In the second installment of our introduction to backlinks we will discuss why backlinks matter to your website and establishing top SERPs (search engine results pages) rankings. For a refresher about backlinks, please feel free to review our previous segment, “What Backlinks Are.”

1. Builds Website Authority

Backlinks are important because they help build authority for your website and the authenticity of your content. Google does compare the backlinks to your site and whether the site is on is one that provides high value and its trustworthiness. When you have quality backlinks it further boots your SERPs and helps to establish your site within its particular industry or market segment.

2. Promotes Your Brand

Since backlinks are linked to your website, they help provide added exposure for your business and its brands. This can provide an increase to website traffic, which in turn, translates into higher SERPs on Google.

3. Social Media and Backlinks Work Well Together

One of the more frequently used methods for backlink strategies is to use them on social media pages. Backlinks and social media work well together because they not only help drive traffic to your website, but also further aids in your social media optimization and marketing strategies. In addition, Google does place some relevance on backlinks from social media sites to your website.

Ignoring backlinks does impact the overall effectiveness of your other SEO marketing strategies. When a website either does not have any backlinks or only a few, it makes it harder for that site to rank on the first page of SERPs.

A Word about Blackhat Backlinks

In the past, and even still today, some sites abuse backlinks and attempt to build authority for their site using unsavory methods. While these might initially pay off in the short term and boost your SERPs, Google will find out. When they do, they will penalize your site and give your site a much lower ranking in SERPs. As a result, you could easily see your site rankings go from page one to page one hundred overnight!

Building Quality Backlinks

Developing quality backlinks does take time and effort. It is not something that you can do in a few short days and expect immediate results. It is important to monitor which websites are linking to your site and perform regular audits of the backlinks. Understanding what sites are connected to yours is essential in establishing high rankings on SERPs.

To illustrate what a quality backlink is, let’s say you are a veterinarian and your website is about your practice and the services it offers. You notice you have received backlinks from other sites that have to do with rescued puppies and kittens. Both of these would be relevant in Google’s assessment of your site and its backlinks.

However, you discover after doing an audit, you have backlinks from sites that offer payday advance loans, high risk loans, and other such unrelated sites. These backlinks could potentially hurt your rankings on SERPs, so they should be removed. To learn more about backlinks, effective marketing strategies, or for a free website audit, call Logik Digital at 1-866-307-0086 today!