Did you know that over 53% of all website traffic comes from organic search? If you’re not using Importance of Backlinks in your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy to generate organic traffic, you’re losing out.
According to Google, backlinks are one of the top three ranking factors it considers. In addition, the more backlinks a page has, the more organic traffic it typically gets from search engines.
We can’t stress the importance of backlinks for SEO enough, which is why we’ve put together this guide to help you understand how they can help you improve your rankings.
In this article, we discuss:
Why backlinks are an important part of SEO.
What to look for in a good backlink.
How to optimize your website for better rankings.
Studies on the Importance of Backlinks for SEO
Research has proven time and again that backlinks are important for SEO.
Here are some of the most significant findings:
A study by Backlink found that the number of links pointing to website pages was the biggest factor in Google rankings.
According to Ahrefs, over 43% of top-ranking pages on Google contain reciprocal links.
HubSpot found that businesses that engage in blogging receive 97% more backlinks than other web pages.
Aira found that 51% of marketers believe backlinks will still remain an important ranking factor in Google’s algorithms five years from now.
According to Ascend, 13% of search experts believe link building is the most valuable SEO tactic currently available.
Why Are Backlinks Important for Search Engine Optimization (SEO)?
Search engine optimization (SEO) involves getting your web page to rank higher than competitor websites on Google and other search engines. One tactic you should include in your SEO strategy is link building.
Google’s documentation leak revealed that the search engine uses a site-level metric known as “SiteAuthority” to rank websites in its search engine results pages (SERPs).
This sitewide score suggests that Google’s ranking algorithm assigns a level of trust or authority to entire domains—similar to the DR and DA metrics provided by Ahrefs and Moz.
Google’s SiteAuthority score takes into account various page-level quality signals, including backlinks. Typically, a page with the highest number of high-quality backlinks will rank higher in search engine results.
Links are a confidence signal for search engines
You may be wondering why search engines like Google place so much importance on backlinks when it comes to determining how a page ranks.
The reason is simple: website owners won’t link to bad content—unless they are in the business of building spammy backlinks. This means Google can be confident that pages with many backlinks pointing to them are worth showing at the top of the search results.
Backlinks are important for other reasons, too
Other than being an important ranking factor, backlinks also have other essential functions.
SEO backlinks go beyond simply improving your website’s ranking. They can also:
- Generate traffic: A link on a high-traffic page may result in many people clicking through to your website. This is called referral traffic.
- Increase brand exposure: The more links you get, the more exposure your brand will receive as people click on the links.
Better relationships: Outreach campaigns to secure external links can help you build relationships with other sites in your niche.
Not All Backlinks Are Equal
At this point, you may be thinking that it’s important to get as many backlinks as possible to boost your backlink profile and improve your SEO.
While this is the case to some extent, remember that not all backlinks are created equal.
Your efforts should be focused on securing high-quality backlinks and niche content rather than taking every opportunity to generate incoming links.
What are spammy links?
Also known as low-quality links, these backlinks appear on spam websites, websites with poor authority, or in comment sections on blogs:
What is black-hat SEO?
This is the practice of using SEO tactics that go against the guidelines of search engines to manipulate them into improving a website’s rankings. Some examples include:
Keyword stuffing: This involves overloading a webpage with keywords or key phrases in an attempt to manipulate a site’s ranking in search engine results. This makes the website difficult for users to read, and Google’s algorithms are adept at spotting keyword stuffing.
Cloaking: This is a technique where the content presented to search engine crawlers is different from what users see on their browsers. This can involve showing a search engine a page full of keywords to boost rankings while displaying entirely different content to human users.
Engaging in private link networks: Private link networks, also known as private blog networks (PBNs), create a series of sites that link to each other with the purpose of artificially inflating each site’s authority. Search engines view this tactic as an attempt to game the system, and they actively seek out and penalize sites involved in PBNs.
What should you look for in a Backlink?
Now that you know more about the importance of backlinks for SEO and how they can help you rank higher in search engine results, let’s unpack what you should look for when working to gain backlinks.
A good backlink is:
- Natural: It appears in website content organically and is not part of a ploy to manipulate search engines into boosting your rankings.
- Reputable: It appears on a trustworthy and authoritative website.
- Highly relevant: The link appears on a website that is relevant to your niche, brand, and audience.
Links that are less valuable include:
- Directory websites: Sites such as Yell don’t tend to publish their own content, often have low traffic, and they may let just about anyone create a profile.
- Link farms: Websites like Is It Vivid and Technofizi are set up for the sole purpose of selling links. These sites sometimes have high domain authority, but they tend to have low traffic and poor content. They are easy to get links from if you’re happy to pay.
- New websites: New websites tend to have little traffic, and they score low on domain metrics. Links from these sites aren’t as powerful as those from established sites. They may still be worth getting, as they would probably grow in value as the sites become more established.
Unfortunately, most links don’t easily fit into these categories.
For example, links that appear in a blog post, on niche websites, or local news sites (which is great for local link building), can all benefit your site, even if they don’t have as much authority as a link from the New York Times (NYT).
However, the most powerful links tend to be editorial links from high-authority publications. These links are natural, reputable, and highly relevant.
Consider top-tier websites like the NYT or the BBC, for example.
Can You Rank in Google Without Backlinks?
You can rank on Google without Importance of Backlinks. But you’ll typically struggle to rank for anything other than low competition terms.
And these terms are low competition for a reason.
They tend to have:
- Low search volume: Which means they don’t generate much traffic.
- Low value: This means that even if they bring in traffic, the visitors are hard to monetize.
If you plan to target low-competition terms, you won’t necessarily need backlinks.
But if you want to rank for more competitive terms, you’ll battle to do so without some form of backlinking in your SEO strategy.
Improved SEO is not guaranteed
Google’s ranking algorithm undoubtedly assesses a website’s backlink profile. While it is an important ranking factor, it isn’t the only ranking factor.
However, most people agree that all the following aspects will affect your ranking:
- Links
- Content
- Search intent
- On-page experience
To rank, you need to ensure that your website ticks all (or most of) these boxes, not just the one for backlinks.
Think about these questions:
Does your page match search intent?
Search intent is arguably one of the most important ranking factors.
Google wants to provide the most relevant pages for any given search term.
If your page doesn’t include the information the searcher is looking for, it is very unlikely that your page would rank—no matter how many backlinks it has.
When creating content, you must consider whether your page contains information someone searching for your target term or keyword will find useful.
For example, by including guides, how-tos, and advice on your website pertaining to your target keyword, it’s more likely that Google would show your website in search results.
