What are the backlinks?

What are the backlinks?

Practical and very useful guide to improve your SEO

one of the 20,000 Rock Content editors. Imagine how many millions of sites exist on the Internet and how many millions of searches are performed daily. In the digital environment it is necessary to adopt SEO strategies (Search Engine Optimization, that is, in literal translation, Optimization for search engines).

SEO is the set of techniques that aim to increase the positioning of a blog or website to improve its positioning in the results of Google and other search engines .

It is through SEO techniques that you can improve the visibility of a blog or website and achieve a good positioning in the network search engines. And with it, highlight and visibility to a business. One of the most important SEO techniques to achieve web positioning are backlinks . Below we present what are the backlinks , what they are for and the ways to obtain them.

1. What are the backlinks?

Backlinks are links arranged in a text that direct the reader to another site that has content related to what you are reading .

Backlinks allow the reader to expand their knowledge and, at the same time, generate quality traffic for a blog or website. The more people refer to a blog or site on a certain topic, the more authority this site or blog gets.

That's why backlinks are important. They show search engines that a particular site is relevant to users who are looking for a specific topic, in such a way that other sites are pointing to it.

Therefore, backlinks are part of the positioning factors of Google , as they influence both the PageRank and the site authority. There are several types of backlinks and they are usually strategically positioned in a text. It is important to know well what each of them serves before starting a strategy.

Here are the main ones :

1.1. Link Juice

These links bring the reader of a web page to one of your articles or home page of the site or blog, thus contributing to the ranking of the page on the search sites. The bit link is often used to improve domain authority.

1.2. Nofollow Links

It is the following situation: when one site is linked to another, but the link has a "nofollow" tag, the connection with it does not happen completely.

In general, the "nofollow" tag is used to prevent the links added in the comments of the messages, for example, serving as backlinks to other sites, since they have their questionable reliability.

1.3. Dofollow Links

Unlike nofollow links, dofollows allow all the links added to your blog to work as valid backlinks.

1.4. Root Domains Links

It refers to the number of backlinks that arrive at your site from a single domain.

That being the case, even if the site has a dozen links pointing to your blog, only one will be considered.

1.5. Low Quality Links

They represent low quality links for your blog.

Generally, they originate from site directories, spam sites, pornographic sites and when you buy backlinks.

Due to the low relevance of the links, they can harm your effort to improve the positioning of the blog.

1.6. Internal Links

They are links that go from one page to another within the same domain.

Internal links allow you to connect your own pages with relevant topics, which keeps the reader in the blog for longer.

1.7. Anchor Text

The part of the text that is used to make a hyperlink is called anchor text . This type of backlink works well when you are trying to gain authority on certain keywords. However, be careful: what matters is the quality and not the amount of backlinks .

In the past, backlinks were the main metric for the positioning of a web page, that is, a page with a lot of backlinks scattered on the web had a higher ranking in all the major search engines. However, after the last update of the Penguin algorithm by Google in 2016, things changed and the quality came to be considered .

But how is quality considered now?

If a site or content is indicated by a large website and with authority on the same topics as yours, Google interprets that to be a quality link and you earn points with that. But if you receive links of low quality, that is, from sites that do not have relevance or that have nothing to do with your niche, this can even harm your site.

2. How to get quality backlinks?

Now that you know what backlinks are and what is the quality that counts and not just the quantity, the time has come to learn how to get some for your site or blog.

2.1 Do not buy backlinks!

There are several portals that offer you backlinks payments, but we do not recommend you to use this type of service, since a large part of them have dubious quality and can lead you to suffer a severe penalty from the search engines.

2.2. Write good articles

This is the best and simplest way to get backlinks for your blog. Tutorials, tips and courses are good examples of content that increase the potential of the blog in obtaining backlinks from other sites as a reference.

But remember, the content must be really useful, adding value to the user through practical examples.

2.2 Make internal links

The internal link helps improve traffic and externally link other authority sites on the issue to help gain recognition and a probable return link.

2.3 Start commenting on other sites

Comments are excellent, easy and free ways to get backlinks. Start commenting on forums and blogs. Although they are nofollow, you will be more in evidence, being able to get a backlink back because of the relevance and the way in which you approach certain issues.

2.4 Make content association

Offer relevant posts to other sites and blogs that have authority on the topic addressed by you. Even if you are a competitor, you can gain attention from them and have good links back. The opposite is also valid. It offers space for other sites and blogs to write for you by linking back to your site. To learn more about how to use backlinks and topics related to SEO, download our full ebook on the subject.