What are backlinks?
Backlinks which are also called “inbound links”, “incoming links” or “one way links” are the links from a website to a page on a different website. Google and the other search engines consider the backlinks to be “votes” for a particular page. The pages with a good number of backlinks seem to have high organic search engine rankings.
Why are backlinks important?
Backlinks are considered as votes from other websites. Each of these votes say “This content is valuable, credible and useful”, which the search engine pays attention to. Therefore, the more of these votes a website has, the higher it will be ranked in Google and other search engines.
Using links as a judging factor for credibility and ranking is not a new component of the search engines algorithm, in fact backlinks formed the foundation of Google’s original algorithm.
Although there have been thousands of changes in these algorithms since then, backlinks are still a key ranking signal for Google. Google even confirms that backlinks are still one of its three most important search engine ranking factors.
Also read: SEO GUIDELINES FOR BUSINESS GROWTH IN NAVI MUMBAI
What type of backlinks are valuable?
Not all backlinks have equal potential value. In order to rank higher on search engines you need to focus on quality backlinks. A single quality backlink holds more power than 1000 lower quality backlinks.
The higher quality backlinks tend to have quite similar traits.
1. They come from trusted, authoritative websites
Would you prefer a backlink from Harvard’s website or from a random individual? Google feels the same about it as you.
The more authority a website has, the more authority it can pass onto your page or site. This phenomenon is called “Domain Authority”.
When a backlink comes from an authority site, Google puts a lot of weight on it. No doubt that these links are difficult to get but these are absolutely worth it.
2. They include your target keyword in the link’s anchor text
The anchor text is the visible text part of the link. You just want your links to have anchor text which includes your target keywords.
A recent industry study found that there is a relation between anchor text with keywords and higher rankings for that keyword.
Google penguin, a google algorithm filters out websites which use black hat link building strategies.
3. The site or page linking to you is topically related to your site
If a website links to a different website, Google checks if these websites are related.
4. The link is a “Dofollow” link
Google and other search engines avoid or ignore the links with the “nofollow” tag. The vast majority of links on the web are “dofollow” links. Links from blog comments, press releases and paid advertisements have nofollow tags. Fortunately, these links are not that friendly for SEO.
5. The link is from a domain that hasn’t linked to you before
When a website links to you once, its great but when it links second or third or fourth time, it is not that powerful for your SEO. Links from the same website have diminishing returns.
Did you now realize how important backlinks are? connect Bindura Digital, seo agency in Navi Mumbai for back link strategy consultation.