If you're looking for backlinks, you're probably curious about backlinks and SEO. In this guide, you'll learn everything you need to know to get started with backlinks, from how they work to how to get them.
With backlinks:
- Users can explore related content
- Search engines can discover new content on the web
- Search engines can improve their search results
- Companies can improve their search engine optimization (SEO).
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Are Backlinks Important For SEO?
They are important for several reasons, including:
- Helping search engines find and index your content for search results.
- They help users explore the web and discover content relevant to their interests.
- They help search engines interpret the quality and authority of sites and content.
The "World Wide Web" wasn't named for nothing: With its series of linked pages and websites, it really is like a web. The links add context and tell the "spiders" that crawl the internet that there are more pages to be found through the backlinks that exist.
Let's say you have a brand new website.
No one links to it and you don't submit it to Google either. How do you want it to be found?
You can't!
Backlinks are important for SEO because they signal to Google that another resource finds your content interesting enough to reference it in their own content. As a website gains additional backlinks, search engines deduce that the website has valuable content that deserves to rank well in the SERPs.
However, if someone links to your site, a search engine can crawl that link, discover your website, and index (or make findable) your newly created content. This is one of the reasons why backlinks are so important: without them, search engines won't know your content exists, and neither will users.
What Is A Backlink?
The definition of a backlink is a link from one website to another. In most cases, when talking about backlinks, a backlink is a link from another site to your site. They are also known by many different names, including hyperlinks, inbound links, or simply links.
What Are Backlinks In SEO?
In the context of SEO, a backlink is an important factor in determining your page rankings. In fact, in 2016, a Google team member confirmed that backlinks serve as one of the top three ranking factors for Google.
Generally speaking, the more relevant and high-quality backlinks you have pointing to your website, the better you will rank in searches for your targeted keywords. Therefore, it is desirable to have these types of backlinks, as high rankings can increase your traffic, purchases, conversion rate, etc.
This does not mean that you should try to acquire links from every powerful website on the Internet.
Google algorithms are so complex that the relevance of a link is just as important as its source. So while your pet supply store may feel good about getting a link from your friend's popular marketing blog, it won't help your ranking.
Are All Backlinks Good?
Because high-quality backlinks are such an important part of SEO, it's easy to believe that every link, no matter how valuable, is beneficial. But not every link is valuable. Some links have little or no value, while others can have a negative impact on SEO. Understanding the factors that influence the value of backlinks is crucial to link building and assessing the health of your backlink profile.
Backlinks are the cornerstone of SEO. However, not all backlinks are equally valuable. Links that are higher on a page or that come from pages with higher DA will help your website rank higher in Google's search results.
You can use this information to build higher-quality backlinks. If you can do this, your site can benefit from an influx of traffic and conversions.
How Do I Value Backlinks?
More backlinks are not always better. If you use link schemes or other black or gray hat SEO, Google will punish you with lower rankings or even manual action. What makes one backlink more valuable than another?
Location and Number Of Links On A Page
Did you know that the location of a link on a page can have an impact on the value of backlinks? Sounds weird, right?
Well, Google considers the first link on a page to be the most valuable, which means it gets more benefits from a backlink. Also, the more links on a page, the less value each link has.
In practice, this means that if your link is the only backlink on a page, you'll get more SEO benefits than if your link is at the bottom of the page and is one of 20 or so other links.
Dofollow Vs. Nofollow Backlinks
Dofollow links are your basic backlinks. When website owners do not change the HTML code surrounding the link, it will always be a dofollow link.
Dofollow links tell Google that the website that created them trusts your domain, which can improve your ranking.
"Nofollow" links, on the other hand, look like this in HTML:
<a href=”http://www.amineducate.com” rel=”nofollow”>Anchor Text</a>
Nofollow links tell Google that this link should not convey any value (sometimes called link juice). In other words, nofollow links still allow a person to get from website A to website B, but they do not contribute to the ranking of website B.
Why do websites use nofollow links? Because links to low quality or low domain authority websites can hurt the ranking of the website hosting the link. Also, Google does not allow paying for links, which is why some websites use nofollow links in sponsored posts.
Don't assume that nofollow links are a complete waste of time. In fact, they actually help drive traffic to your website and increase your company's visibility, despite their negative influence on SEO.
Domain Authority and Page Authority
DA, or domain authority, is a metric created by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank well in search engines. Scores range from 1 to 100, with higher numbers meaning the site is more valuable and trusted.
Page authority is the same measurement, but for a specific page on a website. It is not an exact science, and it is not a metric created by Google, but by Moz. However, it does use machine learning to get a fairly accurate idea of a website ranking.
What does this mean for your backlinks? If a website with a higher domain or page authority links to your site, Google infers that your site is also more trustworthy. This is a good thing!
Think of it like vouching for a friend to get a job. If you're a dedicated worker and you recommend someone else, your boss is likely to assume they can be trusted to work hard, too.
TL;DR: Links from pages with high domain authority are more valuable.
You can find the domain authority of websites by using Moz's domain analysis tool.
You can also use Ubersuggest to run a backlink analysis on your website, and we'll share all domain authority and page authority metrics in one place.
Relevant Websites and Pages
Relevance is important when it comes to recommendations. Let's say you want to buy a new snowblower. You search the Internet and find two articles reviewing the best snowblowers: one from a hardware store, the other from a food blogger.
Which one do you trust? You're probably wondering how much a food blogger really knows about snowblowers, right? The hardware store, on the other hand, probably sells snow blowers and talks about them regularly to their customers. Chances are, she knows what she's talking about.
Google also considers relevance when deciding the value of a backlink. For example, a link to my website from a digital marketing publication or publisher like Forbes is more valuable than a link from a plumber.
In general, links from irrelevant websites don't hurt your website (unless they're spam websites!), but links from websites in other industries are more valuable.
Quality Of Other Links On The Website
It's not just the authority of the domain that has an impact on the value of backlinks. The quality of every other backlink on the referring domain can also have an impact on the value of a link.
It doesn't seem fair, does it? You can't control what someone else does on their website. While this is true, there is a reason for this.
Let's say you receive a backlink from a website with high domain authority. Your rankings go up, traffic pours in, and you feel like the SEO pro that you are. Then one day, the website that gave you that valuable backlink becomes a spam site. They publish low quality content and links to a bunch of spam websites.
It's no longer a quality site in the eyes of Google, which means that the link has lost its value. In other words, pages that link to spammy sites devalue any other links they host.
It's important to evaluate the websites you get backlinks from. This will help you avoid harmful URL relationships. Make sure they are trustworthy and do their own link evaluation when choosing which links to include so that your website is not at risk.
Also, never buy links from websites. Even sites that look legitimate will likely be flagged by Google at some point, and your site could suffer the consequences.
Anchor text
Anchor text is the highlighted and often underlined text that you click to follow a link, like this. If the site that links to your website uses anchor text that is closely related to the content on that page, Google will assume that the link is more useful to users and therefore will assign it more value. This is why Google has made anchor text a ranking factor.
Let's take an example from the Yoast website. I highlighted the anchor text:
The anchor text for internal links points to a page that deals, as you would expect, with internal links. Since the anchor text uses the keyword targeted by the linked page, this link has more value than if it used anchor text like "click here".
Pro tip: This also applies to internal links. Be sure to use relevant anchor text when linking to other pages on your own website.
How To Get Backlinks To Your Blog
Getting backlinks to your blog isn't always as simple as creating content or doing something interesting and waiting for the links to roll in. If you're a new business or still looking to increase traffic to your website, you'll need to do some work to get links from other websites.
Here are some easy ways to get links to your website:
- Set up Google Alerts for your brand or business name. If you spot a mention of your business on a website that doesn't include a link, send a friendly email requesting one.
- Submit an article to your local newspaper about something you've done recently. Chances are they're looking for an interesting news story, and local success stories are always appreciated.
- Find a website or blog that is looking for contributions from industry experts. If you can write with authority on the topic at hand, send them a proposal. You can include a link to your website in your author bio or in the body of your contribution, as long as it is relevant.
- Create an attractive infographic and submit it to several websites. They will attribute your website, which can be a powerful backlink if the infographic is picked up in a popular location!
- Link to someone else first. It may seem counterintuitive, but if you include a link to someone else's content or mention them in one of your pages or blog posts, they may notice, get noticed, and return the favor later.
- Target your competitors' links. Using a tool like Ahrefs, you can assess your competitors' backlink profiles. See which relevant, quality websites are linking to your competitors, then pitch your content to those sites (if it makes sense) to win them over.
- Present your content as a solution to broken links (404s). Broken links or 404s can be a quick way to build backlinks. Review potential sites in a tool like Screaming Frog to discover 404s. If you have comparable content, suggest it to the website owner or author.
It is very important to stay up to date with Google's webmaster guidelines when building backlinks. For example, Google has previously issued manual penalties to websites with "unnatural outbound link" profiles. This was a direct follow-up to the warning sent out a few weeks earlier, asking bloggers to disclose free product reviews and to nofollow all outbound links about the product in question.
This practice of trading a free product for a review has long been used by some SEOs, though it has always remained in a rather gray area of Google's guidelines. Google's penalties for those who ignored their warning show how important it is to stay on top of Google news. Penalties can result in your content being de-indexed in whole or in part, which is detrimental to organic traffic.
3 Tactics Not To Use To Get Backlinks
Since link building seems like a lot of work - and it is - and you know that backlinks are important for SEO, you may want to buy them, or use some sort of backlink service to generate and feed those links with software. Is this a good idea?
No. Here are three tactics you shouldn't use for backlinking:
- Buying backlinks
- Using backlink software
- Trying a backlink generator
While we all agree to work smarter, buying them is not what we mean when we talk about marketing automation.
There are two important reasons why you should do your link building by hand:
- Buying links is a violation of Google's Webmaster Guidelines and can get your website penalized and removed from search engine results.
- When you buy links, you never know what kind of quality you will get, which can lead to your website being penalized.
Cheap backlinks are usually cheap for a reason, and buying backlinks will get you nowhere fast.
Instead of buying your links, you should step up and either set aside time to create a link-building program with a dedicated employee or hire an experienced SEO company to build links for you using high-quality content assets and outreach.
Trust us: There is no "cheap and easy way" to acquire hundreds of high-quality links to your website unless a piece of content goes massively viral. If you're buying backlinks, you could be gambling with the future of your business.
How To Check Backlinks
How do you know how many backlinks your website has and which sites are linking to you? There are many tools you can use to check your backlinks. You can even use some of these tools to check the backlinks of other websites.
One of the easiest ways to check your backlinks is through Google Search Console. Here's how it works.
Log into Google Search Console and click on "Links" in the left sidebar.
On the "Links" page, you will see a heading titled "External Links". The total number of backlinks for your site appears directly below it.
You can also open different link reports:
- Most linked pages show you the pages on your website that have the most links.
- Top links sites show the sites that give you the most backlinks.
- Top linking text shows the text that websites use most frequently when linking to your site.
Clicking on these reports will give you more details, including which sites have linked to specific pages on your site.
You can also check backlinks for any website, including your own, using third-party tools like Ahrefs, SEMrush, or Moz's Link Explorer. Simply enter a domain or URL into the tool to get a detailed backlink report.
How To Create A Link From Your Website To Another Site
If you want to build a backlink to another site, the easiest way is through your website's CMS (content management system). Chances are you use a CMS to manage all the content on your website, including your pages, images, text, and products (if you run an online store).
Adding a link with your CMS
To add a link to another website using a CMS, edit the page where you want to include the link. Type in the text you want to link, then use your cursor to highlight it. Look for a tool button that looks like a metal link, like this one:
Click on the button and you should see a window similar to this one:
Add the URL of the specific website or page you want to link to, then click "OK". The link will be added to your page. You can then add any additional links you wish, and save the page when you are done. Any links you add via your CMS will be visible and clickable by site visitors.
Add a link with HTML
If you are not using a CMS, you can create a link to other websites using HTML. Creating a link in HTML is very simple. For example, let's say you want to reproduce this link, which points to our home page. Here is the HTML code you would use to do this:
<a href=”http://www.amineducate.com”>this link</a>
There are a few ways to modify HTML links that a CMS could do automatically. For example, by clicking on the "open link in new window" (or, more recently, "new tab") option in a CMS, our link above would be modified to look like this:
<a href=”http://www.amineducate.com” target=”_blank”>this link</a>
... where the empty target attribute forces the clicked link to open in a new window or tab.
You can also add titles and descriptions to links with HTML. If you want to learn more about how to create links with HTML, this article from W3 Schools is a great resource.
Get high-quality backlinks in an ethical way with professional SEO services.
Do you need help building quality backlinks for your website? As an expert SEO agency, WebFX can create a custom link-building plan for your business that strengthens your search presence, improves your SEO, and increases your website traffic.
Conclusion About How To Create Backlinks
As I said at the beginning of this article, everything I've discussed here takes work. Like anything worth doing, it has to be done right. Now, if it's not for you and your heart isn't in it, then that's fine. There's no shame in admitting that it's more work than you signed up for. But don't go back to complaining in the forums in a few months about how you've built 300 social bookmarking links and can't get to page 1 of Google, so you need a magical way to build incredible backlinks that don't involve any thought or effort.
The fact is, the top ranked websites work hard to acquire quality links. To keep up with them, you need to put the same level of effort into content strategy and link marketing. If your goal is to outrank them, you'll need to do something even more exceptional. And placing a dozen comment spam links on some poor guy's "do follow" blog won't get you there.
FAQs About How To Get Backlinks
Does Pinterest count as backlinks?
Remember, when used correctly, Pinterest has a lot of potential as a resource. Whether you buy SEO services or do the work yourself, it's a great platform for generating backlinks. It's also a high-traffic, user-friendly place to position your brand as an authority with your audience.
How many backlinks do I need to rank?
The number of backlinks needed increases faster than the difficulty level of the 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 may need 100 backlinks to rank.
Are backlinks Important?
Backlinks are particularly valuable for SEO because they represent a "vote of confidence" from one site to another. In essence, backlinks to your website tell search engines that others are vouching for your content.
What is a good backlink?
A good backlink is a relevant outbound link to a trusted and authoritative website. In general, a site is considered trustworthy if it has many strong backlinks pointing to it. Google considers these backlinks as a way to confirm that your site contains useful and quality content.
Can I buy backlinks?
Buying backlinks can make or break your brand, but you need to make sure you follow the rules. Avoid poor quality links, don't break the rules, and risk being penalized by Google, avoid spammy outbound links/anchor texts, and make sure the links are relevant.
How many backlinks are too many?
In general, a ranking of 60 to 100 is phenomenal, 40 to 50 is okay and less than 40 is not great. If you want to build high-quality backlinks, start by building links from websites with high domain authority that are also relevant to your niche and trusted by searchers on the Internet.
Should I remove toxic backlinks?
Your website inbound link profile has a major impact on your search engine ranking. It is crucial to identify and remove bad backlinks to prevent your website from being penalized.
