A backlink is a link created when one website links to another. Backlinks are also called “inbound links”. Backlinks are important to SEO. Google and other major search engines consider backlinks “votes” for a specific page. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have high organic search engine rankings. To a larger degree, your backlink profile is made up of backlinks from external sites (also known as referring domains) that contribute to the overall strength, relevance and diversity of your domain’s backlink profile.
Why are backlinks important?
Backlinks are especially valuable for SEO because they represent a “vote of confidence” from one site to another.In essence, backlinks to your website are a signal to search engines that others vouch for your content. If many sites link to the same webpage or website, search engines can infer that content is worth linking to, and therefore also worth surfacing on a SERP. So, earning these backlinks can have a positive effect on a site’s ranking position or search visibility. Using links in a search engine algorithm is nothing new. In fact, backlinks formed the foundation of Google’s original algorithm (known as “PageRank”).
Backlinks help with three main things.
Rankings- Search engines like Google see backlinks as votes of confidence. Generally speaking, the more votes your web pages have, the more likely they are to rank for relevant search queries.
Discoverability- Search engines find new content by revisiting pages they already know about to check for new links.
Referral traffic- Backlinks exist to point people to useful resources. That’s why they’re clickable. When someone clicks on a link to your website, you get referral traffic.
How Are Backlins Earned?
Natural links- are given without any action on the part of the website owner. For example, the mountain climbing illustration above would involve a natural link if the hiking gear website had no role in receiving that link. One of the best ways to organically obtain natural links is by consistently creating high-quality content.
Manual links- are acquired through link earning activities. If the hiking gear website reached out to the climbing resource and requested a link, the backlink would be manual. Guest blogging for a relevant website is another strategic method to gaining a manual link. Be sure to link to your website within the content.
Are All Backlinks Valuable?
Dofollow backlinks and nofollow backlinks are two ways of identifying a link and telling Google how to associate the website you are linking to your website. Dofollow links are a way to pass on authority to a website, while a nofollow link does not pass on link juice.
What Is a Dofollow Link?
Strictly speaking, a dofollow link isn’t a thing. Dofollow is simply the default state for a link. Said another way, any link without the nofollow attribute is a dofollow link.
How do dofollow links affect site rankings?
Search engine bots crawl the web through dofollow links, registering who is linking to who. These relationships pass a type of authority that SEO pros call “link juice” from one site to another.
What Is a Nofollow Link?
A nofollow link, or backlink, is a link which does not pass authority on to the website it is linking to. These links do not help in terms of SEO. To make a link nofollow, add rel=”nofollow” to the code when linking to a website.
