In SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
circles, there is a lot of talk about this thing called backlinks. And if you
are new to the world of Internet Marketing (IM) or have just launched your
first website, you may not understand exactly what they are or even how crucial
they are if you are looking for very high Search Engine rankings on Google.
If your web
business will use paid advertising such as AdWords, AdBrite or Yahoo's paid
ads, then backlinks are something that you do not need to worry about.
So, let's assume that you are going to be relying on decent organic rankings in Google (they are the free ones) and you need to get your site high up on Page 1 of Google - preferably #1 - but you don't understand this SEO business or using backlinks and your new web business can't yet afford someone doing this mysterious art for you.
So, let's assume that you are going to be relying on decent organic rankings in Google (they are the free ones) and you need to get your site high up on Page 1 of Google - preferably #1 - but you don't understand this SEO business or using backlinks and your new web business can't yet afford someone doing this mysterious art for you.
In brief, a
backlink is a hyperlink (a link that can be clicked on) on a site somewhere
else on the web that links back to your website. In its simplest crudest form,
that is a backlink.
Unlike Bing
and Yahoo which are more driven by factors on your site (though together they
hold less than 25% of the search engine market), Google uses backlinks (on
other sites) to figure out if your new site on, say, Siamese fighting fish,
should rank highly on their search engine results or not.
Google will
consider the so-called anchor text in the link (the word or phrase that is
linked) and the authority of the site that the link is coming from to determine
how highly or lowly your site should rank. And when it comes to Google organic
search engine results, backlinks are pretty much all you have to influence the
ranking success of your site.
Your next
question should therefore be, how can I get these backlinks for my new Siamesefighting fish site? Back in the prehistoric age of the Internet, you would
approach other webmasters and politely ask for a link on their website and in
return you would offer one on your site to theirs.
Today, that's
impractical for many reasons. Firstly, Google hates what it calls reciprocal
links where sites link to each other so those links will have virtually no
value. Secondly, you now need link volume to get traction in Google as most
sites on Page 1 of Google will usually have a hefty volume of links (think in
the hundreds and thousands) if the particular keyword or search term is worth
ranking for.
There are some
other factors to consider such as whether the links are dofollow or nofollow,
the PageRank of the site where the backlink comes from and having backlinks
from a big variety of sites. Contrary to a lot of SEO advice, I have never
found the relevancy of a backlink site's topics to my site a factor at all in
gaining linking power but consistency of linkbuilding is extremely important.