The world of search engine optimization (SEO) is complex. Google ranking depends on many components. Backlinks, among other things, play a central role. These references from other websites to your own are far more than just digital links. They are the oil in the engine of your online visibility. But what makes good backlinks and how can link building be applied?
What are backlinks?
Backlinks can:
- Improve Google rankings
- Increase your credibility
- Help Google find new pages
- Send traffic to your website
- Contribute to lead generation in the long term
Why do backlinks influence Google ranking?
Search engines like Google consider backlinks as a sign of trust. Basically, you are vouching for another website when you link to it. For this reason, pages with many backlinks are often ranked higher on Google. Especially if the backlinks come from trustworthy, authoritative sources.
Similar to how we trust references from other customers on our customer journey on the Internet, Google does the same. If hotels, companies or products are not rated, we are skeptical. We rank the company worse and give more trust to other companies with more customer reviews. Search engines work on the same principle. This is how backlinks boost traffic to a website.
More is not always better
When it comes to backlinks and search engine optimization, the frequency quickly becomes an issue. But this is not so crucial at this point. It’s not just about the number of backlinks, but also their quality. Search engines like Google prefer high-quality backlinks from trustworthy and thematically relevant sources. These backlinks signal that your website is really a relevant source of information and offers added value. If a restaurant has only a few reviews, but they all come from renowned critics, they also weigh more than those from average restaurant visitors.
On the other hand, too many low-quality backlinks from spam or irrelevant websites can damage your ranking. It is therefore important to pursue a balanced strategy that takes into account both the quantity and quality of backlinks.
How do you get backlinks?
Backlinks are important for SEO. That should be clear at this point. But how can you take advantage of this SEO measure if you cannot actively use it yourself?
1. Publish high-quality content regularly
We preach it again and again: Content is King! Creating high-quality content is time-consuming, but it ultimately pays off. And not only to offer added value to your own readership. Because excellent content is a good reason for other companies to do link building and organically link to your website. Focus on your strengths. Do you create videos? Write blogs about your videos and add a YouTube player to the post. Think about which topics you can best discuss and implement them. Google likes it when companies continuously publish high-quality, valuable content. The easiest way to do this is to blog – provided you have the necessary resources in the long term. Studies have shown that websites of companies that actively blog receive 97% more backlinks than websites without a blog.
2. Cooperate with partners
One hand washes the other: If you work with another company, publish a press release or a blog post about your partnership. Encourage them to reciprocate and make sure they link to your website. Because others are also facing this challenge. Anyone you work with outside of your company is an opportunity for a backlink.
3. Use social media
Social media marketing can be used well for link building. Share your content on social media platforms and link it to your website. Make sure that users can also share the content provided on your website on social media. Although social media backlinks are often downplayed, they increase the visibility and traffic to your content – which is beneficial for your website authors.
4. Create infographics
Infographics or diagrams are an excellent way to get valuable backlinks and bring visitors to your website. The online audience loves visual data. They are easy to understand. If you create great infographics on the current topics in your industry, those who want to use them in their publications must link to you, and that will help you gain backlinks.
You can rank on Google without building backlinks. But usually you will have a hard time achieving a relevant ranking for competitive, in-demand topics. If you are active in very specific areas without a large search volume, you do not need much traffic through backlinks and can therefore do without them. Everyone else will find an important lever in it, which in most cases makes the difference between the radiant Google page 1 and the orphaned wasteland that follows.
Companies face strong competition in the analog and digital world. And only with suitable and professionally implemented measures can you improve your performance in search engines and generate more visitors for your website. We at BornDesign are here for you.
