Backlinks are simply links from one website to a page on another website. They’re also called inbound links, incoming links, or one-way links.
As you can imagine therefore, backlinks are key for search engines such as Google to determine traffic and algorithms. If a site or page is backlined often and in a diverse fashion, Google notices it as a relevant and popular page. More backlinks to your page mean more external websites are endorsing your content. Because of this, search engines will interpret your content as valuable, credible, and useful for the end-user resulting in a higher search rank.
You’re probably wondering; “can backlinks even help my website?”. The answer is yes and here’s how
- Search Rankings
The more backlinks you get, the more votes of confidence you get from external sites. Search engines use this as a basis for determining the relevance and authority of your page. - Discoverable
The more your site is back linked the more likely it is to get discovered by new demographics. - Referral Traffic
This also leads to referral traffic which is traffic that comes from an external website. It is important because it sends potential buyers to your website who already trust the recommendations of the website they clicked the link from. - Credibility
The algorithms recognise that if a diverse amount of people and sites are referring you then you must be legit!
So, how exactly do I get my site backlinked?
- Start guest posting
Write articles for external websites and backlink yourself in the article. It’s not only beneficial for the guest writer but also for the publishing website. As the former get referral traffic, the latter gets new content for their target audience. - Hyperlinks previously published content
This has a similar effect to guest posting but instead of creating new content you get your site backlinks in already existing content. - Business listing sites
Create and publish a digital profile for your brand that links back to your website and posts it on business listing sites.
All in all, backlinks remain one of the most powerful SEO tools out there even in 2021 because they work incredibly well in an algorithmic pattern.