What are Backlinks? Role of backlinking in SEO

A backlink is simply a link from one website to another. Search engines like Google use backlink as a ranking signal. The high-quality backlinks can help in increasing the site’s ranking position and visibility in Search Engine Results pages. Backlinks are also known as Referring Domains and are commonly called as Hyperlinks, incoming links or inbound links.

More the number of backlinks you have, the more the traffic, affiliate clients you will get. It is the backbone of ranking your articles in Search Engine Results pages (SERP). By saying this would not be incorrect. Backlinks are one of those metrics which are very important for getting the desired rankings of your article or blog. It also helps to grow the audience digitally for your website.

Backlinks enhance the visibility on Google. There are two types of backlinks:

1: Internal Backlink: Internal backlink is those backlinks which are used inside the website or blog from one page to another page.

2: External Backlink: It is those backlinks which are used from the outside of a website. It helps to grow the visibility of traffic to your website. To link your website with the popular link helps to grow the traffic in a very fast mode.

Some more types of Backlink are:

1: Do-Follow BackLinks: Do-Follow backlinks are the most common and valuable type of backlink for Search Engine Optimization. When you put a do-follow backlink on your website, it means you are telling Google that the link is organic. Also, the targeted websites didn’t buy the links. It is simply telling Google or some other search engines that the content on the other end of this link is important and should be noted.

2: No-Follow Link: No-Follow backlinks are less common and are less valuable too. They are used to tell search engines to ignore a particular link. It provides a way for webmasters to tell search engines that “Not to follow this specific link”. The HTML markup for these links is quite similar to D0-follow links with one big difference and i.e “rel=no-follow” tag.

The percentage of Do-follow versus No-follow links varies. Google wants to see a good mix of both for a healthy link profile. One of the biggest differences between these two links is that Google places a lot of value on Do-follow links. On the other hand, no-follow links are ignored by Google algorithm in most of the cases. Therefore, it is rarely valuable for SEO.

Are backlinks still important 2020?

A lot has changed in the past few years in the SEO world. Some of the SEO techniques which were effective earlier have now become obsolete due to frequent changes in the Google algorithm in the recent times. Content and backlinks are considered as the top search engine ranking factors. But the question is:

Are backlinks still important in 2020?

With the updates in Google algorithm, many SEO persons are of the view that backlinks are no longer important. Backlinks are considered as votes to the website and are still important to increase keyword ranking, increase website traffic, and build brand awareness.

Although Google does not recommend any backlink strategy, it says that the backlinks should be naturally earned. Any paid link created will be caught by the Google algorithms increasing the risk of getting de-indexed. Thus, the backlinks are important but these should be genuinely made.

Also Read:

SEO Trends 2021

What is SEO Audit