What are Backlinks and why are they important for SEO?
A great way for optimising a website is backlink building. Backlinks are very important in relation to the top 3 search engines, Google, Yahoo and Bing and how they determine where a site will rank in its SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages).
All three search engines take into account the number (and quality) of backlinks you have to your website which therefore means the more you have the increased chance that your website will rank higher in a search. Think of it like this, the number of backlinks become an indication of the popularity or importance of your site on the web.
Backlinks can be obtained in a number of different ways. Free social sites such as Twitter and YouTube can become valuable backlinks if used correctly. Online business directories are another source, blogs, forums, friends and supplier websites could also be used to increase the number of backlinks you have to your website.
So let’s go back to the beginning and ask what a backlink is? Well, a backlink is a one way link (url) that is on someone else’s webpage that directs people / bots to your site. For example, on the footer of TidyDesign.com you will see a link to our site mjward.co.uk, this is classed as one high quality backlink as TidyDesign.com has a PR4 (Page Ranking).
At Tidy Design we offer website marketing as one of our services, this means we can build backlinks (and more) on your behalf… Another alternative is some good old DIY! For example if you leave a comment on someone else’s blog you would get the option to enter a web address on that blog, this then becomes a backlink to your website! There are many other ways to request / find backlinks on the web, another example would be to analyse competitor backlinks… If they have several hundred backlinks then why not request the same several hundred backlink for your site!
I could go on all day about the do’s and don’ts of backlink building, link farms, black hats etc however I now need to get back to some work! So to conclude… Although building backlinks is a very tedious and can be a very long process it will ensure the long term success of your website in organic search results.
Good blog you mention backlinks. Are these the same as reciprocal links? In your blog above, did you mean that you can leave a cheeky little link http://www.bed-adjustable.co.uk to link back to our waterbed and adjustable bed website like this, in your comment? Incidentally our website was built by http://www.tidydesign.com and the SEO work you have done has got us ranked page one on Google for searches of both waterbeds and adjustable beds in portsmouth and Chichester
Hi John, many thanks for the comment / questions on ‘What are Backlinks and why are they important for SEO?’
The way to use backlinks to boost your organic search results, in a nutshell is for linking text (what directs both people and search engines to your site) needs to first contain your desired keywords… So enter ‘Adjustable Beds Portsmouth’ and not ‘John’ into the name area of blogs comment form.
To be honest, reciprocal links are a bit dated when it comes to SEO and Google will be more impressed by quality one-way links from relevant sites. It is a bit like a talent contest; the more votes you get (backlinks) and the individual influence each vote has over the judges (quality of page linking to your site) will help you win that talent contest (boost your organic SERPs).
Like this? Thanks for the informative answer. if you need a special deal on a waterbed or adjustable bed just let me know.
john