Sometimes, finding ways to build backlinks for websites is a challenge in itself. Therefore, it takes the right steps to do it. Backlinks are a strategy that can be used to maximize digital marketing through search engine optimization (SEO) methods.
So, what exactly are backlinks? How to build it? Well, don't worry, here Glints will explain it to you. For those of you who have just started creating a blog or website, the term backlink may still be unfamiliar.
What differentiates backlinks from other types of links? Why does the term backlink often appear in SEO discussions, especially off page SEO? Why do you have to understand backlinks and apply them to your website or blog? How to get quality backlinks? Everything will be discussed in this article, starting with what a backlink is.
What are Backlinks?
Backlink is a link placed on a blog/website that leads to your blog/website page. Backlink building activities are also called link building. There are also the terms external links and inbound links. So there are backlink providers and backlink recipients.
You are a giver of backlinks when you put other people's website or blog links on your website. Backlink recipients are websites that get links from backlink providers.
Simply, Backlinks are an important ingredient for any successful SEO strategy. Backlinks are links from external websites that point to your website. Before getting into a link building strategy, you need to make sure that your website is ready for backlinks. This guide will provide information on how to create quality backlinks for websites.
Pretty simple, right? Even though it looks simple, backlinks also play an important role in the success of your website or blog.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
After understanding what backlinks are, it's time to learn why backlinks are important. What are the benefits that can be obtained from backlinks and why you should also take advantage of them.
Here are some reasons why backlinks are important:
1. Google Finds Your Website Through Backlinks
The easiest explanation behind the question “Why are backlinks important?” is how Google finds new pages to show up in its search results. The Google search engine will always crawl to find pages that are most relevant to certain keywords.
Like when humans use maps to find new locations, the Google search engine uses backlinks to find new pages, crawl on those pages, and then include them in Google's index.
Think about it. You'll find it easier to find new locations connected to other locations, right? Remote locations that are not connected to other locations will be more difficult to find. Likewise with web pages. Website pages that don't get backlinks from other websites will be difficult for Google to find.
The more backlinks you get, the easier it will be for Google to find your website pages. However, you should also consider the quality of the backlinks. You can't be careless in looking for backlinks. Because low-quality backlinks can actually harm your website.
2. Backlinks are Useful for Maintaining Reputation on Google
When people search for a keyword on Google, Google will try to provide the best search results for the searcher. Google will certainly direct searches to popular website pages. How does Google judge whether a website page is popular or not?
Yes, right. Google uses backlinks as an indicator of the popularity of a website page. The more quality backlinks pointing to your website, the better your website's reputation will be in Google's assessment.
3. Relevant Backlinks Increase Website Credibility
Previously, I explained earlier that backlinks are an important indicator in determining the popularity of a website page on Google. However, Google doesn't only value backlinks in terms of quantity. Google also evaluates backlinks on your website based on their relevance.
What is meant by relevant backlinks? Relevant backlinks are backlinks obtained from websites or blogs from relevant niches. For example, a smartphone company is said to have relevant backlinks when they get backlinks from websites or blogs that have a technology niche. That way the smartphone company can be considered credible by Google.
What happens when the smartphone company gets a backlink from beauty, fashion or even a furniture blog or website? Of course, Google will question the credibility of the smartphone company's website. Is the company credible enough for the smartphone and technology industries?
4. Backlinks Bring Traffic to the Website
In the previous point it was explained that backlinks can help websites to be more easily found by Google so they can appear in search results. The more quality backlinks you get, the better Google's assessment of your website will be. Then your website pages can get high rankings in search results.
In addition to the traffic you get from Google search results, backlinks also bring in traffic from links planted on backlink-providing websites. Especially if the website that provides the backlink already has a good reputation on Google and gets a lot of traffic. The traffic you get from the website providing the backlink will also point to your website.
How do I get high quality backlinks?
Quality backlinks are not easy to get. The strategy for building quality backlinks consists of starting with creating content that is complete, unique and solutive. Here's how to get quality backlinks on your website.
1. Build Credibility
To be able to get quality backlinks, you must first build the credibility of your website or blog. As I mentioned in the Outbound Link Quality point, usually websites or blogs with quality backlinks are only willing to provide backlinks to quality websites and blogs. Therefore, you need to build credibility first.
2. Write Complete and Solutive Content
How to build the credibility of a website or blog? Of course the answer is in the content. Make sure the content on your website is complete and able to answer searchers' questions. The content you write must also be solutive.
So after reading articles on your blog or website, readers can solve the problems they are experiencing. That way they don't hesitate to share your articles on social media or even their website or blog.
3. Create Unique Content
In addition to complete and solutive content, your content must also be unique. If possible, create content that has never been created by anyone else. A point of view that no one else has ever taken. For example, you could do a case study about your customer or business. The uniqueness of your content will attract other people to embed a link to your website or blog.
4. Create Infographics
Sometimes people are lazy to read long paragraphs. To get around this, you can use infographics. Make infographics so that people are interested in reading your articles. In addition, it is also easier for people to share infographics because they are more attractive and easier to understand.
5. Use Backlink Tools
The four ways above are ways to get backlinks naturally. Good, unique, complete, and solution content will attract people to put your website or blog link on their website.
Even so, you also have to pick up the ball so you can get quality backlinks. Because websites and blogs with good quality backlinks need to be approached personally first so they can plant backlinks there.
To find these quality websites and blogs, you need the help of a third party like Ahrefs. Until now, Ahrefs is the best tool for finding quality backlinks.
With Ahrefs you can find quality blogs and websites based on keywords that are relevant to your business. Apart from that, you can also find out the credibility of a website through the Domain Rating (DR) and the amount of traffic generated.
6. Use Content Sharing Platforms
Most people share their latest articles or content on social media. It is indeed mandatory. However, apart from sharing content on social media, you also need to share your content on content sharing platforms.
Content sharing platforms such as Medium, Neilpateil, Hipwee, Kaskus, Reddit, and SlideShare can be used to place your website or blog link. You can write new articles that are still related to the topic you are discussing and then place the link to the article you want. That way you get backlinks from the content sharing platform. Even though the links are Nofollow, this method is still feasible to apply to promote blog or website content.
7. Do Guest Blogging
Guest blogging is when you write articles that are not to be published on your own blog, but instead are published on other people's blogs or websites. In the article you put a link to your blog or website. However, you need to choose a blog or website with high traffic so that guest blogging can feel the benefits.
What is a good example of backlinks?
You can't be careless in looking for backlinks. Google doesn't value backlinks in terms of quantity, but also considers quality. Remember, low quality backlinks will only hurt you. So you have to select backlinks carefully in order to get quality backlinks. What are the criteria for quality backlinks? Here are six criteria for quality backlinks:
1. Relevance
As explained earlier, you must get relevant backlinks in order to get a positive effect from backlinks. How to determine a website that is relevant to your website?
Make a priority scale of websites that have the potential to be planted with backlinks. You can group them into several groups of potential websites. From very relevant, moderately relevant, to irrelevant.
Very relevant backlink groups are websites that indeed mostly contain reviews of certain products. For example, your business is computers and laptops. Look for review websites or blogs that specifically review computers and laptops.
In the backlink group that is quite relevant, you can expand the criteria for prospective backlinks. You can look for blogs or websites where most of the posts are about technology, not just laptops and computers.
Finally, can you plant backlinks on websites that are irrelevant to your business? The answer is yes and no. Yes, you can plant backlinks on websites that are irrelevant provided that the website has super high traffic and discusses various content such as news portals. If the website is irrelevant to the business and doesn't have high traffic, it's best to leave it.
2. Have Influence (Authority)
Relevance alone is not enough. You also have to make sure the website that you are going to plant backlinks really has credibility and influence. How do you ensure the credibility of a website? You can check the credibility of a website using software like Ahrefs.
Credibility on Ahrefs is measured using a scale of 1 to 100 called the Domain Rating (DR). Domain Rating measures how many quality backlinks a website gets. The higher the DR value, the more potential for backlinks.
3. Traffic
Apart from Domain Rating (DR), you also need to consider the amount of traffic a website generates before turning it into a backlink. To measure how much traffic a website generates per month, you can also use Ahrefs. Make sure the website that will be planted with backlinks really gets traffic.
4. Editorial Standards
Also pay attention to the editorial standards of the website content that will be planted with backlinks. Usually, those that produce quality backlinks are websites with strict editorial standards such as news portals or credible bloggers.
5. Outbound Link Quality
Websites with good quality backlinks will usually only provide backlinks to quality websites. Therefore, pay attention to outbound links from prospective websites that will be planted with backlinks. Is their track record of good outbound links? Do they provide outbound links to quality websites or not?
6. Google indexed
Lastly and most importantly is Google indexed. The website that you are going to plant backlinks on must be indexed by Google. If a website is not indexed by Google, it should be left. Because planting backlinks on websites that are not indexed by Google is a waste.
How to check whether a website has been indexed by Google or not is quite easy. Go to Google. Then type “site:examplewebsite.com”. If after that nothing appears, leave the website..
Do you know how to make quality backlinks?
How to create and get quality backlinks sometimes has its own challenges, but by doing this method, the website's SEO will continue to increase and can ultimately improve the website's ranking on Google. Also keep in mind, maintaining backlinks is just as important as building them. So keep the backlinks that you get by using tools like Monitor Backlinks, Ahrefs or Majestic.
Conclusion
Building a website with quality backlinks takes a lot of effort. Keep in mind that before building quality backlinks, you must first build the main foundation, namely content. No matter how many backlinks you get, they will all be in vain without unique, complete and quality content.
The backlinks that you get must also meet certain criteria so that the effect can be felt. So always do research before deciding to plant backlinks using the indicators mentioned above.
That way your backlinks will have a positive effect on your website or blog. Enjoy building quality backlinks on your website or blog.