Backlinks and Google
Backlinks sometimes referred to as ‘inbound links’ are essential to the visibility of your web pages in the search engines and attracting visitor traffic. When thinking about backlinks there are three things you need to consider, the source from which the backlinks are derived, the anchor text of the backlinks and the content of the page to which the backlinks sends the visitor to.
The amount of backlinks
The number of backlinks to a page is one of the key properties the search engines take into account when deciding how to position the page in the SERPS (Search Engine Page Results).
The source of the backlinks
Backlinks are like votes with different ‘rights’ that are derived from where they originate from So it follows that pages with backlinks from ‘trusted pages will receive better consideration from the search engines. Government (.gov) and educational (.edu) sites are prime examples of sites that are authoritative and trustworthy.
Google Page Rank
Google has the concept of ‘page rank’, this is the value indicator it awards to a page it considers to have accumulated authority over time from backlinks pointing towards it.
The ‘anchor text’
Similar to a label, the backlink anchor text influences the search engines classification of the backlink. If the content of the page is about ‘parenting’ and the backlink on the page is labeled or given the ‘anchor’ text ‘parenting’ then the search engines consider this to be of more value to the searcher looking for web pages related to ‘parenting’ than if the backlink was labeled ‘babycare’.
Common problems
It’s not unusual for novices to confuse the quantity with the quality of backlinks and easily be perplexed by their lack of progress Having a significant amount of backlinks to your page doesn’t automatically mean the search engines will view your page as relevant.
How to manufacture backlinks
So here is my no obligation advice for getting backlinks to your pages, great positions in the search engine results pages and the right type of traffic to your site.
- Finding the right keywords from the beginning is essential.
- I like to create a keyword ‘cloud’.
- I always start with a single primary keyword or key phrase which has significant visitor traffic.
- The fastest and cheapest method to find out how much traffic a keyword or key phrase is getting is to use the Google keywords discovery tool.
- The Google tool puts together a list of keywords connected to my main keyword and from this list I grow my cloud.
- I then create content in the form of articles and videos containing backlinks with the correct ‘anchor text’ to my ‘money’ or ‘target’ page and send these to the various directories.
- When I author content I do so with the reader in mind so as each piece of content attracts backlinks to itself as well as sends backlinks to my target pages.
