The Importance Of Backlinks
One of the most important aspects of online marketing commonly unclear to new users are backlinks. If you are not sure what a backlink is, here is a short explanation that should make sense to you, even if you have no idea about Internet marketing terms:
A backlink is a hyperlink pointed to your website from another site, or it can also be a link you give yourself from any pages within your site. Backlinks are the bread& butter of online marketing for die-hard webmasters, and the key to ranking high in the search engines.
Why are backlinks important?
The answer is simple. Backlinks are important because they are seen as a type of credit given to you from other webmasters. Search engines give you more status for quality backlinks, especially if they are from other sites within your niche. The more status a site has, the higher it will rank (this is especially true in competitive niches).
If for example your site is geared for travelers, a backlink from a cruise site will give you great “bonus” points in the eyes of Google – especially if that site has a strong PR.
When you receive a link from another site administrator it is like a token of appreciation that they appreciate your content. The more of these links you get, the higher your website will rank. If those links contain proper anchor text, featuring the keyword(s) you want to rank for it is even better for you.
Can you rank a site without many backlinks?
You bet you can! However, if you manage to rank a site with only a few backlinks it usually is because:
- there isn’t much competition to start with, or
- the daily search terms for the keyword you rank for is very poor
So while it might feel great to see your site pop up on the first spot in Google, it means nothing for your bottom line if no one is looking for the information in the first place (no/low searches).
Is it possible to compete with established authority sites?
Yes and no. Ultimately, given enough backlinks AND quality content you can beat just about any ranking site in the search engines with a few exceptions. But to do so takes time and patience. Plus you need to know a thing or two about SEO and how to “tweak” your content with white hat optimization methods.
Most people experience problems when they try to game the search engines. They go off in search of work-today, get rich quick solutions and bomb their site with backlinks from dodgy places and then wonder when Google slaps them at the next PR update (or sooner).
All the auto-publishing features for blogs and websites will eventually come to haunt you because logically they can simply not function long-term. Neither can black hat marketing methods or any other weird and not-so-wonderful marketing practices. More than ever quality content is key. Google has been doing some heavy weeding out in recent months and I suspect they will continue to do so in order to get rid of all those crappy autoblogs you see pop up everywhere you look.
Patience is key
Whether you like it or not, Google will favor webmasters who practice patience. These are the marketers who publish top quality content and build links “naturally” over time. Since it is hardly possible to build links naturally (meaning, you wait for others to link to you at will), most webmasters do some form of link building.
This is fine, as long as you build links bit by bit and not buy 10,000 links today (for a brand new blog) and then nothing for the next year. Google’s algorithm is sure to pick up on that and your site will be branded negatively by bots you don’t even know exist.
What about costs?
If you are actively learning about online marketing you would have already found a lot of services that offer backlink promotion for your site. Many of them come at a healthy cost. Here is the thing, you will always pay a price:
- You could pay the price of being lazy
- You could pay the price of having no discpline
- You could pay the price of not knowing
- Or you could end up paying the price of stupidity by choosing the wrong provider
There are two types of marketers online; the first group is the person with no money, but with a resonable amount of time at their disposal; the second group is the established marketer with plenty of money but little time.
Type one would be best advised to do most of the link building themselves to save money, gain knowledge and increase their website’s ranking over time, whereas type two is probably best served by hiring a capable SEO professional to do the link building for them.
You will know what’s best for you, based on your current situation. However you look at link building, you really ought to make it one of your regular activities if you want to see results from your online marketing efforts.
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About The Blog Author
Alex Sysoef is an IT Consultant, Internet Marketer and ProBlogger who shares his passion and knowledge of WordPress, SEO, Social Media and traffic strategies on his blog WordPress Howto Spotter. Connect on Twitter or Facebook
31 Responses to “The Importance Of Backlinks”
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I am doing auto blogging, as advised by The Spotter at AMA, but I suspect I may need to slow it down a bit, so as not to end up with a bunch of irrelevant content. I can’t believe it took me reading it here to realize that I was over doing it. Actually I think selecting ‘internet marketing’ was just too darn broad. This link below is a great one though; it’s from Web Accounting Online.
.-= Paul Germana´s last blog ..How To Increase Sales By Tracking Leads =-.
Yeah, as with anything automated you have to be careful.
Tweeted! Nice post Alex. I’ve been learning a ton the last couple of years…good links, bad links, what to do overall, and so forth, and I think i have a pretty good grasp on things.
I’m thinking of a new blog idea for my beginners to follow along with me.
.-= Dennis Edell´s last blog ..Would You Like to Read a TRUE Make Money Online Blog? Part 1 =-.
Thanks Dennis,
Monika always does great writing
Thanks guys, you make me blush. I’m certainly pleased to see my posts find eager ears here in your online home Alex.
Thank you for the opportunity to showcase my prose.
.-= Monika Mundell´s last blog ..Order Articles =-.
Backlinks can drive traffic to your site. It is important to have knowledge and understanding in creating backlinks to your site in order to have better results in your site. Thanks for sharing your great informations about backlinks.
Yep, inbound links are the currency of the internet.
That was an excellent piece of writing! I enjoy seeing topics like that of the backlink put into such easy to understand language. So many people either forget that everyone doesn’t speak geek, or they are so worried about attempting to impress people with their cool vernacular that the message they are attempting to deliver gets lost because most of the people reading it do not have the slightest idea what is being said LoL….
Being a web host I get the question of how to best market a website and what are back links all the time… this is a great article to direct them to for starters….well done.
Thank you Brad. Feel free to send traffic to this article whenever you get those link related questions. I wrote this with newbies in mind and I’m sure Alex wouldn’t mind the spike in traffic.
.-= Monika Mundell´s last blog ..Order Articles =-.
I don’t use autoblogging to build links, generally I start off doing on site optimisation, then build social network/bookmarking profiles and then slowly concentrate on building in bound links. The quality of the link is important, for instance if you are a web designer it is better having an inbound link from web design related website, with a high page rank etc.
First I must say that you wrote great article!
It is simple written and excellent explained so no matter what is our knowledge about SEO and backlinking it is good to read something like this and get new information on this topic. I always thought that there is no way to rank high on Google without proper backlinking but now I understand under what circumstances is that possible.
.-= Brian´s last blog ..socotra_island_14 =-.
Hi Brain, welcome to Alex’s online home and thank you for the nice comment It is much appreciated.
.-= Monika Mundell´s last blog ..Order Articles =-.
Nice post Alex loved the read
. I totally agree with you backlinking is very important and should be a continuous process that should be applied to your website. Just a quick question do you think automated content will have any negative effects on your Search engine results or SEO?
Thank you for the easy to understand articles you write! I don’t speak geek either, as Brad mentioned earlier. I have one question, if you are so kind to help me. I try to promote a blog for someone (blogspot – he does not sell anything, has no adsense, just a message), in a foreign language, in a less popular field. He does not want to hear about black SEO. I was thinking about back linking as I understand now what their use is. I wanted to ask if I leave comments from his blogger account on other blogs from the same network, does google count them as backlinks? I tried to post on the bigger independent blogs in the same are of interest, but the majority do not allow comments. Thank you!
Alex, thanks for a great refresher article, you have a really nice website here. Pop over to my site when you have a chance, I’m all about link building (dofollow / PR5)
.-= Christopher Ross´s last undefined ..If you register your site for free at =-.
A keyword optimized or aged domain helps immensely in the process of Google Ranking also, but then again, it’s hard to fit those to together at the same time.
I do agree with this post, but this advice does look like more for people who want to build authority sites/blogs to rank for those highly competitive keywords like “lose weight, internet marketing, etc…”
In my opinion if you’re trying to rank a more narrowed down niche-specific site for longer tail keywords, I don’t see much of a problem with trying to speed things up a little. I’m not suggesting doing the 10 000 backlinking to your website in 1 day, I’m just saying you don’t have to take things THAT slow, especially if you’re focusing on mini niche-sites/blogs.
cheers
Nice post.
I think if you are going to build backlinks you can do some your self and also hire other experienced people to do it for you.
Some of them can be scammers and don’t know the first thing about SEO, so you have to be careful.
T
.-= Troy´s last blog ..Tony Robbins and Frank Kern & John Reese Interview =-.
One of the best posts I have found on backlinks. Sums up everything in a nice a brief manner without getting bogged down in jargon.
I am type one and try weekly to add quality content and links across the web. Patience is definitely required as it takes time! With any luck though hard work will pay off.
I love your line “you pay the price of being lazy” Sure there are ways to get around putting the time in, but in the long run a set of naturally built, quality backlinks will shine over building any old link for the sake of it. Just discovered the blog, will read some more.
@Monika, great article. I would just disagree on 1 point – sorry
– backlinks are not links coming from your own website. Backlinks are inbound links and by definition they come from another site. Internal links are also vital for rankings but a different approach needs to be taken in order to optimise them.
.-= Léo´s last blog ..Websites for accountants UK =-.