Every website owner wants it to rank first in search results, receive a lot of traffic, and generate revenue for the brand. Many of them seek the help of SEO experts since they are aware that it is challenging to succeed in the field for key inquiries.
Expanding the link mass of the project is one of the key responsibilities while developing a website promotion plan. In this post, we’ll define backlinks and discuss why they’re still an important ranking element.
Spoiler: One quality link from a popular website is better than a lot of low-quality links.
Let’s start with the basics
Backlinks are one of the main factors in website promotion on the Internet. This term refers to active hyperlinks placed on other resources that lead to your site. The quantity and quality of external links are indicators of the popularity and authority of the resource for the search engine.
Backlinks are like pointers. Once you do a backlink analysis that reviews your site’s performance and identifies issues that could affect your rankings, they create a positive reputation for your resource. The more sites that link to yours, the more attractive it looks to the search engine. This means it contains relevant and edgy information that can be shown to a larger audience.
Each external link has its own weight, which depends on the authority of the site that links to your resource. A large number of backlinks from low-quality sites can lead to penalties and negatively affect the position of the resource in the search results.
It is worth abandoning external links from dubious sites that don’t have unique content. Usually, such resources link to a large number of sites on different subjects, so the search engine doesn’t trust them.
Also, check the presence of dead or broken links – they can also deteriorate your reputation. Dead links lead to nowhere, so the user can just close your blog/website and that’s it. So use a broken link checker to keep the site authority.
How do you identify quality links?
Quality links that have a positive effect on website promotion meet all or most of the following requirements:
- They are posted on websites with relevant topics.
- The site that links to your resource has a high ranking, good traffic, and is not spammed with a lot of outgoing links.
- The link is placed in the subject text corresponding to the landing page to which the anchor leads.
- As an anchor, a keyword is used, according to which your resource is being promoted.
- The page doesn’t have the no-follow attribute, which prevents the search robot from following links.
How to get quality backlinks?
If you want to increase the number of external links, use every opportunity to declare your resource on the Web:
- Use social media. Join online communities with relevant topics, fill out your profile with truthful information and leave comments. This will help you get valuable contacts, advertise your business, and get backlinks.
- Add your website URL to local and niche target directories. Directory sites classify other resources and allow you to get high-quality backlinks. If your site represents a company that has a physical office, add it to your local directory to make it easier for search engines and users to find it.
- Engage unrelated brand mentions. It’s entirely possible that your site or blog is being mentioned on the Internet, from online newspapers to product reviews and podcasts. Ideally, these mentions link back to your site. However, this is not always the case. Hence the phrase “unrelated brand mentions.” The good part is that people mention you. So, you are halfway there. If the site already mentions your brand, they might add a link.
- Create unique content for guest posts. In every business area, there are popular sites for which you can write an interesting post with recommendations, statistics, and infographics. This will allow you to declare your resource on the Internet and get high-quality backlinks. If you haven’t got time to get backlinks through guest posting, you should look into using a link building service.
- Post reviews on other sites. If you have regular partners with whom you cooperate, arrange to post a review about their work. This way they will get a positive response, and you will get an external link.
Wrap up
Remembering that the Internet is fundamentally a vast network of interconnected links can help you better comprehend the significance of backlinks in SEO marketing. Google is more likely to locate your resource and index all the content if several websites link to it. Your website will seem to search engines as authoritative, pertinent, and user-friendly as more high-quality backlinks are pointing to it.
To achieve a predictable and stable result, you should avoid black optimization methods. A quick result is not worth the risk of getting penalized and ruining the reputation of the resource in the eyes of search engines.