Backlinks play a very important role in search engine optimization (SEO). It acts as the backbone of keywords that help a site rank on search engine result pages (SERPs).
Let’s discuss first what backlinks are and why it matters.
Backlinks are hyperlinks coming from a site to another site. The more backlinks pointing to your site, the more popular your site will be.
Also called “inbound links” or “incoming links,” it is produced when a site links to another site. This link to the outside site is a backlink.
Let’s illustrate it:
Website A Website B
It has external link to site B Site B has a backlink from site A
What is the importance of backlinks?
Backlinks are important in SEO because it signals a “vote of confidence” from a site. When you receive backlinks, it tells Google that your content is good.
When several sites link to your site, it just means that your content is relevant and effective. It signals the search engines that your content is worth linking to. It has a positive impact on your ranking because it pushes you on the top spot of the SERPs.
Backlinks provide Google a way to find new pages on the web. Google bots or spiders use them to search, crawl, and index pages on your site. It boosts indexing and improved rankings in a short time.
It acts as Google’s reputation management tool. This is true because Google uses it to gauge how reputable and popular your site is.
Google directs the audience to the best site that answers their queries. Google only recommend them the most reputable and popular sites.
It’s where backlinks play a huge role. Popular sites are those that have authority and a good reputation.
Another role of backlinks is boosting a site’s credibility. Google gives a site high score if it thinks that you are offering value and is credible.
Backlinks must come from authoritative sites and not from spammy sites. If your links are coming from these unscrupulous sites, you can get penalized.
If you want to improve the number of visitors to your site, backlinks can do it. Backlinks draw referral traffic to your site.
It signals Google that your site is trustworthy and offers a value that’s why there is a lot of traffic. If there is little or poor traffic, it will likely land at the bottom of SERPs.
When you are launching your link building tactic, target backlinks coming from relevant, those that have DA of 40+, and those high-quality sites. They have a steady and large number of audience that can boost the referral traffic to your site.
Give and Take of Backlinks
Obtaining links is called link-building or link earning. It is a significant element of off-site SEO.
Not all backlinks offer the same value. Some are inherently more valuable from others.
For instance, backlinks coming from popular, high-authority, and trustworthy sites provide the most valuable backlinks. If it is coming from spammy and low-authority sites, it doesn’t offer much value to your site.
Be careful because if you get backlinks from spammy sites or low-authority sites, it can impact your ranking on search results. It can also lead to Google Penguin penalty, which can drastically affect the traffic of your site.
On the other hand, the links that you give provide different values. If you link to another site, factors such as its content, page authority, the anchor text you use, search engine accessibility, and any other meta tags connected with the linking page can affect the value you deliver to the site.
Two types of Backlinks:
1.) Do Follow Backlinks
This kind of link helps the search engine bots or crawler to reach your site and index all the keywords. It tells the crawler to check each link on a page since it is a DoFollow. In short, it helps your search engine ranking.
It provides a method for users to search other sources of information for associated topics. Backlinks provide the search engine value and importance of the page.
The more backlinks you earn, the more popular your site is the higher your ranking on search engines. Backlinks from unreliable domains are called spam links.
2.) NoFollow Backlinks
If you created a backlink to other site and set it as “NoFollow” it signals the search engine bots to ignore it. The links have a rel=”nofollow” HTML tag. It doesn’t pass the PageRank and doesn’t affect the search engine rankings.
You need to remember that there are bad backlinks that can damage your reputation. Spam links can affect your Google ranking.
NoFollow backlinks are essential for paid-for-links and ads. If you didn’t put NoFollow on paid links, Google may think that you are tricking the search results. You may get penalized with your ranking.
NoFollow is also recommended for off-topic pages. You don’t want to confuse Google with your pages.
When you link to relevant pages, it improves your relevance. If you have to link to off-pages, make sure that it is a NoFollow.
You also need to use NoFollow with untrustworthy sites. You make sure that you don’t provide PageRank to spammy sites.
What is link building?
Link building is acquiring hyperlinks from other sites to your site. The link (hyperlink) helps readers to move from one page to another on the web.
Google crawls the web through these links. Link building isn’t easy and time-consuming. However, if you are serious of boosting your SEO, it can truly make you a winner in the pack of competition.
Why Domain Authority is important?
The Domain Authority (DA) is the score that tells the strength of a domain. It predicts how a site ranks on a particular keyword in the SERPs. The Domain score is between 1 to 100.
The higher the DA, the more powerful and higher the ranking of your site. DoFollow links are affected by DA. The link juice from various sites delivers a different effect on a page.
Links coming from high DA site makes your page more powerful. The strength of your page lessens with depreciating DA score.
In summary:
High DA DoFollow backlink list is important for SEO.
The backlink list provides a site the boosts on search ranking.
You can get backlinks from comments, guest blogging, and article submission.
What is PageRank?
PageRank (PR) weighs the quality and quantity of links on a site. It determines how important the page is.
PR ranges on a scale of 0 to 10. When Site A links to your site, Google considers that it is endorsing your site because it offers value. Google collects all these link votes to conclude that you are a relevant and significant site.
When an audience types a query, Google is set to provide them the most relevant and high-quality result. And PageRank is one of the 200+ factors that Google considers in providing the best results.
Ways to get high-quality DoFollow backlinks to your site:
It’s not easy to get this kind of link. It is part of White Hat SEO that will help your site rank on SERPs. You need to work hard to achieve good quality links.
1.) Guest Post
One of the proven ways to get DoFollow backlinks is through a guest post. You contribute something to a site to gain backlinks. You can search on Google sites that offer guest posts.
Make sure that create a guest post on a high-authority and high traffic site to get the following benefits:
Boosts referral traffic from that post.
Boosts the DA of your site.
2.) Blog commenting sites
This method is a great way to drive traffic to your site. If a high-authority site published a post and invited people to leave comments.
When you comment, verify if the site gives you DoFollow or NoFollow backlinks. If they offered a DoFollow backlink, write a narrative comment and not just “nice,” “good job,” or “very good post.”
List of high DA blog commenting sites:
ProBlogger
NeilPatel
Rankwordpress
Successfulblogging
Shoutmeloud
Quicksprout
99techpost
Digitechnopost
3. ) Build broken links (broken link building).
This technique is easier than guest posting. Broken link building is the process of finding a dead link to recreate a new link.
You notify those sites linked to it to link to the recreated one. This is effective since no one wants to have dead links on their site. Dead links add to poor user experience.
The challenge is how you’re going to find those broken links. Some of the ways to find it include: search for dead pages on top sites in your niche, find broken links on same sites, and look for niche-relevant expired domains with backlinks.
4. ) Improve social shares.
This is a proven and fast method to get backlinks. Social media can do the work for you. You can apply it on Facebook, Twitter, and Google +.
Post your content on each social media channel. Likes and shares can improve your site traffic. If the audience finds it relevant, they will link to you.
You can also approach an influencer on your niche. Send an email. If the influencer shares your post, you’ll get quality backlinks.
5. )Comment on forums.
This technique is proven to attract DoFollow backlinks and traffic to your site. Join forums under your niche. Share your thoughts and expertise. Once you comment on the site, it generates DoFollow backlinks.
List of high-quality forums:
FileZilla forum
V7nforum
Digital point forum
Warrior forum
SEOChat forum
Site Point forum
Ubuntu forum
Windows forum
Mysql forum
Bloggerforum
Capitaltheory
6.) Build quality content.
If you have written good content, it’s automatic that other sites will link to you. When you write content, don’t forget to make it valuable for the readers. Content that answer queries the best gets high ranking on Google.
You can check your competitor’s site and see the information they included in their posts. This time, write something that stands out by including more and updated information.
Monitor where your competitor got their backlinks. Email them to invite them to link to your content instead of your competitor.
7.) Video submission.
List of sites for video submission:
YouTube
Flickr
Vimeo
Plus. Google
PhotoBucket
MySpace
Dailymotion
Netflix
Rediff
Sapo
8.) Business listing sites
Facebook
Bing
LinkedIn
Apple Maps
Google My Business
Yelp
Angies List
Just Dial
HubSpot
Yellow Pages
9.) Article submission site list
Tumblr
Github
Storify
Technorati
Livejournal
Evernote
Ehow
Examiner
Squidoo
Hubpages
Ezinearticles
Selfgrowth
Wattpad
Dzone
10.) Directory Submission Sites List
ebackpage
Bedpage
iBackpage
iCracker
Fire-directory
alivelinks
asklink
List of Backlinks list to boost traffic to your site:
BlogAdda
Codeacademy
Granta
Copyrighted
OneTab
Indugly
Ted
Mozilla
Eventful
AllTop
Earning backlinks the natural way is appreciated by search engines. It also has an impact on SEO and authority of a page.
Backlinking strategy offers the following benefits:
It attracts traffic to your site.
It helps to improve your SERPs and SEO.
It increases your credibility and authority.
It boosts the trustworthiness of the site.
It improves relationships with the audience.
It increases conversion rates.
Follow White Hat SEO techniques. Don’t request webmasters to link back to your page with an anchor text. It could lead to a penalty.
These backlink list sites can facilitate the growth of your site because it follows a good SEO strategy. These sites are authentic and provide spam-free destinations.
Building backlinks are part of SEO strategy. Always write newsworthy and relevant content. It’s the most basic thing to attract backlinks.
Secondly, focus on quality than quantity. With Google’s strict penalties, many sites have been penalized and have stopped link building.
Links coming from spammy and off-topic sites can ruin your reputation and authority. It can impact your search engine rankings.
Links from high-authority, relevant pages, and popular sites can help your SEO. You wouldn’t be penalized for this. Earn links the natural way. Don’t buy links because it can damage the reputation that you have been building for so long.