For any organization, a stamp of approval from an outside source will always go a long way, giving you an endorsement that means more because you didn’t manufacture it. That’s why backlinks are such a crucial tool for organizations that are hoping to drive traffic to their websites.
Backlinks are incoming links from other sites, linking to your own site. Backlinks are one of the most important parts of your site’s SEO or search engine optimization, playing a critical role in the way that Google and other search engines evaluate your site via their algorithms and rank your site when people make relevant searches. At Fryed Egg Productions, we work with our clients to strengthen the content on their websites and make it more attractive to other sites, drawing backlinks and building new traffic.
Here’s what you should know about backlinks.
Basics
Backlinks are a powerful way of establishing your site as an authoritative one – one that deserves traffic. Backlinks are a key consideration for search engines when they determine how highly to rank certain sites in response to specific searches. If other sites are linking to a page or pages on your site, there must be a reason for it. Clearly, those sites view your site and content as valuable and useful, and they are taking the intentional step of highlighting it. Both quantity and quality are important when it comes to backlinks. A high number of backlinks to your site shows that it is valued, but so does a backlink to your site from a popular site that itself has qualified as an influential, authoritative site. For that reason, not all links are equal. Google’s PageRank algorithm places a high value on backlinks.
How they’re used
Sites use links to outside sources for a variety of reasons. In general, they add helpful information to the reader. For instance, they can be a way of citing a source for a claim or piece of information. Or they can provide a broader context to a detail. They also can be used to make a recommendation or to suggest further reading. External links differ from internal links, which are used to link to other pages within the same site. However, both internal and external links can be used for similar purposes – to provide additional context for website users and to direct them to other resources.
Acquiring backlinks
Securing backlinks can be a challenging process, and one that is not often straightforward. The first step, of course, is having a great website with compelling pages. The best approach is to create content, such as blog posts and videos, that will be valuable to others and make them want to link to it. Then, take steps to help attract interest in that content. If you create great content, you might passively attract someone who finds your content and decides to link to it. However, the more productive approach is to actively put your content in front of others so they will experience it and opt to link to it. That means developing a targeted audience for your content that includes owners of other sites that could link to your pages. Fryed Egg Productions not only helps our clients create great content, but we work with them to develop an audience and reach that audience with content through a variety of methods, such as email newsletters and social media. In addition, you also can engage with targeted sites by creating your own links to their content when it’s a good fit.
At Fryed Egg, we help our clients create great website user experiences, while attracting visitors in droves with creative, carefully targeted campaigns. If you want to see if Fryed Egg is the right agency for your needs, contact us at (813) 478-0494 or [email protected] or visit www.FryedEgg.com.