Struggling With SEO Growth? We've Got Your Back(Links)
We've already gone over how SEO blogs can help to increase your Google Page Rank, but what other factors play a role? This week, let's talk about backlinks. We'll go over what they are, how they can affect your ranking, and ways to use them more effectively.
What are Backlinks?
Even though you may not be familiar with the term, we can guarantee you've seen backlinks in action. In fact, you just passed one in the intro to this blog! A backlink is any reference to another webpage that is clickable and will redirect to that page. You can find backlinks that look like a full URL, a shortened URL, a clickable word (hyperlink), or even a clickable image. Backlinks play a very important role in bettering your company's Google page rank. A lot of different factors affect how significantly a backlink can help your search engine optimization but in most cases, backlinks are at least a little bit helpful.
Note before we start: You can always backlink to your own pages, or you can get backlinked to by other URLs. You can also backlink to other URLs, which will boost their ranking.
Factors that Google Looks For
As we said, Google really breaks down SEO backlinks to figure out how much it will boost your Google page rank. These are some of the biggest elements, but certainly not all of them. It's important to remember that Google's algorithm is extremely advanced, so we could write blog after blog and still not truly crack the code. That being said, here's a bit of what digital marketing agencies accept as true based on experience and research.
- Who is backlinking to your site? One of the many things that Google looks at is who is backlinking to your web page. This in itself has a lot of rules and prioritizations, but that's a story for another day. Generally speaking, a very well-known and respected URL/company will boost you higher than being backlinked on a smaller site. Age is also important; the older the linking URL, the more credible it is and the more weight a backlink will have. You get even more "points" if a competitor is linking back to your page! In Google's eyes, a competitor is anyone that appears on the search results along with your own website. Lastly, the more sites you can get backlinked on, the better. If Google sees that five different sites are backlinking to your SEO blog or website, it will give you more credit than it would if one site backlinked to you five times.
- What type of backlink is it? In addition to the "who", Google also looks at the "how." Backlinks that are hyperlinked to relevant "anchor text" boost your Google page rank more than other forms of backlinks. Backlinking is always most effective when you use a strong keyword as your anchor text. Not only will Google catch the backlink, but it will also catch the keyword. You get way more bang for your buck. To be clear, you'll still get credit for any type of backlink, but if you want to improve your search engine optimization, backlinking on a keyword is the way to go.
- Where is your backlink found? Some digital marketing agencies argue that the location of your SEO backlink doesn't matter, but others say that it does. We like to assume that it does because it's not like changing their location will hurt us. The ideal position for a backlink to help you rank higher is in the content itself (not in the header or footer) and higher up on the page. To be honest, we really aren't sure if Google cares when in the content your backlink falls, but it is generally believed that in-content links are worth more.
- Is the content around your SEO backlink of good quality? Google can tell if a backlink to your site ends up on a spam website or in a poorly-written, short "blog." A backlink to your site is more effective at improving your Google page rank if it is surrounded by good-quality content. For example, if you wanted a link to your digital marketing agency's site to be used for SEO growth, you'd be better off if it was featured on Forbes rather than Wikipedia. Actually, Google allegedly has a database of spam websites and will hurt your search engine optimization should your backlink appear on one of those pages. Quality > quantity.
How to Get More Backlinks
This, my friends, is the age-old question. The easiest way to get SEO backlinks is to buy them. Buying backlinks ensures that other sites redirect to your URL on some pages. You have to repeatedly buy backlinks if you want them to stay active and continue boosting your ratings. The danger here is the potential to end up on unrelated or even spam sites. If that happens, your Google page rank could drop! Many digital marketing agencies will take care of buying backlinks for themselves and their clients. It is typically an effective way to boost SEO quickly, but it can be expensive and tedious.
The other way you can get more sites to backlink to your content is by making it unforgettable. If you constantly put out blogs, reports, statistics, infographics, etc. that people find interesting and worth reading, you're much more likely to be organically backlinked on another site. To get content out there, you could always utilize digital ads! You'll increase traffic to your page (boosted SEO) and you may get more backlinks. It's a win-win situation!
BusySeed does not tend to promote buying backlinks because it can be costly and ineffective. Instead, we try to put out content that people want to share organically! We also try to backlink to past blogs, other pages on your site, and even other URLs in each blog. This increases your visibility and can increase your search engine optimization. When you work with our team, we will handle all aspects of search engine optimization from blogs to backlinks to your website. We have helped over 300 clients grow and thrive in their respective industries, and we'd love to help you. We are a full-service digital marketing agency accredited by Forbes and Design Rush for our work. If you've been hunting for some SEO experts, look no further. Call us at (888) 353-1484 to speak to our Business Developers to get started.
