Introduction

A lot of businesses will do a bit of research prior to investing in SEO, that’s so they can understand a bit about the process.

And while doing this research into SEO, there will undoubtably be one term that keeps cropping up time and time again, that term is “backlinks”.

Yet, with so much conversation among various seo agencies about backlinks it can be confusing as to know which backlinks your business needs.

That’s to say does your business need no-follow or do-follow backlinks? Does your business require quality backlinks from just a few websites, or do you operate in a very competitive business sector and potentially require thousands of good quality backlinks?

So many questions, so little time!

Without further ado, why not let us answer some of the most commonly asked questions we get asked about backlinks.

Tell us, why exactly are backlinks so important?

Most businesses want to be ranked on the first page of Google. After all, if your business is on the first page of Google then for some businesses this can increase the volume of sales that the business makes.

That’s the obvious bit, what’s less obvious is how a business gets onto the first page of Google.

Well, it all comes down to the strength of your businesses ranking signals. There are thought to be over 200 ranking signals for each website.

And that’s right you guessed it, if your website has the strongest it will rank on the first page of Google.

But, there’s a further layer of complexity, that’s because Google’s algorithm and also most search engines do not treat all ranking signals the same.

That’s to say some are much more important than some others. Backlinks however are widely regarded as one of the most important ranking signals, that’s to say some seo companies believe that backlinks are in the top three, in terms of how important that ranking signal is.

 

So, why does quality matter so much?

So many businesses and also so many marketing agencies still build backlinks incorrectly.

Sometimes this is just due to the fact they do not know how to build backlinks, but sometimes its due to the fact they are just trying to cut corners.

Either way it boils down to this, if your business has spammy links, or low-quality links then its likely your website will be hit with a link penalty.

A link penalty can mean your website drops in terms of where it ranks. If the backlinks are really rubbish, in terms of quality then your business may well be removed altogether.

 

So, what exactly are internal backlinks?

Backlinks can either be internal or external, internal backlinks simply take somebody to another page on your website.

So let’s say for example you run an accountancy practice, and your writing about a new change to corporation tax, well at the end of the blog post you may wish to offer the reader to visit your page which offers more information on corporation tax.

So in a nutshell it’s a brilliant way of keeping visitors on your website for longer. As what might have happened instead is the reader may have found out what they needed to know about the corporation tax change, and then not read about the accountancy services that your business offers.

What exactly are external backlinks?

This is the important bit, and that’s because white hat seo companies, like ours use external backlinks in order to help improve where a business ranks.

So, for example, it doesn’t matter if you run a dental practice or a solicitors practice, often what’s needed to get your business onto the first page of Google is external backlinks.

This means that more often than not the businesses that rank on first page of Google, are ranked there because they have strong backlinks.

Therefore your digital marketing agency should be building quality backlinks for your business.

Can you tell us what are no-follow and do-follow backlinks?

In order to improve where a website ranks you need do-follow backlinks, the reason for this is do-follow backlink send what is called “link juice”.

This means that marketing agencies will be trying to build quality backlinks for their clients, which are do follow.

However, its worth knowing this, and that is most seo companies, including ours believe its important to have no-follow backlinks. These backlinks may not pass “link juice” yet if your backlink profile is completely made up do-follow backlinks then this can look artificial, and therefore not white hat.

 

 

What does “anchor text” mean?

The anchor text is simply the text that you click on in order to follow a link. So let’s say you are reading this SEO article, and you see a term your not too familiar with, such as “white hat”, well the business may offer a link to a page that explains what white hat means.

This is helpful to the reader, yet it is also beneficial to the businesses seo, the reason being is internal links help to reduce a websites bounce rate, and also help to keep the reader on your businesses website for longer.

So, tell us how exactly should my business be building backlinks?

First things first, we cannot stress the point enough that your business should only be building backlinks in a white hat way.

Therefore we think that the best way to build backlinks is to earn backlinks. What we mean by this is if you make your company website really useful, then its likely that other websites are going to what to link to your website.

So lets say for example you run a dental practice, if you offer really good information on how to look after your teeth, then other websites may wish to link to your website.

For example, a website which offers medical advice on how to prevent tooth pain, such a website may link to your work because they believe the article is well written, and will be useful to their readers.

If your business requires help with its seo, then why not give us a ring today?