Everything You Need to Know About Backlinks in SEO

Many people will note saying that SEO is a dying form of marketing and that the methods used of obtaining higher visibility in the popular search engines are outdated. Others will disagree, saying that SEO is actually more prevalent than ever. It was estimated that consumers were going to spend over $65 billion for SEO in 2016. This means, that as long as there’s popular search engines, there’s always going to be a need for businesses of all sizes to take advantage of SEO.

Backlinks have been at the heart of SEO and ranking websites fast and attracting targeted traffic from the search engines for a long time now. However, SEO is incredibly dynamic and things that used to work just a few short years ago are no longer as effective today. This has led to people questioning whether backlinks are still important for SEO today. The reality is that backlinks are still as important for SEO as they were in the past.

What is a Backlink?

A backlink refers to a website mentioning another website then linking to it. It does not simply refer to the web address or the website but rather the link must be clickable for it to be a backlink. Backlinks are hyperlinks are usually visually seen in a different color to the surrounding text and are usually underlined.

What are the Important Attributes of Quality Backlinks?

The search engines are in the business of providing their users with results that are as relevant as possible. The most important factors that search engines check with backlinks are an authority, relevance, and placement.

Authority is a very critical aspect for providing users with what they want.  If you wish to build authority, you should have a higher number of high-quality links directed towards your website. The search engines understand the value of authority and use links to determine the authority of a website.

Search engines only want to see natural backlinks, and anything that seems unnatural is likely to lead to penalties. When building backlinks, it is important to use only links from websites that are relevant to your own. If you have an auto related website, the backlinks should be to auto related websites too.

Placement of the backlinks is important since contextual links embedded naturally within the content carry more weight than those placed at the bottom of the page as a comment or footnote. While some links are more impactful than others, it does make them worthless.

Why is Backlink Diversity Important?

The aim should always be to have a backlink profile that looks as natural as possible. It is due to this reason that you should have a diversity of links. People naturally want to link to interesting content on social media, on forums, in blog posts, and in blog comments. You should thus include all these in your backlink efforts but with emphasis on getting the links from relevant, authoritative, and high-quality sources.

Furthermore, the anchor text diversity in your backlinks plays a huge role, as well. Anchor text is the text of the link and can be used to pass natural relevancy & trust. A successful SEO campaign will typically have the following types of anchor text, mixed in their profile:

  • Branded/Business Name
  • URL Variations (www, non-www, http, etc.)
  • Generic (click here, visit the website, etc.)
  • LSI’s (synonyms or variations)
  • Long-Tail Versions
  • Word + Primary Keyword + Word
  • Primary Keyword

Are All Backlinks Equal?

Backlink diversity is important but it is possible to have too many links with unnatural anchored text, or low-quality links can get your penalized. Links to websites that have been suspended on search engines or flagged as spam can impact your website negatively. Linking to a page for purely linking purposes does not carry the same weight as having a high-quality link.

How Do You Build a Quality Backlink?

Backlinks are important for helping the search engines provide the best results to users. Quality backlinks are those that provide value to Internet users. To build a quality backlink, just create original, unique, and relevant content then share it across the Internet and use the right practices to attempt to build authority and value naturally.

Hiring A Backlink Building Service

Building backlinks are one of the most challenging aspects of SEO. It is why you need to consider hiring a backlink building service that delivers great value and offers quality services to help your website achieve high search engine rankings.

If you would like to hire an SEO agency to do your backlink building, you need to ensure that the links are built manually to be sure that the links are of the highest quality. It is also important to ensure that they will be going onto relevant, authoritative websites as opposed to being blasted out by spam bot computer programs.

 

The Bottom Line: Backlinks Are the King of SEO but Are Not Everything

When it comes to SEO, backlinks still reign supreme. However, ensuring that your website has high-quality links is just a piece of the SEO puzzle. You also need to create quality content and focus on user experience. If you do this and combine it with proper SEO link building , you will emerge successfully with regards to your SEO efforts.

 

Author: Jason Berkowitz

Bio: Since 2010, Jason has been making moves for the SEO industry in New York City. An advanced digital marketing specialist and CEO of two very successful marketing agencies, Break The Web & SEO Services New York, Jason utilizes out-of-the-norm strategies to provide tangible results online.