Types Of Backlinks Every SEO Expert Should Know in 2024
Are you looking to boost your SEO? Backlinks help a lot in improving your rankings. But what types of backlinks exist and which should you avoid?
Backlinks are one of the most essential (if not THE most important) criteria in determining how webpages rank in the results pages of search engines.
Every high-ranking website or webpage typically has a variety of high-quality inbound links going to it, and there is a significant correlation between the number of good links connecting to a site and its exposure in search engines. Making backlinks regularly is simple yet crucial for any organization. It is an underappreciated but crucial service in digital marketing.
Because there are so many different sorts of connections, focusing on obtaining a range of high-quality backlinks is an effective method to increase your page’s ranking (known as link diversification). However, not all backlinks are made equal, and developing an effective backlink profile will necessitate a deliberate effort to execute a strong link development strategy.
To diversify your link profile, it’s essential to learn all that you can about the various sorts of backlinks, how they might profit your target sites, and the number that you should obtain. This is essential knowledge for any SEO expert who is serious about their craft.
To get you started, we’ve compiled a comprehensive overview of the many sorts of backlinks you may obtain to help enhance your search engine rankings. But first, let us look at why backlinks are so crucial.
Why are backlinks crucial for SEO?
A backlink also referred to as an external link, an inbound link, or simply a link is a citation or reference from one page to another. A backlink takes the visitor from their main screen to another web resource, which could be another relevant website, web page, image, or web directory when clicked.
Backlinks are employed in SEO to boost rankings by utilizing white-hat outreach. Backlinks are an off-page approach for increasing a website’s rating in search engine results. Backlinks can be in the form of a website URL or anchor text, or they might be embedded in an image.
Backlinks are a strong tool for informing search engines that other sites have endorsed your material. When multiple sites link to the same web page or website, search engines deem the material to be worth linking to and, as a result, your website’s ranking and overall visibility improve.
Backlinks from prominent, trustworthy sites are regarded as a great strategy to boost link building. However, links from potentially spammy sites might devastate your standing. Whether or if the link is followed, simply being featured on high-authority sites will progressively increase your brand. As a result, it is prudent to use link building services or digital marketing services to develop a diversified backlink profile and long-term plan.
Additionally, it’s essential to emphasize the importance of overseeing inserted links. Successful backlink management plays a pivotal role in SEO. Using LinkChecker alleviates the stress of losing or manually verifying all your links
Different Types Of Backlinks
As previously said, not all backlinks are created equal. Let’s look at the many forms of backlinks that your website can obtain:
NoFollow Links
People recognized in the 1990s and early 2000s that it was simple to generate a large number of backlinks by spamming comment sections with links on other websites, such as blogs. Web developers designed the no-follow hyperlink property to prevent search engines from being gamed with this approach.
This no-follow tag can be applied to the HTML code of the hyperlink to indicate that the algorithms of search engines should not give the URL’s destination any extra weight or ranking.
Dofollow Backlinks
Dofollow backlinks are the most popular and useful kind of SEO backlink.
When you place a do-follow link on your website, you are informing Google that the backlink is organic—that the target website did not pay for the link—and that you are vouching for the authenticity of the data at the other end of that link.
Do-follow links inform Google and the other search engines that “the material on the other end of this link is significant and should be acknowledged.”
Guest Blogging Backlinks
Guest posting (sometimes known as guest blogging) is the process of writing articles for other websites to publish. Guest posting is a popular way to gain backlinks for your website from respected websites in your niche.
Backlinks can be put in a variety of places throughout the guest post. Some media outlets, for instance, allow you to link from a keyword-rich anchor that is related to the story. Others, on the other hand, are more stringent, allowing you to link out from the author biography area only using brand or generic anchor texts.
Guest articles, in addition to increasing the authority of a website, can increase website traffic if they are highly contextual and target a specific or relevant target demographic.
Amplifying the impact of guest blogging strategies, Serpstat’s Backlinks Analysis tool provides a comprehensive view of link-building efforts by offering a proprietary backlink index for swift link analysis, ensuring that the guest posts not only enhance website authority but also strategically contribute to a well-rounded and effective SEO strategy.
Sponsorship Backlinks
When you support an event or a cause, you gain sponsorship backlinks. Your company is acknowledged as a sponsor, and the event coordinator links back to your website. Sponsorship backlinks boost your SEO, but they also help your PR efforts. Your brand is likely to be discussed in the press or the community due to this.
Let’s look at how you can make sponsorship backlinks function. Assume you’ve discovered a meaningful event for your company and want to associate with and support it. When you contact the event coordinator and discuss the sponsorship terms, your brand will begin to be recognized in the media. Furthermore, when mentioning their sponsors, the event organizer will include a link to your website.
People will then visit your site, and Google will consider your domain to be even more trustworthy as a result of other companies or brands linking back to you.
You can use free backlink checkers to gain this specific form of backlink. These SEO tools will assist you in identifying the domains from which your competitors receive backlinks. A thorough study can assist you in devising a strategy to increase the number of high-quality backlinks.
Pillow Links
Pillow links are backlinks that increase the diversity and naturalness of your profile. Unless your site is in an extremely low-competition niche, they don’t deliver sheer ranking power. Instead, they act as a buffer for your other link-building attempts.
These natural connections should be used early in the ranking process and throughout to assist in establishing your website (i.e. indexation) and create a buffer. Citations, forum postings, social profiles, press releases, blog comments, and niche directories are just a few examples of “pillow link” backlinks.
Pillow linkages of various varieties are normally free or simple to make for anyone with the willingness and know-how. They are critical to the creation and development of a website because they generate “buzz” about your website/business, aid in the development of relevance and variety, and signal to Google that your website is authentic and working.
Social Links
One of the most prevalent practices for backlinking services is the use of social linkages. These are the links that appear on social networking tabs and advertisements. These are the CTA (call-to-action) buttons found on social network tabs and advertisements that direct you to the publisher’s website.
Link-building tactics across various social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, and Quora can save you money and time since the audience has already been routed based on their interests, and you can acquire new leads as core audiences via social media linking.
Backlinks to Badge
Backlink badges strengthen both the site that is providing the links and the website that is being linked to. Creating a listing blog with the top 10 or top 15 websites is an excellent strategy to obtain backlinks. You may also award sites and provide them with a badge.
The site that was suggested or received the badge will afterwards link back to your website. With this method, you may easily obtain some valuable backlinks. However, keep in mind that for the audience to recognize your award or listing, you must be a well-known or established site in your field.
Reciprocal backlinks
When two or more content providers agree to share connections, reciprocal backlinks occur. This implies they receive links from one another, with each receiving the advantage of having a link on the webpage of the other. This strategy improves your SEO and can strengthen your relationships with other content authors.
A reciprocal backlink arrangement often states that you will add another website’s link to a section of your site’s content and that the other content provider will do the same. It is critical to keep the context in mind to ensure that when your site is cited, it represents a reliable resource that contributes directly to that specific piece of information. The readers will find your webpage/business relevant and will click on it as a result.
Backlinks That You Need to Avoid
As we said earlier, not all backlinks are created equal. Some backlinks could harm your website and should be avoided.
Paid Backlinks
Backlinks are an essential component of any SEO plan. This motivates many people to use blackhat techniques, such as buying backlinks from other publishers or websites. However, keep in mind that Google and any other search engine can usually determine whether or not your link is relevant. If a search engine detects that one of your backlinks is a commercially produced link, it will lower your website’s ranking.
PBN (PRIVATE BLOG NETWORKS) BACKLINKS
A private blog network is typically run by a single person with the sole purpose of selling links to a single group of blogs or sites. In general, the network’s website only includes a few pages, and it is never updated.
If this activity occurs on a website, Google has the right to penalize and, in extreme cases, erase the website.
Directory Links
Once a popular method of obtaining backlinks, this method is no longer as effective. With countless directories sprouting up over the years, if you want to obtain something useful out of it, stick to the most trusted and reliable directory site.
Header, Footer, and Sidebar Links
They are sometimes known as “sitewide links” because they show up on every page of a website. These are not valuable connections.
Google has learned to evaluate the value and relevancy of a link based on where it appears on a page (aka contextual backlinks)
A link integrated into content is valuable because it serves a purpose and adds context to content intended to assist your users. Links that are simply put into a website’s footer, header, or sidebar have no context and are irrelevant.
When approaching websites for links to your site, try to avoid getting them to add sitewide links like this.
If they offer a sidebar part with valuable information on a relevant topic, that could be useful but still not very valuable.
Non- Newsworthy Backlinks
Of course, press releases can raise brand recognition among your target demographic and generate backlinks to your website.
However, it is not a sensible decision to spread news regarding your brand that adds no value to your customers. Backlinks added in such news releases are spammy and will only harm your website.
Factors that influence the quality of a backlink
If you want to improve your ranking and online exposure, attract more users, and increase traffic, you must pay particular attention to the following aspects.
Editorial backlinks
Backlinks are a cornerstone of effective SEO, significantly influencing a webpage’s ranking on search engine results pages. Websites with numerous high-quality inbound links tend to rank higher, demonstrating the crucial role of link-building in digital marketing. While there are various types of backlinks, focusing on acquiring diverse and high-quality editorial links is a strategic approach to boost your website’s ranking, known as link diversification. It’s vital for SEO professionals to understand these various backlink types, their benefits for target sites, and the quantity required for effective link building. This knowledge is fundamental for any serious SEO expert. To help you get started, we’ve compiled a comprehensive guide to the many types of backlinks available to enhance your search engine rankings. But first, let’s explore why backlinks are so essential.
Domain Authority
This is a statistic that reflects how authoritative a given website can be. Many SEO tools, such as Moz, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and others, assign domain authority to websites, allowing site owners to assess the website’s potential on a scale of 1 to 100. It takes into account content, links, technical SEO, and a variety of other factors. Inbound connections and root domains are also essential considerations.
Website Credibility
The value of backlinks is also determined by a website’s credibility. Sites that are secure (i.e., use HTTPS), have nearly no Google penalties and have low spam counts can generate a more reliable backlink to your website.
Content Relevance
To prevent being deemed spam, one of the most crucial elements to examine is that you have backlinks from relevant sites. Google’s primary goal is to deliver the best solution for its consumers’ problems, i.e., relevant and accurate results. It is critical for Google that all backlinks on your website appear natural and not spammy.
Do-follow and No-follow Links
As previously noted, do-follow links are backlinks that will pass credibility to your site, whereas no-follow links are ones that you don’t want to pass credibility but want to maintain. Although no-follow links do not directly affect your rating, they do help bring in additional traffic. When using backlink building tools, ensure that you have an adequate number of no-follow and do-follow links to increase your position and attract more traffic.
Anchor text
It’s the text, or more particularly, the keyword, that is used to provide a backlink to a website. It defines the relationship between the sites’ content and relevancy. Anchor text should always be specific, topical, and contain relevant keywords to maximize the value of a backlink.
Number of Links
A backlink found among tens of thousands of links on a single page is unlikely to be as valuable as one found among fewer. Aside from link equity, a user would be hard-pressed to find your link among dozens and click through it to your content, so diminishing value.
Link Placement
It is critical for your website or webpage that the link is visible to visitors. Remember that links in a website’s sidebar or footer are regarded as advertising links and may have an influence on your website’s reputation and rating.
Conclusion
As you discovered, there are numerous backlink examples available for a website. The finest example of a good backlink, however, is one with high authority, reliability, relevance, optimized anchor text, and adheres to Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. If you can obtain such types of backlinks throughout a link-building campaign, your efforts will provide the greatest benefits.
Author Bio
Vaibhav Kakkar is the Founder and CEO of Digital Web Solutions, a globally trusted agency with a full suite of digital marketing services and development solutions. Vaibhav believes in building systems over services, and has helped scale up agencies from scratch to niche-leaders with million dollar turnovers
FAQ
What are backlinks in SEO?
Backlinks, also known as inbound or external links, are links from other websites that direct users to your site, which are crucial for SEO as they signal trust and authority to search engines.
Why are backlinks important in SEO?
Backlinks are important because they are seen as a vote of confidence from other sites, indicating your content is valuable, credible, and useful, thus improving your site’s ranking in search engine results.
What is the difference between dofollow and nofollow backlinks?
Dofollow backlinks pass on link equity and contribute to page ranking, while nofollow backlinks don’t pass on link equity and are typically used for sponsored or user-generated content.
How do you acquire high-quality backlinks for SEO?
High-quality backlinks can be acquired through creating valuable content, guest blogging, reaching out to influencers, participating in industry forums, and leveraging social media.
Can too many backlinks hurt your SEO?
Yes, if backlinks are from low-quality or spammy websites, they can hurt your SEO as they may be seen as manipulative tactics by search engines.
What is link building, and how does it relate to SEO?
Link building is the process of acquiring new backlinks to improve search engine rankings, and it’s a fundamental aspect of SEO strategies.
How do you evaluate the quality of a backlink?
The quality of a backlink is evaluated based on the authority of the linking site, relevance to your website’s content, the link’s placement on the page, and the anchor text used.
What is anchor text, and why is it important in backlinks?
Anchor text is the clickable text in a hyperlink. SEO best practices suggest that anchor text be relevant to the page you’re linking to, as it helps search engines understand the content better.
How does the number of backlinks impact SEO?
The number of backlinks can positively impact SEO, but quality is more important than quantity. A few high-quality backlinks can be more beneficial than numerous low-quality ones.
What are the best practices for a sustainable backlink strategy in SEO?
Sustainable backlink strategies focus on earning backlinks naturally through high-quality content, maintaining good relationships with other websites, and regular monitoring and auditing of your backlink profile.
What is a backlink profile, and why is it important in SEO?
A backlink profile is the collection of all backlinks to a website. It’s important in SEO because it reflects the website’s authority and credibility to search engines.
How can you identify and remove harmful backlinks?
Harmful backlinks can be identified using SEO tools like Google Search Console. They can be removed by requesting the linking site to take them down or using Google’s disavow tool.
What is the impact of internal linking on SEO?
Internal linking, linking to other pages within your own website, helps distribute page authority throughout your site and improves navigation for users, positively impacting SEO.
Can backlinks from social media platforms boost SEO?
While social media backlinks are typically nofollow, they can indirectly boost SEO by increasing visibility, traffic, and the potential for earning natural backlinks.
What is the role of guest blogging in building backlinks?
Guest blogging on reputable sites can be an effective way to earn quality backlinks, expand your audience, and increase your site’s authority.
How does the relevance of linking sites affect backlink quality?
Backlinks from sites relevant to your niche are more valuable as they are considered more credible and pertinent by search engines.
What are the common link building mistakes to avoid?
Common mistakes include buying backlinks, acquiring links from non-relevant sites, overusing exact match anchor text, and focusing solely on quantity over quality.
How do backlinks affect local SEO?
For local SEO, backlinks from local news sites, community pages, or local directories can be particularly effective in boosting visibility in local search results.
What is a natural backlink profile, and why is it important?
A natural backlink profile has a diverse range of backlinks, not dominated by any one type or source. It’s important as it appears more organic and less manipulative to search engines.
How often should you audit your backlink profile?
Regularly auditing your backlink profile, preferably every few months, is crucial to identify and address any harmful links and to understand the overall health of your site’s SEO.
How do backlinks from authoritative sites impact SEO?
Backlinks from authoritative and trusted sites significantly boost SEO as they pass more link equity, enhancing your site’s trustworthiness and ranking potential.
What is a link farm, and why should it be avoided for SEO?
A link farm is a group of websites that link to each other to artificially increase their backlink count. Using link farms is considered a black-hat SEO technique and can lead to search engine penalties.
Can backlinks from new websites be beneficial for SEO?
Backlinks from new but relevant and high-quality websites can still be beneficial, as they contribute to a diverse and natural-looking backlink profile.
What is link velocity, and how does it affect SEO?
Link velocity refers to the rate at which a website gains backlinks. An unnatural speed (too fast or slow) can raise red flags with search engines and impact SEO.
How do outbound links from your site affect SEO?
Outbound links to relevant and authoritative sites can enhance your site’s SEO by providing additional value to users and establishing connections with reliable sources.
What is the significance of the link’s position on a page for SEO?
A link’s position on a page matters; links embedded within the main content are typically more valuable than those in footers or sidebars.
How can infographics be used to generate backlinks for SEO?
Infographics can attract backlinks as they provide valuable information in an engaging visual format, encouraging others to share and link to your content.
Why is diversifying your backlink profile important in SEO?
Diversifying backlinks (in terms of sources, types, and anchor texts) helps create a more natural and resilient backlink profile, improving overall SEO strength.
What is the role of anchor text diversity in backlink profiles?
Diverse anchor texts prevent over-optimization flags and provide a more natural linking context to search engines, positively influencing SEO.
How does the follow vs. nofollow ratio in your backlink profile affect SEO?
A natural ratio of follow to nofollow links is essential; too many follow links might appear manipulative, while too many nofollow links might not pass enough link equity.
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