Digitalisering
18. september 2018
What are backlinks?
Backlinks are hyperlinks that come from other external web pages but point to your web pages. In other words, these are websites that have hyperlinks pointing to your website.
Indhold
Kort og godt Indgående vs. udgående Sådan virker links Derfor er links vigtige Indflydelse på SEO Eksempel De bedste backlinks Links i fremtidenWhy talk about “backlinks” at all?
It can be difficult to understand how backlinks work in a world full of SEO experts, gurus, and other fantastic creatures, each with their own opinion on the subject.
At Morningtrain, we often hear questions such as:
- “What are backlinks?”
- “How do backlinks work?”
- “How do backlinks affect my website (and business?)”
- “Why are backlinks important?”
In this article, you will get answers to frequently asked questions—free of fancy words and incomprehensible marketing jargon.
What is the difference between inbound and outbound links?
Since backlinks are links that come from other web pages, they are often called inbound links or incoming links.
By contrast, links that you create and point to other pages are called outbound links. Inbound links pointing to your website are outbound links from other websites, and vice versa.
However, there is more to how backlinks work.
How do backlinks work?
Backlinks are also called hyperlinks. A hyperlink can, for example, look like this:
And it looks like this in code:
When you encounter hyperlinks on websites, you most often see anchor text and an anchor image. These anchor elements represent the text or image you click, which takes you to another website.
Do not worry if this seems too complicated—you will probably never need to go that deep. The largest content management systems (platforms you can use to manage content, such as the blog platform WordPress) allow you to create hyperlinks quickly and easily. Interestingly, the icon for creating a hyperlink is illustrated as two chain links connected together.
Why are backlinks important?
To understand why backlinks are important, we need to look at the recent history of search engines. Why do search engines care so much about these links? Although Google is much smarter today, and more than 200 factors determine how your website ranks, it has not always been that way.
In the beginning, search engines used to rank websites solely based on the frequency of keywords in the content. The algorithms were not as smart as they are today, and the purpose and meaning of the content could not be interpreted very well. Website owners realized this, and many therefore practiced “keyword stuffing“.
This dysfunctional practice benefited neither search engines, content creators, nor end users. It did not matter whether the content was good, whether the website was well known, or what the website was about. If a particular phrase or word matched the entered keywords, the result would be shown.
In addition to being outright manipulation of the system, many irrelevant results also appeared. A private individual describing personal events could use keywords that were just as relevant to another person’s business. And that is why backlinks became an important factor.
How do backlinks work now?
Backlinks have remained since then, and they have had a major impact on rankings. However, they have also changed along the way.
To understand why search engines focus so heavily on backlinks, and why it should be a major part of your SEO efforts, try thinking of a university library. There are many scientific books there. But if there are 50 books on the same topic, how do you determine which one is most relevant?
Here is a clue: citations. The book most often cited as a source in other books is the one that gains the greatest authority.
This measurement concept was introduced by Google’s founders—Larry Page and Sergey Brin—in a scientific paper titled “The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to The Web“.
What impact do backlinks have on SEO?
Backlinks from reputable sources indicate that your website contains valuable information. The more relevant backlinks you have, the more valuable you appear in Google’s eyes.
However, there are several reasons why backlinks are important to search engines.
Your authority depends on other webmasters. This means we have a system that ensures SEO cheaters (also known as black hat SEO) do not rank highly on the search engine results page.
So there are two things to remember when doing link building:
- Does it come from a place with relevant content?
- Does it come from a reputable source?
A very good tool for evaluating potential links is Ahrefs.
An example of link building
Backlinks can be compared to peer review for websites. If a book is cited many times—and the citations come from authoritative sources—it means a third party finds the book valuable. If this helps the reader solve their problem quickly, easily, and satisfactorily, we can establish some premises for how and why this happens.
To understand why backlinks are important, consider the following:
- The cited book contains valuable information
- The cited book comes from a trustworthy source
- You help your readers by citing good sources
- You can influence trust by using good references
However, when things happen on the internet, it immediately becomes more complicated. Supporters of black hat SEO discovered that they could trick search engines. Someone figured out that if the number of backlinks mattered most, you could use software that automatically generated a huge number of them, regardless of relevance.
Many therefore started using backlink generators, which meant that the SERP (search engine results page) was manipulated. A common practice was writing spam comments to get many backlinks.
However, Google realized something was wrong. Google therefore introduced the NoFollow tag and regained control of rankings, and by removing a lot of spam, Google helped both bloggers and businesses. The introduction of the new tag, combined with the Google Penguin update, which specifically targets low-quality links, changed the way we understood links.
Which backlinks are best?
It is important to know how backlinks work and how to manage them, because they are crucial to how search engines treat your website. There are two types of links—DoFollow and NoFollow.
Dofollow backlinks
The DoFollow backlink tag (also known as “Follow”) is the original tag that passes value (link juice) between websites. Imagine you are writing an article for a client, and suddenly you come across a great source. It could be supplementary material, a review of your product, a case study, or something else entirely.
Google naturally wants to know more about the intentions behind your linking to other sources, because it is in their interest to satisfy both you and your business, as well as your consumer. Who would otherwise use the platform—do you see what we mean?
Here, the DoFollow tag tells search engines that you are pointing to the website, AND that you also recommend it.
Example of a DoFollow backlink
A DoFollow link is the same as a standard link. It has no other attributes. Therefore, you do not need to do anything to create a DoFollow link.
NoFollow backlinks
However, it is a different story when it comes to the NoFollow tag. Imagine you are writing a news article for a major media portal. Here, you often need to link to smaller sites that you do not necessarily trust or recommend.
In such cases, the NoFollow tag is brilliant because it tells Google that you are pointing to a website, but that you do NOT recommend or trust it.
Example of a NoFollow backlink
The difference lies in the rel=”nofollow” attribute. It essentially tells search engines not to count this link toward ranking, so they do not pass value (link juice).
How will backlinks work in the future?
The digital marketing landscape is constantly changing. With the rapid emergence of new algorithms, we never know what we are up against. Website and/or business owners can benefit from keeping up with these changes, as they can provide an advantage over competitors.
As the trend continues, backlinks will retain their value for some time yet—and possibly forever. This does not mean that the backlink ranking algorithm will never change, but from a logical standpoint, it is a sophisticated system that tries to show the best results.
Here you can read how to do link building that delivers results.
If the article above has made you want to get started with link building, here is our list of links.
