I have heard people saying backlinks are just 5-10% of SEO, I say it is the most effective part of off page SEO. Give me one website that dominates Google rankings with lesser backlinks. Your website might get indexed on Google and start ranking for the initial days on the top pages, but no sooner you see a competitor overtaking your ranks and you realize the reason being backlinks. Suddenly, you realize you were the rabbit in the race with the tortoise, hurts?
Never, stop building links for your website. SEO link building is a strategy to win Google’s heart for you to rank on the top pages.
When Google launched its search engine, the most effective way for it to understand which website to rank for a keyword, it used to do it with the help of the number of backlinks a website has. Basically initially, the algorithm was the more the number of backlinks the more people are talking about it. But then Google later realized the SEO experts were simply spamming backlinks and playing with its algorithm. Due to which Google had to improve its algorithm and make it strict to avoid spamming and keep it genuine for its searchers. This is how the term quality backlinks came into the picture.
How to do link building mindfully and with a plan, let us understand the logic.
What is a Backlink?
Backlinks are nothing but hyperlinks created with the help of anchor text.
To create backlinks, we use anchor texts.
Anchor text links are nothing but links with keywords added to it, it is done with A tag in HTML, where the URL is placed in between HREFs.
Example: <a href=”www.google.com”>best search engine</a>
Now, every link has its own value based on its placement, from which website or web page. Also based on which section of the page the link is added to matters a lot. This value is nothing but link juice. This juice is passed on from one link to another link.
What is a Link Juice?
Link juice means how much value does a link pass on to the other link where it is referred to. If you own a new website, and another website has a link to yours, moreover that website has good page authority, that page value is passed on to yours too.
If you have given a link to another website, your page value is passed on to that other website to which you have linked. Link juice is applicable to all types of links.
The juice value is passed on to the other website or webpage to which you create the link or if some other website might have given it to your website. This is how link building gives an added value to the websites by passing on its own value to other pages with the help of links. Of course, this link juice is effective only when a website has some value like good page authority or domain authority.
Links, especially in the first paragraph, below the title pass the most value.
Now, this is where nofollow links and dofollow links techniques help. If you do not want to pass the juice to another website you simply make your backlink nofollow.
To make a link nofollow simply add rel=”nofollow” in the anchor tag and if you don’t mention this, it is obvious the link is dofollow.
Now let us understand the types of backlinks.
When you are on the internet, everyone has their own ways to explain backlinks. I like to keep it simple so I have divided them into three types, of course, there are variations to it, but now we will strictly limit it to three.
- Inbound backlinks
- Internal backlinks
- Outbound/External backlinks
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Inbound links
Inbound links are links that any other website might have given to your website. These are the most important links and the most difficult links to create compared to the other types of links. When I say difficult, it does not mean impossible. All I mean is it requires work and it is not like cutting the cake. Work like outreaching to other bloggers. Asking other bloggers to add your website link in their articles or any other pages. This is almost similar to networking you do in real & practical life. If you are good at networking in real life, I don’t think so you might face challenges in the digital world unless you are a digital handicap. This where you can link juice comes into the picture. This means that the authority the other website carries passes on to your website.
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Internal Links
Links that you create to another webpage within your own website. Generally, this link refers to pages from keywords or topics about which you need to know more information.. Certain topics or keywords that have to be shared with more content for better understanding. Well, yes this applies to all types of links. But in case of internal links you are not sending the reader or Google out of your website, which means no decrease in bounce rate. These links help Google or readers to better understand what the page topic is all about, how it connects to the other pages or content of the website.
Note: Internal links are not the same as inbound links, but external links and outbound links are the same.
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External / Outbound Links
These links simply take the readers and Google bot out of your website to any other external website. When you have a topic or text that needs more information, you simply add an outbound link where that topic could be discussed in detail. It could be any link going out of your website. External links have link juice which means the authority that your page has passes on to the other website to which you have linked to.
Few tips to follow while building links
Now you know what the different types of links and how link building works, how link juice works, and also how to create a link.
Maybe I was able to successfully explain to you why it is so important to create links with quality websites. There are a number of tools and people out there in the industry that offer cheap services to link building. But it is your strategy on how you use the links. Every link has value, maybe 1% but still 1 is greater than zero.
You can create links with web 2.0 websites like wordpress.com, weebly.com, and similar websites. Write articles on these websites and add your website link. Then create random backlinks for these web 2.0 websites. Now creating random backlinks is not difficult. I am sure, you can take help from Fiverr. Also, you can just outreach to new bloggers and ask them for backlinks.
Try guest posting, it still works. If someone says it doesn’t work in 2020, ask them to contact me. Maybe you can share this article with them to understand the basic logic behind link building.
The easiest way to create links is B2B portals where you can list your business, or maybe classifieds.
While creating links you have to check whether it is a nofollow link or a dofollow link.
Both dofollow and nofollow are important, it is not like you have to create only and only dofollow links. You need to keep it equal; that is what most of the SEO experts suggest too. In this way, you also ensure that you are not spamming the internet. One should never force backlinks simply to rank high on Google.
Always use link building with a strategy. It will always be effective as it was since Google’s search engine came on the internet.