Digital Tune-Up: Internal Linking Basics Part 2 — Backlinking

A while back, we ran through the basics of internal linking and explored the ways a solid linking strategy bolsters audience engagement and boosts your website’s SEO scores.

So, since we’ve already learned a thing or two about how, when, and why to use internal links, it’s time to talk about their lesser-known counterpart: backlinks.

What is a Backlink?
Simply put, when another website links to your site your content, that's a backlink. In terms of SEO, backlinks are a currency of credibility. The more valuable, high-quality backlinks you have, the more likely it is that your site will rank high in search results and SEO scores.

Backlinking Benefits
In addition to driving more referral traffic to your site and increasing the likelihood that your site will get featured snippets and other SERP perks, backlinks are also a major player in improving your site’s SEO score and overall credibility.

Backlinking is arguably even more beneficial for SEO than internal linking. This is because they serve as evidence that your site offers valuable information via quality content. Since search engines rely on quality content to determine a site’s SEO score, having backlinks to your site is always a major bonus.

How to Get Backlinks
Backlinks are generally harder to get than internal links. Internal links are created by you and implemented into your own content, making integration a no-brainer. (The two links included in this post so far are internal links.) Backlinks, on the other hand, have to be created by outside parties and are usually only created when those parties find your content valuable.

Aside from creating strong, shareworthy content that is factual and informative, there are a few other ways to increase your chances of getting backlinks while improving your backlinking strategy overall:

Network: Build connections with writers and contacts at different companies within your industry. If they write a blog post about something you also have a blog on, link them. Create a strong brand and build connections to get more featured backlinks in these relevant spaces. Another option is to link to trusted industry resources like trade publications, government websites, or other authoritative sites. Promoting their expertise and content will add credibility to yours in turn.

Use Google Alerts: Utilize Google Alerts to track mentions of your brand, and generally monitor activity. If people are mentioning your brand in their content but not linking back to your site, that is an opportunity to ask them to do so directly or to entice them by creating even more quality content they can use.

Guest Posting: Participate in guest posting whenever possible. Guest post on blogs for other websites and companies, and invite other writers and experts to do the same for yours. This is not only one of the best ways to control the backlinks you’re receiving for your site, but it also allows you to further express and advertise your expertise in relevant spaces where more backlinking opportunities could be identified.

External Blogs: Keep an eye out for associations in your industry that may offer blogging opportunities or, create an external blog on a platform like Medium to share your content and then link back to it on your main site. By publishing shorter versions of your content on a third-party blogging platform, you can reach an entirely different audience and direct them back to your site. Alternatively, you could also create content that might not align with your website in terms of category, but has the potential to highlight your services or products instead.

Paid Backlinks: There are platforms that allow you to pay for backlinks, and while this may be a quick approach, we don't recommend taking it. When you pay for backlinks, you increase the risk of generating spammy or “toxic” backlinks instead of quality ones. And, since spammy backlinks will be deemed irrelevant by search engines, they put your SEO scores at a higher risk of being penalized as well.

Backlinking is something that should be considered whenever content is created for your site. Ultimately, ensuring that you’re creating consistent, high-quality, and informative content is the best way to increase the likelihood of people backlinking to your site.

Looking to hone in on your own backlinking strategy? Our digital strategy brain trust is here to help! Contact CID to get started.