There are quite a few tricks you can use to make your content and website more discoverable and using backlinks as part of your SEO strategy can be a big help. We’ll explain how that works and how you can use backlinks below.
Your SEO Strategy Should Include Using Backlinks
In case you’re reading this but still wondering what SEO is, we’ll clear that up before you start learning about how backlinks can be part of your SEO strategy. SEO, or Search Engine Optimization, is simply a process and strategy for making your content more discoverable. It isn’t one thing, it’s many. Using keywords is part of it, your images are part of it. What you do on page on your website, in the backend of its structure. Even what you do elsewhere on the web contributes to optimizing your website so it can be found by those looking for specific content. Backlinks are another tool in your SEO toolbox that are effective and easy to use.
Okay, So What are Backlinks?
Also known as external or inbound links, backlinks are the links to other resources embedded within your content. For example, this is a backlink. You’ll see them throughout this post as examples on how and where to use them. So feel free to click on the backlinks to get an idea of their significance. Outside of using them in your SEO strategy, they are used to link to further information on a topic, so they’re useful to your readers as well.
If you have a WordPress site, or any website these days really, adding backlinks to your content is a quick and easy process.
There are also two types of backlinks. Dofollow and Notfollow.
The difference between a Dofollow and a Nofollow link is that a Dofollow link passes PageRank signals (some refer to this as SEO or link juice), and a Nofollow link doesn’t,” said Paul Ronto, CMO of RunRepeat. In other words, the distinction lies in how the Google algorithm treats each link.
-CMSWIRE 2019
For the purpose of SEO, you’ll mostly want to use Dofollow links! You may want to use a Nofollow link if the source is purely informational and not part of your SEO strategy though. This option pops up when you add a backlink to your content. You can learn more about that in the link included in the final section.
How Backlinks Boost Your SEO Strategy
Backlinks are one of many tools you can use as part of your SEO strategy. But because they’re easy to use and effective, we recommend you use them when possible. They signal to search engine web crawlers that the content is important. This happens when YOU link to other resources in your content and when OTHERS link to your content. It’s especially helpful for your content to be backlinked in another resource’s content, so strive for that by creating quality, relevant content that others can link back to, or seek collaboration with other successful content creators. But backlinking to your own existing content is also effective for boosting its significance. For instance, you can link to your own articles that are related to the current topic.
A word of caution! Use backlinks strategically. Ensure your backlinks come from authoritative, quality sources and that they’re useful and relevant. Simply backlinking to a high-ranking site or other resource won’t do you much good. If the content is deemed irrelevant it can actually be worse for your content’s ranking and appear as spam to search engine crawlers.
Some Ways to Include Backlinks
When using backlinks as part of your SEO strategy, you want to make sure they’re useful and you’re using them in the right places, AKA your anchor text. Some people like to use hyperlinks that are shortened forms of a URL, others use the whole URL and most will use them as an anchor text. These are the little highlighted snippets of text you see all over online, that are clickable links to other sources. You can use them however you want, really, they just need to be clickable.
For instance, you can use a backlink as an anchor text containing your keywords.
You can also use them within phrases that guide the reader in a more direct way, such as: Learn More or You can read about that HERE. And, well, you can learn more about how to actually use backlinks by clicking HERE, actually.
You can also simply use them including the entire URL, such as: MonkeyCMedia.com or JenifferThompson.com but keep in mind the flow of the text and the space you have when using them this way.
Note!
You’ll also want to make sure the links are working properly before publishing content. No one likes a broken link.
Using backlinks as part of your SEO strategy can make a big difference with minimal effort. Just use them correctly and consistently along with other SEO tactics and you’ll start seeing a difference. If you ever feel lost you can refer back to this post AND the backlinks within it for guidance. Happy backlinking!
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