You’ve heard about website backlinks, and you undoubtedly have some. However, do you truly understand the importance of high-quality backlinks to your Off-Page SEO strategy?
In the unending battle to achieve higher Google rankings, it’s important to constantly improve your online authority. One excellent way to do that is through high-quality backlinks.
What are Backlinks in SEO & Why Are They Important?
Backlinks are when one website links to another. When businesses and organizations link to each other, it creates a pattern that Google sees as either reliable or unreliable. Ultimately, the search engine wants to find backlinks going from one authoritative site to another.
The internet is awash with pretenders and posers who try to look bigger and more important than they are in the business world. These people can’t acquire high-quality backlinks because they aren’t high quality themselves.
Google wants to find backlinks on your site from others with a high domain authority. If they see these when they look at your site, they will rank you higher as a result.
How To Create Backlinks
Any effective off-page SEO strategy depends greatly on being able to get high-quality backlinks. Getting these backlinks is achieved in three possible ways:
1. Naturally-occurring links
These occur without you having to ask for them. You can, however, create the situation that makes this possible. By consistently uploading high-quality content, others will want to link to it. This is even more so the case in social media. Without even directly working to get these backlinks, you could be earning some high-quality backlinks simply because you have a smart content marketing strategy in place.
2. Earned links
These you get in exchange for something you’ve done, such as writing a guest blog on someone else’s website. Getting a link back to your website is an expected perk for contributing to a guest blog. Ideally, you’re guest blogging for a website with high domain authority so that your authority increases as a result.
3. Links that you create yourself
These are created by you on someone else’s forum, online directory or blog comment section. Although this is easy to do, you may look like a spammer to anyone who sees the link.
Even if it’s not your intention to do anything unethical, perception is everything. These formats are often flooded by spammers dropping in links to further their own ends. You don’t want to be associated with these types of people.
Don’t take chances with your online reputation. If it’s appropriate to drop a link in some highly relevant discussion on someone’s else’s website, it’s customary to give it a “no follow” tag.
What Makes For High-Quality Backlinks?
Getting backlinks is important. However, there’s a reason you only want to pursue high-quality backlinks. Low-quality backlinks gain you nothing. In fact, they could actually be detrimental to your online reputation. Here are five things to consider as you pursue high-quality backlinks:
1. Are you getting dofollow backlinks & nofollow backlinks?
In some ways, it may even not matter in the long run. Just getting the link is what matters as far as you’re concerned. Dofollow backlinks are considered more desirable. However, nofollow links can still be beneficial. Don’t let the negative sound of that term trouble you. Nofollow links can be an excellent way to drive traffic and boost SEO.
2. What’s the domain authority of those who link to you?
You don’t want just anyone linking to your website. Instead, you want sites with high domain authority linking to you. This looks impressive to Google and viewers alike. Spammy websites linking to you should be avoided at all costs.
3. Is the link relevant?
A link can have massive value—or none. If, for example, someone outside of your industry links to you, it basically has little to no value. Google will know that and so will your viewers. In the end, an irrelevant link will give you no link juice. If you want link juice, you’ll need high-quality backlinks.
4. How prominent is the link on another’s domain?
This is where website architecture comes into play. If another website links to you right in the middle of a significant blog, that’s high visibility and could definitely bring some click-throughs your way. However, if the link to you is buried in an endnote or is just one of dozens of links in a list on a web page somewhere, you don’t benefit nearly as much.
5. Is the anchor text SEO-friendly?
This is something many website operators don’t always think about. How someone chooses to link to you can matter. Anchor text, the text that’s highlighted as a link, should be SEO-friendly. For example, hyperlinks covering an entire sentence aren’t good for SEO. Selected keyword phrases, on the other hand, are very SEO friendly.
If someone is linking to your website but the hyperlink is “click here,” they aren’t doing themselves or you any favors. Naturally, you don’t want to be doing this on your internal linking either.
Let Experts Help You Create High-Quality Backlinks & Upgrade Your Off-Page SEO
Dreamscape Marketing understands the value of website backlinks to your off-page SEO strategy. Let us help you turn your SEO strategy into the powerhouse it was always meant to be. Call us today at 888.307.7304.