SEO

What are Backlinks? (And Why They Matter for Your SEO)

August 9, 2024

POST: 5 SEO Tips for small businesses

Post: What are Backlinks?

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I'm Gracie – an SEO and content expert who can help your business rank for the right keywords on Google. 

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Imagine you just moved to a new city. You’ve unpacked all the boxes, are starting to feel a little more settled, then comes the task of finding your people — a new doctor, a new dentist, a new hair stylist, the list goes on.

Then one of your new neighbors knocks on your front door with a tray of cookies, and as she’s leaving, she says, “If you haven’t found a hair salon, I do hair at the salon down the street. Call anytime and ask for Ellen and I’ll squeeze you in!” Ok, well, that’s a nice offer, but what do you actually know about this Ellen-person? Is she going to leave you with some terrible haircut that takes months to recover from?

Later that week, you’re at the park with your kids and you meet another mom with kids the same age as yours. You start talking, and you ask for recommendations for good hair stylists in the area. “Oh, I go to Ellen at Bliss Salon. She’s amazing!” All of a sudden, Ellen is looking like the first person you’re going to call when you need to make an appointment. So what changed? Someone recommended her. And that means a lot more than Ellen recommending herself.

What does this story have to do with backlinks? A lot. A backlink is like another website telling Google, “Hey, this person or brand is legit! They are great at what they do and a trustworthy source!” It is a vote of confidence that means so much more to Google than what you say about yourself or your own brand. Backlinks majorly affect your authority which majorly affects your ranking. So let’s dive in.

What is a backlink?

A backlink is when another website links to yours. And a backlink mean a lot because it shows Google that you’re reputable and legit enough that another person recognizes your expertise on a subject. You can consider a backlink “a vote of confidence.” It’s one of the clearest signals to Google that you have authority. A collection of backlinks is called a backlink profile.

Your backlink profile tells Google who you are even more than the content on your own website. In the same way that you trust a recommendation from someone who is not Ellen more than one from Ellen herself, Google values what other websites say about you more than what YOU say about you.

So how do you get a backlink?

There are a lot of different ways to get backlinks and a lot of controversial opinions in the SEO world about the best ways to do it. Here are the most common strategies:

Guest Posting

This one is a pretty natural way to get a backlink, although it does take a lot of work from you. Let’s say you have particular expertise on a topic and a business friend asks you to guest post on her blog. If you want to do it, that’s a great way to a) get a backlink and b) get exposure to your business friend’s audience. When you write on someone else’s blog, you’ll get the chance to link back to your website either in the content or in the author section.

Pros: you probably get to control how you link to your website in the post, you get access to your business friend’s audience, you get content that can easily be repurposed for other marketing channels like social media

Cons: you don’t actually control this piece of content – your business friend could change or remove it and there goes your backlink; it’s time-consuming and a lot of work for just one backlink.

Link Outreach

If you own a website, you’ve maybe gotten these spammy emails before where someone just wants a backlink. If you’re like most people, these go straight to your trash. So you can do this if you want, but just know that it’s not very often you’d actually get a great backlink out of this.

Pros: Maybe not as time-intensive as guest posting (or maybe way more)

Cons: Like guest posting, you don’t actually own this website so there’s no guarantees that your backlink will even be there long term; time consuming

Buying Backlinks

The short version is that buying backlinks goes against Google’s terms of service, so you shouldn’t do it unless you want to deal with a potential penalty that takes you months and months to recover from. It’s just not worth it.

You’ll get some experts disagreeing on this point. Some technical SEO agencies have their own PBN (“Private Blog Network”) of authoritative websites that they own and can use to boost your own website’s authority. This can work, but it is going to be way more expensive than you think and it is still really risky in my opinion. That’s the best case scenario: expensive and still risky. The worst case scenario is that you buy *cheaper* (probably still expensive) backlinks from a spammy website that links to you a “bad neighborhood” (spammy websites all tied together by similar backlink profiles), and then you end up with a penalty. Best or worse case scenario, you’re going to spending a lot of money and taking a big risk since Google specifically says not to do this.

And at the end of the day, buying backlinks is still a way of trying to rig the system. Great SEO is about having a website worth linking to. It’s called organic search for a reason. If you want to pay to be at the top of the search engines, do paid ads! Don’t buy spammy backlinks that are really risky and also probably a total waste of your money.

Pros: Quicker than guest posting or link outreach

Cons: HUGE risks, VERY expensive (and more legit = more expensive)

Writing Content that People Actually Want to Link To

This is hands-down my favorite way to get backlinks, and it’s simple. When you have great content on your website that is helpful, informative, and a great experience, you can get a backlink naturally! Now easier said than done in some cases. If you’re wanting more backlinks, it’s probably because you are not showing up as high as you want to in the search results. And if that’s the case, how are people going to even find your content to begin with?

Here are some tips:

  • Step 1: Write great content. I’m talking about authoritative, helpful pieces of content that are opinionated and insightful. Bonus points if these topics cover trending issues in your field or information that people are already discussing!
  • Step 2: Be strategic about your keywords. If your website doesn’t have a lot of authority, you are not going to be able to rank for the big keywords…at least not yet. But there’s still value in ranking for what you can to get more eyes on your website in hopes of scoring natural backlinks from people who found your content helpful, especially on a topic not many people are writing about.
  • Step 3: Promote your content. Get as many eyes on it as you can through email, social promotion, etc.
  • Step 4: Consider other channels. Podcasting is one I LOVE for this kind of thing. If you have the chance to be a guest on someone else’s podcast, do it! Most podcasters turn their interviews into blog content, which inevitably will include a link back to your website. You get to grow your audience and get a backlink in a really natural, mutually beneficial way.

Pros: this is how Google prefers to see backlinks done, leads to a more diverse and natural backlink profile, not expensive

Cons: it takes a lot of time, work, and expertise to produce great content

Get Credit When It’s Deserved

Here’s another great way to get backlinks, and it’s probably something you’re already doing. Let’s say you’re a photographer and someone is using your photos on their website, ideally you’re getting credit somewhere on their website. That’s an easy and organic way to get a backlink. If you’re a website designer, you can build that into the footer of your design. This should be true if you’re endorsing another vendor or writing a testimonial too. Anywhere your products or content is being used, it’s natural to ask for a backlink and most people will totally understand that, so don’t be afraid to ask for it!

Pros: a natural and organic way to get backlinks, which is what Google wants to see

Cons: None that I can think of!

What makes a great backlink?

When it comes to backlinks, quality > quantity. A backlink from a website with more authority than yours means more than 10 backlinks from low-authority websites.

Here’s the criteria that makes for a great backlink:

  • It comes from an authoritative website (ideally one that has more domain authority than yours)
  • It has SEO optimized anchor text (that’s the text that is hyperlinked to your website). For example, in this example “Mary Allen is my favorite South Carolina photographer,” it is better to hyperlink the phrase “my favorite South Caroline photographer” than “Mary Allen.” (Just remember that ideally you have variety in your backlink anchor text.)
  • It doesn’t involve money or a transaction (this is against Google’s terms of service).
  • It is visible to Google and to users…not hiding in a place that isn’t visible to real people. Links should occur in actual text and copy on a website and look natural.

On a related note, the number of referring domains (AKA unique websites) in your backlink profile is more impactful than the number of backlinks. So it’s better to have 15 websites sending you 25 backlinks than 3 websites sending you 100 backlinks.

Learn More

You can check your own backlink profile by using a free tool (like this one offered by Ahrefs). It’s not exhaustive but it will provide a good summary. For a more in depth look, you might have to have a paid subscription to a tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush.

As your business and online presence grows, you’ll start to notice certain ways of getting backlinks feel easier or more natural for your business than others. Lean into that and watch your authority and rankings improve over time. Let me know if you try out any of these tips and which ones work best for you!

If you’re not sure how to get started with improving your backlinks and authority on Google, get in touch! Whether it’s a complex SEO issue or just a simple question, I love talking about the nitty gritty and believe there’s no such thing as a stupid question. Every business owner deserves to have an SEO strategy that is totally custom to them and the specific keywords they can and should be ranking for. If you’re not sure what that looks like for your specific business, I can help. You don’t have to go it alone!

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POST: 5 SEO Tips for small businesses

Post: What are Backlinks?

You'll also love

Socialize

tell me more

I'm Gracie – an SEO and content expert who can help your business rank for the right keywords on Google. 

Meet Gracie