I get asked alot about backlinks. What are they? Why are they important? How do you get backlinks? That sort of thing. So... here's a quick overview of backlinks and what you need to know about them.
What is a backlink?
Backlinks, also known as incoming links or inbound links are incoming links to your website or a web page from another website.
Why are backlinks important?
Backlinks were originally important as a primary means of web navigation. Today backlinks can be an indication of how popular or important a website or web page is.
Not all backlinks are created equal. There are several factors that determine their value.
Backlinks to your website or web page from an "authoritative" website on a given topic is what you want, as they tell search engines that your website has relevant, good content which will also be useful for people looking for information on that given topic.
What are some effective ways for building links organically?
Here are some recommendations from Matt Cutts himself on how to build good quality backlinks:
- Create controversy
- Create content with lists - 50 ways to do...
- Participate in the community. Answer questions.
- Do original research
- Create newsletters
- Participate in social media
- Blog! Establish yourself as an authority
- Create "How to" tutorials
- Run a service people find really useful or make a product and give it to the community for free
- Create good site architecture so your website can be crawled, bookmarked etc.
- Create video content
