What are Backlinks and Why are They Important?
A backlink is a link from one website directing users to another website. Backlinks signal to search engines like Google that a website's content is valuable and credible, what can improve its search engine ranking.For example, if a popular travel blog links to a hotel's website, that's a backlink that boosts the credit of the hotel site. The more quality backlinks a site has, the more "votes" it has learned about the value of its content.Backlinks formed the basis of Google's original search algorithm, PageRank, and they main one of the most important ranking facts today. An industry study found links are the #1 ranking signal used by Google.
Types of Valuable Backlinks
Not all backlinks have equal value. High-quality backlinks typically have these traits:
- They come from authoritative, trusted websites. A link from an authoritative site like Harvard passes more SEO value than one from a random site.
- They use the target keyword in the anchor text. Anchor text with keywords correlates to higher rankings for that term.
- They come from sites topically related to the site getting linked to. A fitness site linking to another fitness site carries more weight than an unrelated niche.
- They are "dofollow" links that search engines count, not "nofollow" links what are signored.
- They come from new sites, not the same site linking repeat.
Best Practices for Building Quality Backlinks
Here are proven tactics for building high-quality backlinks:
- Create Linkable Assets like insightful blog posts, tools, and resources that sites will want to link to. Unique, useful content earns the best links.
- Get included in link roundups that highlight the best niche content. Pitch your content to roundup curators.
- Find and fix broken links by emailing site owners about outsourced resources they link to and offering a replacement link to your content.
- Guest post on authority sites in your niche. Focus on quality over quantity.
- Create visual assets like infographics. Visuals tend to earn lots of links, especially if you promote them well.
- Offer your product for free in exchange for reviews. Bloggers often link to products they review.
- Ask for links to brand mentions that don't already link back. Most authors happy add links if asked.
- Respond to reporter series on Help a Reporter Out (HARO) to earn high-quality news links.
- Reverse engineer competitors' links to find new link building importunities that work specifically in your niche.
The key is creating awesome content then actively promoting it to earn high-quality backlinks from trustworthy sites. This builds credit with search engines, learning higher rankings and more organic traffic.