If you’re trying to promote your website and gain popularity through search engines, then you need to know how backlinks work. So, what are backlinks? Backlinks are links on other websites that point to your website, helping to raise your website’s popularity and ranking on the search engine results page (SERP).
Each link has a value called PageRank that gives it more or less authority than other links, depending on the strength of the linking website.
What are Backlinks
A single website can have many links coming into it, and all of those links represent backlinks to that site. Backlinks are important because Google has made it clear that one of its core ranking factors is an analysis of how many quality sites link to you.
The more quality sites link to you, the higher you tend to rank in search results. And, yes, quality sites DO make a difference when it comes to your rankings—Google has been very clear on that point over and over again in their official statements about web spam detection programs and penalties over years.
The different types of Backlinks
There are three different types of backlinks: external, internal, and contextual. External links are links that go to a website that’s not on your domain; they include links from sites like Wikipedia or blogs.
Internal links refer to pages on your site. Contextual backlinks refer to mentions of you or your business within a given piece of content (and include things like quotes). Generally speaking, you want as many types of backlinks as possible, but certain kinds carry more weight than others—especially regarding search engine optimization (SEO).
How to get High-quality links
Although they’re not as important as they used to be, links remain an integral part of search engine optimization. If you want to know how to get high-quality links, there are a few basic things you need to know: Links come in different types, some with more value than others.
Different quality links have varying levels of difficulty to acquire. With time and effort, though, anyone can get high-quality links that improve their SEO—it’s just a matter of knowing what to do (and what not to do). The three most common types of links are followed, nofollow, and Noindex.
Follow links include any link that will pass on page rank or domain authority when clicked on by a user. Nofollow links don’t pass along any value; these are typically placed in your resource box or footer so users can contact you without passing along any link juice. Finally, noindex is a special tag Google provides webmasters to prevent Google from indexing certain pages on your site.
How to manage your link profile
Properly managing your link profile is critical to determining how successful a campaign will be. The key is not necessarily in creating new links but in properly managing your link profile to ensure that existing links will continue to provide value over time.
This requires three things: 1) keeping track of your link profile; 2) maintaining existing links; 3) establishing systems for creating new high-quality links. Each component is essential to having a successful campaign. If you’re interested in learning more about managing your link profile, check out these guides: Managing Your Link Profile and How To Form & Run A Link Building Campaign.
I highly recommend giving them a read if you’re struggling with ranking issues or even want more information on setting up a process that works for you.
White hat strategies for link building
We’re assuming you want to use ethical methods to build links, which requires two main tactics: white hat link building and inbound marketing. White hat link building is all about getting other sites to link to yours. With inbound marketing, you generate interest in your business first (through content marketing, social media, etc.) which generates links naturally.
If you need to increase traffic quickly, however, take a white hat approach with these four strategies: 1) start guest blogging; 2) use directory submissions; 3) seek out partnerships; 4) find influencers.
If you have time to invest in link building, we recommend combining a white hat approach with a content marketing strategy. By creating great content that engages your target audience, you can increase search engine traffic over time as search engines recognize your business as one worth linking to.
You also develop relationships with influencers who may link to your site or share their love for it on social media sites like Facebook and Twitter.
Black hat strategies for link building
If you’re trying to build links through black hat strategies, don’t expect your website to see a lot of natural, high-quality traffic.
Why? Your links aren’t going to be seen as trustworthy by search engines (that means your pages won’t show up in results), and people aren’t going to want to share your content with their friends or colleagues (in other words, no natural referrals). The tactics below may have worked in 2001, but they won’t work today.
Conclusion
It’s a link from one piece of content to another, or in other words, it’s a reference. Since there isn’t any official definition for what constitutes a backlink, what qualifies as one may differ between people.
Some people prefer to think of backlinks as referring traffic, while others prefer to think of them in terms of links pointing to their website/page/content. That being said, there is more than one type of backlink; they each come with their pros and cons when it comes to SEO benefits and drawbacks.