How do you build backlinks?

Introduction

If your business has ever invested in SEO, then you are bound to have heard about backlinks long before now.

So, your SEO company has probably been banging on that your business requires more backlinks.

And most business owners understand that more backlinks are required, yet this sometimes mean that the business owner still hasn’t got the foggiest idea what they are.

Sometimes that person does not ask, as they know that their seo company will just state a load of marketing jargon!

However here at this marketing agency we are different, that’s because we don’t explain things using loads of jargon. We instead prefer to make things simple.

So, if you want to find out why backlinks are so important, and how they can be used to improve your businesses SEO then this is the blog post for you.

 

Backlinks are important

Backlinks are quite simply really important, so they are something your seo business should be working on in order to improve your seo.

The reason backlinks are important is there are 200 ranking signals, and backlinks are widely considered to be one of the most important ranking signals.

So yes its important to have meta titles and meta descriptions on your website, yet backlinks are considered more important.

Yet, as any good digital marketing agency will tell you, your business should be working on improving as many ranking signals as possible, as this is the best way to improve your companies seo.

Focusing too much on optimising one ranking signal, whilst ignoring all the other ranking signals, well that’s a flawed marketing strategy.

 

Quality is very important

We cannot over emphasise this point enough, that is when it comes to building backlinks quality is absolutely key.

So that’s right, its not about quantity its all about quality. Its far better to have a few really good quality backlinks, than it is to have thousands of spam backlinks.

And the reasons for this is clear, spam backlinks can mean that your website incurs a penalty.

We would highly recommend reading the following article.

 

What are internal backlinks?

Internal backlinks are a good way of helping a reader to easily navigate your businesses website.

So, for example, let’s say you run a dental practice, and you write a long blog post about how to look after your teeth, well you may just mention teeth straightening.

Now, teeth straightening is a service that your business offers, so you may highlight the term “teeth straightening” and use an internal backlink so that readers can easily get onto that page on your website.

This is a really good way of keeping readers on your website for longer, as they may click the link and spend even more time reading what your business has to offer.

Most digital marketing agencies believe that lowering a business’s bounce rate, while keeping a reader on the website for longer, well this can sometimes have a positive effect on your websites SEO.

What are external backlinks?

Now this is the really important part, so listen up, often the businesses that rank on the first page of Google have the best quality external backlinks.

All this means is that other websites have linked to that website. So, for example, let’s say you run an estate agency and you work closely with a company that offers to find your customers a mortgage.

Now the mortgage business may well link to the estate agency. So, the estate agency has now earned an external backlinks.

Your business therefore wants as many good quality backlinks that are relevant to your business as possible. Yet every single backlink must be built in a white hat way.

What is a no-follow backlink?

To improve where your website ranks, your business will need backlinks that are good quality and send “link juice”.

So, let’s say you sell luxury cars, and your dealership obtains a backlink from the car manufacturer, well the car manufacturers website will then send link juice to the car dealerships website.

Yet, no follow backlinks do not send link juice, they are instead no-follow, which means that the person who has given the link doesn’t want Google or any other search engine to follow that link.

However, this doesn’t mean that no-follow backlinks are useless, because quite simply put they are not.

The reason that no-follow backlinks are not useless is most SEO agencies agree that a healthy backlink profile will be made up of good quality backlinks, that are a mixture of both no-follow and do-follow backlinks.

 

What is a do-follow backlink?

A do-follow backlink allows link juice to be sent through the backlink. So, this means businesses require do-follow backlinks to help improve their seo.

However, all backlinks must always be built in a white hat way.

 

What does “anchor text” mean?

The anchor text is quite simply the text that you click on in order to follow a link. So, let’s say you are looking to purchase a new dining room table, and there are loads of different types of furniture that the business sells.

Yet, you click on the sentence “dining room tables”, the anchor text would therefore be dining room tables.

 

What is a link penalty?

If your website has low quality or spam backlinks, well this could mean your website incurs a penalty.

A link penalty can mean that your rankings drop, or that your website is removed altogether.

 

So, how should our business build backlinks?

We think that the best way to build backlinks is to earn them. This means making your company website really useful.

So let’s say for example you run a candle making business, well why not create blog posts explaining how your candles are different, perhaps how they are made from natural ingredients for example.

Then people who have interior design websites may like your article, they may then choose to link to the work. This way you are earning backlinks, as opposed to asking businesses to link to your website.