What Is Link Building And Why Are Backlinks So Important In SEO?

Posted on Nov 25, 2020

Link building needs to remain your top priority if you want your website to rank on Google’s first pages. Links fall under the category of critical site ranking factors.

Do you want to build links, but you don’t know how they can help you? Worry no more!

In this enlightening post, you will find link building definition and why backlinks are so important in SEO.

Let’s get started!

What Does Link Building Mean?

Link building refers to an SEO strategy that allows you to get other sites to link to your website. In general, link building means an uncomplicated hyperlink from a specific web page to your website.

As per a significant percentage of individuals, link building falls under the challenging elements of ranking a site.

However, link building is the most rewarding SEO strategy if you do it right.

How Links Work?

When a different site links to your website, it means Google needs to rank your site in its first pages for relevant keywords.

In other cases, you can refer links to as external links, inbound links, backlinks, or generally as links.

You’re likely to increase your chances of getting ranked high if your website receives several high-quality links.

By getting ranked high in Google, it means you’ll also generate more leads.

However, you need to note that the method of creating links is not the same. Other techniques used can decrease your website’s visibility.

You can use various tactics to build these links. Some techniques are easy to implement compared to others.

However, it can become challenging to know the starting point in some cases, bearing in mind that other methods can decrease your site’s visibility.

Why Link Building Matters?

Search engines utilize various complex algorithms and update them from time to time to ensure the users get only reliable search results.

Yes, Google uses several factors when ranking a site, but backlinks remain the most impactful factor.

For Google, links refer to ‘vote of confidence’ from a specific site to another website.

Google is likely to treat your website as a reliable source of information if you have more backlinks.

SEO is an industry that keeps growing and adjusting to algorithm updates. However, the latest study shows that there is a relationship between search rankings and links.

A 2020 study shows that sites featuring more backlinks rank higher on various search engines than those with fewer backlinks.

The same study shows that unique referring domains have a significant impact on page rankings.

From this research, it’s clear to focus on sites that link back to your website because they’re more valuable than sheer backlinks.

Consider concentrating on this because of the diminishing value associated with earning several links from one domain.

Also, as per the SEO community, the links’ value grows from one day to another.

The SEO professionals have found that Google checks the linking pages and websites’ quality before ranking your page and website.

The link building’s primary goal is to improve SERP rankings. But you can also boost digital performance by engaging in this link building process.

Increased traffic is one notable benefit associated with link building. Generally, improved rankings mean your site will receive more organic traffic.

If you have a highly visited web page, then link building should not be an option.

Here, link building will help you get more referral traffic from individuals who would not have identified your page.

Other than this, link building outreach builds connections with industry sites and increases brand recognition.

Choose Quality And Not Quantity

In the past, most people associated link building with spammy that maximized the way outs in search engines/Google algorithms.

But with the evolution of Google algorithms, it is easy to identify link building schemes and penalize sites that violate Google’s guidelines.

Also, link building tactics have evolved over the years. Now, your focus should be on getting backlinks on the right pages and quality sites that link to you.

If you plan to build links, then you must know how to gauge the website quality. The critical factors to consider when measuring site quality include:

● Relevancy

Relevancy should remain a top priority if you want to emerge victorious in link building.

The backlink to your website must make sense of the identified web pages and be a logical fit.

You remain in a better position of getting the link if you can defend yourself on why a webmaster needs to link back to your site.

● Page Authority And Domain Authority

With the page authority and domain authority, it will be easy to predict your site’s ranking on search engines.

As a result, page authority and domain authority gives you an idea about the website’s authority.

However, note that page authority and domain authority give estimated scores that don’t relate to Google.

● Citation Flow And Trust Flow

Trust flow predicts site trustworthiness, depending on the quality backlinks that point towards that website.

The citation flow indicates website influenceability, depending on the number of websites linking to that site.

The website’s influenceability scores vary from one to a hundred.

● Traffic

A quality website must record consistent traffic from time to time without significant drops. Avoid those sites that register less than 100 visitors per month.

● Website’s Look And Feel

Never choose a website featuring an outdated layout and design because this might also mean an obsolete page.

Avoid a website featuring several page external links that don’t sound relevant to the topic.

These links may indicate a site that engages in spammy strategies and always check their reviews before asking for their web page link.

Why Are Backlinks So Important In SEO?

A backlink is the internet’s backbone. We always click on links to get helpful content.

Also, backlinks offer several benefits. Google uses backlinks to determine the relevance and quality of a web page.

Backlinks that direct visitors from other sites to your site are known as external links.

For internal links, they direct your visitors to your other web content. Of these two links, external links are the most preferred because of their high SEO value.

You can take external links from all authority websites as a ‘vote’.

They inform Google that other reputed websites think your website pages are worth recommending.

Hence, the more backlinks your site has, the higher the chances of ranking high in Google.

But why are backlinks so important in SEO?

Here is the answer!’

They Make It Easy For Google To Find Your Website

Google spiders use backlinks to find various website pages. They do this by following links to your website and then go through and rank all your web pages.

You’re likely to attract the attention of Google faster if you have several backlinks to your site.

As a result, with numerous backlinks, your website will enjoy faster indexing and ranking on the first pages of search engines within the shortest time possible.

By building more backlinks to your website, you’ll reduce the average time search engine optimization takes to work.

They Make It Easy For Your Site To Generate More Leads

If you have a popular and top-rated site, then having a backlink should not be an option. With a backlink on this site, you’ll increase the number of individuals who visit your site.

A backlink is a valuable strategy because it recommends visitors to your web page from another site.

Another crucial point to note is that Google prioritizes websites featuring vital traffic metrics and not those with little or zero traffic.

Google takes websites with critical traffic metrics as helpful and, therefore, gives them a top priority.

While building links, let your top priority be on credible and relevant websites. Focus on websites having domain authority of 50 and above.

Through this, your site will receive more visitors and even increase your rankings in various search engines.

They Increase Your Website’s Organic Ranking

Google is a top-rated world-wide search engine because it provides the most related search results.

A significant percentage of individuals use this search engine because they are 100% sure to get what they need.

As a result, Google will always assess your website and ensure you have relevant content before ranking it. It uses RankBrain technology to determine if you have a web page relevant to the keyword search.

Therefore, you’re likely to increase your organic ranking if you use backlinks relevant to the keyword search.

They Raise Brand Awareness

When a specific site links to your web page, it shows your website page content provides the reader’s relevant content.

When you receive great backlinks, it means individuals from trustworthy websites are promoting your web content and brand to their visitors. As a result, this will make more people visit your site.

After visiting your site, you can use the ‘relevant content’ widget to link these individuals to other related web pages. Through this, you’ll increase the time visitors spend on your site, a factor that Google uses to rank your website in search results.

They Give Your Business An Authority Rank

Your business/company is likely to get an authority rank/position on a specific subject, topic, or service if more websites continue linking back to your site.

Google uses backlinks and more factors to get updated about your site. As a result, Google is likely to get more updated about your web page if more traffic links back to your website.