If you’re concerned that your website isn’t ranking high enough on Google, then the solution could be link-building.
Backlinks are like digital referrals. When a website links to your brand or content, it’s like a friend or colleague recommending your business to their network. It’s essentially an endorsement or a vote of confidence from the linked website. And the more websites that recommend you, the more new audiences and potential customers you’ll reach because the better your website is likely to rank in search results.
Search engines view backlinks as indicators of a website’s credibility and relevance.
The higher the quality of the backlink from reputable sources such as industry experts, the higher your search rankings, which will drive organic traffic to your site and make it more visible to potential customers. They also help establish relationships between businesses and build the authority of your website domain.
How will backlinks benefit me?
Improved Rankings
When reputable websites link to your content, search engines see this as a sign of credibility and authority, which can help improve your rankings in search results. The higher you rank, the more visible your website. If, for example you ran an interior design blog, and a reputable interior designer or company included a link to one of your articles in their blog, this endorsement would make search engines see your website as a trusted source of information. It would rank your website higher in search results for relevant keywords.
Increased Traffic
A strong backlink profile drives more site visitors through search engine visibility and referral traffic. When an influential website links to your content, its audience is more likely to click through and explore your site, bringing in valuable, targeted traffic. Unlike paid ads, this traffic is sustainable and cost-effective in the long run.
Faster Indexing
Search engines crawl websites and discover new pages. When your site has backlinks from established, frequently crawled websites, search engines can find and index your content faster, helping new pages get recognised and ranked more quickly. This is especially beneficial for newer websites looking to establish an online presence.
Enhanced Domain Authority
Backlinks from authoritative, trusted sources add credibility to your website and content and improve your Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR), making your site appear more reliable and trustworthy. This increased trust signals to search engines and users that your content is valuable and reliable, improving your brand reputation and credibility.
Building Connections
Earning backlinks often involves networking with other businesses, bloggers, and influencers in your niche. These connections can lead to future collaborations, partnerships, and guest blogging opportunities. You’ll connect with industry leaders, attend relevant conferences, and engage in guest posting on reputable industry-specific blogs. These networking opportunities lead to partnerships with larger companies, further increasing your brand’s reach and authority.
Competitive Edge
If your competitors have strong backlinks and you don’t, they will likely outrank you in search results. By actively building high-quality backlinks, you can close the gap and gain a competitive advantage in your industry.
Revenue Growth
Since backlinks drive traffic from a similar niche, the visitors coming to your site are often more interested in your products or services, because the linking website has endorsed them. This leads to higher engagement and conversion rates. More traffic from credible sources can translate to more leads, sales, and long-term business growth.
By focusing on quality over quantity, you can leverage backlinks to boost your SEO, attract more visitors, and build a strong digital presence. However, poor backlink strategies, such as buying spammy links or using black-hat SEO tactics (keyword stuffing, using private link networks, duplicating content, sneaky redirects, and cloaking) can do more harm than good, and could lead to Google penalties.
Where do I start with backlinks?
To start building quality backlinks, you’ll want first to identify your target audience and niche to ensure you’re attracting the right visitors to your site.
Next, research reputable websites and directories within your industry that align with your content and have a strong online presence. Look for authoritative blogs, news sites, or business directories relevant to your field. To assess the credibility of these sites, use tools like Ahrefs to check their Domain Rating (DR) A score of 50+ generally indicates strong authority and a valuable backlink opportunity.
Also, assess the site’s traffic and relevance to your niche; a backlink from a well-trafficked, industry-specific site is far more valuable than one from an unrelated or low-traffic domain. When a website links to another, Google wants to see that the two sites are related. So ensure the site (and page) linking to you is topically related to your site. Plus, links from the same website have diminishing returns so it’s better to get 100 links from 100 different websites than 1,000 links from the same website.
How do I know I can trust a website?
Linking to a trusted website is a must. The more authority a potential backlink site has the more authority it can pass onto your website. It’s not necessarily easy to find high-quality sources but it’s worth the effort for sustainable SEO growth.
Just one good-quality backlink is worth hundreds of low-quality spammy or low-authority links, which can hurt rankings rather than help and could even trigger Google penalties. And you can check a site’s quality by using tools like Ahrefs or Moz to analyse its Domain Authority (DA) or Domain Rating (DR), where higher scores indicate stronger credibility.
How do I get backlinks?
Several effective ways to build backlinks and improve your website’s authority exist.
- Guest blogging – one of the best ways to get links to your site – allows you to write content for industry-related websites, earning a backlink in return. If you publish your guest blogs on several sites and they rank organically on Google, they’ll gradually start bringing in relevant referral traffic. Make sure you only write for quality sites in your niche, as if its unrelated Google will think it’s spam.
- Directory listings are still vital to your local search engine optimisation (SEO) campaign. By local, we mean optimising your website and online presence to be found through search engines by potential clients searching in your area. If you are running a local business or if you are a nationwide business with local branches you can use a local link strategy to gather inbound links for your website. This differs from general search engine optimisation which can attract clients outside your business’ reach. See Webhummel for the top 70 business directories in the UK.
- Content marketing—such as creating shareable guides, (‘Why posts’ and ‘What posts’) infographics, and videos are an effective link-building strategy and encourage organic backlinks. You could be featured in articles or lists of ‘best of’ on other websites. This increases your website’s visibility and introduces your content to a targeted audience.
- Broken link outreach involves finding broken links on other websites. Use Check My Links SEO Chrome extension to find broken links on any page and email the site owner about their dead link, they might reward you by using your content as a replacement.
- Both HARO (Help a Reporter Out), and its successor Connectively closed in 2024. Replacements will help secure media coverage and backlinks.
- If you’re using a product or service you like, consider sending a testimonial. Often they’ll add a link to your website to show that you’re a real person.
- Collaborations with influencers or brands can also lead to valuable link placements. Offer your product or service for free via email and see if they think you’re worth a mention on their blog.
- Some businesses even buy backlinks through paid content placements, though do it cautiously to avoid penalties.
- Lastly, internal backlinking optimises links within your own website, improving SEO and navigation.
Whether you’re using one or all these strategies, you can grow your backlink profile effectively.
Search Engines will rank a website based on many factors. Check the current domain authority of your website using the Ahrefs tool, which will review and identify problems. It displays the number of external backlinks, referring domains, the top backlinks to your domain, and the Moz domain authority at just a glance, so you can see your domain’s potential to rank in search engines. Sitebulb or Screaming Frog both help identify links between pages on a website.
Free Directories
There are some good places to start listing your business for free. Here’s a compilation of the top 50 listing websites where you can do just that.
RBSEO have compiled a useful list of 150+ directories and profile websites where you can obtain links pointing to your website for free.
Backlinks are a crucial component of any successful SEO strategy, helping to boost search rankings, drive organic traffic, and establish website authority. When done well, they enhance your website’s credibility, improve indexing speed, and create valuable connections. But focus on high-authority, relevant backlinks rather than spammy or low-value links, which can harm your website’s reputation. Strengthen your online presence and stay competitive in your industry by adopting strategic link-building practices and see your website go from strength to strength.
