SEO Backlinks: From Basic to Advanced Tactics

Though over 90% of online content gets no Google traffic whatsoever, 28.5% of those searching for content will click on the first result to pop up. The 2nd and 3rd pages will get 15.7% and 11% respectively. Clearly, ranking highly in search engines is a priority for businesses that want to gain visibility.

SEO backlinks are an important part of any marketing strategy. Read on to learn about some specific ways that you can boost your SEO campaign with quality backlinks, the right anchor text guest post packages, and more.

What Are SEO Backlinks?

If you’re just beginning your search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, it’s likely that you’re a bit confused about the term “backlink.” Backlinks are simply links to other web pages that you embed within your content. They attach to an anchor text in your content that people can click on to be redirected to the linked site.

Backlinks can direct users to other areas of your website. They also can direct them to other websites across the internet. The formal strategy is called “internal linking” while the latter is “external linking.”

Internal vs External Links

An internal link shows users other content that you’re offering that they may be interested in. You might link to blog posts about related topics that build your credibility. You also can inspire actions and conversions by linking to product pages, contact forms, or promotions.

External links serve as votes of confidence for other businesses or informational websites. You’re telling search engines that the linked site is reputable enough to get inbound traffic. Google crawlers will see your association with reliable pages, believe that you are also reputable, and push your quality page up in search engine results.

The Objectives of Backlinking

Establishing connections between yourself and quality content is one important reason to link to other reputable sources. However, it is far from the only reason that link building is important.

Both internal and external backlinks make your page highly indexable. The main goal of an SEO campaign is to get Google crawlers (indexing bots) to index your website in a positive way. To do this, you need to have associations with other areas of the net so that the bots can easily find your visible webpage.

As they quickly crawl through all the pages on Google, they’ll find themselves directed to your page frequently via links on anchor text. This will show them that indexing your page is a priority. It also will bring them to your page, show the place that it occupies within your industry’s web presence, and push your site up in results.

Basic Backlinking Strategies

Hiring a professional SEO backlinks service is the best way to create a top-notch link-building strategy. However, it’s still important that you understand how to build links within your website. You’ll want to periodically update, after all, and you also will need to know how to link to your pages from social media and reviews the right way.

What Pages Should You Link to Internally?

There are many pages that you can redirect to within your own website. Some top options include:

• Product pages
• Promotional pages/coupons
• Contact forms with strong lead magnets
• Pre-built landing pages that inspire action
• Other blog posts that bring value to the site visitor
• Multimedia content made to engage the user and decrease bouncing

It’s important that you choose a variety of different types of pages to get traffic in all areas of your website.

Remember that all areas of your page should have internal links, so you’re building a comprehensive strategy. Linking from one blog post to another can still drive conversions if you have a link to a product or contact form in the 2nd post.

Where Should You Direct External Links?

A quality backlink is one that:

• Comes from a website with high domain authority
• Is already trusted by both Google crawlers and consumers
• Occurs naturally in the context of the content
• Is relevant to the content of your post
• Shares a target audience with you
• Is not a direct competitor (that will steal your business)

You can make sure that all backlinks are top-notch with tools like the SEMrush backlink checker. However, this can be a difficult process for people who do not do link-building professionally. Working with SEO experts is the best way to get better external links.

Choosing Anchor Text the Right Way

Choosing your anchor text is important because it provides context for what you’re linking to. Users will become interested in the link based on its context and choose to be redirected. Search engine crawlers also will see the context of a link and determine your site ranking with this understanding.

There are several types of anchor text:

• Exact match (the anchor text is the exact keyword/phrase you want to rank for)
• Phrase match (the anchor text contains the keyword/phrase)
• Partial match (the anchor text has all words in the keyword/phrase but does not precisely match it)
• Random or generic phrases (such as “click here” or “check out this site”)
• Branded anchor text (that is the name of the brand you’re directing to or the name of your own brand)
• Naked URL (the anchor text is literally the URL of the site you’re redirecting to – generally not a strong way to develop a link-building strategy)

Random/generic backlinks are generally the right choice for calls to action (CTAs). You can encourage people to “click here,” “visit this page,” or “contact us.” However, in some cases, you may also choose a branded CTA.

Get Inbound Backlinks from Other Sites

Linking to your own page internally is a great way to make your site more crawlable. Linking to others’ sites is a great way to build an online market presence. But you also need to get inbound links from external sites to thrive in search engine results pages (SERPs).

To get inbound links, you can:

• Encourage users to link to you in online reviews of your services
• Write information about your own content and link to it from other review websites
• Post links to engaging blog posts and new promotions on social media
• Encourage people to share content on social media (in exchange for a promotion)
• Talk with businesses with similar target audiences to form link-building agreements that help both parties gain web traffic

However, the best way to boost your inbound traffic from related content is to purchase a guest post package.

Guest Posting

Guest post services are a core part of any SEO backlinking strategy. You essentially buy SEO backlinks to drive traffic to your website.

You pay a team of link-building professionals to find reputable pages to incorporate your inbound backlinks into. These “publisher sites” pay SEO content creators to write a high-quality, easily-crawlable blog post (or image/video description) for your website. When they do, they will insert links to your website into their SEO-rich content.

These links serve as a vote in favor of your page when it comes to quality and reputability. They are also beneficial when looking for interested clients since backlinks will go into pages with similar target audiences to yours. They’re not just good on a Google functionality level but also on a human level.

Avoid Broken Backlinks With Regular Audits

What once may have been an amazing backlink could eventually become detrimental to your SEO. This can be for several reasons, including:

• The site you linked to losing authority or reputability
• A broken link that redirects to an error page
• A link that moved to another site/shifted to something else
• The site you linked to beginning to sell goods/services that directly compete with yours
• The link becoming old and outdated

To prevent bad backlinks from hurting your SEO, you will need to perform comprehensive backlink audits fairly regularly.

Use SEMrush’s Backlink Audit tool to find and evaluate all of the backlinks you have on your website. Set up a Project, configure the tool to understand your competitors/categories/target keywords, and look at the score that the site gives you in the “Overview” tab.

Your score will be a number between 0-100. 0 means that you have a great link-building strategy while higher numbers up to 100 mean that your backlinking is toxic to your authority. Your score will come with reasons for the evaluation and give you insight into what you must change.

You can then remove or disavow toxic backlinks based on what you think the best strategy is. At this point, you can clean up your backlink portfolio. Then, find new opportunities to build valuable links and incorporate newer and more reputable links into old content.

Do this at least every 6 months. It’s a quick process when you get the hang of it and will immensely help your SEO strategy.

Invest in a Quality SEO Backlinks Service

Even those who understand all the basics of SEO backlinks can benefit from professional help throughout the link-building process. That’s why it’s important that you work with a reputable provider that will help you find backlinks and anchor text for your website.

SEOJet won’t just do this but will also help pair you with publisher sites for guest posting. Our team is committed to ensuring that you get more visibility, traffic, and conversions. Contact us about purchasing a package and taking your SEO to the next level.