You have probably heard of the term backlinks. But how much do you actually know about them, other than the fact that they are important? Read on to find out more about backlinks and how they can increase organic traffic to your website.
What Are Backlinks?
Simply put, a backlink is a link from one website to another. To some extent, it is another website’s vote of confidence, telling their visitors that the content posted on the linked page in your site is worth reading or seeing.
Why Are Backlinks Essential to Your Website?
Search engines like Google give premium to pages that provide value to its users. Pages deemed relevant to the user’s search queries are rewarded with higher rankings and earn a spot in the first few search engine results pages or SERPs.
The first few positions on SERPs are critical as most users do not have the patience or motivation to wade through several pages of search results to look for the product, service, or answer that they need. Therefore, only high-ranking pages get the chance to generate the most leads and convert them into paying customers.
Establishing the significance of high search ranking is important as the impact of backlinks is tied closely to it. How so? Having a high number of quality backlinks shows that even other websites see yours as an authority in the industry, and is therefore useful to consumers. To demonstrate its importance further, backlinks are one of the top three factors that impact Google’s search ranking process even though they have made thousands of changes to its algorithm so far.
What Types of Backlinks Are Helpful?
While backlinks are essential to your website’s search ranking, not all of them are created equal. Some may even do more harm than good. Here are some examples of high-quality backlinks you should strive for:
- Backlinks from trusted websites
Search engines give more brownie points to links from trusted websites such as Harvard or TechCrunch. This is understandable as most online users would do the same. It is important to note that they are more difficult to get. Still, they are 1,000 times more potent than low-quality backlinks and totally worth your time and effort. - Backlinks that contain your keyword
As a general rule, a backlink that contains your target keywords is more effective in raising your search ranking. Search engines like Google use the anchor text to understand the context of the link and help them decide how useful it is to the user’s search query. However, you should avoid overdoing it as Google has a system in place that would filter out black hat link building strategies. - Backlinks from relevant websites
When a website links to another, it is to redirect their user to a different page that could provide more helpful information to the current topic being discussed. As such, websites that are linked are supposed to be topically related. Google gives more weight to this type of dynamic, which means that pages about golf are supposed to link to other pages with similar or related content.
How to Build Backlinks to Your Website
As your website’s ranking would depend more on your backlink’s quality instead of its quantity, it is important to earn or build them the right way. Here are some of them:
- Broken-link building
This link-building technique involves detecting broken links in the resource pages of other relevant websites and reporting it to their webmasters. Then you can provide helpful suggestions, one of which is proposing which websites to redirect the broken link to. From there, you can introduce your website and offer it for the link. This approach often works as reporting the broken link helps you gain the trust of the site’s webmaster. - Using Infographics
Infographics are informative, easy to understand, and tailor-made for sharing, which makes them excellent content to gain valuable backlinks. In fact, the demand for visual data has been trending, as evidenced by the increase in online publications that post numerous infographics.To make infographics that will generate more traffic, research and gather data on a story that your target customers would find unique and interesting, then hire someone to make it visual. - Guest posts
Posting guest blogs on other popular websites is one of the most effective ways to broaden your audience base and gain more exposure for your website. In fact, search engines give it much consideration that even Google accepts guest blogs on its Google Analytics blog.
Conclusion
Earning quality backlinks can be challenging, but it is one of the most efficient ways to optimize your website and increase your search ranking.
