So What Are Backlinks Anyway?
Backlinks in my opinion, can be the most confusing part of search engine optimization(SEO). Mainly because it is the one part of SEO involving other websites than the one you are actually trying to rank on Google.
It’s also one of the most important aspects of SEO.
So what are backlinks exactly and how do they affect SEO on your website?
Backlinks 101
First things first, a backlink by definition is “an incoming hyperlink from one web page to another website.”
This means someone put a link to your website on their website. Having good links to your website can make your search engine ranking climb higher, because this tells Google that other websites have trusted your website enough to link to it.
Now this doesn’t mean any and all links are good for ranking. As a matter of fact some links to your website could be bad.
I’ll explain.
Website trust is ranked based on a number of factors, things like how long a website has been around and domain authority. So if someone with low domain authority links to your website that might not have any benefit on your ranking.
So this means you really want websites that are trustworthy linking back to your site to build your backlinks. Other sites like local news outlets, larger publishers for the same industry you’re in, another business that isn’t your competition but compliments your specialty(for instance a chiropractor getting a health coach to link their site.)
Get Them to Link to You
OK we’re in good shape, we know what backlinks are in SEO, and we know we need backlinks to our website to rank higher on Google.
So how do we get people to link to us?
This is the hard part. Guest posting is the way to go. Find another local business with a blog on their website and offer to write a blog post for them. Obviously it needs to be something relevant to their business and what you do. Think back to the example earlier of the chiropractor and health coach, the chiropractor could write an article on the health coach’s website about how chiropractic care has benefits relieving headaches.
Which is both relevant to the chiropractor and the health coach. You have to understand anywhere you try to get links from needs to be relevant to what you do. A chiropractor getting a link from a local flower shop’s web page about their sale on roses probably won’t hold much weight.
Relevant information to what you do is key.
So try reaching out to other business’ offering to write a piece of content for them.
Another avenue to try is approaching a local news outlet, then asking them to write an article about your business(obviously making sure they link back to your site). Maybe you already have some really good blog posts on your site that you could let them link back to as a source for an article they are working on.
Trust me, they will love if they can use a local source for their article.
Need Help with Getting Backlinks?
Stuck on ideas for writing content for your blog? Don’t like the idea of networking just to get backlinks to boost your SEO?
Eternal Fire Media offers SEO services that not only include on-page SEO but off-page(backlinks) as well. We are happy to handle your website’s SEO so you can focus on your business.
