Backlinks are in SEO the golden goose of the web basically it just means that you are linking your website page or mighty interesting evergreen article on someone else website who share the same interest as you.
It is crucial to get backlink as it signals to search engine that your website is important and consequently you increased your ranking and your position on SERP.
In principle, this is brilliant as you mean to get many backlinks to increase popularity but in saying that you do not want a backlink from anybody as you can get penalized but what you need is backlinks from authority sites such as the Guardian Newspaper or anyone with prominence. You need to get quality links too, meaning from reputable websites.
However, here a good example of a quality backlink let say you run a small vet clinic and you have an online presence either a blog or website. While scouting the internet you noticed that the cat and dog lover blog posting interesting blog posts about cat and dog and they get many like, love and comment about their articles.
You could decide that it will be useful for you to get a backlink to your small vet clinic website or blog as their blog generate interest amongst the domestic pet lover. You contact the webmaster via email and tell them that you absolutely love the content of their blog and you would like to contribute to one of their articles and put a link back to your small vet clinic website or blog, or if you could write a guest blog post and mentioned your small vet clinic with a backlink to the clinic website.
If your request is granted you could start a beautiful relationship beneficial for both of you, as the webmaster can also request a backlink from your small vet clinic to their popular blog post about cat and dog. If their audience like your contribution they might decide to click on your link and view what the small vet clinic as to offer their pets. Also, the link from your website to the popular blog post would be seen and might increase readership for the popular blog about cat and dog as they might associate the blog with your small vet clinic as a regular contributor of advice about pet care and needs.
The importance of backlinks
Backlinks are important because they help search engine to understand what your website is about. Google’s algorithms are designed to assume that when one site links to another there is a relationship between their content. These algorithms pay attention to anchor text, the hyperlinked words that lead from an external site to your site. Knowing this fact your anchor text should include your specific keywords enabling search engines and your readers to know what type of content to expect when they click on the link.
The History of Backlinks
In the past, SEO was savaged as the focus leaned more on quantity than quality. Site owners were encouraged to get as many backlinks as they could from any type of website. Hence, to achieve this goal they often resulted in paying for links in bulk.
Site owners frequently turn to what was called link farms where they could purchase numerous cheap links from a vast network of worthless web pages which often lacked substance in content. As time pass SEO matured and the rules were changed. Google began to crack down on link farms with success which resulted in a massive changed as link farms got eradicated and make way for quality links only meaning that site owners need to be much more selective this day about what types of sites they approach for links.
What type of links are best?
What considered a good link is one from a website that is both reputable and relevant clearly demonstrated in the latter small vet clinic example requesting a backlink from the cat and dog lover blog. This example shows that the backlink you are requesting as relevance to service provision, the audience cat and dog lover, therefore, it is considered a quality backlink.
You may want to further your reach as a small vet clinic and start posting on Social Media post with interesting content about your small vet clinic about services offer such as emergency appointment available on your business page with a backlink to your website. In doing so it is best to target the relevant audience the cat and dog lover on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest and Google +, or you could access the post of other cat and dog lover and put a comment containing expert advice with a backlink to your vet clinic and like on their post.
You may gain so much popularity due to your constant good advice that you may even generate a local interest with the local newspaper and national interest with the Guardian newspaper who may want to write an article about your small vet clinic and naturally put a backlink to your website. You may also contact them via email and see if they could do an interview with you about your small vet clinic if granted a link back to your website and premise would be mentioned.
Due to your popularity, the TV might be interested in you and Loose Women hit ITV show contact you to seat on their shows about pets care and there you go you just hit the jackpot of backlink and your ranking will be increased ten times fold as the nation and fan of Loose Woman will see that shows and some might want to visit your small vet clinic and you suddenly get mighty busy that you need to expand a bit to accommodate the flood of new customers.
Hence can you see the importance of both reputable and relevant backlink what that can do for your business its reputation, sustainability, and acquisition of customers including profitability. Therefore, it pays to do the right thing at the right time, and you will always get the right result.
I Previously mentioned that you could get penalized if you do not have quality links as these days, search engines can penalize sites with disreputable or meaningless non-relevant backlinks by pushing them to lower ranking in search results or even removing them altogether from the SERP.
How to get quality backlinks
The best type of backlinks occurs organically meaning another site’s webmaster thinks that your content is valuable for their audience and links to your site, however it is not a regular occurrence, therefore, you need to take the initiative and put yourself out there to increase your visibility and presence and creating a network of authoritative links to your website. Here in layman terms how to build reputable, relevant quality backlink and in term of organic backlinks Girlfridayz has 3 and it is amazing to us.
Research for good websites
First, let define what is a reputable site this can be complex as when Google crawls and indexes a website, it uses over 200 ranking factors to determine the site’s authority and decide when it is relevant to display in search results. In order to help with your research of website credibility to request a link back to you, it is by taking a look at certain metrics about the site you are targeting.
Here are some indicators to take note of
Valuable Content: Look for sites with fresh, valuable content that is clearly useful and/or interesting to the website’s audience and relevant to your own field. If it’s drivel or poorly written—move on.
Current Links: Examine the site’s outbound links to understand what type of websites it links to. As a general rule, only collaborate with sites that act within Google’s guidelines and link to legitimate sites.
Traffic Rank: Check a site’s traffic rank to see how popular it is. This is calculated using a combination of average daily visitors and page views over the past 3 months. The lower the score, the more popular the site and Girlfridayz current traffic rank is 2.2/10 MOZ and Alexa Global traffic rank is 18190497.
Page Authority: The higher page rank is determined by the quality and quantity of inbound link and it is by far the most important that Google uses. The higher the score the better and it is a number out of 100 for example as of today Girlfridayz has 22/100 Page Authority.
Domain Authority: The higher domain authority, the more reputable a site. Keep in mind that getting links from sites with very high domain authorities can be extremely difficult. When choosing target websites, strike a balance between sites that rank high but aren’t as widely known. Such as Girlfridayz has 28/100 Domain Authority.
Site Age: Check a site’s age to find out how long it’s been online and try to target sites that have been around for a while. Older sites are often considered stronger and more reputable. On the other hand, similar to sites with higher domain authority, they may be harder to get links from.
Regularly Updated Content: Google values sites that are updated regularly. If the last new post was 6 months ago, look elsewhere.
Cache Status: Check the cache status to learn when Google last visited a site’s page. Ideally, it should be within the last few days.
To Evaluate target websites, you can use any of these tools listed below to conduct your research of target websites.
And has a bonus to track competitors’ backlinks you can use any of these tools:
Start the Outreach Process
Once you’ve compiled a list of websites to target, it’s time to reach out to the webmasters and ask them a link to your site. The best strategy is to draft personal emails explaining what you do, why your site is relevant to their readers and what type of content you can offer.
Different Types of Pitches
Promote existing site content: Take a look at the content on your site and consider which type of audiences it would appeal to. Then, mark down the websites on your list that also target this audience. Send the webmasters links to your content and explain why you think it is relevant for their readers.
Write guest posts: A guest blog post is a fantastic way to expand your audience and get your name out there. When emailing webmasters and offering to blog for them, be sure to explain your specific area of expertise, suggest a few ideas you’d like to write about and include a writing sample.
Regardless of what type of pitch you make, don’t be shy about specifying what your site brings to the table and how it benefits the readers of the target website readers. Remember that you're not the only site owner using this strategy, so think of creative ways to differentiate your message when you reach out to each specific website (e.g. stay away from “form emails”).
Tips for Success
Send out a lot of outreach emails, but don’t be discouraged if they are rejected or ignored. Send a follow-up email after 5-10 days and then another one about a week after that.
Maintain strong relationships with webmasters of reputable websites by keeping them in the loop about your company’s latest developments. Every few months, shoot them an email and let them know what you’ve been up to and why it may be of interest to their readers.
Make sure your links are fresh! Google checks the maturity of your backlinks and wants to see that you have new ones. Seek out additional backlinks every few months to send the message that your site is still alive and kicking.
Be patient! It can take time for the process to take effect. If you get some great links, you might not see an immediate boost in your rankings. Just remember that SEO is a marathon, not a sprint and a game of patience as your metric goes up and down quickly depending on what you are doing. If you nurture your website it goes up and stays up if you neglect your site, it goes down and if you part with undesirable company it disappears.
Build a Lasting Reputation
Getting backlinks can be a challenge, but it simply requires a lot of dedication and a little bit of luck. Stick to it! Keep on sending out those outreach emails and in time you’ll find success. In six months or a year, the results will be clear when your site moves up the SERP and your traffic increases.
Here are an interesting fact did you know: The flapping of one's wings provides an automatic drift to the immediate follower goose. Therefore, flap your wings and get followers to your excellent content that include backlinks to your blog or website to increase your ranking, your reputation, business sustainability and profitability.