One of the most effective ways to increase organic traffic to your online business is by using backlinks. Backlinks (also known as inbound links) are links from other websites that link to a page on your website, directing traffic and views back to your website.
Why are they important for Organic Traffic?
Backlinks are critical if you want to increase the organic traffic you are receiving to your website. Surveys analysing Google search results have found that backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors on Google for SEO. The results revealed that the top search results in Google have an average of 3.8 backlinks compared to other webpages ranked in the top ten searches. Studies also show that links from a number of websites, rather than multiple backlinks from one website, will further increase your ranking status.
If other websites or blogs link back to your content, you have exciting and high-quality content worthy of sharing.
You may have already seen from our Instagram posts that Google scores web pages based on their relevance and link popularity, as well as the E-A-T score (expertise, authoritativeness and trustworthiness). If you are getting a lot of traffic directed to an article, you are known to be an authority on the subject, which will boost your visibility in Google’s SERP’s. Backlinks are much more important than other factors, including loading speed, HTML page size, and URLs when it comes to your SEO ranking.
Not all backlinks are equal – having a large number of links from websites, or sources that are not reputable could harm your website, so it is crucial to do your research when getting more backlinks.
Before you start building your backlinks, it is also a good idea to check your website is ready for increased traffic. Backlinks on their own won’t increase your ranking – you need to make sure that you have high-quality content when people land on your website.
Types of Backlinks
There are three main types available:
Do-follow Backlinks:
The most valuable type of backlink for SEO are Do-follow backlinks. Google recognises these links as organic and trustworthy and worth noting the website for other people’s search results.
No-follow Backlinks:
The no-follow link does not count as a point in the page’s favour, so it doesn’t boost page rank or help page placement in the SERPs. These are usually in the form of adverts, blog comments and even certain social media links. Stay away from using these types of links in your content.
Sponsored Backlinks:
This is a new attribute for sponsored links, Affiliate links and Ads.
Backlinks: top things to do!
1. Ensure your backlinks are relevant
The best kind of backlinks is the ones that relate directly to your services or products. It can be challenging to get a high amount of backlinks while you are a small or new business and building up your reputation. But try and avoid the mistake that any backlink is OK, as focussing on relevant links will result in more credibility.
2. Quality over quantity
It is best to have fewer backlinks but from reputable websites – too many random links not related to your website could be a hindrance rather than a help. It’s also good to have backlinks from multiple websites rather than just one website – 50 links from 50 different websites is much better than 100 links from the same website. The number of sites linking to your, rather than the total number of backlinks, increase your Google rankings more than any other factor.
3. Aim to get backlinks from authoritative websites
Links that come from authoritative websites will have a more significant influence on Organic traffic to your website. If it is from a legitimate and authoritative website, Google puts a lot of weight on it – also referred to as ‘Domain Authority’.
Most of the time, you can rely on websites that score highly on third party evaluation sites to be genuine and reputable places to have your backlinks. Unfortunately, there are sometimes websites that pretend to be trustworthy and genuine through false reviews, testimonials and ratings. It is why it’s worth checking the domain of the website that will be linking to your article. Websites can fake reviews and testimonials, but they can’t fake their organic search and keyword ranking. That is why it is best to use a third-party program such as Ahrefs, analyse the domain, and ensure that it is not coming from a fake or manipulated page. Instead, it is coming from an authoritative and reputable website.
As you build your reputation, this will become easier, but it may be worth checking if you don’t recognise the website if you are new to backlink building.
4. Create linkable assets
To get consistent backlinks, you need to create content worth linking to, also known as ‘linkable assets’. A linkable assist can be anything that users want to link to, for example, a piece of software, video, infographic or anything else deemed helpful for their content.
The critical thing is that it is something unique – you can write about an existing topic from a different angle or more in-depth with your own research. That way, you will be creating content that people want to share, therefore outranking your competitors. It may mean it takes you longer than usual to develop your content, but if it results in more backlinks, then it will be well worth it!
Top things to avoid!
1. Automated link building
Be wary of software programs that promise to get your link on as many websites as possible – these programs may take advantage of you, especially if you are a new business and just starting to get your backlinks out there. They will often post backlinks out of context on any website, resulting in a penalty from Google.
2. Purchased comments
As with automated link building, be careful with purchased comments – they are inexpensive and are often irrelevant. It is much better to build up your comments with links from various blog posts. It will take more time, but it will result in a better Google ranking and Organic traffic over a long time.
3. Sitewide backlinks
Sitewide links appear on most or all of a website’s pages, including being embedded in a web page’s sidebar, header, or footer. Although it may seem like an excellent technique to use to get your content out there, Google tends to de-prioritise these types of backlinks as it is less likely to be relevant to what is on every webpage. In comparison, backlinks relating to the content on the page will be prioritised and result in higher rankings.
Now it’s time for the challenging part – getting your backlinks!
A great place to start is by contacting us at Design Grid! We can help increase your backlinks by placing you on up to 200 free Australian local web pages through citations that will positively impact your local search engine rankings and help local clients find you!
For further information on how we can help you promote your business online, contact Design Grid today!
