Today let’s talk about backlinks. Backlinks are an important part of SEO and are critical for any well-executed SEO strategy, which are often misunderstood or not implemented correctly.
As part of SEO, continually getting new backlinks are important. Actually, they are very important. The number of backlinks your website has is one of the biggest factors for getting up to the top of Google rankings and search results. Unfortunately, as an SEO Consultant, I have realized that backlinks are also one of the most misunderstood search engine optimization elements when it comes to implementing them!
Backlinks and their complexities in the SEO world
Some of you might be wondering what exactly is a backlink – well, it is a link external to your website which points back to your domain. Backlinks help to determine the popularity of a website, which then contributes to search engine rankings, hence their importance.
However, not all backlinks are created equally. When checking a site’s backlinks, two things are considered: quantity and quality. One of the most common mistakes is a domain having many low-quality or even harmful backlinks, thinking that this can still work in the website’s favor.
If you are a big company or have done SEO and digital marketing before, you have likely worked on getting backlinks in the past. Now, I encourage you to go on to sorting through those backlinks and honing in on the valuable backlinks. It is a lot better to have one good backlink than many low-quality ones. There are a lot of different kinds of backlinks, such as do follow and no follow, which is what makes the concept difficult to understand. Directories are also an important source for backlinks.
If you have never done backlinks, ask me and I can help you to get started.
The next chapter: getting indexed
While getting backlinks from authoritative websites is already a challenge in its own right, that is only the beginning of the story. A backlink is only valuable for your domain if it gets indexed. An indexed backlink is one that has been recognized by Google. Google does not necessarily see everything that is out on the Internet and actually misses a lot of content. If Google does not see and index a page, then it will never get seen at all.
How to get backlinks indexed
Luckily, it is possible to ensure that you backlinks get indexed, even those that you obtained in the past! First off, you can check if your backlinks are indexed or not. To do this:
- Check the cache of the URL by adding “cache:” before it
- If you get a 404 error page, this page has not been indexed yet. Unfortunately there is no guarantee that it will ever be indexed by Google. And until it does get indexed this backlink will never count.
If the page you are checking is in Google’s index you will get this message at the top showing the date and timestamp when it was picked up.
You can also check your backlinks in bulk using this tool: Bulk Index Checker at Stratage.ms. As you get new links it is good to keep track of them to run them through this tool.
For those backlinks that are not indexed, you might have to help them get indexed. Here’s how:
- Wait two weeks after publication to see if Google indexes them on its own. Sometimes it is quicker.
- For a quick fix: “Ping” the pages that have a backlink, which is free. Wait several days before checking again for any indexing. Here is my favorite ping tool: http://bulklink.org/
- If your backlink are still not indexed, I do know another creative solution that works great. Having insider knowledge like this is but one reason you should work with an SEO expert like myself.
The lesson learned regarding backlinks for SEO
As you can see, backlinks are big part of SEO, which can venture into certain complexities, but must nonetheless be used for a successful digital marketing strategy. Here are the main takeaways for today’s short lesson, as well as what I can do for you:
- Backlinks are important for SEO
🡪 I can ensure that the important need for backlinks is met and that it truly contributes to bettering your business.
- There are different levels of quality when it comes to backlinks. Of course, you can go pay $20 for 1000 backlinks and quickly amass a long list of them; but it will not help your SEO.
🡪 Getting good and truly beneficial backlinks from an SEO expert like myself would be a lot better for your business.
- Even if you got backlinks (quality or not) in the past, they may not be counting.
🡪 I will get a strategy in place to run the whole backlink strategy and related matters to make sure that all is working as it should be.
If you are interested in getting quality backlinks and having Google index them faster and more consistently, get in touch or read more about my SEO consultant services.
