Definition of Backlinks
Backlinks are links pointing to your website from other websites. There are two types of backlinks
Types of Backlinks
- Do-follow backlinks – Links which pass the benefits of the referring domain also called Link Juice. This means if a website with a higher Domain Authority (Total referring Domains, older websites, established brand, total keywords ranking, etc) will have a higher link Juice.
- No-follow backlinks: These are links which only directs the user to another website but do not pass any benefits (link Juice)
How many backlinks do I need to rank in SERPs?
This number will be different for different domains / Niche. You can easily find the total referring domains for your competitor’s websites using tools like Uber suggest, Moz, Ahrefs and Semrush.
Now try and get as many Do-follow backlinks as compared to your competition and also try and get better backlinks ( high DA backlinks) compared to your competitors.
Reach out to all the referring domains who has offered backlinks to your top 5 competitors and try and acquire backlinks from all of them.
How do backlinks affect your business?
A website with good quality do-follow backlinks has a higher chance of ranking on SERPs and hence generates more traffic and eventually leads for your business organically.
Building a backlink should be a consistent and long-term effort. Keep a track of the dropping backlinks and reach out to the referring domains to reinstate the dropping backlinks from time to time.
How do increase your backlink organically?
- Find all referring domains that have offered backlinks for top 5 competitors
- Try and reach out to 50–100 of these firms monthly asking for a guest blog, link exchange, or link insertions
- Acquire these backlinks and keep a track of dropping backlinks.
- Offer guest articles for broken links on competitors’ website
- Write a thorough and detailed content covering all the subdomains in the niche
- Try and get backlinks from Wikipedia, Youtube, etc
- Backlinks can be obtained from the Testimonial section of other websites, and also from NGOs or government websites
How can I get backlinks for free?
You can get free backlinks by offering to write a guest post for a higher DA website. Also offer link exchange offerings to websites with similar DA or lesser DA than your own website.
Things to ensure while getting a backlink
- Always use an Anchor text containing the keyword you wish to rank for
- Use Keyword variations in Anchor text for different backlinks
Should I Buy Backlinks for my website?
You should not buy bulk backlink services offered in the market. These backlinks offer no value addition to your Domain authority and on the contrary, search engines can penalize your website in such cases.
However, if you’re paying for a few backlinks from High-quality Domains on a standalone basis this can be done. This will give you a sudden boost in ranking. Though it is not advised.
Are Backlinks Important in SEO?
Backlinks are a crucial part of Off-page SEO activity. It increases your credibility as a brand and also puts your brand as a thought leader or knowledge hub in your niche. Websites with good quality backlinks always rank higher on SERPs as compared to lower backlink websites.
Example of a backlink
“Book publishing Industry in India has grown rapidly. There are many companies offering book promotional services these days. Sharing Stories is amongst the top book promotion agency in India”
Do press releases serve as backlinks for your website?
In most cases No, since most of the bigger news platforms do not offer a Do-follow backlink. Rather, they offer only no-follow backlinks with no link juice being transferred.
However, a backlink from a news article will increase your reach and readability. This can increase the website visits. Hence getting a press release would be a good thing. But avoid paying too much for a press release. Since most of these agencies use the same content on all the various platforms. Shall be considered duplicate content.
What are some Backlink Checker Tools
There are many Backlink checker tools available in the market that are both free and paid. I suggest Ubersuggest as the best backlink checker tool at a low-cost monthly subscription. SmallSEOtools is amongst the free Backlink checker tool available in the market. But these have limited functionalities. TheHoth is another Free Backlink Checker used extensively.