The Importance of Backlinks
You may be wondering what a backlink is, and why they are important. Backlinks, also known as Inbound links (IBL’s), are links that are directed towards your website. The number of backlinks you have is an indication of the popularity or importance of your website. Backlinks have become so important to the scope of Search Engine Optimization, that they have become some of the main building blocks to good Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.
There is a Google patent in the works that will deal with not only the popularity of the sites being linked to, but also how trustworthy a site is that you link to from your own website. This will mean that you could get into trouble with the search engine just for linking to a bad apple. We could begin preparing for this future change in the search engine algorithm by being choosier with which sites we exchange links with right now. By choosing only relevant sites to link with, and sites that don’t have tons of outbound links on a page, or sites that don’t practice black-hat SEO techniques, we will have a better chance that our backlinks won’t be discounted.
Building quality backlinks is extremely important to Search Engine Optimization, and because of their importance, it should be very high on your priority list in your SEO efforts. Good places to start are professional organizations to which you belong. Make sure they list your website on their online directory. Also Chamber of Commerces, clubs and vendors will often offer free or low-cost links to your website. Blogs, Facebook and Twitter are also considered high-quality backlinks.
If you have any questions or need ideas on how to build up your backlinks, give Elyse Hutchinson Design a call.
Much of the content of this article was taken from Webconfs.com
I’ve always wanted to learn about the why and how of sites getting on page 1 of a search. Thanks for posting your new blog!
Karen, as Elyse has stated, back links are ONE of the tools in obtaining high SERP positioning. And as Elyse has also noted
“… Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query.”
The two (2) key words when it comes to backlinks are “quality” and “relevant”. A back link from a web site that is non-compliant to the new standards in web design or a web site that is totally irrelevant to your niche market, as Elyse has noted, can have a negative effect on your SERP and SEO.
Elyse, thank you for helping others to understand and negotiate the “waters” of SEO.
Website design is an art, I truly enjoy it. When reading posts like these, it makes me go back in time and think about when I started. It is amazing how much new concepts over the years. Great read, congratulations.
Thanks, bet365!
I started my WordPress theme by using a templated I purchased from http://www.themelayouts.com/ then I customized the layout and design to fit my purpose. I used PhotoShop and Dreamweaver to do this. Best of luck to you,
Elyse