Websites need high-authority backlinks to get better rankings on Google. If you have a business website, better rankings will bring more traffic, customers, and profits, so backlinks can really improve your results. Today you will read everything you need to know about backlinks and how to build them.
What Are Backlinks?
Backlinks or external links are links from one website to a page of another website. Most search engines use backlinks to figure out the importance of each page, and Google considers backlinks as votes to your website or your content. So, websites with many backlinks get better rankings and more traffic most of the time. Link building is the steps we follow to build backlinks for a website to get better results on search engines.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
Google and many other search engines want to provide the best search results for their users. Search engines can rank websites based on their content alone; but today they use backlinks to determine the quality of your pages. Backlinks are not the only ranking factor for Google, but it is an important one.
When one website has 100 backlinks, and another website has only ten backlinks, Google will prefer the first website if the other ranking factors are the same. This is why backlinks look like votes to search engines. In the last few years, Google also cares about the quality of these backlinks and not only for their numbers. Quality links have more weight than quantity.
How To Figure Out The Quality Of A Backlink
Website owners and internet marketers use some criteria to help them figure out the quality of their backlinks. Then, they do their research and build their backlinks accordingly. Here are some criteria that affect the quality of backlinks.
1. Page Authority
The authority of a page can be different from the authority of a website. For example, a new page does not have the same SEO value as an old and established page of the same website.
You can use tools like Ahrefs and Moz to check the authority of any page and website. But you can also check how many shares a page has on social media, the rankings of the page on Google, and backlinks from other websites.
2. Website Authority
It is common sense that popular and more established websites have more authority than new and unknown websites. Usually, you don’t have to use tools and metrics to know that a website has big authority. For example, Wikipedia and NYTimes have a higher authority and a bigger impact than backlinks on average sites.
Again, you can use online tools to check website authority, but the best practice is to look for popular sites in your niche. Also, you need to avoid spammy sites because their backlinks have no real value.
3. Relevancy
Google wants to see links from websites with content similar to yours. This is how they can understand that you are a valuable resource in your niche. For example, a website about fitness needs backlinks from another fitness website.
If they get backlinks from generic websites, the links should be from pages with relevant content. When a fitness site gets a backlink from a blog post about lifestyle, it won’t get much SEO value. Irrelevant backlinks can also confuse Google about the topic of your site.
4. Anchor Text
Anchor text is the text that you can read on the clickable part of the link. Google uses this text to understand the topic of the linked page, so it’s important when it comes to rankings.
The problem is that Google doesn’t like marketers to spam keywords in their anchor texts. Every effort to trick Google will have some negative results later. So, it’s a good idea to get backlinks with a keyword on the anchor text, but you should let it happen as naturally as possible.
5. Position On The Page
When a backlink is in a visible position, it is more important than links in the footer or sidebar. Google understands which are the important links of a page that matters for the visitors. Links that are on the top of the content have more SEO value than links at the bottom of the content.
6. Dofollow vs. Nofollow Links
Nofollow links have a tag that shows Google not to count this link. So, nofollow links are not as important as dofollow links. Usually, websites use nofollow links for affiliate links, sponsored links, ads, and other types of promotions. The website links that have SEO value are the dofollow links.
How To Get More Backlinks
1. Publish Linkable Content
Websites link other websites that add more value to their visitors. If you want to generate more backlinks, the first step is to publish content that is worth linking to it.
Content types with the most backlinks include guides, list articles, infographics, and videos. Of course, people have too many options when they want to like a source of information, and your website pages need to add more value or offer something unique.
Many marketers try to find more advanced tactics to get backlinks than just creating content. While you need these tactics, no one will link a website with poor content unless they are your friends or you pay them to do it.
2. Create A Competitor Backlink Profile
If you have a website with great content that can’t get ranked on the first page of Google, you need to look at the competition. Google ranks your competitors above your website for a reason, and we know that backlinks affect this decision.
When you create a competitor backlink profile, you find all the backlinks of one or more competitors and figure out ways to grab them. Many times they have backlinks from free platforms that you can join as well. You can also get backlinks from their guest posts or reach similar websites.
You probably need to analyze these links and check their authority based on the factors mentioned above. Not every backlink is worth your time and effort.
3. Original Data and Research
Pages with stats and case studies tend to get many backlinks because people use them as proof of their arguments. If someone wants to convince you that a specific diet is good for your health, they can link to research about this diet.
Original research requires extra work, but it allows you to create content that your visitors can’t find elsewhere. For example, you can create your own survey or a real review of a popular product in your niche. People will share and link the content to their audience because you have unique content on this topic.
4. Outreach To People For Backlinks
When you have a competitor backlink profile, you know the top sites that link pages of the competitors. If you feel that you have a better resource, you can send an email to these sites, let them know about your content, and ask for a backlink.
Every backlink you get from this strategy is a backlink that you remove from a competitor. Most websites have a page with contact details where you can find their email addresses. You need to write an email that doesn’t look spammy and mentions that you can add more value to their audience.
5. Guest Posting
Guest posting is a popular method to get more backlinks from great blogs and websites. You can search on Google for sites that provide guest post opportunities and apply for them. These sites have some requirements for guest posting that you need to follow.
Google is aware that many website owners try to affect their rankings with this method. So, guest posting does not work as well as before, but it is still a good option for easy backlinks. You should start with the sites that have published guest posts of your competitors and then search for more opportunities.
6. Broken Link Method
The broken link method is about finding broken links and suggesting your website as an alternative. Many websites have old posts that are not updated. They link to other sites, and some of these sites don’t exist anymore.
It is quite difficult to find broken links manually, but you can use a tool like Check My Links. This is a chrome extension that scans sites and shows broken links. Then, you can send an email to these sites that show them the broken link and request a backlink to your site.
7. Promote Your Content
When you get more visibility online, more people will link to your content. You can share your best posts on social media and place some ads. Another idea is to add some internal links to your top posts and highlight them on your sidebar. Some of your visitors will decide that they like your content, link it, or share it with more people.
Link building is not hard if you break it down into smaller steps. First, you need to recognize when a backlink has SEO value and then use the methods above to get more backlinks. But you must do a better job than your competitors if you want to outrank them.
