Backlinks, also known as incoming links or inbound, are crucial to measure your search engine optimization (SEO). It is a measurement of how many people are linking back to your site. This is correlated with how frequent your website appears in Google Search.
Nowadays, they’re more so a measure of popularity, unlike the previous era where backlinks were the major metric in website ranking. It means when someone links to your site from their website or a social platform like Twitter will be counted as another backlink. Your rank on Google and other search engines will grow exponentially with the growth of your backlinks.
What does backlinking mean for my site?
A backlink is essentially someone who has linked their website or social media account to yours, which in turn can help you rank higher on search engines like Google and Bing.
Whenever someone posts or shares an article on a social media site, they usually include the URL. For example, if you post something on Facebook and someone else clicks through to your website from that post then this is a backlink for you!
If someone links back to your blog posts with an anchor text of keyword phrases like ‘best coffee maker’. And because people are clicking on those words, there’s more chance of them finding your content as it is counted as relevant to their search queries. This means higher rankings can lead to increased traffic (and new potential customers!).
How can I have more backlinks?
There are several ways to increase your backlinks and one of the most recommended methods is by providing valuable content that other people find helpful. Here are some checklists to pay attention
- Make sure your website is optimized for search engines so it’s easily found when someone searches on terms related to what you offer, otherwise your effort will results nothing.
- Provide quality blog posts that will attract and satisfy potential readers so they are willing to share on social media and create another backlink for you. It might take some time but if you consistently creating then eventually those backlinks should follow.
- Make sure to always provides value to your readers and build trust with them. This might mean engaging in conversations on your sites or across social media, asking feedback, or answering questions.
- Create blog page that can be easily shared with your audience. The best backlinks come from people who have had a positive experience interacting with you, especially if you offer rewards for anyone who shares their thoughts publicly.
How backlinks actually impact my website SEO?
Backlinks are a major metric in website rankings. If you have more backlinks than your competitors (even if they’re lower quality), then it’s likely that you’ll rank higher on Google Search. However, this might not longer be the case anymore as Google algorithm keeps renewed over the last few years but there is still some merit to this idea!
Furthermore, links from high-authority websites will give your an SEO boost for your site even without linking back to yours. Opportunities are widely open if you reach out bloggers who write about similar topics to do guest post or create long-form content which will get shared across multiple platforms. Press coverage is also worth considering as well.
What else can I do to improve my SEO?
If you’re looking to improve your SEO, there are a few other ways. You can get backlinks from high-authority websites by publishing content that’s relevant and engaging. This will help you rank higher for more competitive keywords like “digital marketing”, pay attention that it might be harder to do compared to just posting links on some platforms.
Alternatively, there is a simpler method, you could try inserting anchor text into the body of your blog posts which points back at specific pages or products. For example, a commerce site that sells coffee makers can mention a type of coffee maker machine and link it directly to the product page. As long as these words have been organically used in previous posts then they’ll work well. However, make sure not to overdo it because Google will see through that and results negatively to your SEO.
