A quick guide to what backlinks are and why there an important part of the SEO process

Introduction

So, if you’re currently learning about SEO, then you are more than likely will have heard about backlinks.

As if you were to click on most leading agencies websites, well their bound to have devoted a ton of time to talking about backlinks, what they are, why there useful and why you need quality backlinks.

However, some of these articles, well they can sometimes be a bit long-winded, and leave some readers reaching for an aspirin to help soothe that headache, so we thought we would write an article that’s a bit shorter, to the point, fills you in on most of the important details, without over doing it.

So here we go…

Backlinks are a big deal, in matter of fact, there a key ranking factor

Well, you know how a petrol car going to run a bit rough if you’ve stuck poor quality fuel in the tank, well this is the same when it comes to trying get your website to the top of Google, if you haven’t got good links.

In a nutshell, if you want to get to the top of Google’s SERP’s, or if you’d even be happy with just being ranked on the first page somewhere, well more often than not you’re going to need backlinks.

Now, we refer back to when we mentioned a petrol car needs quality fuel to run right, well with backlinks, you need to focus on building the right backlinks.

That’s backlinks which are quality, so that when Googlebot comes along, and “crawls and indexes” a page, it spots the link, and the link is deemed as excellent.

So, just remember this, quality and relevant links help your seo, rubbish quality backlinks don’t, they can damage your seo. So, when your busy in Cardiff phoning around all the various SEO agencies, make sure you hire one that builds top-quality backlinks.

You must demonstrate to Google that you are an authority

Imagine for just a second that you run Google, or another search engine for that matter, every business under the sun is going to say, they are an authority on the services and products they sell, right?

So how do you decipher which websites should rank at the top of page one, and which ones rank on page 10 of Google?

Well, one way is to see which businesses / websites have the most backlinks from other respected websites.

So, for example, if you run a major brand, or your just simply are really good at what you do, you’re likely to get linked to.

So, for example, let’s say you’re a British brand, you make real high-quality car waxes, polishes and also other products to help clean a vehicle.

These are therefore not your run of the mill items, there really high-end, and as such major car brands endorse your products, as they are used at car shows.

Other retailers, for example companies that restore cars, promote your products, plus also bloggers who are enthusiasts of high-value vehicles also state how good your waxes are.

Now, there’s an opportunity here, that’s for your SEO agency to contact each company and ask for a backlink, and as the businesses which promote you are relevant, they have real high-quality brands, then these links will be quality.

Remember this as a golden rule of backlink building, Google only wants quality backlinks, its these links which will help improve your organic SEO, low-quality links will damage your online marketing.

So, only build quality links!

 

Okay, but what are backlinks?

Well backlinks are just a link from one website to another, it’s as simple as that. However, it gets a bit more complex when you need to consider if the link is quality, if its do-follow, if its no-follow and how the anchor text should be written.

So, backlinks need to be high quality, but they should be built by somebody who knows what they are doing, as if they get it wrong, well the business could incur a penalty.

So, when taking into account all of all the other ranking factors, how important are backlinks?

Well, in matter of fact, there really important, that’s because good quality backlinks send what is called “link-equity” through to a page, and some believe this filter through to the rest of the site?

So, what does that mean?

Well, let’s say a household brand links to you, it’s a top-quality business, so when it sends a backlink pointing at your website, let’s say the homepage, then this helps improve the seo.

So, think of that link like you would an electrical wire, it passes “link-equity”-lets just think of that as electricity for a second, well let’s say you don’t get just one good link, you get thousands linking to you, yes you guessed it, you don’t just now have a trickle of electric, enough to power a light-bulb, nope you now have enough link equity that things become high voltage!

Obviously in reality backlinks don’t pass electric, but you get our point, they send link equity, so as long the agency you’ve hired has built quality links, well this can help your seo.

Gary Ilyes confirmed this way back in 2017, that quality backlinks, well, there still very important, in matter of fact there one of the most important ranking factors.

So, your saying, if you accumulate enough backlinks this will help to improve a company’s organic seo?

Well, backlinks are important part of seo, that’s if their quality links, however, they are most certainly not the only ranking factor, for example, your company’s website needs to be fast, you need to have good quality content marketing, plus the onsite seo, such as page titles, well they all need to be done right. So, to answer your question, there’s over 200 ranking factors, these must be improved as well, but yes, backlinks are still important that’s for sure.

How does building quality links relate to Google’s EAT Guidelines?

Well, you may have read in our other seo blog posts, where we discuss how Google’s EAT Guidelines need to be thought about, before you implement seo, but now, well you may be wondering how does this connect to link building?

Well, if your company has a lot of quality backlinks, so let’s say you’re a solicitor, and you earn hundreds of links from solicitor websites, business awards and also links from places where you’ve received training, well, these links if they are quality can help to boost your “authoritativeness”.

So, let’s say there’s two solicitor practices, and let’s say there both based on the same street, yet someone in Cardiff needs a lawyer, so they ask Google to find a local business.

Now, one business might be paying a rather brilliant SEO agency, like us, to help improve their organic seo by building backlinks. Because that business therefore has quality links, built by us, they will have more “link equity” flowing to each page we build the backlinks too, this way, we can then help to move that page up Googles ranks.

Business two, that hasn’t paid for any seo, well they might have no links, so there’s no link equity, and therefore this means that the seo is weaker, so it might not rank anywhere there the first page, that’s despite that business being based on the same street, as the company that’s paying us to improve their seo.

How our agency can help your business:

Here at this seo company we don’t just build backlinks, we instead help businesses to improve their organic seo. We work with many businesses in Wales, by implementing quality seo.