Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a central element for any digital marketing strategy. Ranking high on Google is crucial in increasing organic traffic to your website. In fact, only 0.78% of searchers will click through to the second page of search results, according to Backlinko. Backlinking is when other website domains hyperlink to your website content. Backlinks are only one part of the SEO marketing strategy, however, they perhaps hold the most importance.
Why are backlinks important for SEO campaigns?
Out of Google’s 200 different criteria in its website ranking algorithm, backlinks stand at the forefront of importance. Backlinks to your website show Google that other websites view your information as relevant and trustworthy.
Having multiple inbound links to your site from a range of other websites will help shoot you up the search ranks. That being said, quality holds much more importance than quantity. A single backlink from a website within your industry, with a high domain authority, will improve your ranking much more than a number of backlinks from less relevant, lower domain authority sites. The ideal, of course, is lots of inbound links from the former.
Therefore, your three main concerns for successful backlinking are:
- Obtaining links from relevant websites within your industry
- Obtaining links from high domain authority websites
- Obtaining a large number of links naturally, over time.
The final point must be stressed. A number of businesses attempt to buy their backlinks, which results in a sudden influx of inbound links to their sites. However, Google acknowledges this immediately, and will not improve their ranking. The skill of backlinking is not to trick the system, but to work with the system.
Furthermore, backlinks are not just important for telling Google how important your website is, but telling potential clients too. When a high authority website links to yours, the result is an increase in organic traffic to your website. The organic traffic has arrived with confidence from the referee that your product or service is trustworthy, and thus, conversion rates will improve.
Domain Authority
When websites with high domain authority link to your website, your domain authority improves also. Domain Authority works alongside Google’s ranking system to demonstrate the authority of knowledge each website has. The domain authority scale ranges from 1-100. The scale is logarithmic, which means that it is much easier to go from 1-10, than it is to go from 40-50. Most successful businesses will reach the middle of this scale, however, the top rankings are reserved for global corporations such as Youtube and Facebook.
Where are the best backlink locations?
In order to improve the likeliness of obtaining backlinks, there are a number of website types that should be the target of your backlink quest, in any industry or sector. News sites, blogs, industry magazines, and business directories are all website types that commonly link to external websites. Another useful website type is one similar to yours, within your industry, but a different sector. These are called Complementary Businesses, and while you offer different services, backlinking to each other is beneficial in interlinking different businesses within an industry.
Internal Links
Backlinks fall under a broader SEO category of Link Building. Link Building is a two-part model, backlinks and internal links. While backlinking holds more importance in Google’s eyes, internal links on your website are crucial in reinforcing that your website has relevant authoritative content.
If your pages and posts are all interlinked to each other, it implies that the information on your website is all relevant to your business and industry. If each of your website’s pages have multiple entry points, it helps Google’s spiders crawl through the pages. This will, in turn, improve your ranking. Link Building is important, therefore, both for on page and off page SEO.
Audeo’s guide on how to generate high quality backlinks
We are a Bristol-based digital marketing company who specialise in SEO marketing, alongside a range of other marketing tactics. Our backlinking methods have proven success, and our 20 years of combined digital marketing knowledge have helped businesses boost their websites’ rankings.
Here are some of our top white hat strategies to build backlinks and improve website rankings.
Link Roundups
A Link Roundup is a weekly or monthly curated blog post that links to the best websites or specific quality content within an industry. This is perhaps the easiest way to obtain a backlink as the sole purpose of link roundups is for these pages to link to other websites.
At Audeo, we have links to websites who create round ups across a range of industries. We can help clients feature in these link roundups, improving inbound linking.
Podcasts
An often overlooked strategy for businesses to improve their website backlinks is by utilising podcasts. Business podcasts are currently one of the most popular genres of podcasts. Reaching out to shows to become a guest is a great way to create quality backlinks, improve website traffic, and also to improve brand awareness on social media . Audeo will support you in seeking out interested podcast shows.
Create branded strategies and methods
This backlink tactic is particularly useful for businesses with a large number of competitors. Uniquely naming specific strategies and methods within your business is a proven method for improving backlinks. Bloggers are often drawn to having interesting and catchy anchor text, as it implies knowledge and authority in their writing. Backlinko successfully implemented this tactic with their ‘skyscraper technique.’
Focus on Journalists and Bloggers
This tactic is useful for creating consistent backlinks. Many journalists and bloggers will write a piece of content where they need outside knowledge input. Websites like Press Plugs link businesses looking to build backlinks with journalists and bloggers, who will do weekly roll calls on information needed. In some cases, you will also be able to do a guest post, further creating traffic to your website and improving your ranking.
Why Choose Audeo
Audeo are a Bristol-based digital marketing agency, with a team of SEO experts with 20 years combined knowledge on how to build SME businesses from the ground up. We pride ourselves in our bespoke and tailored treatment for each of our clients. No two digital marketing campaigns look the same.
