You’ve got a website you’re really happy with, but people aren’t really visiting it yet. Why not?
More often than not, the number and type of backlinks will be the answer.
What is a backlink?
A backlink is simply a link to your site from another site. This can be anything, from a directory listing for your company to a post you make on a forum which includes your organisation’s website in your signature. And in general, the more of these links there are the more visitors you will receive.
Sound straightforward?
Yes, largely it is! But there’s more you should know…
Why are backlinks useful?
The first answer to why backlinks are useful is pretty obvious. The more places you can plug your site and include a link, the more people will see those links and follow them, so the more visitors you will receive. Hooray, job done! But wait, there’s more!
Even MORE useful than the links themselves is the effect that they have on where you appear in search results. Google uses the number and type of these backlinks to establish how important your site is to others. This is a very significant factor in how high up their search results you appear. And ranking highly on Google is the single best thing you can do to attract visitors to your site.
That sounds like all I need to know! Thanks!
Hold on! Before you get started there are a few more things that are useful to know.
Firstly, Google does not treat all these links equally. Links from highly trusted sites carry weight; links from low-quality sites full of different unrelated links can be considered “spammy” and might be counterproductive. So don’t fall for adverts offering to create multiple paid backlinks for you in random locations; create genuine ones yourself, free or cheaply, in meaningful places. Consider the sorts of sites that you would visit if you were interested in the services you offer – directories, expert forums, trade associations etc. – and concentrate your efforts there.
Secondly, consider the text of the link itself that you post and ensure that is meaningful too. Link text doesn’t have to be the same as the address you are linking to (it could just say “click here” for example) but Google will check it for relevance and penalise you if it thinks you’re trying to trick people by using text that doesn’t relate to the service you offer. Ideally the text should therefore be either the actual address you are linking to or something very strongly linked to the content of your page.
Thirdly, it’s best to have a good balance between larger (e.g. national) and smaller (e.g. local) websites. The reason for this is a hidden property of links called “nofollow”, which is a tag that quite a few of the bigger sites add automatically (it protects their own search ranking from being penalised by the link). This tag drastically reduces the usefulness of those links to your search results. It’s hard to tell which sites do this without some technical know-how, so for most people just ensuring that you get your link onto a mix of larger and smaller sites is the most useful strategy.
OK I’m ready to start creating links! Where do I begin?
One great industry insider tip is to check what sites link back to your competitors, which is easier to do than you might imagine.
A competitor might commonly have links from Web directories you are not listed in, appear on trade association pages you haven’t registered with yet, or be active on local community sites for example. All of these are likely to be straightforward for you to do as well, and make a big difference to your search ranking. Use your competitors’ backlink lists as a starting point and then make sure that you’re listed in even more places of similar types, then watch your number of visitors improve!
I don’t understand how to do that! Can I have an example?
Sure! Imagine you are a riding instructor based in Dagenham. You simply Google “Riding Instructor Dagenham” and see what the highest couple of (non-paid) results are. At time of writing they are https://www.chelmsfordequestriancentre.co.uk/horse-riding-lessons-dagenham/ and http://docklandsequestriancentre.com/
Copy each of those addresses and run them through one or more of the many free backlink checkers available. Examples are https://www.seoreviewtools.com/valuable-backlinks-checker , https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker , https://monitorbacklinks.com/seo-tools/backlink-checker and https://www.rankwatch.com/backlinks/ – just Google “Free backlink checker” and you’ll find lots more.
You will see that as well as the standard sites like yell.com the first site is listed in the national directory pages of “Horse and Hound” magazine, the British Horse Society and the Association of British Riding Schools. Locally, it is mentioned in “What’s On” sections of community and school pages, and also linked directly from the owners in forum posts on the “Essex Mums” forum.
The second site has similar listings from the British Horse Society etc. but is also linked from the Virgin Money Giving site, and has a short write-up on a site called mybaba.com which lists all the riding schools in the area.
So now it’s your turn. For each of these sites do the same – get yourself listed in those directories and more, post events on “what’s on” pages locally, create forum posts and fundraisers which describe what you do and link to your site, and submit information about your services to the people who publish roundups of relevant similar services and ask to be included. Use your competitors’ links as inspiration to think of more that could be done in every area. Don’t just copy – innovate!
And how do I get even more of an edge?
To get even more high quality backlinks can take a bit more effort but is almost always worth it. If you have a particular area of expertise, consider writing a short article or guest post and offering it to an industry site in return for a link at the bottom of it. Reach out to your suppliers and customers and ask to be featured on their site in a case study, news item or testimonial. Create meaningful and useful content in your own blog and submit it to places relevant to your own industry where it will get noticed. Every link helps you build more and more credibility, and in turn attract more and more traffic. And the effects mount up over time, so a little effort invested regularly can accumulate to a huge increase in your visitors in the long run.
How can Enterprising IT help?
Enterprising IT’s “Ethical SEO” approach has a strong focus on high-quality, meaningful and long-lasting backlinks that stand the test of time. When we build or maintain a site for you, we also guide you through creating as many of these backlinks as possible.
We use professional tools that give us a deeper level of insight than the free ones linked from this page, and we give you the benefit of that insight. We provide easy-to-use snippets for you to copy and use in your posts and signatures that take into account the nuances that help Google and other search engines recognise your links as meaningful.
As part of our MySiteMonitor service we report regularly on your search performance and backlink profile and suggest simple but impactful ways to improve your ranking with as little effort from you as possible.
We don’t build websites and go away – we only deal in long and productive relationships where you get maximum value from your site, which means always keeping you high in Google’s search results where you belong.
Effective backlinks are an important part of how we achieve that. Contact us today to find out more.
