Backlinks Introduction & Website Optimization

by Josh Baldwin
Novo Websites

You’ve probably heard a lot of talk regarding “backlinks,” but what are backlinks, anyways? Backlinks can be defined as links present on an external website that link back to your website. They’re important primarily because major search engines use them as an indicator of how popular or important a particular website or webpage is. For example, the search engines Google andYahoo use backlinks to determine thePageRank of a webpage. Consequently, beyond search engine optimization (SEO), backlinks are a great way to put a giant spotlight on your website or a particular page within your website. Proper backlinking, then, is crucial for your website’s exposure on the Internet.

Another way to define “backlink” is as follows: a backlink is any link that is accepted from another web node. Web nodes are also known as:

·         Web pages

·         Web directory’s

·         Websites

·         Top level domains

Backlinks are also referred to as:

·         Incoming links

·         Inbound links

·         Inlinks

·         Inward links

There are a number of variables that determine how valuable a backlink is.

·         If your site is “authoritative,” backlinks from your site are very valuable

·         If two sites have content directed toward a particular keyword topic, the backlink may have a strong influence on the search engine rankings of the webpage given the backlink

·         The anchor text of the backlink (i.e. the descriptive labeling of the hyperlink that appears on a webpage) can be valuable if relevant keywords are used in the anchor text

To demonstrate how keen search engines are on backlinking, let’s take a look at Google’s description ofbacklinks via their PageRank system. Google notes that it interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. Pretty neat, but backlinks themselves are only part of story. SEO is also typically used to complement and increase the amount ofbacklinks that are referring to a particular website such as yours.

But before you go into a backlink splurge, be aware that inbound links are increasingly being weighed in relation to link popularity and originating context. This swing back towards inbound links, so to speak, is supposed to reduce the importance of one link, one vote in search engine optimization, a trend that is hoped will help decrease the lingering problem of linkspam. Note also that creating too manybacklinks over a short amount of time can result in the penalization of a website’s search engines rankings.

In extreme instances, the offending website can be taken off of the search engine’s index altogether. As with so much else in life, moderation, patience, and a little bit of “know how” can go a long way in making your website pop out in a search engine’s results for your keyword(s) niche. Backlinks are a valuable piece of this puzzle and I hope this article has helped give you a greater understanding of what back links are and how they are used to optimize your website’s visibility on the Internet.

Backlinks can make or break your website’s search engine results performance.

Article submitted Sunday, May 15, 2011 & read 2 times.

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