Literally "backlink" or "incoming link", the term "backlink" is used in the natural referral domain (SEO) to designate a hypertext link within content that points to another site, another domain. It can be opposed by an internal link that can take the same form but refer exclusively to content on the same site.
The internal link is mainly used to facilitate the navigation of the Internet user and the indexing of pages by Google bots, while the backlink is used for:
- The Indication to the Internet user of the external location of the information/product
- Transfer popularity from one site to another
This is the second job that SEOs are particularly interested in. Thus it is considered that inserting a backlink into content is a way to recommend another content, another web page. This recommendation is a pledge of trust (called "trust") that Google uses in its relevance algorithm to determine the ranking of its search engine results. To simplify, the more backlinks a website has (i.e. links from sites that recommend it), the more popular it is in the eyes of Google. Of course, the reality is a little more complicated than that...
Backlinking is generally implemented as part of an SEO strategy and its "off-site" component, which is the networking strategy. The SEO consultant is no longer satisfied with backlinks that "naturally" originate to their site from sources they have no control over. It will endeavor to produce it in greater quantities and/or quality. The backlink then becomes more complex in theory and attributes (no-follow for example), and even a value judgment, is assigned by Google. A backlink is rated as good or bad quality according to many criteria, especially related to the context of the backlink, which SEO experts try to influence.
In this article today, we will dive more into the definition of what is Backlinks? And we will explain its importance in promoting your website for search engines, let's go
Whats Backlinks
Backlink Components
In HTML code, the backlink is embodied by the <a> tag of the link, which contains the target URL: the address of the content you want to link to. This <a> tag opens and closes around one or more keywords, which form the link anchor. In this expression, the Internet user can click to access the associated content.
<a href= “http://example.com”> link link</a>
In order for Google to begin to judge the quality of a backlink, the relationship of the link must be closely related to the target content: it must allow its definition or at least encourage action in a specific context. Subject and appropriate connotations. Thus, a link like "General de Gaulle" that points to Napoleon's Wikipedia page is very likely not considered relevant.
Then, to form a good backlink, it is necessary not only that the relationship of the link has to do with the content of the target page, but also that the page that issues the link deals with a similar or identical topic. Thus, if the link to Napoleon's Wikipedia page is included in an article describing only General de Gaulle's life, there is little chance that Google will judge it qualitatively ... On the other hand, if it is included in an article describing great French military figures and that content gives great importance For a Napoleon like General de Gaulle (paragraphs of equal size, explicit translations, etc), the link then begins to find its coherence in Google's eyes compared to a given context.
The "nofollow" attribute for the backlink
If you have a website, blog, or even a simple mailbox, you are certainly familiar with the concept of spam: a spam message that forces itself on you through an email or comment that most of the time prompts you to click on a link. Spam techniques have appeared to a large extent to lead the visitor to certain content and retrieve something, such as personal data for example. So we classify as "spam" or comments left on blogs or forums that are primarily intended to benefit their author, not the content in which they are posted. Spam comments often contain links to questionable sites in order to allow them, among other things, to restore the site's SEO popularity, and to restore "link juice" (see below).
To avoid losing popularity with poorly controlled links, it is possible to set an attribute for backlinks: rel="nofollow". These are instructions to search engines when they detect the link on the page: It tells them that the submitting site "doesn't assume" the link is in place and therefore they shouldn't make any transfer of fame. So a blog can decide to set a 'nofollow' attribute by default for all links posted by internet users in their comments, thus preventing the risk of being referenced by protecting their popularity.
<a href= “http://example.com” rel="nofollow ">link link</a>
Logically, in order for a backlink to play a role in a website's SEO, it should not include the "nofollow" attribute, otherwise, it will be considered publicly objectionable... so the quality of the backlink is also a matter of legitimacy!
Backlink site
Finally, what can be a game-changer in terms of the quality of backlinks is their location within the source page. Google considers association in context to be more relevant than association alone, unrelated to the semantic environment. Therefore, it is more efficient for your SEO performance to put a backlink inside a paragraph of text, not in a list for example.
It is a common - and somewhat outdated - practice to put backlinks in the footer of a site. Thus, the backlink is present on all pages of the site, which conveys the potential popularity of each of them to the target site. But Google is not fooled: the position of the backlink is lower than all other elements of the page and generally with a smaller font telling it that this link is not really intended for the user to click on it. From now on, Google identifies your backlink as publicly flagged "SEO" and gives it less credit in the popularity account.
Likewise, to avoid abuse, when encountering multiple iterations of the same link within a page, Google only takes the first consideration in calculating relevance and popularity. Thus, only the first link counts to put the link into context, as well as the position of the first link within the page.
As you understand, the quality of the backlink is, therefore, a clever combination of criteria to which it's strategic positioning on the page is added: the more it is contextualized and placed high in the text, the more likely it is to be considered a qualitative backlink by the Google algorithm.
Link Building: What Is The Importance Of Backlinks
Popularity is at the heart of Google's algorithm
After defining what would be considered a good backlink, let's take a few lines to explain how Google's algorithm works, allowing it to determine the order of results for a given query.
Google wants to provide the Internet user with the most relevant answer to their search for information. To do this, he must determine which content, in terms of form and content, is most likely to appeal to him. Then it scans its index to find the best-quality match results. To compile this index, the bots crawled a large number of sites and indexed their content: length, structure, semantics, etc. They specifically checked it with Panda and Penguin filters. At this point, some really stand out and correspond to the purpose of the application. But it is still necessary to rank and order them in order of priority ... How is it decided which results will be presented first? To determine their location, Google monitors the most popular and most appreciated content by other users on the web. No doubt, backlinks are an indication of this popularity!
Thus, a site that deals with the topic in depth through rich content actually attracts Google's attention. But if that site also receives many backlinks from other quality sites on a similar topic, it has a good chance of being a part of the shortlist and ending up in SERP #1. Content and networking are actually two pillars of SEO (the third is Technical Search Engine Optimization).
Linkjuice
All networking strategies that consist of getting good backlinks are based on a star concept: link juice. This concept is also common in the concepts of internal and external links.
This colorful name expresses the transition and dilution of popularity that occurs when setting up a link from one page to another. We're also talking about moving "Page Rank", as an indicator of a page's popularity.
To keep up with the fruit juice metaphor, imagine a 1-liter bottle filled to its brim. If you want to transfer the juice to another container, this will collect 1 liter of liquid. On the other hand, if you want to transfer fruit juice into two cans, they will each collect only 50 cl of liquid evenly. If you move it into 3 cans, then each will collect only a third of the bottle, that is, 33.3 cl of liquid, etc.
The principle is the same with PageRank for a page. Take the homepage: If it offers 5 internal links in a main menu and 3 external links (backlinks) to other sites or referral partners, the PageRank (also known as popularity) will be moved and divided into 8. Each page is a topic of either internal or external link that gets By 12.5% of home page popularity.
According to this simple rule, we conclude that the more links a page receives - internal or backlinks, the more popular it will be because each of the source pages will pass on a part of its popularity to it. Therefore, the essence of SEO strategy for networks is to get maximum popularity of their pages by having high-quality backlinks.
SEO Link Building: Netlinking Strategy
Enhanced cookie
We talk about a "cookie" to identify all the "off-site" characteristics of a site: the number of backlinks but also referring domains that issue links, their evolution over time (acquisition or loss), the geographic distribution of the TLDs of the source sites, the different anchors used and their proportion. Lots of pointers offered by Ahrefs SEO tool in particular. Once again, one can evaluate the quality of the cookie and the supposed popularity it brings to the site.
By following the theoretical rules mentioned so far, and the work of Google's algorithm and its relevance and quality criteria, we can thus imagine the ideal and ideal cookie for maximum site popularity:
- A large number of backlinks from quality websites. These are sites with rich and documented content, oriented to a specific topic, and themselves the targets of many backlinks on the web.
- The links listed on the thematic content pages are very close to the target page
- Anchors optimized for strategic keywords for content positioning
Only here: Again, don't be fooled by Google. And a cookie that's too perfect risks giving it a hint... the engine wants to stay in control and seeks to prevent any tampering with its scores. He believes that backlinks that are naturally generated on the web - that is, by following the logic of "I like so I recommend it" - are never optimally optimized. They sometimes appear in comments, so they're probably in nofollow, sometimes inserted in the raw URL instead of a keyword, sometimes made from Canada, Belgium, Switzerland...
To be reliable in the eyes of Google, it is necessary to maintain a percentage of lower quality links or even work to get them when a cookie is believed to be highly optimized. So the networking strategy is above all a matter of diversity.
Techniques for getting backlinks
To cultivate diversity in the cookie, it is, therefore, necessary to multiply the methods of obtaining links and types of links ... Keep in mind that Google punishes any apparent attempt to manipulate its results, and therefore links, whatever they may be, must also be published over time and implemented within a certain period. A sudden rise in new links could red flag Google, undermining your efforts to improve your popularity and standing in the SERP (because that's all there is to it, remember!).
1. Create links from directories
It is preferable to choose objective evidence that is relevant to your business. If there aren't any, select public, well-known directories: Find out because everything on the web goes really fast, and directories are created and uncreated almost as fast as Google adjusts their algorithm...Choose a long-term directory to maintain the usefulness of a link for several years. Create a descriptive sheet for your activity or site: This includes a 'link' field where you can enter the URL of your site, often the home page.
2. Create links from forums
On the same principle as directories, first, focus your search on thematic forums of authority sites in your field. If you can't find one, choose public forums with related topics. Be a contributor, preferably a regular one, and try to include your link in a comment, in the middle of the appropriate text. It can then be a page other than the home page. But be careful: To avoid your comment being moderated and not published as much as possible, the link should add value to the discussion, provide information, and an element to respond.
3. Post comments on blogs
Select reference blogs in your topic and write comments based on the content you agree with or on the contrary that you would like to ask questions. Of course, don't just enter your link. Provide a real opinion or valuable information: testimonial, experience ... Your link should preferably be seen as a complementary resource to continue the discussion or deepen the topic.
4. Get links from supplier and partner websites
The SEO benefit of "partner" pages on websites has been denied for several years, as Google has been accustomed to devaluing content made only from links. However, these pages still exist because the sites that host them consider them a kind of show to users: by proudly displaying their suppliers, customers, and partners, we establish credibility and an image of seriousness in the eyes of visitors. So try to get links from partner pages or units of other companies you work with. The easiest way is to ask them...
5. Publish guest articles in guest blogging
If your expertise and interventions have value in the market, ask for blogs or websites that are serious about your topic and offer to publish a guest article. You provide the content - and then it is necessary to provide a well-written and documented article - with no other consideration than mentioning your name and a link to your site. The publisher site takes advantage of it because the post is useful to him: traffic generated on his page, promotion of his semantic domain, organic keywords that have to rank ... And from your side, you usually got a high-quality backlink.
6. Exploiting social networks
Organize contests or incentives to participate on your brand's social networks to generate mass backlink publishing as well as traffic to your site. Even if backlinks from social networks do not have the same weight in SEO, they still contribute to sending Google signals about your good reputation and popularity with your target.
7. Buy write and publish sponsored articles
This practice consists of selecting thematic sites and blogs relevant to your activity and contacting the editor or blogger to suggest a topic to be addressed, to put a link back to your site. Most of the time, the blogger himself writes from a feed you send to him, in order to make sure that the post respects his editorial line. In return, you pay him a certain amount of money. Since it is Google's policy to penalize buying links when they are discovered, some sites prefer advertising in color and precede your article with an explicit mention such as "sponsored article", making your post fall into the field. Google forgives you...
8. Produce press articles online
In the same way that a sponsored article is published, you can publish a newspaper article about yourself. Web media in general are more popular with users and Google. Their content tends to show up more easily on the first page of results, especially on a company, brand, or personality name. For the media, having content written by a journalist, sometimes in the form of an interview or opinion piece, is costly. He strives to respect the editorial line and must ensure that the topic developed will interest his readers. So you can try to create content for free by traditionally submitting press releases, hoping your topic will grab the media's attention and make them want to "invest" in a paper. But then you have no guarantee that the article will publish information from the desired angle or even put a backlink to your site. Or you can increase your odds and pay for a broadcast article.
Know that the price is often much higher than the price of a classic sponsored article because you pay as much for the time and editorial experience of the writer as you pay for contextual link placement and the ability to rank the generated content. A backlink to your site from a news website is sure to get it very popular, and this is a path not to be overlooked!
9. Create a network of PBN sites
The last but not the last way is to create a network of related sites called PBN (Private Blog Network), with topical content and aiming to link regularly to your site. In order to function well and reveal its full SEO popularity, a PBN must be carefully designed to avoid detection by Google bots. Thus, we will cancel any link between PBN sites, expand the semantic fields that have been worked on, and ensure a residual contribution to fame on these sites by selecting expired domain names with a satisfactory number of existing backlinks...
Comments
Post a Comment