Backlinking drives organic traffic, builds your online presence and leads to success. But, if you are new to digital marketing, you may be wondering why it is so important.
You did some keyword research. You determined your topic. Then, you wrote a post full of quality content. But wait – your digital strategy should not stop there!
You may be missing out on a vital part of your SEO strategy – backlinks. This could be costing you valuable business!
Your SEO strategy may need an upgrade and backlinks could be the missing key.
In this post, we’ll explain the importance of backlinking and how it works. We will also explain how you can use it to drive more sales for your business, both online and offline.
What Are Backlinks In SEO?
In short, backlinks connect one website to another. To use backlinks, marketers or writers will create content that contains both internal and external links. Some of these links will connect to other pages on their own website. Other links will connect to outside websites. Oftentimes these backlinks are citing information or referencing more resources.
Search engines such as Google view backlinks as “votes” for a specific page. Basically, the more votes for a page equal a higher ranking.
Why Are Backlinks Important In SEO?
There are many ranking factors Google uses to rank sites, including the use of anchor text, a title tag, and meta tags. However, Google has confirmed that backlinking is one of the three most important parts of the way they determine website ranking!
Google pushes high-ranking sites to the top of the search results. The higher your site ranks, the more people will see your site first when searching relevant keywords!
Now that you understand the importance of backlinks for your website’s ranking, you may feel ready to jump in and start utilizing them in your SEO strategy.
But, you should not backlink to just any site!
What Kinds Of Backlinks Are Considered Valuable?
It’s not the number of links, but the quality of links that help to determine your site’s ranking.
When citing a paper for a college course, do you cite a Harvard Research study or a random person’s blog? Most would choose Harvard. That is the difference between high and low-quality backlinks. Google evaluates the quality of who you are linking to and who is linking to you.
This all feeds into Google’s process for determining how valuable your site is. Higher quality backlinks result in better domain authority.
One high-quality backlink can be more powerful than 100 low-quality backlinks!
The better the backlinks, the more valuable Google will deem your site. The higher the domain authority, the higher Google will rank your site. The more valuable your site is, the more traffic your site will see.
High-quality backlinks help prove your credibility to Google. In turn, Google pushes your site in front of more eyes.
Backlinks Play A Big Role In Driving Traffic
Building backlinks as part of your SEO strategy is critical for your success. It plays a huge role in driving traffic to your site.
Unless you buy your ranking (as notified by “Ad” in front of the title), you have a lower chance of showing up on the first page of the search results. If you are backlinking effectively, you could rank on the first page! This can exponentially increase your exposure if utilized correctly.
Backlinks Help You Build Your Brand And Reputation
Improving your SEO strategy by including backlinks can help you reach your target audience more efficiently.
The more people that see your site, the more credible your page will be. This leads to increased brand awareness and helps build your reputation.
As your brand becomes more recognizable, other sites and businesses will start linking to your pages. In turn, their backlinking will boost your domain authority!
Backlinks Are Critical For Success
Your link-building strategy is important for SEO. If you have great content, optimizing your SEO strategy will help lead your business to success.
But, optimizing your SEO should be only one part of your digital marketing strategy.
Are you checking all your boxes with your digital media marketing plan? Are you using social media, traditional marketing tactics, and building a subscriber list?
There are many additional marketing channels you could be utilizing – such as email marketing. Email marketing can be highly effective at driving traffic in tandem with your SEO efforts!
Not sure if you are using the right marketing strategy and digital channels for your business? Check out our free Ultimate Marketing Cheat Sheet to see if you’re checking all your marketing boxes!
Need Help With Your Digital Marketing Strategy?
If you’re not sure where to start, there’s plenty of free (and paid-for) tools you can utilize – sites such as SEMRush, Moz, and Ahrefs offer a variety of free tools you can try out.
However, these tools can be confusing for a new digital marketer, and you do not want to waste your valuable time. If you decide to pay for some of their services, they can get expensive fast.
We realized this was an issue for a lot of businesses starting their journey into online marketing. They wanted to optimize their SEO strategy without breaking the bank.
Let an expert guide you in this process. We can help you reach your digital marketing goals in a timely manner. We even offer a free consultation to see if we are the right fit for you!
