What is a backlink? How to Increase the Number of Backlinks
Backlinks are hyperlinks that connect one website’s page to another’s page. Someone who links to your website has given you a backlink. When you link to another website, you are giving them a backlink.
What are the benefits of backlinks?
Backlinks are beneficial in three ways.
- The Ranking
Backlinks are seen as votes of confidence by search engines such as Google. In general, the more votes your web pages receive, the better chance they have of ranking for relevant search searches.
What evidence do we have? We’ve looked at link-based ranking variables before and always come up with the same conclusion: the quantity of backlinks from unique websites (referring domains) is closely correlated with organic search traffic.
- Accessibility
Search engines find new material by checking for new links on pages they already know about.
Because search engines revisit popular pages more frequently than unpopular pages, getting backlinks from popular pages may help them find your material faster.
- Traffic from referrals
Backlinks are used to direct users to useful sites. It’s for this reason that they’re clickable.
You obtain referral traffic when someone clicks on a link to your website.
What are the characteristics of a good backlink?
Backlinks aren’t all made equal. Here are some of the many factors that influence the quality and usability of a backlink.
Relevance
Relevant backlinks have a higher value in Google’s eyes because people are more inclined to click on them. This is something they discuss in their patent for the “decent surfer.”
What does this imply in practice? If a plumber gets backlinks from two pages, one about cats and the other regarding boiler installation, the latter is likely to be the most valuable.
Authority
Backlinks from high-quality web pages normally carry more “authority” than those from low-quality pages.
We’ve looked into page-level authority before, and we’ve discovered a definite link between it and organic traffic.
Backlinks from authoritative pages, on the other hand, do not always convey additional authority.
According to Google’s original patent, all outbound links on a web page share equal authority. So, if you have backlinks from two pages, and one has more external connections than the other, the link from the website with fewer outbound links will transmit more authority, all else being equal.
Traffic
Backlinks from high-traffic pages are more likely to send you referral traffic than links from low-traffic pages. That is self-evident. The underlying question is whether backlinks from high-traffic pages have a greater beneficial impact on rankings than backlinks from low-traffic pages.
Followed vs. Nofollowed
Although nofollowed backlinks can affect the rankings of the connected website, they rarely do.
Because link building requires time and work, it’s preferable to focus on gaining links that are followed. If you obtain a nofollowed link, don’t make a big deal about it. It could still be useful for SEO purposes.
What is the best way to check backlinks?
There are two methods for checking the backlinks of a website or web page. The first option is only applicable to sites that you own. Check hyperlinks to another website or web page with the second.
Using Google Search Console to examine backlinks
Google Search Console provides information on the organic search traffic and general performance of your website. It’s completely free to use—just sign up for a free account and verify your website’s ownership.
Click “Links” in the sidebar once you’ve signed in.
The figure beneath “External links” indicates the total number of unique backlinks to the site
How to Increase the Number of Backlinks:
You can gain more backlinks in three ways: by creating them, earning them, or building them.
Acquiring backlinks
When people find your material through search engines like Google, social media, or word of mouth, they choose to link to it. Earned backlinks, in other words, are natural.
Create truly useful content that others will want to connect to to increase your chances of getting more backlinks.
Generating Backlinks
This is when you manually add links from other websites to your site. Submitting to company directories, writing blog comments, and responding to forum posts are just a few examples.
Establishing backlinks:
When you contact other site owners, editors, or webmasters and ask them to connect to your page, this is what you’re doing. You’ll need a clear value proposition for this to succeed. This is where link-building strategies come into play.
Here is a handful that has been tried and true:
- Blogging as a guest: Offer to publish a one-time blog post for a different site.
- Finding relevant dead links on other sites and contacting them to recommend your working link as a replacement. (You may do this using our broken link checker.)
- The Skyscraper Method: Find relevant material with a lot of links, improve it, and then ask folks who link to the original to link to you instead.
Conclusions:
When it comes to ranking in search engines like Google, backlinks are crucial. Backlinks, however, are not all made equal. The quality and value of a link is determined by its relevance, placement, and other factors.
As a general rule, the easier it is to obtain a link, the lower its value.