Backlinks are one of the most powerful tools you can utilize in your SEO strategy. Apart from keywords, which we discussed recently, backlinks help you build brand authority tremendously. But what are backlinks and why they’re so important in SEO?
Well, backlinks are, simply put, links that one site gets from another. When clicked on, this type of link leads you to another website. Now, you might be wondering why this is a big deal and how exactly it helps Google rank you higher. We’ll answer these questions in a bit – keep reading.
What Are Backlinks in SEO?
An SEO backlink is the type of link that points to another site. More importantly, it’s a link that, for example, your site gets from another site or vice versa. Unlike an internal link, which leads to another page on the same site, this one leads you to another site – in simple words.
Both have a high potential to improve your SEO. However, SEO backlinks are more potent.
Google perceives them as sort of a recommendation from another site. It’s like visiting a doctor and then recommending him to your friends and family – this would be a backlink in Google’s eyes.
Why Are SEO Backlinks so Important?
Now, onto their importance. To explain what are backlinks in SEO, we need to go through their function. As explained, Google sees them as recommendations. In the real world, recommendations can get you pretty far, and the same applies to the online world.
If a doctor or a mechanic has LOTS of recommendations, what do you think will happen? Will he become more trustworthy? The same happens with websites. The more quality backlinks you have, the higher your domain authority and trustworthiness.
We say quality backlinks because not all of them are considered good – more about that later. People often use various tools for exploring backlinks and discovering them. Semrush has a tool called Backlink Analytics where you can find out more about backlink profiles.
You need to type in the domain and find the exact number of backlinks the website has. You’ll notice that high-ranking sites often have millions of backlinks, which isn’t a coincidence. Moreover, their backlinks come from authoritative sites.
One thing to mention is that website crawlers (also used by Google) discover and rank content, using backlinks as one of the parameters. As a result, more quality backlinks will inevitably mean higher ranking and topical authority.
To summarize, SEO backlinks are important for ranking because they represent a recommendation from another site and help search engines rank your content. The more quality recommendations you have, the better your ranking is.
Types of Backlinks
If you think you know what is a backlink, so far, you do. However, we should address a few more things to avoid creating confusion.
Namely, not all backlinks will improve your SEO. We gave you a general explanation but some exceptions to the rule exist.
To clarify our thoughts, we’ll show you a backlink example – or examples, to be precise. There are three types of backlinks in SEO:
- Nofollow (rel=”nofollow”)
- Follow
- Sponsored (rel=”sponsored”)
- UGC (rel=”ugc”)
The Follow type of link is a standard backlink that will improve the SEO of the website it points to. This link doesn’t require any attributes and you’ll just need to select the anchor, place a link onto it, and you’re done. Its HTML code would look like this:
<a href=”https://websitename.com/”>Click Here</a>
On the other hand, we have the Nofollow type. This SEO backlink won’t boost the website’s SEO and won’t influence its ranking in any way. Its HTML code looks like this:
<a href=”https://websitename.com/” rel=”nofollow”>Click Here</a>
A sponsored backlink means that the website that requested the backlink paid for it to another website. Its HTML code looks like this:
<a href=”https://websitename.com/” rel=”sponsored”>Click Here</a>
Finally, we have the UGC or “User-Generated Content” backlink, which appears on social media sites, reviews, blog posts, and so on.
If you went to an awesome restaurant, took a photo of the food you got, uploaded it to Facebook or Instagram, and linked to a site of that restaurant in the photo post, that’s what the UGC backlink is.
Its HTML code looks similar but has the word “ugc” in it – like this:
<a href=”https://websitename.com/” rel=”ugc”>Click Here</a>
All of these backlinks directly influence the website’s SEO, unlike the Nofollow link, whose primary function isn’t to boost search ranking. Still, a NoFollow link isn’t useless and it can improve the website’s ranking indirectly, so to speak.
If a website has a large audience and a Nofollow backlink to your site, chances are you’ll attract visitors – this is also called referral traffic. Besides, Google appreciates the so-called backlink diversity, which means your site has all of the aforementioned types of links.
Having too many Follow (Dofollow) links will make everything look unnatural and manipulative, for example. But when combined with Nofollow, UGC, and even Sponsored links, you get a diverse backlink profile for better Google ranking.
How to Know If My Backlinks Are Good?
Knowing how backlinks work is important for the goal of improving SEO and ranking higher. SEO experts know the importance of quality backlinks that greatly contribute to this. On the contrary, poor-quality links degrade your website and drop its ranking.
Toxic Backlinks
Toxic SEO backlinks are the worst thing you can have. They come as a result of practices like link exchanges, which function similarly to the known Instagram “follow for follow” trend. Another toxic practice is exchanging services for links.
Of course, we should mention backlink spamming, which is pretty common. It’s when you force specific anchors and spam certain keywords in them to create a link. Thankfully, Semrush has a tool called Backlink Audit where you can quickly detect and remove toxic backlinks that ruin your website’s profile (try it in the free trial of Semrush).
You’ll need to provide the domain name and let the tool do its job. It’ll come up with the toxicity score, reporting on the exact number of toxic backlinks you have. You’ll be able to pinpoint them and remove them, thus, preventing them from harming your ranking.
When discussing toxic backlinks, it’s good to mention their sources. If a reputable site links to your site, that link is usually quality. However, if you’re often referenced on spammy and fishy websites, you’ll want to think twice about whether to keep these backlinks or sever them.
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Non-Toxic Backlinks
Non-toxic links are the opposite of toxic. But what is a backlink that’s considered good and valuable? As you might’ve guessed, Follow links are deemed better than Nofollow, albeit, their combination is usually the best for reasons mentioned previously.
Another thing to consider is the natural placement of SEO backlinks. You don’t want to force anything, instead, ensure you’re getting a natural recommendation from another site, which we’ll explain in the next section of this guide.
Valuable backlinks point to quality, high-ranking, and authoritative pages, and in the same fashion, come from websites that share these characteristics. Everything we mentioned now in conjunction with the proper variety will improve SEO in the long run.
How to Get Backlinks? Backlink Building Tricks
Knowing what is a backlink in SEO is one thing but obtaining quality links is another. Let me tell you – the latter is VERY hard, and in most cases, you won’t be able to influence it directly. At least not if you want quality recommendations from other sites and not to pay for them.
Link Building Tool in Semrush
For link building, you want to try and use Semrush. Semrush offers something called a Link Building Tool. It helps you discover new backlink opportunities in a CRM-like interface where you can see the so-called prospects.
In this case, Semrush will advise which websites to request a backlink from and list them in an easy-to-read manner. Best of all, the tool displays hundreds, sometimes thousands of websites you can reach out to. You’ll see the URL type, authority score, and rating.
In our experience, Semrush advises more than quality sites that you can reach out to. Even better, you can contact site owners directly through Semrush and request a backlink or a guest post. You can then deem the prospect (site) “In Progress” and follow it through.
Focus on the Content Quality/Optimization (The MOST Important Aspect!)
When we compared SE Ranking and Semrush, we praised their focus on helping you achieve the best quality content. This is done either directly through AI-driven writing assistance or through various keyword research functions. Either way, this should be your #1 focus.
Quality content is what readers ultimately want. They’re naturally attracted to this content, especially if it’s informational or, in a way, impactful. If the content fulfills this criteria, people would be more likely to link to it as a reference in a blog post, YouTube video, etc…
This is why you need to focus on providing quality, accurate, and well-written information. To do that, however, you’ll need proper keyword implementation amongst other things, which you can achieve with Semrush’s Keyword Magic Tool.
After all, some of the greatest, most-ranking pages have insanely good search engine optimization! Apart from keywords, articles should be optimized regarding H1 title, title tag, and meta description. Then, you’ll need to ensure you cover the topic thoroughly.
Improve Content Quality With Semrush
This will improve topical authority and directly rank you higher, thereby, giving you more chances for quality backlinks. We always emphasize writing quality. Use short sentences and paragraphs to make the article easily digestible – like this one!
Also, don’t forget about images on your site. They should be compressed to make them faster to load. Their optimization should be on-point, as each image should contain a brief description and alt title to help Google rank it for the reader to see it.
Perform a Backlink Gap Research
Whether you’re using Semrush or any other SEO tool – or even a free SEO tool, it’s the backlink gap tool will often be there. This tool lets you analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles and see which sites link to them and not you.
In Semrush, type in your domain address and then input the domain addresses of a few more competitors. Click on Find Prospects, and you’re set! You’ll now see ALL the backlinks that these sites have but you don’t, letting you react appropriately.
Again, you can contact these sites directly. In the backlink gap tool, click on “Start Outreach” to add the selected prospects to the Link Building Tool. From there, go to the Link Building Tool and contact the selected websites directly for a backlink – simple stuff.
Repair Broken Links
Repairing broken backlinks is vital for maintaining your backlink profile. Broken links lead to nowhere, and thus, impact your search engine optimization negatively. However, you can fix them in several ways by using Semrush or even SE Ranking.
We prefer Semrush’s Backlink Analytics tool which can analyze all SEO backlinks on your site. It lets you discover broken links in particular, which you can repair by contacting the site with the link to your domain and informing it to replace the link.
This way, you won’t get new backlinks but will instead prevent losing one or more. These tools will help you as long as you have quality content with plenty of information that people are interested in. If not… well, you’ll need to work on that first.
SEO Backlinks: The Final Verdict
Okay, so in the end, let’s again clarify what are backlinks. This is the type of link that a website gets from another site and acts as a recommendation from that site. Because of that, it’s an invaluable SEO factor that greatly contributes to the overall ranking.
In our guide, we explained that “Follow” links are the most impactful, although the variety of Follow and NoFollow links works even better, as it makes the backlink profile of your site look more natural to Google (or other search engines).
To get backlinks to your site, the best practice is to focus on top-notch search engine optimization and the quality of information you provide. Then, with the help of Semrush and its outstanding backlinking tools, your site can blossom and rank higher in SERPs.
