Importance Of Backlinks

Today, you’ll learn the importance of backlinks, how to check them for free, and how to get more backlinks for your site. Let’s get started.

What are Backlinks?

So, what are backlinks? Backlinks are links from one website to another. The website that receives the link is referred to as the receiving end, and the links are often called incoming links or inbound links. On the other hand, the website that provides the link is known as the linking side, and the links are called external, outgoing, or outbound links.

Importance of Backlinks for three main reasons:

1. They help search engines like Google determine the ranking of pages for specific queries.
2. Backlinks can generate referral traffic, directing visitors to your website.
3. Backlinks aid search engines in discovering your pages more quickly.

To understand backlinks better, think of them as votes. When a page receives a backlink, it’s like another website vouching for the quality of the content on that page. The more “votes” you receive from credible sources, the higher the trust associated with your website. However, not all backlinks are equal.

Two key factors differentiate good-quality backlinks from lower-quality ones:

1. Topical relevance: Google considers the topic of a page and how likely a link related to that topic is to be clicked. For example, if you have a web page about “How to make slime,” a backlink from a kid’s activity blog would be more relevant and valuable than one from a tech blog.
2. Authority: Authority refers to the quality and quantity of backlinks coming from referring websites and pages. Google assigns a score to this called “PageRank,” but it’s not publicly available. Third-party tools use proprietary metrics such as Domain Rating (DR) and URL rating to estimate a website’s and page’s link popularity strength, respectively. Getting backlinks from authoritative pages, along with topical relevance, provides maximum benefits.

How to Check Backlinks

To check backlinks to your site, you can use two free methods:

1. Google Search Console: Set up an account and verify ownership of your site. Access the Links report to view the pages on your website that have the most links, the websites that have linked to you the most, and the anchor text used in the links. Clicking on the More button allows you to see the web pages linking to you.
2. Ahrefs’ Free Backlink Checker: Enter the URL or domain you want to examine, and you’ll see the top 100 backlinks pointing to your target. For a comprehensive backlink profile, you can use Ahrefs’ Site Explorer, export the results, or apply filters to focus on specific data.

Additionally, you can use Ahrefs’ Backlink Checker or Site Explorer to gain insights into your competitors’ backlinks. Enter a competitor’s URL or domain, go to the Backlinks report, and observe where their backlinks originate from. This helps you understand their backlink acquisition strategies.

How to Get Backlinks

There are three methods for obtaining backlinks: earning them, creating them, and building them.

1. Earning links: This happens naturally through organic growth when people discover your pages through search engines, social media, or word of mouth and choose to link to your site.
2. Creating backlinks: You can add links to your site on other websites through forums, directories, blog comments, or other methods.
3. Building links: This approach involves link-building strategies, such as reaching out to site owners, editors, or webmasters and asking them to link to your page. Keep in mind that the easier it is to get a link, the less valuable it tends to be. When starting with SEO, focusing on link-building is essential to gain traction for your site.

The “vicious circle of SEO” occurs when people search for something, read the top-ranked result, and link to that page from their websites. Consequently, the first-ranking page receives more links, solidifying its position at the top.

For step-by-step tutorials on various link-building tactics, I recommend watching our available resources.

I hope this article helps you understand backlinks and their significance in SEO. Good luck with your backlink strategy!