If you have a website or a blog, you know how important it is to be ranked high on the search engines. You also know the importance of understanding SEO and how to maximize a site. What you may not be aware of is the importance of backlinks. You have probably seen the word backlinks used in SEO but are not quite sure what it means or how it works.
Basically, a backlink is a link from another site to your website or blog. Some people refer to these as inbound links and how many inbound links you have indicates the popularly of the site. In layman’s terms, think of these links as votes by search engines. The more people who link to you, means the more votes you have in the search engine, and if they are quality links, then your website goes up a notch in rank.
Two different kinds of links are considered backlinks. You have the on-way inbound link and the reciprocal inbound link. Quality matters and that is why the one-way links are usually considered quality and have the potential to give you better votes. A one-way backlink is where a site links to your site, without any prompting from you and has no link on your site. So simply put, websites direct a link to your site but you do not direct a link back to them.
On the other hand, the reciprocal backlink is one where you reciprocate the link. When someone directs a link to your site, you direct a link to theirs. However, these kind of inbound links are not considered votes, because they really do not care about those sites. In the past, it was different, but today it is the type of link that equals quality, not how many. Although reciprocal linking is a good way to get the word out about your site at the beginning, it is not a good practice to gain quality votes.
Now for the one-way backlinks to be considered quality links and gain you a vote there is a certain criteria it needs to match. First, it needs to link back to your website with the keyword that your website is optimized for. Second, it has to have the same theme as yours. This means that when an inbound link comes from another site, that content from that other site is related to yours, making it more relevant. If the inbound link comes from a totally unrelated site, then the quality is almost null.
Time and patience is needed in building up quality on-way inbound links, but it is the best way to get higher ranks. In order to attract those inbound links you need to really pay attention to your site. Keep it filled with quality, unique content and keep it updated regularly. The better the site, the more people visit and among those visitors are other webmasters and bloggers. If they find the site interesting and helpful, they will link to you.
If you want to stand a chance at higher rankings, then you have to pay attention to this important part of the SEO process. As the more backlinks your site can build up over time, the more the search engines notice your website, making it more visible in their results. That in turn makes your site more visible to the public, pulling more traffic to you.
It can be time consuming and you need to put a lot of effort and sometimes money into it, but backlinking is necessary today. A site that is visible and comes up quickly during searches has a lot of inbound links connected to it. Understanding the importance of backlinks can help you make your site as successful as you want it.