What are backlinks and how do you build them?
Introduction
Often when shopping around for an SEO quote for your business, you will undoubtably hear the term “backlinks” crop up time and time again.
That’s to say for a business to get onto the first page of Google often what is required is high-quality backlinks.
So, most business owners understand that they need backlinks, but a lot do not know what exactly they are or how to obtain backlinks.
Well, if such a questions are your mind you’ve come to the right place. We are white hat seo experts.
Why are backlinks so important?
Most businesses want to be appear on the first page of Google, yet do just that the business will need SEO in order to optimise the businesses ranking signals.
Now, there are over 200 ranking signals for each website, and you guessed it, the businesses that have the strongest ranking signals are the businesses that get ranked on the first page of Google.
Yet, with that said, its also worth knowing that not all ranking signals are worth the same.
This means that some ranking signals are more important than some others. Most seo companies think that backlinks are one of the most important ranking signals there is.
However, backlinks should always be built in a white hat way, and the backlinks must be of quality.
Quality backlinks
If a business was to build rubbish quality backlinks, well this means just one thing, and that is the websites likely to incur a penalty.
Most business owners will have heard of the Google Penguin updates, a lot of businesses will also know of a business that has received such a penalty.
It can often mean that the website drops substantially in terms of where it ranks, so for example, it may have been on the first page before the penalty, then after it may have been on page 10.
Also, some businesses will have been removed altogether.
This is why all businesses require quality backlinks. The backlinks should be built in a white hat way also.
So, what exactly are internal and external backlinks?
Internal backlinks are simply backlinks that when you click the link, the link will take you internally on that website.
So, let’s say for example you run a digital marketing agency, and a business owner is looking for an agency that offers local seo, well clicking on the button, or anchor text named “local seo” would be an example of an internal link.
External backlinks are what businesses need to help improve where the business ranks.
This means that more often than not the businesses that are ranked on the first page of Google will often have high-quality backlinks.
These backlinks will be external, meaning other websites have chosen to link to that website.
So let’s say for example you run a car dealership, and the car manufacturers website links to your website, well this would be an example of an external backlink.
The backlinks that seo companies like us are looking to build are high-quality backlinks that are do-follow.
Do-follow backlinks simply means the backlink sends link juice, and its link juice that can help to improve where a business ranks.
Yet, more often than not, the businesses that rank on the first page haven’t just got a few good quality backlinks, they will often have many good quality backlinks.
However, even though marketing agencies, and businesses are looking for good quality backlinks that are do-follow to help improve the businesses seo, its also important to have some no-follow backlinks as well.
Even though no-follow backlink don’t pass link juice, most seo agencies still want some no-follow backlinks simply because if a backlink profile just has do-follow backlinks, well it can look artificial.
Therefore white hat seo companies like us build both no-follow and do follow backlinks.
What exactly does anchor text mean?
So many businesses have incurred link penalties, such as a Google Penguin penalty because they have built low quality links. However, many businesses have received penalties because they have over-optimised the backlinks anchor text.
This means using both internal and external backlinks, the business may have used the same terms within the anchor text in an excessive way.
So for example, let’s say you run a skip hire business in a major city, you may have used “skip hire + city name” too much in the anchor text.
So the anchor text needs to be written in a white hat way. If you do not know what anchor text means, well its simply the word or sentence that you click on in order to follow a link.
This means you may well be on a recycling website, and they offer a link to a local skip hire business.
So the anchor text would be for example “skip hire company”.
How should our business be building backlinks?
We strongly recommend partnering with a white hat seo company in order to build backlinks for your business.
Yet, we also believe that the best way to obtain backlinks is to earn them, so what we mean by this is that you should offer really useful information on your website.
So for example, let’s say you run a solicitors practice, and you specialise in property law, well why not publish blog posts explaining what a person or couple should do when buying a home.
You could offer advice on how the home buying process works, how long it takes roughly for your business to handle the process. Also you could even offer rough estimates for how much your law practice charges.
Then people who read this blog post may wish to link to your work, so for example, a blog that offers advice about how to renovate your home may link to your website. This way you are obtaining backlinks.
However, with that said, your seo agency or your business must still check that the backlinks your business has are good quality. If your website has a lot of rubbish quality backlinks, then you should seek the advice of your seo company.