Backlinks: How can it help my website?

Backlinks are one of those terms in search engine optimization that sounds quite obscure and only seeks to confuse you more with its mix of the words “back” and “link”.

By definition, backlinks are the incoming links to a website or a web page. To put it simply, a backlink is a link that is received by a web node (this could be a web page, website or top level domain) from another web node. Other terms used as synonymous to backlinks include incoming links, inbound links, inlinks and inward links.

Backlinks have significance in search engine optimization because the amount of backlinks to a website is one way of determining whether the said site is popular or important. In the realms outside search engine optimization, backlinks to a site or page indicates its important in terms of public or cultural interest – it shows how much interest is being generated by the page.

The number of backlinks a website gets is most often used by search engines in determining the search engine ranking of that website. For this reason, webmasters and website owners employ various techniques and strategies in order to increase the backlinks to their website.

Not all backlinks are or value though. There are some that are considered more significant or valuable than others. For example a backlink that comes from authoritative sites that deal with a topic related to your website is very valuable. If both of these sites possess content that deal with the same keyword topics then the backlink becomes a relevant one and, therefore, will exert a stronger influence on the rankings in search engines. One way to look at backlinks is that it can be considered as a vote of confidence on your webpage that another website or page gives.

Another significant factor for backlinks is the anchor text --- the descriptive label that the hyperlink possesses when placed on the webpage. Search engine crawlers will look at the anchor text and determine how relevant it is to the webpage content. Search engine results page (SERP) rankings give a lot of importance to the congruency between the anchor text and webpage content.

It should be noted that quality backlinks and relevant backlinks are two different items that should be considered when beefing up your website. A backlink that comes from a site that possess quality content along with content related to your site’s content will always bring you more positive results compared to a backlink that come from a poorly optimized website or from a site that has content that does not relate to yours.

One thing that you should remember when dealing with backlinks is that building them is long continuous process. It never really ends. Some people try to take the shortcut by trying to manipulate the search engine but this almost always gets caught. Take the longer but also more tested route of building your backlinks organically. You’ll feel more fulfilled when you see your website move up the search engine rankings through your own honest hard work.