Have you ever spent hours writing what you think is the best piece of writing of your life, published it on the internet and heard nothing but the sound of heavy crickets? It is an infuriating, almost soul-crushing feeling that is similar to making an amazing meal but keeping the recipe in a hidden cabin in the woods that no one even knows about.
In a world of billions of people, simply making your website exist and publishing it on a service is no longer enough to get people, search engines included, to visit and read your carefully crafted works. That is where backlinks come to the table.
Backlinks, both for their purpose and the importance they provide are one of the most fundamental pillars of the entire digital world. Let’s talk about what they are, why they matter, and most importantly where to get them in order to transform an unassuming speck on the digital map into a bustling website.
What Are Backlinks?
A backlink, at its most basic level, is a vote of confidence from one site to another.
Say you are trying to find a mechanic that can fix the strange noise coming from your car. You could simply go through a directory of tens of strangers and hope that one of them can fix your issue.
Alternatively, if you had a trusted friend who had already been and knew the answer, it would be far easier since they could tell you exactly which mechanic to visit. The same concept applies to backlinks. When a website contains a link to your page that acts as a recommendation and vote of support from one website to another.
It is also common to hear them called inbound links or incoming links, but they are really the same exact thing. Whenever a site links to another source, it is giving up some of its own credibility, trust and authority to another site.
Why Are Backlinks Vital to Your Site?
You might be wondering why search engines care so much about backlinks. The reason is simple: quality.
Search engines want to provide the absolute best and most relevant results to users in response to their searches. When the search algorithms first came out, they simply used keywords. If a certain word was typed in, the search would simply find every single page online that had that word and return the results. While somewhat functional, there were plenty of people who abused the system by writing very poor low-quality content on pages with the targeted keywords.
Modern search engines are far more advanced and one of the ways they determine the quality and relevance of a web page is via backlinks. Here are some reasons why backlinks are so vital for your own personal or business website.
• They Signal Trust and Authority to Search Engines
Any backlink given to a website from another is a sign that it is a trustworthy source. The more high quality backlinks coming from other sites in your niche, the more likely it is that the search engine will deem your site a credible source worth showing in the search results.
• They Bring You Valuable Referral Traffic
Search engines are not the only ones who utilize these links. Any article or blog that has a link back to your page gives a chance for a human to visit, read and potentially engage with your content. If a reader finds an article online that has a link and says they found it to be very interesting and informative, there is always a possibility they will follow that link and come to your site as well.
• They Help Search Engines Find You
Web crawlers, which are effectively robots that go around and catalog the internet for search engines, work by going from link to link, going from page to page until they reach the next link. Without any backlinks to your page, it can take a while for the search engines to find you.
The places that you Get Backlinks for a Website Are Just as Important
Learning that backlinks are important is not enough to simply begin building links. The natural question that follows is asking where to build links. Avoiding shady or black hat tactics is crucial, but are there any proper white hat SEO methods to actually build links of your own?
There certainly are.
1. Creating Shareable Content
One of the most tried and true methods of link building is creating content that others will be interested in sharing on their own. This can be anything, from a lengthy article that has all the information someone needs to an infographic that displays the information visually. Having an amazing resource allows others to build links to in turn help your own.
2. Guest Blogging
When you write a blog post for someone else, they can in turn reward you by allowing you to place a link back to your site. Not only is this a great backlink, but it also serves to promote your content and introduce you to a whole new audience. Make sure the sites you contribute to are in your niche with a decent amount of traffic before beginning this process.
3. Broken Link Building
Many different websites across the internet will, over time, end up with broken links. These links lead to pages that don’t exist and as such are useless. Fortunately, broken link building allows you to reach out to these sites and let them know that there is a broken link on their page. You can then ask them to replace it with one of your own, or potentially even another link that is relevant.
4. Digital PR [Being a Source]
Journalists and bloggers that want to create articles will often reach out to professionals in a certain space asking for a quote. Many times, you can be featured in an online publication, providing a valuable backlink as well as exposure from a different audience.
Frequently Asked Questions [FAQs]
Do all backlinks have equal value?
No, backlinks from larger, more credible and popular websites will have far more value than small unknown blogs. The same applies to their relevance, since a link from a fitness blog to your fitness page makes far more sense and has a higher value than a link from an automobile repair blog.
Can I buy backlinks?
Buying cheap backlink packages goes against the guidelines of most search engines and can result in heavy penalties, demotion or even a full ban from the search results. It is far better in the long run to invest in white hat SEO and grow organically.
How long does it take to see results from links?
Since most of the methods take time, it can take several months to begin really seeing noticeable and substantial results from your links.
Wrapping Up
Backlinks, overall, are much less of an effort to understand than one would first think. They are, ultimately, signs that other people on the internet see your writing and think that it is worth sharing.
If you make solid content that genuinely serves the purpose of informing or providing value instead of skimming the surface to boost some metrics, it will likely get rewarded. Think of your website not as an island, but as part of an entire archipelago that makes up the digital space.