Your website may be filled with great content, but that won’t matter if no one can find it. Search engines like Google give you credit for having high-quality, original content by ranking your website higher in search results. How do you get this credit? To be effective, a website should draw links to itself from other websites. These links are called backlinks, and they are an essential component of search engine optimization (SEO). This article will walk you through the basics of backlinks and help you understand how they work and why they’re so important to SEO.
What Are Backlinks?
A backlink is a hyperlink that connects your website with another website. This represents traffic being sent from one site to another and can have a huge impact on how your site performs in search engines. In other words, backlinks are vital for SEO (search engine optimization) - which is used to increase your rankings on search engines like Google and Bing. Without SEO, it can be difficult for web users or search engines (i.e., spiders) to discover and crawl your website’s content.
Why Do You Need Backlinks?
You might think backlinks are only relevant if you want to rank higher in search engines. While that's true, there are many other reasons why you should get more backlinks on your website.
For example, they can help bring in new readers who aren't familiar with your content yet (known as brand awareness). They can help you boost social media traffic and create better engagement from your existing readers. In other words, backlinks do a lot more than simply help you rank higher on Google or Bing.
What Makes A Good Link?
A good backlink comes from a website relevant to your industry and also belongs on your website.
For example, it's great if you've written a blog post on blogging, but it's even better if another blogger has written an equally helpful blog post on blogging and has included a link in his or her post pointing back to yours. The most important thing is that you share similar interests with other websites out there.
Links matter because they represent proof of social engagement—other people recommend you by writing about you, so having good links can be extremely valuable for boosting your search engine rankings and making sure people know about your work. If people see good links pointing back at you, they might also want to follow them as well. This isn't something that happens overnight, but good links take time to build up. Just make sure you don't go overboard when building up your list of backlinks. Google considers it suspicious when more than 25 incoming links are coming into a website within 24 hours, so don't try to get hundreds of good links in one day (you'll look like you're trying too hard). It's better to space out your good link building over time rather than all at once. This will give you more credibility online while still attracting attention quickly enough to help boost your search engine rankings faster.
When Do You Need Good Links?:
There are two main reasons why businesses need good backlinks:
SEO and branding/awareness. Good links can help boost your search engine rankings quickly, but even if you don't have a website or blog, good links can still be useful for building up your brand's awareness online. It's always better to get good links than bad ones, so it's best to try and get them whenever possible (but not at all costs). If you're going to go out of your way for a link, make sure it'll benefit you in some way. Otherwise, just focus on creating content that will naturally attract good links over time without you having to do much work at all.
Creating Additional Inbound Links
The way you create an inbound link is by including a link to another website on your website. If you have a blog or website that includes blogging, you can include links to others' websites and write about those sites. The key is to provide value, so visitors will want to click on your backlink. If you've got a resource people will want, add it to your posts as appropriate. Over time, if they visit often enough, they'll begin clicking on your links because they're making frequent visits. An additional way that some bloggers get more traffic is by mentioning other bloggers in their posts who link back in exchange for that mention—it's one big symbiotic relationship that increases traffic both ways. As long as you do what you said you would do, readers won't mind visiting new websites when they read your blog post; after all, most of them are likely interested in what you're writing about. It doesn't take much effort at all to start linking out from your website and creating backlinks.
A Step-by-Step Guide to Building Links
Attracting links from websites that have an audience similar to your own is one of SEO's best-kept secrets. Sites will only link back to you if they know their readers will be interested in what you have to say, so building links requires a bit more thought than simply posting on social media or sending out a press release. Successful blog posts and interesting videos can attract strong backlinks to your website, but there are other strategies you can use too, like guest posting and getting involved with industry events. To truly master SEO means knowing how every aspect of your marketing plan can improve search engine rankings.
That’s why it’s important to understand not just SEO, but also digital PR, content marketing, and advertising. The tips below provide just a few examples of things you can do right now to start building high-quality backlinks. But first, here are some basics about SEO and backlinks you should know.
First, make sure you're using SEO on your website. You'll want to include keywords related to your business in as many places as possible (like page titles, page descriptions, and alt tags). Also, remember that keyword density matters; don't stuff keywords into a sentence because Google will penalize you for it.
Second, look at where people are linking to competitors websites when they write blog posts or articles related to yours. Then find ways to get links pointing back at your site instead of theirs by contacting those writers directly.
Finally, don't give up!
Building high-quality backlinks take time—especially if you want them coming from authoritative sites—but persistence pays off. These days, SEO is all about quality over quantity. While you may see websites ranking well without any backlinks at all, most websites need a certain number of good backlinks to rank well in search engines. If you follow these steps, you'll soon be able to build your network of high-quality backlinks and watch your website traffic increase as a result.
Now let's dive into specific strategies for building links...
1. Guest Posting - Guest blogging is a great way to create new backlinks for your website while reaching new audiences at the same time. Find blogs related to your niche and pitch blog owners on writing a post for their website. Include a short bio, information about yourself and/or your company, along with three or four sentences explaining why you'd be an ideal writer for their blog. Once you've pitched several blogs, reach out again after two weeks or so and ask if they received any submissions related to your topic that might work better than yours would.
2. Contribute Content - Contributing content involves sharing relevant information on another website in exchange for adding a link back to your website as part of that contribution. For example, you could share a blog post on another website in exchange for a backlink to your website. Or you could contribute a piece of original content that includes a link back to your website.
3. Become an Industry Expert - It's easy to think of SEO as something that happens behind closed doors, but becoming an expert in your field can help you earn links and build credibility at the same time. Start blogging regularly and become active on social media channels related to your industry. By sharing helpful information, you'll be seen as someone who has something valuable to say and can help others succeed in their businesses.
4. Participate in Events - Speaking at industry events is a great way to meet potential clients and establish your expertise in your industry. Not only that but speaking at an event can lead to links back to your website as attendees will often blog about their experience or mention you on social media.
5. Comment on Blogs - Commenting on blogs related to your industry is a quick and easy way to build backlinks for your website. When you leave comments, be sure to include a link back to your website in each comment you leave.
6. Use Social Media - Social media channels are an effective way of building high-quality backlinks for your website—as long as you don't abuse them!
Avoid being overly promotional and focus on providing value to your followers. Be sure to link back to your website whenever you can, but don't be afraid to share links from other websites as well.
7. Create a Resource Page - Creating a resource page is another way of building high-quality backlinks for your website. On that page, include links back to all of your related content, including blog posts, infographics, and white papers—even if you have to create them yourself!
8. Add Links in E-mail Signature - Adding links to your e-mail signature is another easy way of building high-quality backlinks for your website. Just be sure that any link you include in an e-mail is related to something useful and isn't overly promotional or spammy-looking.
9. Link to Relevant Pages - Whenever you link to another website, be sure that it's related to your content and is something that your readers will appreciate. If you have a blog post about SEO, for example, link to another blog post or a website with useful information on SEO in your post—not just a generic click here type of link.
10. Link to Competitors - Backlinks from competing websites can help your search engine rankings! This strategy works best if you already have high-quality backlinks from other websites.
11. Build an Authority Website - An authority website is one that ranks well in search engines and helps build high-quality backlinks for your website automatically as a result of its popularity and reputation in its industry.