Google SEO: What You Need to Know About Website Backlinks
Google SEO: What You Need to Know About Website Backlinks
Backlinks are simply links from one website to another. Search engines like Google consider backlinks as one of the factors for ranking, because when a website links to another, it signifies that they find the content worth attention. High-quality backlinks can help improve a website's ranking position and exposure in search engine results (SEO).
Types of Backlinks
There are two basic types of backlinks, with one type being more valuable than the other. Here is an introduction to these two types of backlinks and their impact on your website.
Links with the "Nofollow" tag are links that tell search engines not to crawl them. This type of link doesn't pass any value from one site to another. Therefore, they usually don't help in improving search rankings or exposure.
Dofollow links are the type of backlinks that every website desires. Backlinks from high-authority websites hold more value and can help improve your website's ranking in search engines.
However, some Dofollow links are considered "toxic" or harmful. These links come from suspicious sites or are obtained through violations of search engine service terms. This can lead to Google penalizing or even deindexing your website. The number of backlinks is not as important as the quality of the backlinks.
How to Acquire Backlinks?
Building backlinks to your website requires time and effort. Here are seven simple methods to establish high-quality backlinks for your website:
Add links to your website on your social media profiles.
Rewrite and expand upon high-ranking posts found through Google search.
Create list posts, how-to posts, why posts, infographics, or posts with embedded videos. These formats often attract more backlinks than standard posts.
Write comprehensive guides that cover every aspect of a topic, often spanning thousands of words.
Write guest posts on other blogs and websites.
Reach out to influencers in your niche or industry and introduce them to articles on your website that you would like them to link to.
Interview influencers in your industry and send them links, increasing the chances of them linking back to your site.
You can also start researching your competitors' backlinks. To do this, you need to examine the backlinks of top-ranking competitors. Backlink tools like SEMrush can help you find these links, so you can start targeting these websites as part of your own link-building strategy.
How to Check a Website's Backlinks?
There are various backlink monitoring tools that allow you to check a website's backlinks, including Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.
Monitoring your backlinks is crucial. Google Webmaster Guidelines require you to remove harmful backlinks from your website. Failure to do so may result in Google penalizing your website, causing your page ranking to decline.
Therefore, it's important to know how to answer the following three questions:
Where can you find all the backlinks to your website?
How can you determine if a backlink is harmful?
How can you contact the owners of harmful backlink websites?
Using the right tools can provide you with easy answers. You can use Google Search Console to help you explore your website and view backlinks, but it can be time-consuming and has limited functionality.
Alternatively, tools like SEMrush can quickly answer all three important questions. SEMrush has two features related to backlinks. The first is "Backlink Analytics," which allows you to research competitors, and the second is the "Backlink Audit" feature.
With Backlink Audit, you can find all the backlinks pointing to your website. Then, use SEMrush's Backlink Audit tool to check each backlink and filter out harmful ones. This way, you can identify and reject harmful backlinks before Google penalizes your website.
SEMrush has a feature that allows you to send emails directly to the owners of harmful backlink websites.
Using tools like SEMrush, you can conduct keyword research, examine competitors' backlinks, and manage them as part of your SEO strategy.
Studying the backlink profile can provide insights into the value of a website, which is an important component of your website's SEO strategy.
Backlinks are simply links from one website to another. Search engines like Google consider backlinks as one of the factors for ranking, because when a website links to another, it signifies that they find the content worth attention. High-quality backlinks can help improve a website's ranking position and exposure in search engine results (SEO).
Types of Backlinks
There are two basic types of backlinks, with one type being more valuable than the other. Here is an introduction to these two types of backlinks and their impact on your website.
Links with the "Nofollow" tag are links that tell search engines not to crawl them. This type of link doesn't pass any value from one site to another. Therefore, they usually don't help in improving search rankings or exposure.
Dofollow links are the type of backlinks that every website desires. Backlinks from high-authority websites hold more value and can help improve your website's ranking in search engines.
However, some Dofollow links are considered "toxic" or harmful. These links come from suspicious sites or are obtained through violations of search engine service terms. This can lead to Google penalizing or even deindexing your website. The number of backlinks is not as important as the quality of the backlinks.
How to Acquire Backlinks?
Building backlinks to your website requires time and effort. Here are seven simple methods to establish high-quality backlinks for your website:
Add links to your website on your social media profiles.
Rewrite and expand upon high-ranking posts found through Google search.
Create list posts, how-to posts, why posts, infographics, or posts with embedded videos. These formats often attract more backlinks than standard posts.
Write comprehensive guides that cover every aspect of a topic, often spanning thousands of words.
Write guest posts on other blogs and websites.
Reach out to influencers in your niche or industry and introduce them to articles on your website that you would like them to link to.
Interview influencers in your industry and send them links, increasing the chances of them linking back to your site.
You can also start researching your competitors' backlinks. To do this, you need to examine the backlinks of top-ranking competitors. Backlink tools like SEMrush can help you find these links, so you can start targeting these websites as part of your own link-building strategy.
How to Check a Website's Backlinks?
There are various backlink monitoring tools that allow you to check a website's backlinks, including Google Search Console, SEMrush, Ahrefs, etc.
Monitoring your backlinks is crucial. Google Webmaster Guidelines require you to remove harmful backlinks from your website. Failure to do so may result in Google penalizing your website, causing your page ranking to decline.
Therefore, it's important to know how to answer the following three questions:
Where can you find all the backlinks to your website?
How can you determine if a backlink is harmful?
How can you contact the owners of harmful backlink websites?
Using the right tools can provide you with easy answers. You can use Google Search Console to help you explore your website and view backlinks, but it can be time-consuming and has limited functionality.
Alternatively, tools like SEMrush can quickly answer all three important questions. SEMrush has two features related to backlinks. The first is "Backlink Analytics," which allows you to research competitors, and the second is the "Backlink Audit" feature.
With Backlink Audit, you can find all the backlinks pointing to your website. Then, use SEMrush's Backlink Audit tool to check each backlink and filter out harmful ones. This way, you can identify and reject harmful backlinks before Google penalizes your website.
SEMrush has a feature that allows you to send emails directly to the owners of harmful backlink websites.
Using tools like SEMrush, you can conduct keyword research, examine competitors' backlinks, and manage them as part of your SEO strategy.
Studying the backlink profile can provide insights into the value of a website, which is an important component of your website's SEO strategy.