An integral but somewhat misunderstood part of any decent SEO strategy is backlinks; it’s a part of our SEO service that we feel is vital for all of our clients. In this article we’ll explain the different types of backlinks that we go after, and how we go about it.
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are a link ‘back’ to your site from a separate domain. This is as opposed to an internal link, where a website links to a page on the same domain.
Are backlinks important for SEO?
Backlinks are hugely important for SEO, particularly if the domain that’s linking to your website is a trusted and respected website in its own right, such as a major news outlet. These backlinks signal to Google that what you have to say is relevant and trustworthy, providing value to users and therefore being a page to reward with higher rankings in the SERPs.
What is the difference between Dofollow and Nofollow backlinks?
When a website links externally to yours, they can choose to set the link as Dofollow or Nofollow. To understand the difference between the two, you must first understand link equity, otherwise known in the SEO industry as ‘link juice’. Link equity refers to the value passed through links, essentially passing some of the ‘power’ owned by the linking domain’s authority to the one they’re linking to.
Dofollow links pass link equity, whilst Nofollow links don’t. The reason a website may choose a Nofollow if they do not want to impact their site’s authority by ‘backing’, via a link, a site that may not be relevant.
What are the top 3 types of backlinks?
Directory backlinks
Directory backlinks happen when a website is linked to from a web directory, such a Yelp. These don’t have as much influence over your rankings as other types of backlinks, but they can still positively impact your SEO.
Directory backlink strategies include investing time in listing your business on high quality directories, such as Google Business Profile, Bing Places, and Yelp. Ensure all of the relevant information is filled out to give users as much information as possible. This information provides value, which is given a big thumbs up by Google.
Manual backlinks
A manual backlink is earning a backlink from another website, which links from its content to yours. Manual backlinks are not created by link building software, and instead are done ‘by hand’.
There are no shortcuts when it comes to earning manual backlinks; manual backlink strategies all start with original, insightful content, either on your own site, or by creating it for an external site.
These pieces are usually longer than your standard blog post, with lots of authoritative information within it that’s relevant to your area of expertise. It’s an idea to create them around topics in areas that your site could benefit from a boost, to both build your authority on the subject, and earn backlinks in the process.
Following this content creation, you can reach out ‘manually’ to other sites and invite them to link to it where relevant. Manual backlinks give your website credibility, drive organic traffic, and establish you as an authority in your industry, in addition to the SEO benefits of the backlink itself.
PR outreach backlinks
PR outreach backlinks are achieved by reaching out to another website or content creator with the view to getting a backlink back to your site. This is typical Public Relations activity, but instead of direct coverage for your brand, you’re looking for something more subtle; a backlink to your content. Seeking backlinks this way relies heavily on the relationships that you build with site owners and content creators.
You can go about your PR outreach strategy in a number of different ways. This includes super effective original research studies for newspaper reports, adding insights to thought leadership content, and jumping on trends as they emerge if you can insert your expertise or product (known as newsjacking).
Which method of backlinking is best?
In our opinion, a combination of all three strategies should work together under the main umbrella of your backlinking activities. The tactics used in manual backlink strategies can positively impact your site beyond the hugely valuable backlinks they can generate. The process can be long and slow though, which is where PR outreach backlinks can pick up the slack.
Need help with your backlinking strategies?
Whether you need more help understanding what a bank link is, or you’re at the point where you want to make a concerted effort with all areas of SEO but you’re not sure which backlinking route to take, we can help. SEO backlinks are our thing!
We take a broad approach to getting your site recognised by authoritative domains, by identifying opportunities for your expertise to be referred to, and creating original, high quality content that drives traffic to your site.
For more information and to understand how we can help integrate link building into a rank-rising SEO strategy, chat to our friendly team today.