If you want your website to improve its search engine optimisation ranking or maintain it, understanding the importance of backlinks is one of the keys to achieving that.
When backlinks became one of the benchmarks for search engine optimisation ranking, they have established themselves as hyperlink posts that give value and power to websites, drastically changing the terms on which websites are ranked.
Backlinks are links that can lead you from one web page to another. Otherwise known as inward link, inbound link or incoming link, backlinks are links that are located from a different website that leads to your website. If it does the opposite, wherein the links on your website lead to a foreign website, it is called outbound links, outgoing links, outward links or outlinks.
Why should online entrepreneurs consider working on creating backlinks for their website? First of all, backlinks help improve your organic search engine optimisation ranking. Second, your web pages will be indexed faster. Search engine bots crawl on numerous web pages every day but they prioritise web pages that are linked from other existing web pages. On top of that, backlinks can refer more traffic back to your website. For instance, if a popular website features a link that goes to your website, chances are, their visitors will check out your website. Think of it as gaining more leads and potentially more loyal customers.
There are many ways to build backlinks to your website. One of the best ways is to gain it organically. If your website is filled with amazing content that is relevant, informative and evergreen, other websites will organically link your content to their website.
There are many online tools that can help you check your website backlinks for free. One of the most popular is the backlink checker from ahrefs.
Aside from growing your backlinks organically, you can also find a broken link on your website, rewrite the content found on it and create an active link that will take the place of the broken link. Another way of gaining good backlinks is by writing blogs for other websites. Guest blogging is the practice of getting in touch with other websites and writing content that is relevant to both parties. This is actually a win-win situation because it will help build your industry authority and expose your website to other audiences that are not yet familiar to you. The same is true with the website that will agree to host your guest blog.
You are already familiar with growing backlinks organically, fixing broken links and guest blogging. Another way of improving your backlinks is by asking other websites to help you.
When you reach out to other people, companies, businesses or webmasters, show them what you want to share on their website. Make sure it is content that is relevant to both parties, such as an article or an infographic. Ask them to feature it. In return, they might even ask you to do the same for them.
When it comes to backlinks, do not underestimate the influence of your competitors. You can check out their website and check their backlinks. You will probably gain benefits if you will use their backlinks on your website, especially if it gives them high rankings.
Another option is to make local citations. Local citations are a list of businesses that are found in online directories such as Google, Linkedin or the Yellow Pages. This option is great if you want to gain good rankings on local searches.
Another way of getting backlinks is through user-generated content. It usually takes the form of a comment placed on a blog or a listing in a business directory. As we have mentioned earlier, getting listed in online directories is good for gaining traction on local searches. If used properly, it can have a great impact on your website. If abused through spamming, this method can be detrimental to your SEO ranking.
You can also find websites that mention your brand, products or services but does not link back to your website. Get in touch with the owner or webmaster and ask them to link your website to the web page where you are mentioned. This is called link reclamation and this is a great way to lead their users to go to your website.
Backlink checker tools allow you to see who is already linked to your website, enabling you to take advantage of those links and build relationships with other websites that link to yours. As we have mentioned earlier, there are many online tools that can help you with this task. Aside from Ahrefs, you can also check out Buzzsumo, Google Seach Console, Majestic, Moz Link Explorer, SEMrush and Ubersuggest.
Now that you have some knowledge on how to build backlinks, you don’t have to apply each technique. All you need to do is ask the SEO experts which option will be most beneficial for your business then you’ll have to start from there.
By now, you already have a good idea of why backlinking is good for you and your website. Not only does it give you online credibility, but it also helps improve your search engine rankings, increases your website traffic, makes your site metric and SEO scores higher, gives greater revenue, allows you to get more leads and sales, enhances your relationship with other websites in your niches and gives you an edge to stand out as an authority within your industry.
Although backlinking sounds complicated, the tasks are simple enough that you can even dedicate your time to doing it but if you want to avoid making mistakes and get faster results, it is best to leave this matter to the experts.
Earlier, we have mentioned a list of backlink checker tools that you can utilise for your website. You don’t have to use them all. Just one is enough to make a positive impact on your website.
You are already familiar with the many ways to gain backlinks. You will be surprised to know that there are actually more!
We understand that you may not have time to figure out what backlinks are and if you do, you may not have the time to do it on your own, which is why working with the experts in this field is always a good idea. If you are interested to improve your backlinks or SEO ranking in general, get in touch with the SEO experts of Smarter Media today!
