subject: What Are Backlinks? 3 Easy Tips You'll Need To Know [print this page] Anyone who has ever researched SEO as a novice probably asked the question 'What are Backlinks?' as they looked through various sites online. I remember when I started out seeing the term referenced constantly without knowing exactly what it was for months. It almost seemed as though the assumption was it was common sense, you know, backlinks!
For those of you who are wondering what a backlink is, or just looking to learn more, stay with me...this is going to be exciting.
What is Backlink? - It's a link from another site BACK to your site. That's it. That's all it is. For an even more granular definition, a link is simply a URL like you would see in the address bar at the top of your browser. So it is really a way for visitors to get from one site to get to another site.
Why are they Important? - The reason everyone is talking about backlinks is because if you have enough of them (maybe tens, hundreds or thousands), they will help your site rank better in the search engines. The higher you rank, the more visitors you get, and the more stuff you sell. Remember, search engines are designed to seek out the most relevant answer to a searchers request. One (but not the only) way the big search engines do this is determining how many other sites are pointing or linking to your site. If those sites have similar content to yours, that's even better. The logic is, if other sites link to your site, that probably means you are relevant and posting worthwhile content.
Are all Backlinks Created Equal? - Unlike the founding fathers of the United States, Google and other search engines most assuredly do not believe all backlinks are created equal. The simple reason is the internet is chock full of complete garbage sites out there and anyone could create tons of inbound links to prove they are relevant from dummy sites designed expressly for that purpose. Oh yeah, that already happened back in the late 90's early 00's, and Google has corrected for it in order to restore balance to their search results. Basically, it is an arms race between the folks who are trying to game the search engines, and the geniuses who write algorithms that work for Google to try and stop them.
The most valuable links to have are those that have already been deemed valuable or worthwhile by the Search engines. In Google's world, that means the sites have something they call Pagerank. Pagerank is really just like a popularity contest for websites, numbered 0 thru 9. Yes, 9 is the best. If your site has a number of backlinks from sites with a Pagerank of 8 or 9 (not easy to do...at all), it will rise in the rankings significantly. Google puts a number of different factors into determining pagerank such as age of site, relevance, and whole lot of things they will never, ever tell anyone.
However, it doesn't stop there...if those sites have a domain extension such as a .gov .edu or .org, instead of .com, you will gain even more search engine juice. Why? Presumably it is because Google weighs those domain extensions heavier in the credibility department because they are usually not out there trying to sell something or make money. Therefore, if one of those sites links to you, you are probably producing worthwhile content.
So now that you have answered the question "what are backlinks", you probably want to know how to get the right ones. You don't need to by some ridiculously ineffective 'guru' software program. It's just a matter of having the right knowledge. For more information, click the link below.
