What are Backlinks?
Getting your website or blog to rank on Google means fine-tuning your SEO. In fact, there are over 200 factors that Google, and other search engines, use to determine your website’s search ranking.
But, arguably one of the most important factors of them all are backlinks.
What are backlinks?
In essence, these are links that direct to your website. Think of them as “votes” that Google uses to determine the quality of your content. The more votes (backlinks) that a website has, the higher it will rank in search.
So, the key here is to get as many backlinks as possible, right?
Not necessarily.
Another thing that Google looks for is the quality of backlinks. For example, if a website like Huffington Post or the BBC posts a link to your website, Google will see that as a high-quality “vote” for your content, helping to bump up your content in the rankings.
So then, the key is to get popular websites to link to my content, right?
Again, not necessarily.
On top of looking for quality backlinks, Google is also checking for relevant backlinks too.
Think of it this way, if you run a business selling hammers, saws, and other DIY tools, a link from Huffington Post, although a quality website, won’t be as effective because it’s not relevant to your content.
However, if a website like Homebase or B&Q (these are the UK equivalents of The Home Depot and Lowe’s, if you’re in the US) linked to your website, Google will see that as a much higher quality link, because it’s relevant to your content and website.
To sum this up, in terms of backlinks, Google is checking for three things:
How many backlinks there are to your website or blog.
The popularity of the websites that link to your content.
And how relevant the websites are in relation to your content.
If you can hit those three aspects efficiently, you’ll see your site climb higher and higher in the rankings!
Although being super important, backlinks are just one piece to the SEO puzzle. As mentioned above, there are over 200 different factors that search engines check when they determine where your website will rank.
Over the coming weeks and months, I will be covering different bits of information relating to SEO, and how you can improve your own, and thus boost your website’s search ranking!
Are there any other topics that you’d like to see covered here? If so, then please let me know via the contact page, and I’ll see what I can do!
As you can see from being on this site, I’m also a freelance graphic designer, so if you need help with any projects you’re working on, I’d be more than happy to get involved! I’m currently available for both short and long term hire.
Thanks for reading!