What are backlinks?
Simply put, backlinks are just hyperlinks from other websites that link back to another website. They are not only designed to help drive more traffic to the website they are directed to, they can, in certain situations, also make the target website appear more of an authority on a certain topic.
If you wish to learn more about this concept, check out the FAQ section below:
Question #1: How can I get backlinks to my website?
There are a lot of different ways to get backlinks to your website. Some are legitimate. Others, not so much. Today, we will focus on the former because the latter can seriously hurt your website in the long run.
One legitimate way of getting this to your website is by creating high-quality, informative resource pages that websites that operate within the same niche can cite.
So, how does it work exactly?
Say you run an online fitness supplements store. The first step is to use a backlinks analytics tool to find out what websites have backlink to your competitors’ websites (but not yours) and what types of content they are linking to. This should give you an idea of what to put in the resource pages you will create.
Afterward, you can either wait for people to notice you and start linking to your content or you can run an advertising campaign to get your content in front of the right people faster.
Question #2: Is it good for SEO?
Yes! For the most part, they are good for SEO. Again, as we have seen earlier, in certain situations, help make your website appear like an authority on a specific subject—and search engines such as Google like featuring authority websites on their search results pages. This is because websites that demonstrate authority on a particular topic (or set of topics) are more likely to have high-quality, relevant, and truly informative content.
There are instances, however, where backlinks can hurt your website’s SEO. Below are some examples:
- When it comes from shady, low-quality, or spammy websites
- The backlinks chrome from very similar pages from different websites and use the same anchor text
- You (or the person you hired to handle your SEO) have acquired the backlinks through questionable means
In the last example, questionable means refer to activities such as buying backlinks or acquiring them using any other method that violates Google’s guidelines.
Question #3: What are toxic backlinks?
Toxic backlinks are those that hurt your website’s SEO instead of improving it. It is a catch-all term to describe the non-helpful backlinks we described in the previous section. As a general rule, it is always better to have just a handful of quality backlinks than a hundreds of toxic backlinks.
Think of backlinks like votes of confidence. Obviously, votes coming from known experts and authority figures would hold significantly more weight than those from random unknown people. This is why backlinks from quality sources can help you rank better in search engine results pages, while those from low-quality or questionable sources end up pushing you lower.
Question #4: How do I get rid of a toxic one?
There are three approaches:
First, you can reach out to the owner of the site where the backlink comes from and request for it to be removed.
Sounds simple enough, right? Unfortunately, this approach puts you at the mercy of the owner of the website in question. What if they take too long to reply or do not reply at all? What if they reply and refuse to remove the backlink?
Fortunately, there is a much simpler option: just use the Disavow Link feature on the Google Search Console to remove the backlink yourself.
If you believe that a backlink has been incorrectly marked as toxic, however, you can get in touch with Google to request a review. While this process can take as long as 30 days, it is the best way to save your incorrectly flagged backlinks.