Backlink interest and network
Backlink interest ? Having backlinks allows you to position your web site higher on a given request and to develop your visibility on search engines and thus your traffic. Today to create a web site is relatively easy and not at all expansive. But to get visitors and contacts is another challenge.
It’s why SEO is so key. What is a backlink? What is SEO? Let’s have a look.
Having visitors is already to stand on the first page of Google or any other search engine. Do you know that Google is the leader of the global search on internet with 86 % of market share (Sept 21). But the most important, 75% of Internet users never scroll to the first page in search results. 99 % of the internet users don’t even go farer than the 3rd page of results.
Have you ever wondered how Google chooses which site to show first on its search engine? Well, the answer is very simple, the site that he deems the most relevant is found first.
But how can Google know if one website is more interesting than another? Among the many natural referencing criteria applied by the algorithms of the American giant’s search engine, the number and quality of backlinks to your website is a primordial criterion.
It’s why SEO is so key. What is a backlink? What is SEO? Let’s have a look.
What is SEO?
SEO is the practice of optimizing websites to make them reach a high position in Google’s – or another search engine’s – search results. SEO stands for ‘Search Engine Optimization’.
This means that people will be more likely to encounter your website when searching online. SEO focuses on improving the rankings in the organic (non-paid) search results. If you have a website and you want to get more traffic, there’s no doubt about it. SEO should be part of your marketing efforts.
Google’s algorithm
How high each result ranks is determined by Google’s algorithm ? Although parts of Google’s algorithm remain secret, years of experience in SEO have given insight into the most important ranking factors. These ranking factors can be divided into 4 broad areas.
- The Content of your pages. A quality articles with more than 300 words with keywords and titles (H1, H2, H3…). A good structuring of the pages
- The Keywords. Relevant and not too competitive keywords
- The structure of your web site. These factors include technical aspects (e.g. the quality of your code, the responsive design capacity, the site speed ….)
- Netlinking. Search engines use links to crawl the webs, they will crawl the links between entire websites and between the individual pages on your website. So it’s good to have links relating to your other content on each page as well.
While there are about 200 known Google ranking factors, backlinks counts as one of the most important for Google search. That’s because a link to another website is more than just a link. It’s a vote of confidence, a recommendation, a way for publishers to say to their readers: “Here’s a source I trust. Go check it out yourself.”
What is a Backlink?
Also known as inbound or one-way links, backlinks are simply links that point to your website from another website.
For example, if an Enneagram site (Website A) links to a blog post comparing top coaches (Website B), the coaching website receives a vote of confidence – or a backlink – from the Enneagram site.
This is how Google sees backlinks, such as votes establishing the popularity of a site or web page. And there is a strong correlation between a significant number of backlinks and higher rankings on search engines.
The best part of backlinks is that they help promote your blog or site just by being hyperlinks to you from another source. If many sites link to the same webpage or website, search engines can infer that content is worth linking to, and therefore also worth surfacing on a SERP (Search Engine Result Page: the page you see after entering a query into Google, Yahoo…).
The backlink can be included in a text, on an image or even be at the bottom of the page in the “Source” section. Ideally, links should be between sites of the same purpose.
You need to ensure that your backlinks are not “nofollow” otherwise they will not affect your SEO (they do not penalize you). A nofollow link is a link that sends no signal to Google bots, that is, it does not send anything for Page Rank. Be careful, Google doesn’t like sites that contain only “dofollow” links. Make sure you strike a balance.
How to Get Backlinks ?
Backlinks can be time-consuming to earn.
A backlink can be made:
- By a person in a natural way, because they liked your site or your content and want to share it to their audience. These are often the most effective backlinks, because they are often very consistent, but they are difficult to obtain. It is indeed the link obtained thanks to your work, your content, your brand image.
- Intentionally / artificially for you within the framework of a service, an exchange of good processes or by a simple request. That is to say links that you have created artificially in order to develop your visibility on search engines
Creating backlinks yourself or with the help of someone can be quite useful to take shortcuts, and grow faster without having to invest in tons of content and marketing levers (advertising, social networks…).
It is really effective when you do it right: exchanging links is an agreement you make between a site editor and yourself. The first one writes, for example, a post for the second one, and vice versa. Be careful however not to make reciprocal links between your pages.
You can also set up triangular links: that is to say, make a 3-way link exchange. You must have several sites under your elbow for this. For example: a partner site links to your site A and your site B links to the partner site.
Are all backlinks valuable?
Followed backlinks from trustworthy, popular, high-authority sites are considered the most desirable backlinks to earn, while backlinks from low-authority, potentially spammy sites are typically at the other end of the spectrum.
Just as some backlinks you earn are more valuable than others, links you create to other sites also differ in value. When linking out to an external site, the choices you make regarding the page from which you link (its page authority, content, search engine accessibility, and so on) the anchor text you use, whether you choose to follow or nofollow the link, and any other meta tags associated with the linking page can have a heavy impact on the value you confer.
But there is almost no bad backlink (see some exception with toxic links). Even a nofollow links is valuable for traffic, if it is not optimum for SEO.
See below some criterion to value a backlink:
- Quality of the link
- Authority of linking domain
- Link relevancy
- Link location
- Anchor text
- Link number
To join a web directory, is it an advantage ?
I hear this question quite often. Reason being that, people think directory registration is an old-school idea and should be avoided. However, this is contrary to the truth. As in the past, directory registration still performs a key role in SEO in 2021 and affects the positioning of the site. But, the key rule here is to search for high-profile directories and keep your format of adding address the same for every entry. This will not only allow Search Engines to remember your details, but increase the credibility of your information too.
When adopting the strategy linked to web directories, the indicated mentality is “quality and not quantity“, that is to say, do a preliminary investigation about which are the most popular and beneficial directories that are related to your field or industry. This way, you will create organic links and trust. Google will appreciate that.
Conclusion on backlink interest
The importance of backlinks for your business is very high. Having backlinks allows you to position yourself higher and higher on a given request and to develop your visibility on search engines and thus your traffic.
The WEN & WCN networks, we are creating are intended to use for that. Enneagram (WEN) and coaching (WCN) are the common fields where members can take advantage of web directory…. as far as there is a mutual exchange of backlinks between the member and the owner of the network.
Furthermore, while building your backlinks, you can make valuable relationships with other people in your activity.
