So, you’ve been catching up on all things SEO and web presence marketing. But, you just can’t fully understand the concept of backlinks. You’ve heard the word before and all your SEO friends (assuming you’ve got SEO Friends) say it’s one of the most important things when it comes to getting more traffic to your site. Well, don’t fret, dear friend. We’ve laid out all the things you need to know about backlinks, what they are and why they’re so beneficial to your company’s web presence.
Okay, But What EVEN are Backlinks?
Backlinks are incoming hyperlinks that connect the reader from one web page to another. Simple enough to understand, right?
AND YET, there are different types of backlinks, too. External links are common in helping your SEO. They take you from one site to a completely different external site. Internal links, however, keep you in the same domain. For example, if I were to lead you from this blog piece to Post Launch’s homepage, that’d be considered an internal backlink. You visit a different page, but you have not left our website yet. Still with me?
External links are important when it comes to satisfying the Google bots, (which we’ll talk about in a sec), but internal links play a pivotal role in improving your SEO, too. When you link your readers to another page within your website, you are in turn increasing your page views per visit and your audience’s average time on site. Whoo! Good for you, dude!
Here’s How to Create Backlinks
Backlinks are created when some other website references your site on theirs or when you create a link to a source you used for creating content. Backlinks are the most successful when they are relevant to what you and your company do. For instance, if you have a content piece about homemade cat food, you wouldn’t want to reference an article about the latest news in sunscreen. You want to create a link to another cat blog, (but not one in direction competition with you, of course). Backlinks should also be authoritative and of great quality.
You can get backlinks for your site when you write “delicious” content that others in your field may want to read and have access to. Tutorials and top ten lists are fun to read and easily accessible by a variety of audiences. Also, blogs that are at least 250 words, but not too much longer than that, are the most successful. You can also create your own backlinks when you comment on other blog sites or forums.
The long and short of it? Get backlinks to your site is simply to connect with others in your field on the interwebs.
Getting backlinks is like getting votes. The more votes your site has, the more likely your site will win the first page of candidacy on Google.
How Backlinks Satisfy the Google Bots and Improve Your SEO
In the simplest terms possible, backlinks to your site tell Google that your website is the shizz. Pages with a lot of backlinks leading to the site tend to have a higher ranking with major search engines, like Google. You can believe me: this study confirmed that top rankings on Google correlate with having backlinks. Here are some details about just how these backlinks will help out you and your website:
Backlinks Improve Your Organic Ranking
If your content is getting organic links from other sites, your content will rank higher with the Google bots. They deem this content to have higher quality and they now consider you an authority in your field. Basically, other websites increase your credibility when they use your stuff as a source. Go you!
Backlinks Make Your Site Easy to Navigate
Backlinks help when the Google bots try to index your website. The backlinks are read by the search engine and act as a guide when the bots attempt to make sense of navigating through your site. Way to stay organized!
Backlinks Generate New Traffic to Your Site
One of the most important things that external backlinks do is bring more “referral” traffic to your site. Someone else has mentioned you, and in turn, they have recommended your site and encouraged their readers to check you out, too.
What NOT to Do When Taking a Stab at Backlinks
When you try to create more backlinks to your website, there are some things that you should be aware of. The Google bots are designed to detect manipulative or unnatural backlinks, and they will penalize you and your site for such misbehavior. Here’s what NOT to do:
- Do not create a link to a bad site. Just like with those scholarly essays in college (cringe), you must always find the most credible sources, the ones that got the facts right and were written by people with their heads on straight.
- Do not create a partnership with another website just to create backlinks for each other. If the backlink is irrelevant to your topic, or if the links show up too frequently, the Google bots may call B.S.
- Do not lose track of your backlinks. Be mindful of where your traffic is coming from and where you are sending your traffic. Organized practices like creating spreadsheets of backlinking strategies are some of the things that make your SEO journey even easier!
This Las Vegas SEO Company is Here to Help!
I bet after reading all of this delectable SEO information, you’re raring to go to create backlinks for your company’s website. No? Still confused? You’re in luck, kiddo. Post Launch is a Las Vegas-based web presence marketing company fully-staffed with SEO nerds who know exactly what your website needs. Give us a call today, and we’ll start talking to you about how to create backlinks and improve your SEO. Use our help to get your company the top rankings on Google!
