Why Are Backlinks Important for SEO?

Search engine optimization, or SEO, is a crucial component of any digital marketing strategy as it influences how many people find your site through search engine queries. The better your ranking, the higher your site will appear for a particular search, and since most customers don’t go past the first page of a search, having your site towards the top of the first page of a search result is essential. 

SEO requires a deep understanding of how search engines work. Search engines use many site elements, called ranking factors, to decide how relevant a website is to a particular keyword search. Ranking factors include your content quality, site structure, and your site’s authority on a particular topic. And one of the biggest factors in authority is having high-quality backlinks from other authoritative sites.

If you work with an experienced search engine optimization agency in NJ like Peppermonkey Media, you won’t have to worry about acquiring or managing backlinks for your site. However, it’s still always a good idea to understand what backlinks are and their role in your SEO strategy. Read on!

What Are Backlinks?

Also known as inbound links, backlinks are links from other websites that link back to pages on your site. Examples of backlinks include: 

• A blogger that has a list of resources in their sidebar that link to your site
• A news site that links to your company page after you did something noteworthy

It’s easy to confuse backlinks with internal links, but the main difference is that a backlink is an external link — it comes from another website that you don’t own. Internal links come from other pages on your site, such as links between various blog topics that are closely related. 

Why Do Backlinks Matter?

Backlinks matter because they demonstrate your relevance in a particular field. Simply saying you have great products isn’t enough — having an established and reputable blogger say the same and link to your site is significantly more valuable. And the more high-quality backlinks you have, the better your position as an authoritative website.

Google and other search engines have focused on authority as a key ranking factor because authoritative sites are more likely to produce valuable and useful content. The primary aim of a search engine is to provide users with relevant answers to their questions and linking to an established site with a reputation for producing thought-leading, informative content is more likely to give users the answers they want. 

Backlinks can also affect your brand image — if government websites and highly-placed news and media outlets link to your content, you’ll quickly develop a reputation among existing customers as being highly influential in your sector. 

What Influences Backlink Quality?

Not all backlinks are created equal. Understanding why backlinks are important should also make it clear that having them from reputable, legitimate sources is vital. Low-quality links can hurt your ranking, as they can start to feel spammy, impact your site’s customer experience, and cause Google and other search engines to penalize you for too many poor inbound links. 

So how can you tell a good backlink from a bad one? Several factors contribute to a link’s quality, and the more of these criteria your link meets, the better its impact on your ranking. 

Follow vs. Non-Follow

Other site owners can specify how Google views a particular link. Google introduced “Dofollow” and “Nofollow” to combat link spam, allowing sites to tag links that are part of an advertising or link spamming strategy.

A “Dofollow” link will pass PageRank signals (colloquially known as “link juice”) that Google recognizes, while a “Nofollow” link doesn’t. The more “Dofollow” links you have, the higher your overall backlink score and search engine ranking.

Domain Authority

Links from established high-authority domains, such as government, university, or NGO sites, have a higher value than those from newly-established low-authority sites. In general, having lots of links from low-quality sites may do more harm to your ranking than simply having fewer inbound links. 

Link Relevancy

Google’s algorithm can identify topics and decide whether links between these topics are relevant. For instance, if you run a fishing store and you get a backlink from a dentist, Google will identify the link as irrelevant and lower its value. Stick to relevant links within your sector to get the best value per link. 

Anchor Text

Anchor text is the visible text that users click on to access a link. Having relevant, SEO-friendly anchor text is better than using genetic terms such as “click here” when dealing with internal and external links. 

How To Get High-Quality Backlinks

As with most SEO strategies, knowing why backlinks are important is the first part of developing a strategy. Unlike most other ranking factors you can directly control, building a high-quality backlink profile requires convincing others to link to your site. And while it’s tempting to use faster, spammy methods to obtain backlinks, these often do more harm than good to your reputation and search engine ranking. 

Naturally-Earned Links

The gold standard of backlinks is those that occur naturally from another website picking up on your content and liking it so much that it links to your site. Natural backlinks are important and extremely valuable but require putting in plenty of effort to create the best possible content that industry leaders notice. 

Manual Links

Manual links are the most common form of legitimate backlink, where companies ask each other for links. For instance, a car mechanic may reach out to a car review site and ask the site to link to the car mechanic’s blog about diagnosing common car issues. The car review site will still need to have faith in the car mechanic’s expertise and content, but the mechanic has to reach out manually to request the link.

SEO is a complex field that can overwhelm small and medium business owners. If you’re confused by the importance of keyword research in SEO, or need assistance developing a robust SEO strategy, our team at Peppermonkey Media can help. Visit our website or call us at 1(888) 231-9764 to schedule a free digital strategy session. 

The post <strong>Why Are Backlinks Important for SEO?</strong> appeared first on Peppermonkey Media.

source https://peppermonkeymedia.com/blog/why-backlinks-important/