What's the Backstory on Backlinks to Your Website
You may or may not be familiar with backlinks, but depending on the source, it can help or hurt your site so it'simportant to have a basic understanding of them. We'll break down what you need to be looking for good backlinks.
Most of the time when we mention backlinks to our customers, it's about 50/50 if they are familiar with them, but a majority still can't tell us the difference between a good backlink vs a bad backlink. Sadly, not having a good backlink strategy can be the difference between a site ranking well and ending up on page 3 or lower in the search engines.
What Are Backlinks?
Simply put, a backlink is a hyperlink from a 3rd party site that points to your website. The easiest and most common hyperlinks come from sites like Google Business, Facebook, and other social sites. These are relatively common sites where most companies have a backlink. Companies like Yelp and Google may even create directories for you without your knowledge based on what algorithms find online.
What do Backlinks Do?
- Validate you are a legitimate business
- Provide links from 3rd party services for customers to get to your site
- Boost your domain authority by showing you have a "referral" from a trusted (or not trusted) URL
The Benefit of a Positive Backlink
First, let's define what is a positive backlink.
-
A link from a credible website (the higher the domain authority, the
better!)
- Directory sites: Online listings like Yelp, Google Business, Restoration Renegades, etc
- Member organizations: BBB, Chamber of Commerce, IICRC
-
A link from a company that has a relationship or a valid reason to put a
link to your company on your site
- Listings from brands you use/trust
- A fellow company that you do business with or refer
- A second/specialized website for your company
There are thousands of possible backlinks and trust us, search engines know this. Your domain authority (the score you are assigned that tells how strong your domain is) uses the total number of backlinks to determine what "grade" you receive. Many of these backlinks take a lot of time and resources to set up but having a strategy to get these can pay off in the long run.
The Dangers of a Bad Backlink
Many business owners get the wrong impression when looking at reports on their site's backlink total and make a knee-jerk reaction to increase the number of backlinks quickly and in non-credible locations. There are "backlink farms" that build quick backlinks but may be on sites like from a company in China selling shoes or in the US for a business that has nothing to do with your business. This can result in a lower domain authority/score but in severe cases, could even cause Google to put a manual penalty resulting in your site not even showing up on search engines. If you get a manual penalty, it's almost easier to start over and buy a new domain but if you decide to try to rebuild your current domain, it can take years to regain your raking and credibility.
Need Help Building Backlinks to Your Site?
Galaxy SEO knows that a good backlink strategy is or even more important than your onsite SEO strategy. If you are interested in a backlink strategy to strengthen your site, call us today at 877-840-9992 or complete our contact form to schedule a site review with your account manager. We can use trusted tools to evaluate your current backlinks and determine future backlinks you should get to strengthen your site.
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