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In the on-going struggle to get websites noticed, search engines play a powerful role. The strength of a website’s ranking on a search engine results page will have much to do with the amount of new traffic it receives. One factor that weighs heavily in the deciding of a site’s rank is backlinks.
Backlinks, also called inbound links, are when another website features a link to your site. They are an indicator of how influential and useful others find your page to be. The more others are directing their viewers to your site by linking to it, the more relevant and useful your site is considered to be.
Backlinks are not merely a matter of quantity, however. Search engines give the most credit to quality backlinks, not just number of them. What is meant by quality? A quality backlink is one from a site on a related topic from a reputable website. Thus, a site dealing with auto parts would get the most credit from other sites dealing with auto parts, rather than organic produce, for example.
Some have sought to improve their search engine rankings by manipulating their number of backlinks. This is increasingly less effective as search engine sites become more skilled at differentiating between relevant and irrelevant links. One thing to avoid is being associated with a link farm. This term refers to sites that are set up with the sole purpose of providing links to a large number of other sites. Another practice that is targeted at manipulating rankings is reciprocal linking. In this practice, webmasters agree to link one another’s sites for no reason other than to increase their backlink count. Both practices are discouraged by search engines, and domains found to be engaging in them can be penalized or even banned, depending on the search engine. Some search engines are moving toward policies of holding domains responsible for the quality of the sites they are linked to as well, meaning a site could be penalized or banned just for being linked to a site that is deemed untrustworthy. At the very least, backlinks of these sorts are discounted from the “quality backlinks” calculations that figure into a site’s rank.
For those seeking to improve their inventory of quality backlinks, there is a three-part strategy to employ. Firstly, know what sites are linking yours. This is crucial in several ways. Not only should you know where you stand in number of backlinks, but with accountability increasing, you should also be aware of the quality of the sites that are providing your backlinks. Be choosy about which sites link yours. There are tools available online that will provide webmasters with a list of sites that are currently linking to theirs.
The second step is to be proactive. Seek out sites that contain content related to yours, communicate with their webmasters, and attempt to generate interest in linking to your site. There are also tools available online to help you in searching for quality sites that have similar content to yours. In more than just search engine terms, this makes good business sense. The viewers of good sites that are related to yours will likely be interested in the content of your page as well, and backlinks from these sites will make you more visible to these web users.
Lastly, be aware of the text being used in your backlinks. This is referred to as anchor text, and it can affect the number of people who actually link to your site. Anchor text should contain keywords that pertain to the content of your site. If you find backlinks to your site that are not being utilized effectively, request that the site redo the text to include keywords and not just “click here” or other such general wording
Tags: backlinks, SEO, Traffic
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