What seems like an eternity ago now, backlinks were the bread and butter of SEO.
For those that have just tuned in to SEO, Google would prioritise your website over others based on inbound links. But seemingly like every other marketing technology, black hats exploited it and the world moved on. Or did it?
Are backlinks still important for my business’ SEO?
The short answer is yes.
The long answer is that they are important, if they are legitimately created.
Illegitimate backlinks… What do you mean?
There is essentially a whole industry around creating website backlinks – it’s been on the wane but you’ll find your spam folder absolutely full of offers!
An illegitimate backlink is one that has been created with the express intent of improving a website’s SEO ranking. That is, a backlink that serves no other purpose than to inflate the recipient website’s ranking in Google.
Google is really good at working out dodgy backlinks… it just takes time, and when they figure it out, they penalise the recipient website. So in the short term, a backlink may deliver a positive boost, but in the long run you end up worse off than where you started.
So what’s a good back link?
A good back link is one that’s been generated somewhat organically (although I use organically loosely).
It may be through your sponsorship of a sporting club, that the club links to your website.
Or you write a great blog post and then other organisations link to your insights and research.
Another example may be that you release a press release, which news organisations pick up and link to your website for further information.
All three of these examples show Google that you exist in the real world, and that your peers and the community look to you with trust.
How do I get more back links?
It really is about a value exchange and community involvement rather than being able to push a key on your computer or pay an organisation to create them for you.
However the fact that there are ‘barriers to entry’ means that if you are able to put in the effort, you are often leaps and bounds ahead of your competitors who have not done so.
