What Are Backlinks? Definition & SEO Best Practices

Backlinks are external links from third-party websites that point back to your site. The more high-value backlinks your website has, the better it will rank for relevant search results. For this reason, generating backlinks for your website is one of the most important parts of your overall SEO strategy.

There are four general categories of backlinks:

• Organic Backlinks: These types of backlinks occur naturally through the creation, publication and promotion of high-value content.
• Paid Backlinks: These represent backlinks that you actively pay for and can be frowned upon by search engines such as Google.
• Dofollow Backlinks: These backlinks directly pass SEO value from one website to another.
• Nofollow or Sponsored Backlinks: These backlinks do not directly pass SEO value from one site to another but are still important for brand awareness and traffic.

Backlinks are “dofollow” by default. However, publications can manually change them to “nofollow” or “sponsored” in situations where they do not want to pass link equity to a third-party resource.

Backlinks are viewed by search engines as a signal of trust and authority because search engines, such as Google, treat a backlink like a citation. The more high-value citations a website has, the more authoritative it will be considered. In turn, search engines will suggest it more in relevant search results and increase traffic as well as brand awareness.

Backlinks should therefore be a major part of your overall SEO strategy. With this in mind, let’s discuss the various types of backlinks as well as how to generate them.

There are many types of backlinks, some more valuable than others. Here are the most common types of backlinks and their overall value to your website:

Organic Editorial Backlinks

Organic editorial backlinks are inbound links from third-party websites that occur naturally. This means that you do not pay for them or reach out directly asking for a link. Because of this, they are one of the most valuable types of backlinks.

Earn organic editorial backlinks by creating high-quality content and promoting it on channels such as social media, or by doing something newsworthy that other publications may pick up.

Guest Blog Backlinks

Guest blogging is the act of writing a blog article for a third-party website under your byline. Publications that accept guest blogs will often allow you to either place a backlink in the post itself or within the author bio. Placing a link in the post is more valuable than the author bio, but both are a great opportunity to earn a backlink naturally.

Press Release Backlinks

Press release backlinks are links generated through the distribution and promotion of press releases. This is primarily done by placing a link within the press release itself and then using a third-party press release distribution service to host and promote the release. The added benefit of this approach is the press release can get picked up by other publications and provide either indirect or direct link equity to your website.

Comment and Forum Backlinks

These backlinks represent blog comments and forum posts with links to your website. These links sometimes happen naturally, such as when a customer writes about you online. However, there is a manual link-building strategy where you can identify relevant blogs or forums and then manually post a valuable comment with a link back to your website.

Social Media Backlinks

These types of backlinks represent the links within social media posts or bios that point back to your website. Along with comment and forum backlinks, this may happen organically by third-party accounts but also include the backlinks generated by social media accounts you own. While social media backlinks are good brand signals for SEO, they aren’t as valuable as links from other websites.

Directory Backlinks

Many online directories provide links to relevant third-party sites based on things such as topic, industry or niche. You can submit your website to relevant directories to earn backlinks. Some directory websites are free while others are paid. For example, members of the Better Business Bureau (BBB) are listed in the BBB’s directory.

Image Backlinks

Sometimes websites will use images from other sites and link back to them for attribution. These images include things such as infographics, charts, screenshots and more. To generate these backlinks, create valuable images that other publications would want to use or link to.

Paid Backlinks

Paid backlinks are links that you actively pay for. While this is an easy way to generate backlinks for your website, it can be frowned upon by search engines such as Google because it’s deemed unnatural. Proceed with caution when paying for backlinks.

There are a variety of ways to generate backlinks. The best link-building strategies use multiple best practices cohesively to earn consistent backlinks from high-value websites. Take a look at the top ways to generate backlinks for your website:

Creating Linkable Content

At the core of any link-building strategy is the need for valuable content. The best way to generate backlinks is therefore to create linkable content that other sites are thrilled to share with their audience. From there, generate backlinks organically or by using it as part of a direct outreach strategy.

Direct Outreach

Direct outreach is the act of identifying relevant websites in your niche and then reaching out to them asking for a backlink. The best way to do this is by creating a valuable piece of content and then reaching out to relevant publications to share that content. Another great way is through broken link building, which we discuss next.

Broken Link Building

A broken link is an outbound link that points to a resource that no longer exists. Broken link building is a strategy where you first identify relevant websites with broken links and then reach out to them with a replacement link from your website. This is a good approach because it’s a value-add for the third-party website you’re contacting.

Unlinked Brand Mentions

A brand mention represents any time your brand, company, product or service is mentioned online. Oftentimes, these brand mentions include a link to your website, but sometimes they are unlinked. A great way to build backlinks is to track your brand mentions using a Google Alert and reach out to publications that didn’t provide a link back to your site.

Guest Posting

Guest posting on relevant and valuable websites and then inserting a link back to your website is one of the most common ways to generate backlinks. Sometimes, you can place a link directly in the blog post content itself. Other times, you can provide a link back to your website within your author bio. Either way, it’s a great strategy for building your brand as well as for generating backlinks.

HARO Responses

Help a Reporter Out (HARO) is an online platform that connects journalists and bloggers with experts in specific niches. Journalists will submit requests for quotes and other information on various topics, and you can respond to these requests with your expertise. Journalists will then use these quotes and information in their articles and provide a backlink for attribution.

Publish Press Release Updates

Press releases are a great way to generate backlinks because you can not only place a link directly in the press release itself but they will often get picked up by third-party publications. A good strategy is to publish and distribute a press release using a press release distribution service for anything noteworthy that your brand does.

Offer Award Badges

A great way to generate backlinks is to award badges to other websites or companies that they can proudly display on their website. Each badge will have a link back to your website as the one who awarded it. For example, if you operate a software review site, you can offer a badge for the “number one sales software” and award it to your top pick.

Backlinks are third-party links that point back to your website. Backlinks are an important ranking factor for search engines, such as Googl,e and should be a core part of your overall SEO strategy. First, however, it’s important to understand the various types of backlinks and best practices for generating them. From there, put together a cohesive link-building strategy to get backlinks from high-value websites.