Backlinks are one of the most common things you will hear about in SEO, and they should always be an important part of your SEO strategy. That is because backlinks are one of the top three factors that search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing take into account when choosing how high your website should be on search pages. Backlinks could be the difference between your site appearing in the top three searches or on page six.
If you aren’t sure what backlinks are and how you can build them, don’t worry! The team at Tolmer Group are here to breakdown everything you need to know about backlinks and what you can do to start building them today.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks are essentially links directing from one website to another. If you have a button on your site that links to Facebook, then Facebook has a backlink from you. This counts as a sort of ‘internet vote’ from your website, indicating that the Facebook website is a good resource on the internet. Search engines like Google, Yahoo and Bing will use these ‘votes’ to determine what sites they should promote higher in search results.
For example, if you have an online cosmetic store with amazing products but only 1 backlink you will appear lower than a competitor with worse products but 200 backlinks. When you break it down to this it is easy to see how important backlinks really are!
Types of Backlinks
To use backlinks effectively you need to know that there are two key types of backlinks; Do-Follow Links and No-Follow Links.
Do-Follow backlinks are the most important type. These are links that contain a code directing search engine bots to pass the SEO strength of the page it is on to the page it is linking to. This is called ‘link juice’ and is the form of ‘internet vote’ we mentioned above. If a site like Forbes backlinks to your site, they will be passing on a little bit of their high quality ‘link juice’ on to your page. This is what will dramatically improve your search engine ranking.
No-Follow backlinks include code that directs search engine bots to not follow the link to whatever site it is attached to. As the search engine bots don’t follow the link, this form of backlink does not act as a form of ‘internet vote’. However, these links aren’t entirely useless! No-Follow backlinks do still improve the authoritativeness of your site in the eyes (or bots) of search engines. For example, if your site has 10 No-Follow backlinks and your competitor has none, your site will still be promoted first despite the fact that they aren’t Do-Follow backlinks.
What Makes A Good Quality Backlink?
Backlinks are not all created equal, some are worth more than others. This is true of both Do-Follow and No-Follow backlinks. Search engines have a rating system for every site on the web called the ‘Domain Score’ which is scored out of 100. Sites like Forbes, Google and the New York Times have scores above 90. A backlink from one of these sites would have a massive impact on your ranking and even your site’s own domain score. There are sites however that possess low domain rankings, with scores between 0 and 20. A backlink from these sites would have very little effect on your site, and in some cases may even harm it!
When building backlinks it is crucial to be mindful of what sites you are building them with. Try to focus on high domain score websites to avoid the penalties that may come with backlinks from low domain score sites.
How Do You Build Backlinks?
Building backlinks isn’t easy, if it was everyone would do it! However, backlinks are what will separate you from your competitors in search engine results, so it is crucial for you to start building them.
You can create backlinks to your website by:
- Guest Blogging: Reach out to popular sites and ask if they will publish one of your blog articles
- Broken Link Building: Find broken links on the web and replace them with your own content
- Create Your Own Blog: Write interesting articles over 500 words in length
- Create Infographics: Share your infographics in popular sites like Pinterest
- Build Internal Backlinks: Link internally in your site as much as possible
- Create Business Listings: List your business in popular local business listings
- Use Social Media: Share your blogs on social media
- Commenting On Other Blogs: Be active in your industry and link to your site
Try using these techniques to build backlinks for your website.
What Do You Think?
Backlinks are tricky to master and learning to use them effectively can take some time. However when you finally crack the case backlinks are one of the most effective tools your can use to improve the ranking of your site in search engines. If you have any questions about backlinks you can get in contact with our team by clicking here, or reach us on our Instagram, Facebook or LinkedIn pages.
