With all of the hype surrounding the importance of content in your SEO efforts, backlinks have really fallen by the wayside, and this is a critical oversight that can severely impact your search engine result page (SERP) rankings. Since there hasn’t been a lot of buzz surrounding them, you might be wondering exactly why backlinks are important for SEO. We’ll fill you in and even give you a few tips to get started on building your own!
Backlinks are Important for SEO because they Prove Relevance
Relevance is a word you have come across often if you have been working on inbound marketing, content marketing, and other SEO efforts. Search engine algorithms are constantly being revamped, so users get the most relevant information possible when they perform keyword searches and backlinks chttp://sumnerdigital.wpengine.com/how-we-got-on-the-first-page-of-google-with-a-low-domain-authority-ranking/ontribute heavily to moving your web pages higher in the SERPS. The reason is simple: the more people who link to your information, the more your site stands out as an authority on the keywords that are being linked to. In a way, it’s almost like a referral or testimonial by other sites, saying they believe your information is useful and relevant. When the algorithms are working their magic, they comb the Web for all instances of your site and its pages and these backlinks show that your site is trusted by others.
Backlinks are Powerful but can be Dangerous!
As with anything that has a lot of power to do great things, backlinks can also land you in hot water with the search engines; possibly even getting blacklisted! While you want to build links and improve your SERP rankings, you have to be diligent about attracting backlinks from other sites that are legitimate, quality sites. At one time, it was common to purchase backlinks to improve rankings and Google put a sudden stop to that with one of its algorithm updates and thousands of sites were removed from their servers. The key is to attract backlinks from quality sites that are linking to the information you have posted because it is relevant.
Working to Secure Quality Backlinks
Quantity does count when it comes to backlinks, but only if all of them are from quality sites. Shares on social media and links shared on other blogs count, but aside from consistently producing great blog content, there are a few other things you can do to attract backlinks that will prove important for SEO:
- Develop relationships with blogs that are relevant to yours but not direct competition. There are often opportunities in your posts where you can link to a piece in another blog to give your readers more information. When you link to those blogs, chances are good they will return the favor, and you are not only providing your users a better experience, you are developing backlinks.
- Create free guides, e-books or tools relevant to your business. People love free and will share your links so others can take advantage of your offer. As your links are shared, you are developing backlinks.
- Make a great video that solves a common issue your customers face, provides entertainment yet relates to your business or is designed to attract new visitors. People love sharing videos, and this is another great way to do link building.
- Show your expertise and share relevant links on Quora, LinkedIn groups, Yelp! and other reputable knowledge-based sites. These are excellent opportunities for exposure and quality backlinks.
Attracting quality backlinks takes a little time and effort, but they are important to SEO. Try a few of our suggestions, and you will see some improvement!