The term “backlink” is widely used in Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It helps to increase the rank of a website in Search Engine Results Pages (SERP). Many people do not have much information about backlinks. So, in this article, we are trying to discuss what is backlink and how does it work and the importance of backlink in SEO.
What is Backlink?
Backlinks are the links given by a website to a webpage on another website. It is also referred to as an inbound link or incoming link.
For the other website, it is called as an outbound or external link.
Backlinks were very much useful in the past few years. It still has its usefulness, but now various parameters are included with backlinks by search engines. If we stick to these parameters when we build backlinks, then we will definitely get benefits.
Before understanding about backlinks, we must know about a few terms associated with backlinks:
What is link juice?
Link juice is the passing of power from a website to another website through a backlink. Meaning whenever a website links with another website, it passes link juice to the other site.
If the website doesn’t want to pass link juice, it may simply use the “nofollow” tag.
The link juice basically helps to improve the ranking and domain authority.
What is “dofollow” and “nofollow” backlink?
Dofollow backlink:
The “dofollow” tag is the type of attribute that is used to pass the link juice to another website. That means it allows the web crawlers to visit the other site that is linked with your website. Dofollow backlinks are very important to get a higher rank in Google SERP.
Nofollow backlink:
The “nofollow” tag is the type of attribute used if the webmaster doesn’t want to pass link juice to another website. These types of backlinks don’t contribute anything to the Google SERP but it is usable for the users to move to outer links.
What are Linking Root Domains?
Linking root domains are the number of domains linked to any website. If a website is giving many links to another website, it will be counted only as one linking root domain.
So, it is always better to get backlinks from different websites rather than thousand links from one website. Focus more on quality than quantity.
What is an anchor text?
Anchor text is the text on which we create a hyperlink. Anchor texts are important because they help to increase the ranking of keywords and work as promotional terms.
What are low-quality links?
Low-quality links are nothing but the links that come from low-quality sites. The low-quality sites are those sites that don’t have unique content or spammy sites.
Whenever you build any backlink, try to verify if the site is trustable or not. If you get backlinks from spammy websites, it will harm SEO.
The case may also act reversibly, if you are giving backlinks to any website, make sure that the website maintains good quality and unique content.
Some of the best backlink checker tools are:
- Ahrefs backlink checker
- Semrush Backlink Analytics
- Moz Link Explorer
- Neil Patel Free Backlink Checker
- LinkMiner Backlink Checker
- RankWatch Link Explorer
Importance of Backlink in SEO
Backlinks have both positive and negative impacts on ranking. As told earlier, backlinks play an important role in SEO. It boosts the ranking of a website in search engines. The backlinks must be built on websites of the same niche. If you get backlinks from a website of a different niche, it may not benefit you.
For example, if your website is on motor vehicles, and you are getting backlinks from beauty websites, it may have a negative impact on your site.
Backlinks improve ranking in organic searches
Backlinks are one of the parameters used by search engines to rank the contents of any website. Quality and organic backlinks always play a key role in ranking. It is tough for new bloggers to get organic backlinks, but they may request backlinks to good-quality sites.
When you get an organic backlink from another site, it automatically increases the ranking of your content in search engines. An organic backlink shows the search engine that your site’s content has some value, and obviously, search engine loves to show valuable content on their result pages.
Increases referral traffic
The dream of every blogger is to increase traffic on their blog; backlinks do it for them.
Some bloggers leave references with their articles to give readers more information about the topic, and the curious reader clicks on the reference link. Thus, the second website gets referral traffic from it, and it also decreases the bounce rate.
Works as Promotion for the website
Building backlinks also works as a promotion for your website. Whenever someone gets a backlink to your website, the first impression to the visitor is that the visitor comes to know there is a website of this name. When the visitor visits your website, the second impression starts, and if the visitor is getting value from it, he will again return. So, this works as a free promotion.
How to Build Backlinks?
Write unique, engaging articles
Try to write unique articles that have some value, and at the same time, it should be easier for the reader to read and understand. Add a few examples so that the reader can easily relate to a real-life situation.
If you write in this way and make engaging unique content, then any site will give you a backlink for your valuable content.
Write articles for others
You may write articles for other blogs and leave a backlink with the permission of the owner. This method (also known as guest blogging) of backlink building is considered the best method.
Try to write articles for those who have high domain authority. This will help you to boost your rank.
Check for broken links
You may also check other websites for broken links, like ahrefs broken link checker.
Go to the contact us pages of such websites, and request web admin to replace the broken link with your website or post link.
Submit your site to directories
There are many web directories available on the internet these days. Choose some of them and submit your site to those directories. You will automatically get a backlink from them.
Caution: Try to avoid spammy web directories. If you get any backlinks from them, Google or other search engines may penalize your website.
Comment on other’s articles
Find blogs that are working on the same niche as you. In their comment section write a comment like, “Very informative article, if you want to know more about this you may check my article on this”, and leave a link to your website.
These links are mainly “nofollow” backlinks, but they will surely help you bring traffic to your site.
Comment on the YouTube videos
YouTube is now the world’s second-best search engine and is growing rapidly day by day.
You may find some YouTube videos on the same topics as your blog. Open those videos, and comment to check out your article.
Join Facebook Groups
Join Facebook groups and ask them to visit your website. If you get a good response from them, ask if they wish they may give you dofollow backlinks.
Remember, some of the groups may remove you if you share any link in their group. So, before joining, read the group rules first.
Backlinks play an important role in SEO but Google changes its algorithm from time to time. After the introduction of Google’s Penguin algorithm, many things have changed related to backlinks. So, in this article, we will update if any changes occur in the future.
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