Backlinks
Recently, I have been looking into backlinks and doing some research about them. I have been trying to increase my Domain Authority and one of the best ways to do this is to get more backlinks. Like most people, I was not too sure about backlinks and how to get more backlinks but overtime I have learnt a lot more about backlinks.
I was looking at my backlinks the other day and realised I officially have over 100k backlinks and I thought that was really cool! Since, I am learning new things and able to grow my number of backlinks I thought I would share some of that new knowledge with you guys.
I try not to share information about something until I have at least somewhat mastered it and I think backlinks are something I am becoming more confident about so I thought this would be a good time to share this information with you.
What Are Backlinks
Before we get started on the “how to” part of this post, I thought I would take a quick second to explain what backlinks are because I am sure not everyone know this information and this topic may be something new to some of you.
“Backlinks (also known as “inbound links”, “incoming links” or “one way links”) are links from one website to a page on another website. Google and other major search engines consider backlinks “votes” for a specific page. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to have high organic search engine rankings.” – Source: backlinks
Why You Need Backlinks
Next, I thought I should explain why backlinks are important, especially for SEO:
Backlinks are basically votes from other websites. Each of these votes tells search engines: “This content is valuable, credible and useful”. So the more of these “votes” you have, the higher your site will rank in Google and other search engines.
Using links in a search engine algorithm is nothing new. In fact, backlinks formed the foundation of Google’s original algorithm (known as “PageRank”). Even though Google has made thousands of changes to its algorithm since then, backlinks remain a key ranking signal. – Source: backlinks
How You Can Get Backlinks
I know that not everyones goal with blogging is to grow or to have better SEO. A lot of people on WordPress are more interested in creating content and putting it out there. However, I am also very aware that a number of people are hoping to grow their site and are trying to make their site or sites more SEO friendly.
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If you are one of those people who are hoping to get more traffic from Search Engines, follow these tips to help increase your backlinks and consequently improve your SEO:
Just Ask
The first and easiest way to get backlinks is to simply ask people for backlinks. It’s super simple although it does need some effort.
First, figure out which bloggers have similar content to yours. For example, look for bloggers in your niche and then email them to let them know that you have some articles that may be informative to their readers and ask them if they could link to one of their article with yours.
Next, you can simply just find bloggers who have posts that you genuinely enjoy and ask them to add your links to either existing posts or future posts that may publish. Even if one in ten agrees to add a backlink it’s better than nothing.
Asking may sound a little daunting especially if you are a newer or smaller blogger and the person you are asking has an older or larger blog BUT most people on WordPress are super friendly and pretty likely to say yes to adding at least one link to something.
However, if you are asking someone to give you free backlinks, please do remember to be polite and to remain polite if they turn you down. Sometimes people react really strongly to being turned down and that could probably do more harm than good.
Paid Backlinks
Another great way to get backlinks is to opt for paid ones. Many websites and blogs, including my own, offer paid backlink options. If free ones aren’t getting you where you want try to consider paid ones because those may be more valuable.
By that I mean, most sites that are willing to give you free backlinks are likely to have low domain scores and SEO which means their backlinks will not count as much as sites with higher domain scores and better SEO. Search Engines don’t only look at how many backlinks you have but rather their quality.
With paid backlinks, you can choose the site and make sure their domain authority is at least 10 or higher. You can also make sure the they are “do-follow” links and not “no-follow” because that also makes a huge difference.
One way people get paid do-follow backlinks is by writing paid guest posts for other sites. This is a great way to get them and you get to interact with their readers which will help you get more followers.
However, I do understand that it’s not always in everyones budget to buy backlinks or guest post slots so if this isn’t something you can afford try the other methods I have mentioned.
Create Quality Content
One of the best ways to get backlinks is simply to create quality content that people want to share. If you are creating content that is valuable to others or something that people will find interesting, they are much more likely to share that content.
I say this a lot but despite what some will have you believe, blogging is all about quality not quantity. The better your posts are the easier everything else will be for you. I have not bought a single backlink, I simply worked on improving my posts and creating content people would want to share on their own site.
Collaborate
Collaborations are also really great for backlinks because it’s a win-win for everyone involved. You get a backlink and so does the person you collaborated with. Plus, you get content for both sites.
If you’re looking for collaborations, simply reach out to your favourite bloggers and ask them. I’m sure at least a couple of them will agree to collaborate with you. Before you know it, you’ll have lots of backlinks. Even if a handful agree out of all the people you asked, that’s a handful more backlinks for you. Still better than none.
Conclusion
I hope this post was informative and helped you better understand what a backlink is. I tried to keep this post short as my fingers are still recovering but hopefully I was able to include all the information I was hoping to. In case you are still confused about something or want some more specific information, don’t hesitate to ask in the comments.
Had you heard of backlinks before this post? What are some methods you use to acquire more them? What are some methods you use to make your site more SEO friendly? Let me know in the comments below!
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