What are backlinks?

Backlinks. Also known as inbound links or external links. Basically, these links refer to links that exist on one website and point to another website.

Search engines, such as Google or Bing, look at backlinks as indicators that the content of the page has the quality and is recognised by other websites. In other words, pages that have a higher number of backlinks may rank higher on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP).

Getting authoritative backlinks is one of the most important signals Google considers when ranking a website’s content.

The trust of a website is fundamental to the importance of a backlink. In other words, if a quality website that has an excellent reputation places a link that points to your website, that is an incredible vote of confidence!

The great objective of a backlinks strategy is besides expanding the reader’s knowledge, also to generate quality traffic to the Blog.

Thus, one of the most important strategies to succeed with SEO is Link Building.

One of the key elements when it comes to improving a website’s position in search results, at an organic level, is a strong, consistent and well-built link-building strategy.

But it is not only the authority of pages and your domain that backlinks will exert their influence. Backlinks will also have a direct impact on:

  • Referral traffic acquisition (Referral);
  • Brand Awareness;
  • Relationship building.

What types of backlinks are they?

  • No-follow links

Links must be regarded as if they were votes of confidence. However, let’s imagine that you want to put a reference on a website, but you do not want to be linked to it. No-follow links use the rel=”nofollow” attribute as a way to inform Google and other search engines that they should not give PageRank to that website.

Some comment sections feature this tag in their HTML code so that when someone writes a comment with a link on any post on your blog, it does not serve as a favourable backlink to that referenced website. These kinds of practices are usually understood as spam and do not contribute anything to the quality of content.

  • Follow Links

The follow links are considered the “normal” links, they pass authority (link juice) and direct the bots to those pages. A follow link attributes trust to the website and therefore, a link-building strategy must prioritize the follow links.

  • Link Juice

Link juice is the most widely used link juice in backlinks strategies. Usually, they are links that direct to the articles or to the home page of a website or blog and that bring more users. This type of backlinks are a great help in positioning websites in search engines.

  • Root Domains Links

Root domain links represent the number of websites that direct users to your website via the link. However, you should keep in mind that even if a domain refers to your website several times, search engines will only consider a single backlink.

  • Low-Quality Links

These types of backlinks are those that should be avoided because they are detrimental to positioning in search results. Usually, backlinks of poor quality are referred to as spam. They often originate from website directories, or dubious websites or are generated by buying backlinks.

How important are Backlinks?

When it comes to SEO, backlinks are one of the most prominent elements. But why are backlinks so important?

Without quality backlinks pointing to your website, you are losing one of the most important factors when it comes to search engine positioning – trust. The presence of backlinks indicates that your website is a reference in its sector and therefore deserves to be located at the top of search results.

Here are some of the main reasons why you should ensure you have a good backlinks strategy:

  • Google finds new pages through backlinks

Google’s crawlers use links to find new pages on the web – this is one of the main means by which new content is discovered, crawled and indexed. Getting a link from a trusted source will get your content indexed faster by Google.

  • Backlinks increase your reliability and credibility

Quality links from trusted sources help your website achieve a higher ranking, in addition to increasing your company’s credibility and authority.

  • Backlinks send referral traffic to your page

Since the beginning of the internet, the purpose of links is to take users from page X to page Y, not only within the same website but also between different websites.

Although links have become qualified by google’s algorithm, their basic concept has not changed: quality links attract quality traffic to your page.

How to define a Backlinks strategy?

  • Setting objectives

Setting goals is fundamental to any business strategy. It is crucial to make good planning that includes a detailed analysis of what stage the business is currently at and what the prospects are for the future. Some objectives that should be stipulated regarding a good backlinks strategy are:

    • Improving the positioning of your website pages;
    • Increase the authority of your brand/business in the market
    • Open avenues for new partnerships;
    • Improve your traffic and number of visits to your website.

After the implementation of the backlinks strategy, you will be able to analyse whether or not the objectives have been met.

  • Fixing broken links

Over time, a backlink can end up being “broken”. For example, a link that was placed in an older publication may not currently be working (either because the address has changed or because the page is no longer online). In this sense, it will be necessary to identify these situations and correct them as soon as possible, to minimise possible damage to the positioning of your pages.

  • Investing in Guest Posts

As the name suggests, it consists of publishing content on blogs other than your own and vice versa. Generally, these types of posts focus on experts who are recognised in the field as being authorities with in-depth knowledge of the topic in question.

  • Finding good partners

Finding good partners who contribute positively to our backlinks strategy is important and something that should be carefully decided upon. For a partner to be considered “good” they must have good blog posts, i.e. that their articles mirror the content that is valuable and unique to their industry.

  • Consider your differentiating factors

It is important to have a broad sense of what your brand/business differentiating factors are. Analyse and explore what these factors are and make use of them to facilitate closing potential partnerships. In other words, ask yourself what you can offer a potential partner that will reciprocate with a valuable backlink. Some good examples of options to consider are:

    • Quality content that can be published on your blog;
    • Relevant market research and data;
    • Products, services and/or solutions offered by your company;
    • Authority of your website – since you can distribute it to your partners through Links Juice;
    • Contact with big names in your market segment – such as a qualified expert who can provide interviews, webinars or other content for your partners.
  • Ensure good quality content

Regardless of your differentiating factors, it is essential to present great quality content in your articles. In other words, this is the only way you will be able to attract an audience with an interest in mirroring your content on other websites. This is the thought to bear in mind when it comes to a content marketing strategy that can provide you with good results. So, what are the characteristics of good content?

    • Interesting and well written;
    • Relevant to the persona;
    • That mirrors SEO techniques;
    • With language directed to the desired persona.

The content should always be produced by a copywriter or content writer who is experienced in the area. It is always valuable to use other materials that complement the text itself, such as images, research/statistics relevant to the topic in question.

  • Segmenting the audience

The more the page can communicate with the persona, the more authority it gains in front of Google’s algorithm. This happens because the algorithm “observes” what happens when the content reaches the indicated reader. In this sense, it is important that the company’s marketing plan is well defined, since it will bring relevant information to its target audience.

  • Converting references into links

Many websites that mention brands, services and/or products do not add hyperlinks to them. However, it is becoming increasingly important that all references made to third-party services have an associated link. This helps not only to increase the authority of the website in question, but also to attract new users.

  • Use evergreen contents

Evergreen publications are those publications that reflect themes that are considered timeless, i.e. that will always be important and will not become outdated within months or even years.

In this sense, you can always reuse past content in recent publications, further increasing your portfolio of hyperlinks.  Another advantage of using evergreen content is that it increases the likelihood that other online platforms will link to your website.

 

Therefore, it is clear that the use of backlinks is relevant for any company that exercises a quality SEO strategy, however it is necessary to articulate various digital strategies in order to cement the success of your company in your market segment.

In the middle of so many websites, blogs and pages, search engines are increasingly demanding when it comes to analyzing the results that effectively deserve to be mirrored on the first page of results. That is why it is increasingly important to have a few backlinks that give your website good credibility to the detriment of the presence of many backlinks of questionable quality.