It is important for entrepreneurs that you can be found quickly and easily via the internet. You want to attract many readers to your messages and content and you do this by ranking high in the search results of well-known search engines, such as Google. Now you may be thinking; How do I ensure a higher position in the organic search results? You can do this by using backlinks. These website links point to your websites and can mean a higher rating in search engines. The more websites refer to your website, the faster and easier people can find you. These websites help you by recommending your website, as it were.
These links can therefore make a major contribution to your company's customer base by ranking higher in the search results of search engines. This in turn ensures that more people visit your web page and you can expect more customers. However, what exactly are these backlinks, how do they work, what is the importance of these internet tools and how can you get backlinks?
What are backlinks?
The links that bear this name come from other websites on the internet. These websites refer to your website by means of a hyperlink. This means that people visiting these websites can get to your website in a much more direct way, but it has another advantage. These links also ensure that there are more recommendations available on the internet from your website. All these backlinks are seen as recommendations by search engines, such as Google.
The more quality, relevant backlinks point to your website, the greater its authority in the sector you want to approach. Authority is important on the internet, as the Google search engine, for example, puts websites with a lot of authority and specialization at the top. Because these websites have the most recommendations via backlinks, it is expected that the most relevant information can be found there. Ultimately, this means that people can find a niche's most important contribution at the top.
The difference between backlinks and linkbuilding
Backlinks are related to the term SEO, which refers to search engine optimization. This connection is formed by link building, which is the umbrella term for all kinds of tools to increase SEO. Link building is one of the more than 200 factors of the algorithm that Google uses, which determines the position of a website in the results. However, link building does count for fifty percent, and you must ensure a good ratio of links to your own website and external pages. Link building includes three different terms:
- By means of internal links refer to other parts of this website within your own website. These links have to do with the purpose of your website, where the quantity must be limited. Too many internal links cause confusion. So keep a maximum of one internal link per 100 words.
- When using external links you use links that refer to a website other than your own. The links will be displayed on your own page. You should also limit this, as this way you increase the authority of other websites. Also only create external links to non-rival other websites.
- Finally there are backlinks, which are links from external websites that refer to your own website. This gives authority to your website, which Google sees as recommendations.
Avoiding toxic backlinks
It is best to collect recommendations in the form of links from websites with relevant information, which are strong backlinks. For this it is first important to know what a search engine experiences as qualitative. The following matters are important:
- Relevance
Firstly, it is important that the links from external websites to your website are relevant to the niche you work in. It does not have to be directly related, but it does have to be in the direction and where semi-relevant niches can be helpful. Traffic on these external websites is also important, but plays a less important role. It is certainly not a determining factor for the value of the link itself. - Of course
A second condition for quality links is their naturalness. Ultimately, they have to make sure you have a natural profile builds up. This profile can be developed by having a reference to your website on various external websites. A young webshop, for example, only six months old with already 500 backlinks does not look natural to a search engine. Having many backlinks from health, fashion and toy niches is also unnatural for an online store in the furniture trade. - Relevant anchors
The text becomes visible by means of an anchor text made visible to other pages. By alternating these anchors, different pages with different anchor texts can provide higher value to search engines. It is therefore important that each page uses a different anchor text. You can think of identifying a keyword, creating a sentence with it and then coming up with all kinds of variations on it. Because the keyword is used in each anchor, the links are related to each other. There are also naked anchors, which actually describe nothing. This could be, for example, “click here”, of which you should only use a very limited number.
Why are backlinks important to you?
You get recommendations from other websites via backlinks. Good recommendations are important for creating reliability and loyalty among potential customers. This also applies to many other businesses, such as a clothing seller. If the store sells good quality clothes, friends will recommend buying your clothes there. Due to this positive recommendations will you also take a look at the store?
It is also arranged this way for websites. The more relevant external websites refer to a particular website, the more Google is convinced that it is indeed a good website. The search engine wants to recommend the best websites in its results to users to get their rating. Google can track the best websites through backlinks. These links not only indicate the value of a website, but also how popular it is among the public. After all, other sites will not refer to your website if the information is not sufficient for their visitors.
In the beginning of the Google search engine, the focus was mainly on the quantity of backlinks, but over the years relevance and quality have become increasingly important. Of course, value is still attached to the number of links that a website has on other websites, which makes a website popular both fronts must score sufficiently. Only by mastering both properties can your website become a priority in the search engine.
How do you get backlinks?
Now that you know what these links actually mean and how important they are for the relevance and popularity of your website, perhaps the most important question is asked; how do you get it? There are various programs available for this purpose backlink activity and monitor its functionality. This keeps track of the SE ranking, which in turn refers to the created links that are online. These programs can keep an eye on your link building through an SEO scan.
For advanced link builders, the following methods can be used to build backlinks for your website.
1. Write and publish articles
First of all, good quality articles can provide more backlinks. After all, the chance that external websites will link to your website is greater when they know that relevant information can be found there. There are also special websites available for posting written articles. You can submit your article here, and all you have to do is put a link in the article to your own website. This way the number of backlinks will be increased.
For example, websites that are open to new content in the form of an article Artikelplanner.nl en knowledgesharing.com. Both examples are places where you can post an article with a link to your web page. Others will also share your articles, spreading the link to your page. However, do not do this too often, otherwise an unnatural profile may arise.
2. Use blog influencers
We are all familiar with the concept of one an influencer, which tries to influence potential customers through social media. There are vloggers and Instagram celebrities who participate in this phenomenon, but there are also the so-called blog influencers. These authoritarian people in your field can increase brand awareness for your website. You do this by entering into a working relationship with such a special influencer.
It is important to know that two backlinks from the same blog influencer are considered only by search engines a recommendation being seen. Therefore, focus on several of these influencers to get more different recommendations, develop more authority and increase your position in search results.
3. Write guest blogs
In general, to increase the number of links on external websites, it is important to spread your information as much as possible. This can also be done by participating in guest blogs and leaving interesting content there. This allows you to attract the right audience for your niche, where interested parties can take a link to your website. This is especially successful when writing about things that people are interested in, but are still interested in little is known about it is.
You must of course place a link to your own website in the guest blog and use a good anchor for this. The blog website is always happy with new quality content from specialists and you can recruit new customers. You also have a backlink from the guest blog itself. To find interesting blog websites that apply to you, you can, for example Google Blog search and enter a keyword here. Do not limit yourself to one guest blog, here too, each website is only valid for one recommendation.
4. Links on home pages
This option should not be used too often, but it can be valuable occasionally. There are hundreds of home pages in the country which are all collections of links. People often set this as the first page when opening the internet and if there is one for your industry you can of course use it. You can submit a request, which will be accepted or rejected. However, the backlink resulting from this method is not the most valuable, as the homepage is full of other links. So be sure to use one of the other methods indicated.
5. Post link-worthy content on your website
The next method is to attract backlinks, which often requires some familiarity. You do this through your own website to dress with link-worthy content. Other websites can use your website as an authority, which results in a backlink. Within this method there are many options and many different types of link-worthy content. Focus on your field and also use many other authoritative sources that make it interesting.
In general, you create link-worthy content by creating content that is informative, educational, entertaining, and inspiring. Use it latest news, provide good quality information, respond to emotions and ensure that it gives readers the creeps.
6. Drafting press releases
You can get a lot of publicity by writing press releases and sending them out. You can, for example, publish these messages via onlinepressrelease.com of newsbank.nl. By placing links to your website in these press releases, you increase the number of backlinks. Limit this, as the goal is of course to inform.
The biggest advantage of using links via press releases is that you place the links yourself and therefore have control over the quality. In addition, the message is shared and therefore backlinks are also created multiplied.
7. Use social media
Social media are currently the method to gain fame and spread information. This medium can also be used to collect backlinks. The more interaction there is, the more followers you can get and the more likes on your page. This also increases your ranking in search engine results. Therefore, make sure that you regularly interesting posts leaves on various social media channels. Of course, always include a link to your own website here. The more these posts are shared, the better this is for your SEO and amount of links.
There are many different types of channels available on social media, the best known being Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. The following channels are also becoming increasingly popular or are already very popular and can be an important part of your brand awareness.
- With LinkedIn you can make a professional website aimed at the business world better known through connections. A profile on this channel is based on work experience, allowing others to approach you. There is also a lot of information available about work and related topics. Backlinks from this page are in any case professional.
- Tiktok is becoming increasingly popular and works by posting short videos that can be viewed by others. You can sing, dance or playback to these videos. You can get links through this channel because others like or share your posts. This is an effective tool, especially when young people are your target group.
- Finally, Youtube already very well known, where many different target groups can be approached via videos.
If it turns out that the link building of your website is not satisfactory, you can also choose to outsource it. Especially if you have less knowledge of these matters, an outsider with expertise in this area can provide a lot of help. In practice, things sometimes go wrong for people who try to do this themselves.
How do you maintain backlinks?
Getting links from external websites to your page is time-consuming, not easy and, if done incorrectly, can lead to a negative profile for search engines. Once you have succeeded, the task of maintaining these links is added. This means that you check all the links once in a while, which can be done with the help of free programs. Well-known examples are SEO Spyglass and Ahrefs. Pay specific attention to lost links and try to supplement them where possible.
It may take a lot of effort and time and may not always produce the desired result, but backlinks are important for the position of your website in the search engine results.
