What are backlinks?
Backlinks (also known as inbound links) are links from other websites that connect to a page on your website, directing traffic and views back to your website. For example, if another website includes a link to this article in its content, it becomes a backlink to this webpage.
Why are they important for SEO?
Backlinks are crucial for SEO as they allow other businesses to link to your content. If websites link back to your content, you must have something valuable or interesting that they want to share.
Backlinks work like trust signals for search engines: every time a webpage receives a backlink, it’s flagging up to Google that there is valuable content on that page. So, the more sites that link back to your website, the better it is for your SEO.
While around 200 ranking factors help form Google’s algorithm, backlinks are at the top as one of the most important ranking factors for SEO.
However, when building backlinks, more isn’t always better – your ranking will perform better if you have a lower amount of high-quality backlinks rather than lots of low-quality backlinks. To determine whether a backlink is high-quality, you need to consider page authority, domain authority and relevance. In addition, high-quality backlinks will also have the potential to drive more traffic to your website and come from a trusted source. Low-quality backlinks will usually come from spam or sponsored links or websites that aren’t relevant to your content.
How can I build up my backlinks?
If you want to build up your backlinks but aren’t sure where to start, we have put together a list of seven steps you can take to help build up links to your website and get your content out there!
Step 1: Comment on relevant blogs.
The first step we recommend taking to get your backlinks out there is by commenting on relevant blogs. By being selective about the blogs you choose to comment on, you can potentially get some good organic traffic from using this method. The way to do this successfully is to connect with the blogger and make a good impression. Don’t just leave a generic comment with your backlink – make sure that you choose a specific part of the blog to comment on and subtly add your backlink.
Step 2: Guest posting.
Building on this, you can then move on to guest posting. By writing high-quality posts for websites in your industry, you can build up your backlinks and increase your online reputation or social media followers by making your content visible to a bigger audience. But, make sure that you are writing guests posts for reputable websites in your industry. Finding sites to write guest posts for is easier than you think – if you search with the query ‘topic + intitle: “write for us”, this should give you sites that actively seek out writers on that topic. There are plenty of websites that ask for guest writers for specific types of content – you just need to find a few in your niche and go from there.
Step 3: Create visual assets.
The fourth way is by creating visual assets, including things like infographics. Infographics are one of the most effective methods for bringing traffic to your website and gaining valuable backlinks. If it is data or information that is up to date and well presented, it will be a useful visual asset that other websites will want to backlink. Once you have created your infographic, make sure you strategically promote it to boost your backlinks!
Step 4: Utilise broken link building.
If you have come across websites with broken links or 404 errors, you can use this to your advantage by broken link building. You can then contact the site owner and notify them of the broken link – and mention your fantastic website with relevant, updated and working links that they could potentially use instead!
Step 5: Build internal links.
Our sixth recommendation is something you may already be doing if you have an established website or blog post, which is building internal links. With a good internal link structure, you can help users link to other parts of your websites and relevant articles (that you have written, of course!), increasing the overall user experience. There are tools you can use to generate these internal links automatically. Still, it is preferable to do it manually to ensure that the links connect to your topic or content.
Step 6: Promote your content!
Last but not least, you need to promote your content! Your excellent content won’t be getting any backlinks if you aren’t promoting it in the right way. You can do this through email outreach strategies and contacting bloggers or websites that do Link Roundups in your niche.
Step 7: Use the HARO method.
HARO stands for Help A Reporter Out and is a free software design to connect writers who want sources (for example, journalists and reporters) with experts who want links and exposure (you!). This website has various subscription options and can help link you to some of the world’s most prominent media outlets.
Although this is another step that will take work, if done correctly, it can result in backlinks from reputable and prominent news sites – resulting in plenty of exposure!
Building effective backlinks takes time and patience, but a little bit of hard work can go a long way. For more information on how we can help you build up your backlinks, visit Design Grid today!
