What are backlinks in Search Engine Optimization?

Also spelled Search Engine Optimisation but generally known as SEO is a method of getting your content as high up the search engines as possible. There are many techniques for achieving this but today I’m going to talk about backlinks, which by no means is the least important – As a matter of fact I have found it to be the most important!

So What are Backlinks? If you are reading this post then the chances are you clicked a link to get here. The internet, also known as the world wide web, is interlinked with billions upon billions of links. A backlink is one of those links but the difference is a backlink links to your site, blog or video etc…

It may sound easy to build links to your site but it’s not. Some backlinks are more powerful than others and several factors decide which are good and which are bad. Google and most likely all the other search engines are also very strict when it comes to evaluating a link as many spammers manipulate their rankings by obtaining links that break the search engines guidelines.

If you intend to use search engine optimization for a long term project then you need to build high quality backlinks.

What are High Quality Backlinks?

From what I have learned so far, you need links from related sites, links from sites with page rank, links with low Outbound Links (few other links on that page). They also must be preferably do follow links (More on that below). There are many ways of achieving such links and many books on Amazon teaching you how. But Google’s policy suggests the best way is to write top quality content and wait for the links to flood in from your readers (natural links). Like the old saying says, the cream will always rise to the top – and that’s what Google and the other search engines want.

What are Do Follow and No Follow Links?

There are now two different types of links. Do follow and No Follow. At the end of the day a link is a link but the ones you want mainly are DO FOLLOW as they are a thumbs up from the site which links to yours and therefore do follow links are more powerful.

What are Low Quality Links?

Low quality links are basically the spammy kind. Links repeated left throughout forums, links on pages with hundreds of other links, automated spam comments on blogs, links on illegal sites, links on banned sites. I’m sure you get the idea.

Therefore your aim from an SEO point of view should be to socialize with webmasters of suited sites and see if you can exchange links. Explore the social side of the Internet like on Twitter and Facebook for getting yourself some links. Social bookmarking is a way of getting noticed or via a press release. Youtube videos are also good for linking back to your site. Though as I mentioned earlier Google prefer a natural rise to the top.

How can I check my Sites Backlinks?

Here is an example of a backlink check for this website:-

Go to Google and enter link: bricabracofknowledge.com in the search box and press enter. Now you will see a list with lots of search results. All of these search results point to my website. Here is an example of a website pointing to my site. Click Here.

If you look in the resources section on the right sidebar you will see the word How To Guides. If you hover over that link or click it then you will see my website’s url or my actual website if you clicked it. You may be wondering why my link is called How to Guides. Well that’s called Anchor Text and it is tells a search engines robots (which scan through the links) that my site is about How To Guides. It can be very useful in helping my site reach the required audience.

Well that’s all I have to say about the topic for now. I hope I answered your questions or inspired someone new to SEO. Thanks for reading.