Incorporating a Backlinks Strategy for a Competitive Edge
You’ve done everything right and you’ve checked all the boxes. Great product or service – CHECK! Outstanding customer support – CHECK! Well-designed, user-friendly website – CHECK! Social media platforms are up and running – CHECK! Well-written content is rich with SEO keywords – CHECK! So that’s it. That’s all you need, right? Oh, wait – what about backlinks?
What are Backlinks?
If you’re not quite sure what backlinks are or why they’re necessary, you’re not alone. Backlinks are some of the essential components of a webpage and are key to the authenticity of your website. To put it simply, whenever one website links to another website, that generates a backlink for the linked website.
To understand a backlink in its simplest form, think of researching golf courses in Atlanta and a whole list of area golf courses pop up in your Google search. When you see a link to a golf course website, well, that is a backlink.
Or when researching a product, idea, or service. Anytime you visit a website, most likely you’ve clicked on a link that leads you to another website. Maybe you found an article about tightening up your golf swing and within that article is a link to another website about golf tips and products. That is a backlink, too – the link that leads you to another page. And that is exactly what you want – backlinks from someone else’s page that leads their website visitors to your very own page.
In essence, a backlink is like receiving a vote of confidence from respectable online “friends” and “neighbors”.
IMPROVE SEO WITH BACKLINKS
With keyword-rich content, your website has greater chances of being found on search engines like Google. That in itself is extremely important. Backlinks are equally as important for both search engines and end users and have a significant impact on your SEO. Having credible links that are directed to your website is a powerful web tool that search engines consider for ranking content. Furthermore, backlinks are an indication that other external websites are endorsing your content and your business.
HERE’S HOW BACKLINKS WORK
When a search engine picks up backlinks (remember, these are on someone else’s page directing to your webpage), these are indicators of quality content that has gained the attention and support of other websites. Pages with more backlinks often rank higher on SERPs (search engine results pages). Search engines like Google view backlinks as credible votes of confidence. Generally speaking, the more votes your web pages have, the more likely they are to rank for relevant search queries.
TRUST IN THE BACKLINKS – (THE BENEFITS)
Trust is a huge factor when it comes to backlinks. If the website linking to your page has an excellent reputation, that’s almost instant proof of their trust in you and your content. Through this increased visibility, you begin to gain your own credibility; giving your webpage that fantastic vote of confidence. And because search engines revisit popular pages more often than unpopular ones, they may discover your content faster if you get backlinks from these quality, external popular pages.
HOW TO BUILD CREDIBLE BACKLINKS
Backlinks exist to point people to useful resources, such as your business website. That’s why they’re clickable. And this is your goal in obtaining backlinks. Backlinks can be developed by:
- Asking your suppliers or partners to link to you
- Writing a guest blog post or article on an industry publication similar to your business
- Adding in your web information on niche-specific directory sites
- Building relationships with influencers
Opportunities for link building can be found within the resource page on your own website. By having quality content such as blog articles, guides, PDF downloads, tips, or even infographics, your business can add value to your audience and to the audience of those that may provide relative backlinks to your page.
Conclusion
After your website is functioning, focusing on getting high-quality, unique, and authoritative links is crucial for higher ranking on the search engine results pages and improving your SEO. Evaluating your own site is the first place to start. You can even discover who is providing the backlinks for your competitors which helps to gain incredible insight into your own link-building strategy.
To discover what influences your audiences and how to effectively begin building your own backlinks, the Cazarin Interactive marketing team can help you get started. Reach out at www.cazarin.com to chat with one of our team members, today!
