Backlinks: The SEO Secret to Success

In today’s internet world, it takes a lot to stand out compared to the competition. But, even with little to no competition in your path, it can be a real challenge to get noticed online and show up in search results... if you don’t know the methods to use!

Out of all the strategies for search engine optimization (or SEO for short), one technique is routinely used by the top-ranking websites across the internet – backlinking! Our team of SEO experts will walk you through what backlinking is, why you should use it, and most importantly, how to use it right!

What Are Backlinks

Simply put, backlinks are links to your website that are found on other websites. For instance, here’s one now to a top-rated photographer in Tampa!

Backlinks work like an endorsement from similar or like-minded websites, and this is exactly how search engines such as Google view them. When Google scans through websites to pick up on key information, they also scan other websites for your links. If you are showing up referenced on multiple websites across the internet, you’ll establish more authority (AKA domain authority) in your field.

Why Are Backlinks So Important?

There are many ways to improve your SEO, from targeted meta descriptions to creating content that answers commonly searched questions. With all these methods being commonplace in our industry, backlinking is one of the harder to accomplish, and therefore less common methods.

Because everyone doesn’t have a high number of backlinks (or any at all), backlinks stand out much more to search engines. By having a high number of websites linking back to your page, your website will be seen as something worth talking about; thus, worth ranking high on search results.

#1 Ranked websites on Google have nearly 4x the number of backlinks than the rest of the top-results!

Having your website linked out there also increases the odds that the search engine will discover you. Google is constantly crawling the internet building a database of websites, all to deliver the most relevant search results to the user. If you’re constantly coming up in multiple corners of the web, Google and other search engines will recognize you easier!

Quality Over Quantity

Now, although SEO is a numbers game, quality is much more important than quantity when it comes to backlinking. In fact, too much backlinking can trigger search engines’ spam filters and can reduce your reach more than having no backlinks at all.  

We’re not saying to shoot for a low number of backlinks in general, but gaining too many too fast can be seen as unnatural.

Quality backlinks should be on websites relevant to your brand, preferably ones with a good SEO strategy as well!

Backlinks work like an endorsement from similar or like-minded websites, and this is exactly how search engines like Google view them.

Give & Receive

Think of the internet as a big “web”, with relevant sites linking to one another. In many ways, this is how Google sees the internet (& it’s why it's called the world-wide-web!)

It’s important to consider that you aren’t just looking for links to your website, but you should be looking to link to other relevant sites as well. The web doesn’t end with your website, so don't be stingy with your links!

Don’t Forget to Diversify!

Backlinking can take a long time, as you may have to ask a lot of different websites before you get someone looking to collaborate. Remember, backlinks should not be your only strategy, or even your main strategy.  

If you are spending all your effort backlinking, you are missing out of other extremely important facets of SEO. Make sure you are also incorporating the following into your website’s SEO gameplan:

• Blog Content: Adding a blog to your website is one of the best ways to gain increased discoverability. By answering common questions and writing about relevant topics through your blog, you are not only helping your audience and providing entertaining content for them, but you are showing up to new users who are searching these questions online. BONUS: this new content are pieces that other companies can backlink too.

‍

• Additional Pages: Similar to blogs, having more pages on your website gives Google more locations to find and recommend your pages to viewers.

‍

• Meta Tags: Great pages and well-written blogs are meaningless without the proper titles and descriptions. We recommend 60-70 characters in your title and 160 characters for your descriptions. Remember to always add relevant keywords to your pages!

‍

• Adding Keywords to Your Website: What do you want to be discovered for? Make sure you are adding similar keywords throughout your website that show Google what searches to include you in.

By focusing on your SEO strategy as a whole, you will be able to get an even greater effect from successful backlinking.

Boost Your Website’s SEO with Quality Backlinks

We are numbers nerds here at Charisma... but we’re not embarrassed, it gets RESULTS! We know this was a lot of information, and it may seem overwhelming to implement good SEO into your site. After all, you’re a business owner, not a marketing company!

That's where Charisma comes in! Our team of digital marketing experts will help you develop a solid SEO strategy so you can build your community and draw in the clients you deserve.

Get in touch and optimize with Charisma – book a free marketing consultation now!

‍