When you think about improving the ranking of your website on SERPs, you need to think about Link Building Strategy. According to Google, “You can improve the rank of your site by increasing the number of high quality sites that link to your pages.” Google actually tested a version of their search where links were not considered to be a factor for rankings. The results were not encouraging at all. Google says that links helps them filter sites by relevancy and rank them on the SERPs while filtering out the spams.
You definitely should care about backlinks
Links are very beneficial to your website in the long run. They will increase the visibility of your website in search results.
3 Types of Backlinks
Backlinks are usually categorized into 3 types:
1) Backlinks created by you
These are the links that you create to link your content with off-page resources. You can use these links in
- Forums
- Comment sections
- Directories
- PBN (Private Blog Networks) Sites
- Footer links
These links will help you to add authencity to your content. You can also use these links to direct users to certain pages that you want them to visit. But because this method is highly popular in spamming and leads people to unrelated content, it does trigger penalties from Google. So, unless you are linking to really relevant content or to high authority websites, we advise that you skip over such linking.
2) Natural Backlinks
Natural backlinks are those that are created by third parties. Google has a high regard for them and thinks that such links are most natural. If more number of backlinks link to your content, Google infers that your content is more relevant.
Though you have no control over natural backlinks, you must keep a watch on them to prevent spam and unwanted attention. You should look for
- Broken links
- The broken pages of those links
- Live backlinks
- No-follow links
- Do-follow links
- The number of backlinks to your site
- Anchor text of those links
- Referring page of links
You should create Backlink Profile Analysis of your site and request Google to remove any bad links.
3) Backlinks through outreach
For such links, you first need to identify sites that would allow your link to appear on their sites. You can provide quality content to such sites and they will return the favor by allowing your link on their site. If your content is unique and insightful, you will be able to negotiate better with other website owners for links.
Now that you know the different kinds of links, you should take them into account when building or reworking your website. These links really help in the process of Search Engine Optimization and tell the search engines to rank you higher when someone is looking for related content.