Backlinks are links on another website that send a person to your site. Once upon a time, backlinks were pretty much the only way to improve you rank on Google. By building an army of links, your website could reach the top of a search result.
The Importance of Backlinks
Unfortunately, because of their power, many people took to using the unethical technique of paying for backlinks. Because of this, Google has changed the way it ranks pages and now considers several factors. Although times have changed and backlinks may not hold the sway they once did, they are still critical to achieving your website’s rank.
Boost Your Credibility
One of the most significant advantages of backlinks is how they contribute to your site’s credibility. Backlinks from reputable websites make your site seem more authoritative, which is a substantial factor in your ranking.
Not all backlinks help your ranking. In fact, links from sites that are not within your industry may be considered spam and hurt your ranking.
Help Google Find Your Site
Google sends out “spiders” to crawl through the internet and discover new webpages. The main way that these spiders find new webpages is through links. Without links, the spiders are unlikely to find your website at all.
So, the more backlinks your website has, the better chance Google has of finding your website.
Direct Traffic to Your Site
Google will not consider your website trustworthy if it doesn’t get much traffic, meaning your site won’t be ranked very high by Google in its search results. This could make it difficult to ever get a high ranking.
But if you build a network of backlinks, you’ll have another way to get people to your site. This, in turn, will make your site seem more trustworthy, thus increasing your ranking.
Create Great Content
Definitely the most important way to get backlinks is by creating quality content that encourages other content creators to support you, causing the backlinks to roll in on their own. However, some kinds of articles invite more backlinks than others:
- How-To: Blogs and company websites on related topics will often link to a good how-to article rather than writing one themselves.
- List Articles: “Listicles” are popular to link to because they are fun and easy to read. Because they are usually numbered lists, it is also easy for readers to find the information they are seeking.
- Definitive Guides: Creating a definitive guide on a topic takes a bit of work, but other bloggers are likely to link to it to explain their own topics.
Guest Blogging
This is a proven strategy for acquiring a new audience and obtaining backlinks. All you need to do is reach out to popular blogs in your niche and ask if you can write an article for their website.
This will give you a chance to insert a backlink to your website in your writer’s bio. Also, you may be able to insert a backlink in the article itself.
Comment on High-Quality Blogs
This requires some care to avoid being seen as a spammer. Provide some sincere, honest commentary on blogs about topics in your niche. Also, do not forget to acknowledge the original author. Then, add a link to your website.
Conclusion
Backlinks are critical to establishing credibility and acquiring a good ranking in search results. Think of backlinks as an endorsement for your website—you want as many good ones as you can get. Try a few of these tactics and watch the visitors roll in.
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