Ranking competitively on Google is harder – and more important! – than ever. If your e-commerce brand wants to thrive in the competitive modern market, you need to leverage SEO backlinks skillfully and successfully. If you need help with SEO backlinks, it helps to start with what SEO backlinks are, how they work, and how you can implement key tips and strategies to make them effective for your brand in no time.
What Are SEO Backlinks?
“Backlinks,” which are also called inbound links, incoming links, or one-way links, are any links from one website to a page on another website using specified anchor text. For example, if a visitor comes to your brand website via a link on another site, that link is a backlink.
Put another way, any link that points directly to a page on your website from some other place on the Internet is a backlink. In contrast, a link from one webpage on your site to another webpage on your site is not a backlink. Instead, that’s an internal link.
The Purpose of SEO Backlinks
SEO backlinks are those planned and created with search engine optimization in mind. When they are leveraged properly, backlinks are super important because they are one of the tools that Google and other search engines use to determine page relevancy, quality, and authority.
In other words, if your site has a lot of high-quality backlinks, Google will be more likely to rank it highly for its SEO search results.1 The better your backlinks, the better you can count on your organic traffic from Google (plus, you’ll benefit from traffic from the backlinks themselves at the same time).
You can think of backlinks as “votes” from other websites. Each time your site has a high-quality backlink linking to one of its pages, it tells Google that others consider your content to be authoritative and quality. Google uses that information to determine which sites get ranked most highly across its search engine.
How to Obtain SEO Backlinks with Smart Best Practices
The best search engine-optimized backlinks are those put in the right places and with the right anchor text. Here are some best practices for SEO backlinking you should keep in mind:
Embed Links in Quality Content
First, always remember to embed your backlinks in high-quality content. For example, a link leading to an authoritative citation from the National Institute of Health is a stellar way to prove your brand authority and maximize its rankings with Google. Always prioritize the content housing your link and make sure that the content justifies the link’s existence!
Use High Domain Authority Sites
Next, keep in mind that Google doesn’t just check the number of linked domains to your site. It also examines the domain authority of those links.2 Simply put, the higher domain authority a backlink connects to, the higher your site will rank with Google. Don’t let just anyone backlink to your site – establish backlinking partnerships with other high-authority sites so that everyone benefits from the arrangement.
Try to Find New Domains
Even though links can pass domain authority from one site to another, there are diminishing returns. Therefore, it’s oftentimes valuable to link to new domains as often as you can, provided those domains have high or relatively high domain authority. Put another way, don’t just backlink to the same domain again and again.
Always Ensure a Backlink Adds Value to Readers
More broadly, every backlink on your site should add real value to your readers, including brand authority, research information, or something else.
Anchor Text Should Be Optimized
Lastly, any anchor text for your backlinks, such as the anchor text for blog posts, product descriptions, and more, should be SEO-optimized. Make sure that the anchor text you use for your backlinks is relevant to the content embedded within; otherwise, Google may penalize you.
Things to Avoid with SEO Backlinks
Though there are plenty of things you should do to maximize your SEO backlink success, it’s also important to keep some backlinking mistakes in mind so you can avoid critical errors. These errors include:
- Getting links from irrelevant sites. A backlink from a site that no one ever visits or that has low SEO/low Google authority isn’t worth your time, and it can actually negatively impact your site growth!
- Similarly, getting backlinks from low authority websites. You can use free tools like ahrefs to figure out whether a website has a good authority ranking or domain rating (which essentially tells you the trust score for that website)
- Using ineffective outreach methods for your backlinks. Backlinking should be beneficial for both of the parties involved, so adopt the techniques and backlink acquisition strategies that work best for your brand and industry
- Putting your backlinks to only one webpage. Don’t just route all of your backlinks to your homepage, for example – instead, have backlinks go to many different places on your website to boost rankings with search engines
The Benefits of Working with an SEO Company for Backlinks
In the long run, it might be a fantastic idea to work with a specialized SEO agency that can develop a comprehensive backlinking and SEO marketing strategy for your brand. A specialized agency:
- Has the SEO services and expertise needed to take your e-commerce site to the next level
- Knows the best SEO backlinking strategies for your unique brand and industry niche
- Can help you rank competitively relative to other sites in your local market
- And more
Naturally, you should only work with an SEM or search engine marketing agency that knows its stuff. Take Full Circle SEM, for example. Full Circle has a proven track record of success, with many happy clients. For instance, our agents developed a successful SEO blog strategy for a client website, and in no time at all, we increased organic traffic by 16X! More than that, our client saw a 1032% year-over-year organic traffic increase and a 73% increase in average time on page.
Contact Full Circle SEM for Help with SEO Backlinks
There’s no limit to the heights your brand can achieve if you leverage smart SEO backlinking strategies. Full Circle SEM can help you do just that with our marketing expertise and talents. When it comes to search engine marketing, there’s no one better, so contact us today to see how we can help your brand thrive!
Sources:
[1] https://www.searchenginejournal.com/backlinks-seo-how-important/379298/
