So, you just started dabbling with SEO and you came across the word “Backlinks” and would like some information about it – you’re reading the right page. In this article, we will give a simple and in-depth explanation of the meaning of a backlink, the various types, its importance to SEO and websites in general, as well as how to get them for your site.
Meaning of Backlink
Backlinks, also known as inbound links incoming links, or one-way links are links on a website referring to another. It’s part of the key criteria that search engines like Google and Bing use to sort sites that appear based on specific searched keywords.
Backlinks are considered votes or recommendations of a site; the more backlinks that are available for a specific page, the more likely it’s going to rank on the first page of search engines. Their relevance to SEO is because of two main reasons rankings and discoverability.
Types of Backlinks
There are two main types of backlinks; dofollow and nofollow backlinks.
● Dofollow Links
This type of backlink is the most important, and those coming from high-profile sites have the most value. They tell search engines that the link embedded in the text is a relevant resource to the article/sentence where it’s placed.
The only downside to this type of backlink is that it can all backfire when the backlinks come from malicious sources, where they are created to boost search engine rankings. With this fact, it can also be used to outrightly spam a webpage, and if discovered, search engines like Google can penalize or completely de-index the affected site. The bottom line is that when garnering dofollow backlinks, focus on quality rather than quantity.
● Nofollow Links
This is when a backlink is given, but with the nofollow tag, telling search engines to ignore the link as it doesn’t add any value or serve as a resource for the current page. Often written as <a href=”https://www.example.com” rel=”nofollow”>This is a nofollow link</a>, they can refer someone to a specific site, but the bottom line is that it doesn’t have much SEO significance.
What is the Importance of Backlinks to SEO
Backlinks are extremely crucial to the SEO performance of any website. Those nofollow backlinks which don’t have any direct SEO benefit in some ways, can give discoverability and traffic to a website which can give a positive feedback loop for your website. Here are quick highlights of what having backlinks can contribute to your website’s SEO.
- Improved search engine rankings
- Trust and credibility
- Increased organic traffic
- Discoverability
- Anchor text optimization
- Competitive advantages
- Domain authority
How to Get Backlinks for Your Website
Building backlinks to your website is a long process that you need to be steady and consistent with – you don’t want to go too fast to be flagged for spamming and being too slow may not give you your desired result over a specific period.
There are several strategies you can use to build backlinks for a website. While we won’t be giving an in-depth explanation of each method, you’ll want to research each and try all when you begin your backlink-building journey.
- Create high-quality content
- Write guest posts
- Build relationships with other bloggers
- Find broken links to their websites and offer to replace them with yours
- Do some content promotion
- Participate in guest podcasting and interviews
- Share links of your content on reputable platforms like Medium and LinkedIn
How to Check Backlinks
There are two ways to check the backlinks of a website. The first is only possible if it’s your website and the second with keyword research tools.
● Checking Backing of your Website
You can easily check the backlinks to your websites using your search engine’s search console. For this article, we’ll assume you’re using a Google search console.
All you need do is on the sidebar, click on “Links”, the number you find below “External links” tells you the total number of backlinks to your website. The downside here is that you only get data for the top 1,000 links. However, this can be remedied by using a dedicated webmaster tool tool like Ahrefs. In the Ahrefs webmaster tool, all you need to do is setup a project, and click on “Backlinks” on your dashboard for a comprehensive report of the backlinks to your site.
● Checking Backlinks of Another Website
To do this, you can make use of free tools like Ahref’s Backlink Checker, Majestic SEO, SEMrush Backlinks Analytics, Small SEO Tools Backlink Checker, etc. Enter the domain, and let the tool do the rest.
