What are Backlinks and Why are They Important?

When learning about SEO, you also have to know backlinks. For beginners, of course, they are confused or do not really understand what is called a backlink. 

Well, for those of you who are curious about the meaning of backlinks, here is an article that will help you to know what backlinks are.

{jistoc} $title={Table of Contents}

What are Backlinks?

A backlink (also known as an “inbound link” or “one-way link”) is a link that originates from one website to a page of another website. 

Google and other major search engines regard backlinks as a form of “voting” for a particular page. Pages with a high number of backlinks tend to rank top on search engines like Google.

Why Are Backlinks So Important?

As we reviewed above that backlinks are very valuable for SEO efforts because they represent the “vote of confidence” from one site to another.

In essence, a backlink to your site is a signal to other search engines that guarantees that your content is good, as well as relevant. If many sites link to the same page, search engines may conclude that the content deserves to appear on the first page of related keywords.

So, getting backlinks can have a positive effect on the ranking position of a website in terms of search visibility. In addition, backlinks also have many benefits. The benefits can be known by continuing to read in the following article.

Backlink Components

Here are the components in backlinks, including:

• Tag Link

This link tag is also commonly referred to as an anchor tag, which generally starts with the symbol or letter “<a”. This link tag is the opening part of the backlink tag which serves to provide information on a search engine. In addition, this one component is also useful for going to other pages.

• Anchor Text

This component is an anchor that is visible to the user and is located on the website page. When the user clicks on the anchor, it will immediately be directed to the referral location link page.

Generally, the shape of this anchor will be given a format from plain text. Not only that, the anchor is also blue with an underline. With this format, it helps users to know if the anchor is used to go to a certain page.

• Referral Link Location

The third type of component is the link referral location. These components generally start with a code “href”, which stands for “referral hyperlink”.

• Closure of Link Tag

The last component is the closure of the link tag. The closure of link tag is used to give a sign to a search engine and tell if this is the end of the backlink posted on the website. Generally, the closure of the link tag has a format like “</a>.

Types of Backlinks

There are 8 types of backlinks that can be used to optimize your website in search engines. These backlinks are used simultaneously so that your website optimization can run optimally. Among others are:

• Contextual Backlinks

Contextual backlinks are very simple and easy to create. The trick, you just make an article or post, then insert a link or link that leads to the website. Generally, contextual backlinks are used if there is part of the content or article that refers to or is sourced from the website.

• Blog Comment Backlink

This type of backlink uses the comment field feature from other people's blogs or websites to include your website link. However, not just any blog or website can be a means of 'promotion' of this backlink. The website that is the target for backlinking must have a theme that is relevant to your website. 

In addition, the fewer people who comment on the website, the higher the chance that your website will be seen by visitors to the website.

• Profile Backlink

These backlinks are also relatively easy to obtain. The trick, you need to create a profile, be it social media, business sites, industry directories or review sites. Then, fill in your profile bio, including the address of your website or blog. As a result, be a website or blog backlink from the profile link you have.

• Social Bookmark Backlink

Social bookmarking backlink is a platform or container for storing a number of website links. This type of backlink is very popular, so backlink spam often occurs through the platform. As a result, users have to fulfill some complicated terms and conditions just to get backlinks for their website.

• Blogroll Backlink

Blogroll backlinks are very popular among old bloggers, Blogspot or WordPress users to be precise. On a website or blog page, there is a sidebar that contains a collection of blogrolls from visitors. Unfortunately, the blogroll feature is no longer used at this time because the website must be clean of unnecessary widgets.

• Document or Image Sharing Backlink

Document or Image Sharing Backlinks use features such as sharing documents or images to get backlinks. Of course, saved documents or images must be uploaded first in order to connect to your website. 

When editing a document, just include a link that points to the website. Meanwhile, when uploading an image, you can directly enter our website in the description column of the image.

• Social Media Backlink

This type of backlink uses social media accounts to get backlinks to your website or blog. As with the backlink profile link, you can use the website column to put the website. 

Like Instagram, you can use the swipe up feature to put a website link and get backlinks in it.

• Footer Backlink

If you are a freelancer or blogger who is also working on projects on other websites, you can put a link to your blog or website in the footer of the website.

Of course, the website that you put the backlink on must also be optimized so that it can get maximum visits. Unfortunately, footer backlinks are no longer used because they are less effective.

Benefits of Backlinks

Apart from SEO, backlinks also have many other benefits. Here are some of the benefits of backlinks for your site:

• Building Website Authority

Backlinks are very useful for building website authority, because getting links on popular sites will be great for your site's SEO, then they will also help to build brand authority.

On the other hand, by using backlinks, Google will see if your link has provided useful information, and consumers will see it as a good indication that your brand is one that needs to be taken into account.

• Referral Traffic

Don't assume that web traffic only comes from searches on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or other search engines. The role of backlinks is also very significant to direct readers to stop at your web portal.

High quality links on websites with lots of traffic will not only help your site's SEO, but they can also drive targeted traffic to your website all the time. A single link on a popular website can continue to drive traffic to the website for years.

• Long Term Backlinks

As an information center, of course Google is visited by many people. Especially if the content you provide is informative and the backlinks you provide are of high quality, people will always click on it for years as long as the content is still relevant.

Those are some of the benefits of the role of backlinks which are very important for your website. Always use quality backlinks so that the website you build continues to be at the top of Google searches.

• Increase Website Rank

Not only aiming to increase traffic, with backlinks, of course, it can improve the position of your website in Google search results. For that, Google will also check the quality of these backlinks. 

If there are no quality backlinks, then you will be penalized as a result the blog will drop drastically. It also includes tips for finding quality backlinks.

• Improve SEO

Are backlinks important for SEO ? The answer is very important, because as we discussed above, backlinks play a major role in increasing visibility and also popularizing a website. Basically very influential on the quality of the website in the Google search engine. 

Backlinks are one of the most important factors in website development. To achieve the most optimal results for your website, you need to get quality backlinks from trusted sites and create content that is worthy of being shared by others.

In this article we have helped you understand what backlinks are. Starting from definition, types, to benefits.

I hope this article is useful!