Backlinks are links that lead from one web link to another website, and these links can be obtained in various situations. These links can be in the form of images or text and, with competent help, contribute significantly to search engine optimization (SEO).
For websites looking to get more traffic from Google, backlinks form one of the key SEO ranking components that need attention. Indeed, Google stated in its 2016 announcement that backlinks are one of the most critical ranking factors after content.
If you are new to the outside of SEO and are working on increasing your website traffic, you might be curious about what backlinks are and why this happens. This article contains every detail you need to make news about the concept of backlinks.
What is a Backlink? Why is it Preferred?
Backlinks exist as paid or free links to our web pages from other sites. For these links to be truly useful, they must be of high quality and not meet. This concept is conveyed in different reports cited by various sites.
However, there are significant differences between the information from five years ago and the information from the promotion. Search engines like Google are constantly updating and improving, and algorithm updates, especially in the last four years, have caught the attention of users.
In the past, when asked what a backlink was, we could answer the screen as a link from anywhere. But the new generation is different. Links without quality work are no longer in the backlink category for me.
Beyond just providing a link, the sharing of the links provided is also very important. If a link is added and then removed, it will happen in the long run, even though they may have immediate needs. In fact, what is such an advanced web page is now also part of the latest version of this web page, as can be seen in the search engine results. Therefore, I would like to highlight this organization.
Acquiring and removing links can also differ according to user races. Can it reach users who are directed to the site through the link? Can it be loaded in the desired amount? The answers to these questions also play important roles in determining the price of backlinks.
Understanding Backlinks and Their Role in Your Strategy
Backlinks are commonly defined in the SEO world as “incoming links” or “external links,” and they refer to the redirections made from one page on a website to another page. These links, unlike internal links between pages within your site, are links directed to your site from external sources.
Reliability
If you aim to improve your website’s ranking on search engines, you should focus on the links that Google and similar platforms use to measure the authority of sites. You can consider these links as indicators of a site’s credibility. When one site links to another, it is considered a type of endorsement indicating that the source is trustworthy.
When five different people you don’t know recommend a restaurant in your city as the best, you’re likely to trust that you’ll have a good meal there because it’s recommended by multiple people. The same logic applies to your website.
Popularity
Google considers backlinks to a web page as an indicator of its popularity. Websites with more backlinks generally achieve higher rankings.
Every link from someone else’s website to yours or to another site is counted as a backlink. However, you’ll find that not all links are of equal value. It’s like getting a recommendation from someone you trust compared to someone you don’t know. Google gives more value to links from trustworthy sources.
This trustworthiness is represented by PageRank, one of the algorithms Google uses to determine the importance and authority of a page by analyzing the quality and quantity of backlinks pointing to the page. While PageRank was explicitly queryable in the past, it’s now a value that cannot be clearly measured.
Backlink Types
Backlinks are links established between web pages that do not all hold the same value. Understanding the types of these links and how they play a role in your strategy is important. Here are different types of backlinks you may encounter and their characteristics:
Nofollow Links
Backlinks are links that express the trust of one website towards another. If you want to link to a site but don’t want to directly endorse it, you can indicate this by using the “nofollow” tag. Nofollow links, designated with the rel=”nofollow” attribute, inform search engines like Google that the link should not be followed. Nofollow links do not pass PageRank value and therefore do not directly contribute to improving search engine rankings. However, Google changed its approach to nofollow links in 2019, stating that it could potentially consider such links as signals.
Dofollow Links
Such links are considered an indicator of trust between sites and carry PageRank value. Therefore, dofollow links without a nofollow tag have a direct impact on rankings.
Sponsored Links
If you pay someone to promote content or receive a link in exchange for a product review, these links should be marked with the “sponsored” tag. Google sees paid links as unnatural links, and such links can negatively affect your site’s ranking.
UGC (User Generated Content) Links
This new feature, introduced in 2019, is used for links from user-generated content. UGC links are links from user-generated content, such as forums and blog comments. This tag tells Google that the link was placed by a user and not a site administrator.
High Authority Links
To improve your site’s ranking, you should aim to obtain backlinks from high-authority sources. Google gives more value to links from reliable sources. High authority links are generally links from well-known and reliable sites.
Harmful Links
These are links that may harm your site, are low quality, or are against Google’s webmaster guidelines. These types of links can harm your site’s ranking. You can use Google’s Disavow Tool to get rid of harmful links.
Editorial Links
Google rewards organically earned links with the highest authority based on the quality and value of the content. Editorial links are provided by editors or content producers who recognize the quality and value of a page and want to share it with their readers. These links are focused on providing real value, not intended to manipulate search engine rankings.
Why Are Backlinks Important?
The importance of backlinks is frequently emphasized in digital marketing and SEO strategies. It is undeniable that these play a critical role in optimizing your efforts. Here are the reasons:
Improves Your Rankings
You’ve probably already heard about how backlinks help you rank higher in search engines, especially Google. Without strong backlinks pointing to your site, it will be difficult for you to be accepted as a trusted authority in your industry. This means you’re missing out on one of the most important ranking factors, preventing you from ranking high in keyword searches.
Kaliteli backlinkler elde etmenin önemi burada devreye girer. Google’ın web yöneticisi kılavuzlarını ihlal edebilecek link şemalarından kaçınarak, arama sonuçları üzerinde olumlu bir etki yaratmayı amaçlamalısınız.
Makes It Easier to Discover New Pages
Google’s crawlers (Googlebot) follow links to discover new web pages. This is one of the main ways your content is discovered and indexed. A backlink from a reliable source can help Google find and index your content faster, which will help you rank quickly.
Increases Your Reliability
If you want to gain authority and credibility, quality links from reputable sources can help you with this. In addition to increasing your rankings, these links can also reinforce the credibility of your business.
Draws Traffic
In the early days of the Internet, links were used primarily for navigation purposes. However, although links are considered a ranking factor by Google today, the traffic that valuable backlinks will direct to your site remains important.
The best way to measure the value of a backlink is to consider whether it is driving traffic to your site from your target audience. This helps you understand the real value of the link.
How to Check Your Site's Backlinks?
While shaping your link building strategies and aiming to attract quality backlinks to your site, it is very important to analyze the backlink structures of both your own site and your competitors as a first step. This analysis will help you determine your performance and the direction of your strategy.
There are various tools you can use to evaluate the backlink status of your site. For example, you can use the Google Search Console tool to review your own site’s backlink profile for free. If you want to look at your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can use third-party tools such as SEMrush. Such tools allow you to analyze your competition and plan your link building strategies more effectively.
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Examining Your Own Link Profile Using Google Search Console
Google Search Console is a completely free tool that allows you to examine your site’s backlink profile. However, it does not offer information about competing sites. Thanks to this platform, you can understand how your site looks from Google’s perspective.
After accessing Google Search Console, click on the “Links” tab in the left menu. Under the “External links” section, you can observe the links directed to your site. The main information you will encounter here is:
External links: The total number of external links to your site.
Most linked pages: Your pages with the most backlinks.
Top linking sites: Websites sending the most links to your site.
Most linking texts: The most frequently used anchor texts (link texts) in external links.
You also have the opportunity to export your site’s external links in CSV format. For this process, you can use the relevant button in the upper right corner of the page.
Conducting Competitive Link Profile Analysis with SEMrush
After examining your own site’s link profile with Google Search Console, you may want to analyze your competitors’ strategies and backlink structures in more detail. This is where tools like SEMrush come into play. SEMrush offers detailed link information that can help you improve your link building campaigns and discover what tactics your competitors are using.
Backlink Analysis Features
SEMrush’s Backlink Analytics feature provides comprehensive information about your own site and your competitors’ link profiles. This tool provides valuable data points and metrics as you shape your strategy. You can access detailed backlink profile information about that site through a domain name you enter.
Referring domain categories: Provides information about the thematic distribution of linking sites, so you can evaluate the thematic suitability of your link profile.
SEMrush’s Backlink Analytics feature provides in-depth information about the backlink profiles of both your own site and competitor sites, helping you guide your strategy more consciously. Competitor analysis should never be ignored as part of your SEO strategy; By using the right tools, you can improve your rankings and increase your organic growth. Most common anchor texts: Shows the most frequently used anchor texts in your backlink profile, helping you minimize the risks of creating unnatural links.
Redirecting domains based on authority score: Allows you to evaluate the quality of your link profile and your status compared to your competitors.
Number of referring domains: The number of unique referring domains has a strong correlation with higher rankings and can be used in competitive analysis.
Link attributes: You can create an effective link profile strategy by analyzing the distribution of link types such as dofollow, nofollow, sponsored and UGC.
Backlinks: Examining your competitor’s backlinks helps you discover potential link opportunities and shape your strategy accordingly.
TLD distribution: It shows which countries you get links from, allowing you to evaluate global link opportunities.
Similar profiles: You can discover new opportunities by looking deeply at competitors’ link profiles. “Similar profiles” analysis provides useful data about the top sites in terms of performance, and you can integrate this information into your strategy.
Top pages: You can identify the pages that get the most backlinks to your site and use this information to improve your internal link structure.
How to Get Backlinks to Your Site?
The backlink earning process is critical to increasing your site’s visibility in search engines. There are many ways to build backlinks on your own, some methods are more effective than others and will help you get higher quality links. Before investing in an agency, you can start earning backlinks by trying the strategies below.
Get Links from Your Suppliers
Suppliers whose products you sell often have pages such as “where to buy” on their sites. Being on these pages allows you to easily earn backlinks.
Contact the suppliers and express that you would like to be included in such pages. Since such lists are often not updated frequently, making a direct request may help.
Niche Specific Directories
Each industry or niche maintains directories to list related businesses. These directories can be global or local. To find directories specific to your niche on Google, you can search like this: “industry name + directory”. You can get backlinks in return by adding your site to the directories you find.
Convert Brand Mentions to Links
Your site may be featured in the media from time to time. In such cases, some publications may mention your brand but forget to link to you. When you encounter such a situation, you can contact the relevant publisher and ask them to add a link to your site in the mentioned section.
Be Listed as a Source
If you create quality content or products, some platforms may use you as a source and link to you. For example, listing your recruitment opportunities on university career resources pages can help students while also earning you backlinks.
Conducting Research and Publishing
You can earn backlinks by conducting original research and sharing this research with the media. Journalists and editors love research that contains unique data and share it frequently. Although this method requires time and effort, the backlinks you will obtain are valuable.
Analyzing Competitor Link Profile
You can perform competitor analysis to understand which links your competitors have achieved good rankings. Various SEO tools allow you to examine your competitors’ backlink profiles. Identify the links that your competitors have but do not have and make an effort to gain similar links.
With these methods, you can gain quality backlinks to your site without paying high amounts to agencies.
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