main difference is how you go about getting backlinks to your content.
Do backlinks help SEO 2022?
Yes, backlinks are still important for website rankings today. The more high-quality backlinks you add to your sites, the more visible it becomes to search engines and has the potential to rank higher on SERPs or search engine results pages.
How many backlinks is good for SEO?
A website should have 40 to 50 backlinks to the home page and 0 to 100 backlinks to each individual web page to be SEO competitive. However, the PageRank scores of these backlinks are important because the higher their value, the fewer links are needed to improve the overall ranking.
How many backlinks are too many?
10 backlinks per month is a safe average for a new website. However, even 40 to 50 links per month is safe as long as they are built organically and according to search engine webmaster guidelines. A good strategy is to start with a small number of links and increase the amount each month.
How many links are good for SEO?
For most websites, and for most pages on those websites, the optimal number of links pointing back to your content should be around 20. As with everything else related to SEO, this number will be slightly lower or higher depending on the size of your city.
How many backlinks are enough?
The number of backlinks required increases faster than the difficulty ranking. For example, if a keyword has a difficulty of 10, you probably need about 10 backlinks to rank. But if it has a difficulty of 50, you might need 100 backlinks to rank.
Are backlinks still important for SEO in 2022?
The short answer is yes, but they shouldn’t be your only strategy. While backlinks are not the only ranking factor, they are still very important. The main difference is how you go about getting backlinks to your content.
Are backlinks still relevant in 2022?
The short answer is yes, but they shouldn’t be your only strategy. Although links are not the only ranking factor, they are still very important. The main difference is how you should link sites to your content.
Are backlinks still important for SEO?
Backlinks are still important to SEO performance as they are the foundation of Google’s original PageRank algorithm. Countless independent studies in the SEO industry have proven the impact of backlinks on organic search performance.
Do backlinks help SEO 2022?
Yes, backlinks are still important for website rankings today. The more high-quality backlinks you add to your sites, the more visible it becomes to search engines and has the potential to rank higher on SERPs or search engine results pages.
What is an example of a backlink?
Backlinks are links from pages on one website to another. If someone links to your site, then you have their backlink. If you link to another website, they have a backlink from you. For example, these words link to YouTube, so now they have our backlink.
What does a backlink look like? A backlink is a link (eg starts with something like https://) from one page on a website to another page on another website.
What is a good example of a backlink strategy?
Writing Guest Posts Guest posting is a very popular backlink strategy. In fact, 75% of SEO professionals create backlinks with guest posts. The thing about guest posting is that it not only helps in generating backlinks, but also builds your personality as a trusted authority on a niche topic.
What are good backlinks?
A good backlink is a proper outbound link to a trusted, credible site. In general, a website is considered trustworthy if it has a lot of strong backlinks to it. Google sees these backlinks as one way to confirm that your website contains useful and quality content.
What is a good backlink?
A good backlink is a proper outbound link to a trusted, credible site. In general, a website is considered trustworthy if it has a lot of strong backlinks to it. Google sees these backlinks as one way to confirm that your website contains useful and quality content.
What is a good number of backlinks to have?
A website should have 40 to 50 backlinks to the home page and 0 to 100 backlinks to each individual web page to be SEO competitive. However, the PageRank scores of these backlinks are important because the higher their value, the fewer links are needed to improve the overall ranking.
What are the 3 main features of a quality backlink?
Many factors go into creating a good backlink, but most quality backlinks have these three characteristics: The link text appears naturally in the context of the page. The referring domain is reputable. The landing page is thematically relevant to the link target.
What are good quality backlinks?
So, in summary, a high-quality backlink is one that is natural, highly reputable, and highly relevant. While high quality backlinks have the most value, you can still get good momentum from medium quality links and you want to avoid low quality/spam links at all costs.
Is LinkedIn a backlink?
Is LinkedIn a good backlink? LinkedIn is a good backlink because it provides qualified traffic to your website and can pass PageRank value for SEO. LinkedIn backlinks are also good for increasing the visibility of your content to generate organic links from other website owners and industry professionals.
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