Although most persons feel backlinks no longer have any value in one's SERP ranking, backlinks still prove to be as relevant as they have always been. Also known as inbound links, they are a very important part of site optimization efforts.
If you have no idea what backlinks are, then simply put, they are links that you as a site/blog owner put in one of your pages to link to your main site. The pages you link to your main site could be a social media page for your blog, a page on another website, or an online directory.
What exactly is the point of enriching your site with backlinks? Research shows that sites with more backlinks get more organic traffic and in turn, have a higher SERP ranking.
With all that said, it is key to note that not every backlink is a quality backlink. To boost the relevance of your site using backlinks, you need quality backlinks. Therefore, in this article, we will discuss the type of backlinks you should get on your websites in 2023.
1.) Contextual Links
These are, perhaps, the most natural forms of links. And naturalness is a huge plus in the link-building sphere, especially for Google. Algorithms for search engines place a premium on semantics and context. As such, any connection between your website and proper context gets you some form of recognition from the search engine.
What are contextual links anyway? They are links placed in context, within the content body where they are found. That is, the link has the same context as the idea(s) surrounding it. You can get these links by doing any or all of the following –
Interviewing persons related to your niche and being interviewed by sites relevant to your niche
Finding content curators that are in your niche and ask them to backlink your original resource or research in their content
You may also get contextual links in free by creating quality, optimized web 2.0 and build your own network and make them power. But for us we do upgrade the strategies by creating domain authority stacking, google stacking strategy, tiered link building strategy and link booster strategy in order to boost and power up the network with a little mix of manual traffic.
2.) Editorial Backlinks
If you are a digital marketer, you should strive for more editorial backlinks on your webpage. Apart from being the most valued backlinks, they can be likened to a badge that shows the search engine that you and your site are trusted in your niche.
So, how do you get editorial backlinks or what they say a link placement? Buying the links is out of the question as it would lead to penalties from Google, rather than improved rankings. With a little extra effort put into creating evergreen and shareable content, you can get others linking to your website.
'Unique and shareable' content would include guides, listicles, free tools, and templates, which other sites can link back to. Alternatively, you can make your brand the best at a specific niche and get mentioned in "Top X" or "Best X" articles.
3.) Business Social Branding Profile Backlinks / Citation Builder
Directories and business listings – preferably, search engine directories – are a great place to get backlinks to your site. When your site is listed on these directories, persons who search for businesses in your niche or locality can find you and your site link in your listing. Citation builder is still part of the most important backlinks in 2023, it's because it will add your business profile, boost your brand profile, authority, reputation and increasing your local rankings.
Business directories by search engines include the following or what we called social branding:
Google My Business
Yahoo Localworks
Bing Places for Business
Facebook
About.Me
Others you might consider getting your business listed on are Foursquare, Yellow Pages, Yelp, and Better Business Bureau.
Each directory/citations has its requirements for getting registered for visibility. So it is essential to follow these requirements and provide the correct details, consistent with the information on your site. This is even more crucial for the most popular engine – Google.
4.) Guest Post Links
When you write posts for another site as a guest, you may link back to your website in the post. These guest post links help to pull traffic into your site. Google favors naturally-placed links in guest posts but not when used for massive, inorganic link building.
Identifying sites that accept guest posts in your niche, especially from your competitors, is the first step. Afterward, you may reach out to them to either be a one-time or regular contributor. Either way, be sure to include outbound links to your webpage in the posts after obtaining permission to do so.
5.) Author bio links
Closely linked to guest post links are author bio links. They come with author biographies, which appear on pages where a person's posts are published. While it is optional to use these kinds of links, you will find it beneficial to also add your social links to the bio.
These links are branded, with the anchor text as the company or brand name, or its site URL. There is no need to use keywords in the anchor text. In fact, adding those sorts of links would be deemed spam.
It is also important to know that the sites where your bio links appear should be reliable and high-authority sites. This way, they improve your reputation and domain authority, rather than the opposite.
6.) Blog comment links
The thing with blog commenting is that to prevent automation and spam, Google introduced a no-follow linking system. Care is needed to avoid penalties from Google due to using blog commenting as a link scheme.
In using blog comments as an effective backlink strategy, ensure the following –
The site you are commenting on is relevant to or even specialized in your niche
You use your full name or the full name associated with your company or brand and the email address used should be the same connected with Gravatar
Your comments must be relevant to the post or article and useful to your audience
You avoid spamming or using keywords
7.) Footer Links
As named, footer links are outbound links found in the footer of a site. Some say they do not have any significant impact on a site's ranking. However, some niches such as web designing will especially find them useful. These persons include their links in footers of the sites they create and the links direct users to their site, creating traffic.
You should only decide to use footer links if it has relevance to the audience. Also, anchor texts for these links should not only be a part of keyword expressions but should be specialized terms. Above all, what should take priority is user experience and offering quality content, and not simply building backlinks.
8.) "301" Redirect Links
These are also called domain redirect links, based on the function they perform. They transfer domain authority from one site domain to another through a process called "domain forwarding." Using this SEO technique involves doing some backlink research or check on tools such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs, or Netpeak Checker.
301 redirecting usually begins with creating several links to a particular domain and redirecting these links to another website. This website should, however, not contain spam content.
The 301 redirect is an efficient way of letting site users and existing audiences know that a site has permanently moved from its domain. That way, a site can retain its traffic from old users or new audiences who have its old site URL.
Wrapping Up
After considering this overview of effective backlinks in 2023, you are left with deciding which ones you would want to use. The choice, although yours to make, is dependent on your site goals, as well as niche. There are also a few other things to generally keep in mind if you want positive results.
You should avoid the wrong type of backlinks like forum signature and comment links, or link schemes that are paid rather than natural. PBN (Private Blog Network) links are another class of links that may attract fines from Google. When using more technical links such as resource page, infographic, and press release links, however, first conduct proper research.
Remember, strategizing is important for SEO. So, regardless of the backlinks you decide to use, work them into a defined strategy and consistently follow through. Since Google rewards quality and relevance, bear these in mind while you create and use backlinks in your strategy. With natural link-building strategies using the links discussed in this article, you can please the search engines and improve your rankings on them.