Why Backlinks Are Important to Your SEO Strategy

SEO is indispensable to any business aspiring to expand their online influence. As there are many elements in a comprehensive SEO plan, businesses need to prioritize based on their current business strategies and resources.

Many SEO experts put the most effort in link building to create quality backlinks for great results in traffic, engagement and conversion.

It is essential to understand what backlinks are and why they are important in SEO before learning the best way to wield this weapon.

Why Backlinks Are Important: The Fundamentals

We have compiled 5 most frequently asked basic questions about backlinks to help you clarify important information. If you need a quick reminder before proceeding, the Overview of SEO and Why It Is Important will serve best.

What are backlinks?

Backlinks, also called inbound links, are links from other websites to your site. In other words, this is a “reference” from a relevant page to one of your pages or piece of content.

Are backlinks a part of SEO?

Yes. Backlinks are the results of link building which is a big part of off page SEO.

We have compiled 5 most frequently asked basic questions about backlinks to help you clarify important information. If you need a quick reminder before proceeding, the Overview of SEO and Why It Is Important will serve best.

Backlinks, also called inbound links, are links from other websites to your site. In other words, this is a “reference” from a relevant page to one of your pages or piece of content.

Yes. Backlinks are the results of link building which is a big part of off page SEO.

Why do businesses need backlinks?

Ultimately, because they want their site to rank higher on SERPs (Search Engine Result Pages). When other sites mention you via a link to your site, it is a “vote of confidence” and Google uses this as a “validating signal” to give you a higher search result ranking.

Taking the perspective of a user, when a popular site mentions you in their content, it means you have some useful information that is relevant to the current topic. Therefore it increases the chance that users will click on the link, visit your site, have another enjoyable read and become a frequent visitor.
All in all, backlinks boost your brand awareness and credibility.

One of the big reasons why over 90% of pages don’t get any traffic from Google is the lack of backlinks. And an Ahref’s search traffic study has found that “66.31% of pages don’t have even a single backlink”.

What makes a high quality backlink?

In short, we want editorial links – links that are given free of charge by relevant sites. On the other hand, acquired links are backlinks earned by payment or distribution.

Of course backlinks from reputable sites in the same industry are more valuable. The section Why Backlinks Are Important: The Metrics below will explain in more detail.

In short, we want editorial links – links that are given free of charge by relevant sites. On the other hand, acquired links are backlinks earned by payment or distribution.

Of course backlinks from reputable sites in the same industry are more valuable. The section Why Backlinks Are Important: The Metrics below will explain in more detail.

What is backlinks in SEO

What happens if a site doesn’t gain backlinks for some time?

In one word, “ouch!”

At best this is a signal that a site is so obsolete that other sites don’t pay them any mind and users ignore them. At worst it means that the site has somehow been branded “untrustworthy” and their marketers will have to go above and beyond to “resurrect” it.

In short, without backlinks for some time, you will most likely stay absent in the first SERP and even several pages after that. Your branding, organic traffic and conversions will suffer.

According to Social Media Today, link building is one of two big ranking factors of Google, but due to its complexities, nearly 40% of businesses choose to outsource this task.

Why Backlinks Are Important: The Strategies

Now we are clear on what backlinks are and why they are important in SEO, let’s tackle the first challenge – what is the best way to build them?
A backlink is equal to a vote of trust. You can’t expect to earn trust by doing just one thing for one time. That’s why you need to combine various link building strategies for the best results. Here are several common strategies:

Reclaim unlinked mentions
There are cases that other sites mention you or your content without a link. Your job is easy: just find them and remind them.

Get featured on comparison websites or articles
Many users are hooked on articles with titles like “Top 10 …” or “20 best …”

This is your chance to pitch for your site to appear alongside other strong competitors. Of course these backlinks are not as easy to get, which makes them more valuable and sought-after.

Why backlinks are important in SEO

Why Backlinks Are Important: The Metrics

There are many metrics to measure your backlink quality, but most of them focus on evaluating the linking site. Here are 3 key criteria:

Domain Authority (DA) & Page Authority (PA)
Both are metrics developed by Moz, but DA is to predict “how likely a domain is to appear in the SERPs compared to its competitors” while PA focuses on predicting the possible rankings of one page on SERPs.

Links
Do a quick research on the quality of inbound and outbound links of the linking site.
And while you’re at it, see if they also give any backlink to your competitors. The more unique your backlink is, the better. But even if it’s not the case, backlinks from reputable sites still count a lot.

Semantic relevancy
In short, how relevant do you think that piece of content is to your linked page or your whole site? Don’t just focus on keywords, think about context too.
After all, search engines are evolving to understand semantics – the search intent. Therefore think about whether a reader will be pleased after clicking on the backlink and visiting your site. If not, think twice about accepting this backlink.

For example, a backlink from a travel blog to a furniture site is irrelevant (a souvenir shop is a better choice). Even if the travel company and the furniture shop are located in the same city, it’s unlikely that a traveler is interested in buying furniture.

Why backlinks are important to business

Why Backlinks Are Important: The Caution

There are 3 red flags to look out for when implementing your link building strategy.

If you don’t have a blog…
Then you can only lead visitors to your homepage or product page, and this is far from the best decision. Many visitors are still at the first stage – looking for more information, so they will not be thrilled with this experience.

If you choose to buy links…
Then proceed with caution. This is not bad as long as your linking sites have high authority and are relevant. And remember, “buying or selling links that pass PageRank is in violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines”.

If you choose to “trade” links…
Then again, proceed with caution. Most of the time, the practice of trading links takes place in a link neighborhood. Be selective here too. A bad neighborhood is often characterized by bad and/or unrelated links, bad content, excessive ads and external links, and spam.

You may have more than 3 criteria to evaluate the linking site. But after all, what you want to get from any backlink is conversion.

So the question here is: How many conversions does that backlink create? The backlink with higher conversion rate is the better.

Tip: Besides all defined metrics, ask yourself whether you want to get backlinks from this site, if yes, how much? Will you pay to get them linked to you, if yes, how much? If you feel uneasy, think twice before accepting.

What are the most important about backlinks

Conclusion

Link building is an integral part of any effective SEO plan as backlinks mean a great boost in a site’s credibility.

However, many businesses have not paid this part adequate attention or they simply don’t know how to optimize it. This is both an opportunity and challenge for any business with the goal of building a strong online presence.

On Digitals is proud to be your loyal companion in this journey, to help you make the best use of your resources and gain the best results possible. Contact us today to kick start your digital marketing strategy for sustainable business growth.