Before the advent and growing relevance of search engines, website operators used hyperlinks primarily to make browsing the Internet easier for users. Findability of a website on Google and other search engines is critical to attracting website visitors these days. As a result, the importance of Search Engine Optimization, or SEO for short, has grown steadily.
So-called ranking factors are decisive for a website's position in the search results. They are constantly tweaked and diversified. Backlinks have been an important ranking factor since the advent of search engines, but their requirements have changed over time. This article reveals what backlinks are, exactly how they are structured, and their importance for SEO.
What are backlinks?
The term "backlink" describes a link originating from one domain and leading to another. Such hyperlinks allow users to browse the Internet and visit new websites. The Google crawler works the same way to reach a website and crawl it.
To search engines, existing backlinks indicate that a website and its content are relevant to readers. The more backlinks pointing to a site, the more likely that site is popular and relevant. Google respects this by ranking sites higher in its search results. The following sections explain the structure of backlinks and how to use them as ranking factors in SEO.
Notice
You get backlinks when other websites link to yours. But you can also set up backlinks yourself by linking to your website from another website.
What are backlinks made of?
Backlinks are usually not visible as links, but through so-called anchor texts (clickable words linking to a website). In most cases, this text is highlighted or underlined in color so that users can immediately identify it as a link. In the HTML source code, the referrer is structured as follows:
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<a href="https://example.org/">Anchor Text</a> |
The abbreviation "href" stands for "hypertext reference" and marks the URL to which the anchor text links. This source code can be extended with various attributes. If you have set up a backlink on your website pointing to another website, it is recommended to add additional target="_blank". Thus, users don't leave their website because the linked website opens in a new browser tab. Attached properties can be embedded in source code as follows:
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<a href="https://example.org/" target="_blank">anchor text</a> |
The so-called title tag is also optional. This allows you to define the text that appears in the box on mouseover, improving usability. In the source code, the title tag is specified as follows:
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<a href="https://example.org/" title="Title-Tag">锚文本</a> |
As of 2019, another attribute that can be used to flag user-set backlinks is the additional rel="ugc", which stands for "user-generated content" and signals to Google that the link was not created by the website operator itself set.
What types of backlinks exist?
Backlinks are distinguishable, among other things, because of who they link to. We have already mentioned so-called text links – one or several words with a link as anchor text. In a similar way, photos or graphics can also be linked to the website and used as backlinks. These enable users to click on an image to go to a third-party website.
Another difference has to do with the impact of backlinks as a ranking factor. The HTML code shown in the previous section is a so-called dofollow link. These backlinks are an important ranking factor in search engine results. However, backlinks can be excluded from search engine evaluation. The required "nofollow" attribute can be integrated into the HTML code as follows:
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<a href="https://example.org/" rel="nofollow">anchor text</a> |
A special type of nofollow link is a backlink in a social network, also known as a social signal. These are usually automatically assigned the nofollow attribute.
How to evaluate backlinks as a ranking factor?
In the early days of search engine optimization, the following principle was applied: the more backlinks linking to a site, the more relevant it will be to users. As a result, linking sites typically rank higher in search results. Website operators take advantage of this by buying links or creating lots of websites themselves to link to their own and improve their rankings. Google responded by starting to evaluate not only the number of backlinks, but also the sites they came from. Today, the mantra is quality over quantity.
Notice
Competition among site operators continues to intensify. To improve search engine searchability, SEO content optimization and inclusion of SEO-friendly content is essential.
In addition to quantity, the value of backlinks has become a determining factor in successfully ranking in search results. This value depends on various factors, but the search engine provider has not disclosed its exact weight. Therefore, it is recommended to pay attention to all factors and include only high-quality backlinks. The following parameters affect the quality of backlinks:
Relevance: Search engines evaluate whether a linked website is relevant to the user. This is the case if the linking site and the linking site deal with similar topics.
Authority: Backlinks from trusted domains, i.e. trusted websites, tend to rank higher.
Position: The more prominent the position of the links, the more users will click on them. Backlinks in sidebars, navigation panes, or footers carry less weight.
Traffic: The more outbound traffic a website has, the more popular it is and the more meaningful its backlinks will be.
hint
You can check the number of backlinks coming to your site using the free Google Search Console or other third-party tools.
How are backlinks built?
Link building is an important part of your online marketing strategy, as well as part of search engine optimization. Below we describe three basic methods of building backlinks. You can find more details on this topic in our dedicated article on "Building Backlinks".
Option 1: Gain Backlinks
The number of backlinks increases when other website owners link to your website. The more interesting and unique your website content, the better the chances of these organically generated backlinks.
Option 2: Create Backlinks
Some websites allow you to link to your own website. Typical examples are blogs, forums, and business directories with comment sections.
Option 3: Backlinks after a query
You can backlink by contacting other website operators and asking them to link to your website. The following options offer a good value exchange for webmasters and increase the chances of active backlinks:
Replace Broken Links: Sometimes a website link to a site no longer exists. You can contact the website operator and suggest to replace the broken link with a new backlink to your website.
Unclickable links: Find mentions of your site or products that haven't been linked to, and ask website operators to add clickable links to their testimonials.
Search engine optimization is a complex subject that is critical to your website's findability. As a novice webmaster, there is still a lot to learn about SEO, but you have to believe that one day you will understand.