Web Backlinks – What They Are, How To Build Them & Why You Need Help
You probably already know what a backlink is (sometimes called an inbound link or incoming links) but I don’t want to make assumptions so here is a simple definition:
If you click on it and it takes you to another website then you’ve just clicked on a backlink.
For clarity, if you click on something that moves you from one page on a website to another page on the same website, that is an internal link. Here’s an example: SEO in Bicester.
Not all backlinks are created equal and that’s probably why you’re here. You’ve done the right thing to research backlinking because doing it badly can do a lot of damage to your SEO efforts. Getting help with your strategy will save you time, money and effort.
Don’t just take our word for it. Browse one of our backlinking case studies and see what we could be doing for you. We’ve worked across many sectors with businesses and charities of all sizes. We have experience that will benefit you.
Why Are Backlinks So Important?
A link from a relevant website to your website builds authority and trust in your brand, helping your site rank higher in search results.
In the early days of the internet when search algorithms were in nappies, getting thousands of backlinks to a site was very effective at helping it to rank. Links were like a vote of confidence whether they were useful, relevant or not. Quantity often helped more to rank your site than quality and ‘black hat SEO’s’ used software to get them wherever they could. It was not sophisticated and nowadays would do a lot more harm than good. Google et al, determined to provide the most relevant results to their users got wise and the algorithm more complex. The tactic of mass backlinking will NOT work and can even lead to your website being removed from the search engines index altogether. You can be seduced by this approach even today or you may be tempted to buy backlinks – DON’T!
Nowadays backlinks must be gained naturally, they should be from relevant websites and be of a high quality. There are no shortcuts to success but if your strategy is better than your competitors and well executed then you will be rewarded with higher rankings.
If you are considering building backlinks you should read on to the end of this article for tips, advice and details of some of the (safe) tools available to help shape your strategy. Alternatively, get in touch and we can design and execute a backlinking strategy for you.
How To Build Authoritative Backlinks
‘Authoritative’ is the key word here. The most valuable link you can possibly have to your website is one from a website of authority, that is trusted by the search engines and is relevant to your particular area of business. One of these is worth thousands of irrelevant links even if it is coded ‘nofollow’ where the website owner has programmed the link not to pass on link equity (sometimes called ‘link juice’). But let’s not get distracted…
Find High Ranking Content & Write Something Better
Why would another website link to yours if the content is terrible, the navigation difficult to follow and the layout incomprehensible? Answer: they wouldn’t in the same way you wouldn’t recommend a poor restaurant to your friends. Your first job is to be the best you can be online. You may like to read “How to Write Good Website Content” before you go any further and become a linkable asset.
Do some searches to see who’s ranking, analyse your competition and improve on what’s been written. It’s not rocket science and you may need some help with the content but once done you have something worthy of backlinks.
Steal Your Competitors Links
Now that you have a better piece of content you’re ready to persuade other websites to link to you. A great place to start looking for linking opportunities is on Semrush or Ahrefs. On both of these sites you can run reports that will show you which sites are linking to the competitors you identified during the content writing stage. Reach out to these websites and request a similar link.
Write Guest Blogs For Other Websites
Start your search for opportunities with a Google search for something such as “Your niche + write for us” or “Your niche + guest blogging”. You may find someone has already done the hard work for you so always Google “List of Your Niche Bloggers.” There’s lots of opportunities out there that you can find easily and don’t forget you can also address a subject that your local newspaper may be interested in covering.
Baited Content
If you read an article that featured you or your business you’d probably share it on social media and you may link to it from your website. It would be fairly easy for you to write a blog on the “Top 10 Bloggers In The World Of ‘Your Niche'”. Once written, let them know about it via social media or email and watch the backlinks appear.
Broken Link Building
A personal favourite of mine. The concept is that you find broken links to similar sites to your own on another good quality website. You reach out in a helpful manner to tell the webmaster about the broken links whilst suggesting he may like to link to your website instead. A win-win situation.
We’ve offered some suggestions here but have plenty more techniques we’d be delighted to discuss with you.
The Best Link Building Tools & Software For SEO
There are hundreds of SEO tools out there some of which are free or have a trial period. They are well worth using especially if you are only working on one website. The links below are to the tools we use the most because we find them to be the most valuable. Find your favourite by experimenting with them or rely on us to use them on your behalf. There are literally hundreds of tools out there and with the advent of AI these are only increasing. It pays to use someone like us who know the good from the bad or you can make some expensive mistakes.
Ahrefs – backlink checking, competitor analysis, keyword research and more.
Moz builds tools that make SEO, inbound marketing, link building, and content marketing easy.
SEMrush – is a powerful and versatile competitive intelligence suite for online marketing, from SEO and PPC to social media and video advertising research.
Screaming Frog – The Screaming Frog SEO Spider is a desktop program (PC or Mac) which crawls websites’ links, images, CSS, script and apps from an SEO perspective.
Sparktoro – a fantastic audience research tool that can really help identify where your audience hangs out.
Link Building For Local SEO
Local Search Engine Optimisation differs from ‘normal’ SEO because of some unique differences in the ranking factors that decide whether or not your site hits the top of page one. If you are only interested in being found by people in your local towns then you need to understand this and check you’ve completed the tasks below.
- Complete your Google My Business profile.
- Use the Moz Check Listing tool to identify other major local business directories. Google will pull and compare data from these sites so be consistent with your information.
- Citations – A citation is an online reference to your business’s name, address and phone number (NAP). Be consistent and search for opportunities in relevant niche directories.
- Reviews – encourage your customers or clients to leave positive reviews on sites such as Google, Yelp and Facebook as well as specific relevant industry sites (e.g. TripAdvisor).
After completing these steps you may find your website is still not ranking. You will also have to take a more traditional SEO approach including link building and content writing. Google may still favour a local competitor so you will have to outperform your rival to knock them off their perch. If in doubt, please ask us for advice.
4 Reasons Why You Need Professional Help With Your Backlink Strategy
Not all backlinks are created equal. At worst, a poor backlink strategy can do harm to your search engine visibility. In short, you need to be confident that you know what you are doing and that you can do it better than your competitors.
- The best backlinks get the best results. You wouldn’t try to supercharge your car on the cheap, why take the same risk with your website.
- It takes time and expertise to build good links. Even if you have one of these, you probably haven’t got the other. We have both plus we do it efficiently.
- You pay a mechanic to mend your car because he has the right tools to do the job. It’s the same with SEO and backlinking. We have the software to identify linking opportunities, analyse your link profile and find toxic links.
- Building backlinks is only one part of SEO. We understand how backlinking dovetails with your content and social media.
Our link building service is rooted in understanding your business in order to build relevant links.
