What is backlinking and how does it benefit SEO?

What is backlinking? How does it work?

Put simply; backlinking occurs when an external URL provides a link to your website. This could be in the form of a link in an article or a direct link from their website. These links act as a ‘vote of confidence’, showing search engines that your website is trustworthy and worth ranking highly. 

Why is backlinking important?

The higher your website appears on a search engine results page, the more likely you are to gain traffic, sales and brand awareness. Since pages with a higher number of backlinks are considered more ‘trustworthy’ by search engines, they are more likely to rank higher. The more backlinks a website has, the more trustworthy they are likely to appear. Search engines assume that the more websites are backlinking to yours, the more relevant your website is and the more search visibility it deserves. 

Do just any links work?

For a long time, a website needed a large number of backlinks to achieve successful SEO. However, eventually, this led to businesses using black hat SEO strategies and creating spam web pages to acquire backlinks. 

Today, search engines consider the number of links and their quality. Links are generally sorted into three main categories: positive, negative and neutral. While acquiring backlinks a search engine deems ‘negative’ can harm SEO, acquiring positive backlinks can do wonders for traffic, brand exposure and sales. 

How do I get backlinks?

To get a backlink on your website, you must approach a site and make a request. However, sites will get many requests, so making yours stand out is important. By understanding what site owners are looking for, you’ll be able to increase the chances of getting backlinks on your website. Make sure that you emphasize the benefits the site owner will receive when accepting backlinks. Providing relevant, detailed, and well-written content will help your chances of being accepted. If you’re unsure whether your content is up to standard, it’s a good idea to do some research and pay particular attention to word count, the number of images, the title tag, and the meta description. Getting an idea of your competitor’s content can give you an idea of how to improve yours. Include higher-quality images, a more engaging title and a higher word count – anything that helps your content stand out from the competition. 

How to pitch your website effectively.

A convincing pitch can mean the difference between your backlinks requests getting accepted or declined. Keep your pitch short and sweet, and ensure important links are easy to find. Your subject line should be engaging whilst maintaining your natural voice. A good subject line encourages the recipient to open your email, while a dull one may mean it gets ignored.

The tone of the body of your pitch is also key. You want to be friendly whilst communicating the benefits you’re offering. By following the tips above, you can increase your chances of getting backlinks to your website.

Have trouble with getting backlinks for your website? Contact our SEO specialists at gday@omdigigroup.com for expert advice on how to drive more traffic to your website.