What Are Backlinks? And How to Get More in 2021

What Are Backlinks?

In short, backlinks are links from one website to another. Despite diminishing value, Google and other search engines still place a lot of weight and ranking factors within backlinks.

Why Does Google Care About Backlinks?

Let’s be honest, over the past few years Google’s algorithm has gotten better, a LOT better. However, it still is not good enough to distinguish good content from poor content. 

That is where backlinks come in.

See, backlinks are basically referrals from one website to another. If you were choosing between two items and one was recommended by a friend, you would more than likely choose the one your friend suggested.

Google has used backlinks for many years. They were even a part of the original Google algorithm called PageRank.

It has been shown by multiple studies that backlinks help pages rank higher, and it has even been confirmed by Google.

Not All Backlinks Are Good

If you were ever to do an SEO competitor analysis, you would find that websites and webpages with 300 backlinks sometimes do not outrank pages with 100 backlinks.

Many factors play into this, but for backlinks alone, it is not uncommon.

Why? A few reasons.

Domain Authority

Let’s go back to our referral analogy. Which recommendation would you trust more, one from a very trusted and knowledgeable person, or one from Joe whom you’ve only met once?

You are going to trust the knowledgeable person, and the same thing happens with backlinks.

A backlink (or referral) from a high authority website will be much more valuable than a site with low authority. 

This “authority” can be found using a Domain Authority score (a very creative name, I know). This rating was created by Moz.com, and while it is not perfect, it gives a good idea of what sites are authoritative and which are not.

Let’s look at an example from my website.

You probably have never heard of swt-live.com, but those in the business services niche certainly know what themanifest.com is. Their respective domain authority scores accurately represent this.

Referring Website Topic

This ties very closely to the last point. Would you expect a law firm website to have referrals to car dealerships?

No, and neither does Google.

Backlinks are more valuable when they come from a website related to yours.

Dofollow vs. Nofollow

Websites can link to websites without giving them a backlink. This occurs when the link is assigned as nofollow. The nofollow tells Google and other search engines to completely ignore it.

Luckily, most links that are marked as nofollow are not quality sourced and are found from places such as:

• Blog Comments
• Forum posts
• Advertisements

Most link building opportunities will bypass the nofollow, but it is something to look out for.

Number of Links

The number of links coming from one domain has an effect on the quality of the backlink. If you get one link from a website, you may see a significant improvement in your domain authority. 

However, if that same website links five, ten, fifty more times, the link’s power will diminish. 

How to Get More Backlinks

Guest Posting

My favorite (and probably the easiest) method to get more backlinks is guest posting. Many people in the SEO industry say guest posting is dying, and in a sense, it is.

Google’s John Mueller announced that Google would soon be adding algorithm changes potentially penalizing websites who guest post too frequently.

However, this does not mean you shouldn’t do it. You just need to be careful. 

For a quality backlink, you want a website with high domain authority related to your niche.

The first step is to establish a list of blogs related to your niche that allows guest posts. The best way to do this is by simply doing a Google search like “{your niche} guest posting” or “{your niche} write for us.” 

You will find a list of blogs, and I recommend you take the first 10-20 results and put them in a list.

Each blog will have different requirements, and I recommend you write them out next to the link in your list.

This will allow you to weed out posts that won’t work out and focus on ones that will.

Be Cautious

As I mentioned earlier, guest posting can sometimes be risky. Never submit a post to a “news” looking site that offers content for every niche. Your guest articles must be on sites very closely related to yours and only contain a maximum of one backlink per 1000 words.

You also want to be mindful of how many guest posts you do per month. As tempting as it may be to try and do one large month of 25 posts, try to limit to three posts per month.

Beware of sponsored posts. Sponsored posts are different from guest posts because they require a payment. Sponsored posts are looked down upon by Google, and I would not recommend them. Find a blog that will take your post purely for the value provided in it.

Create Killer Content

I know this one is kind of a given, but it is very accurate. If you pour your heart and soul into every post and create something that genuinely offers value, you will have no problem getting people to link to it. 

This one takes time and effort but will reward you in the long run.

Use the Skyscraper Technique

The skyscraper method was created by SEO expert Brian Dean. It is a great way to earn backlinks while also creating great content for your own blog.

The skyscraper method consists of creating content so much better than your competitor’s, blogs can’t help but link to your content instead.

The first step is to browse blogs in your niche. I recommend you subscribe and follow smaller blogs. More prominent blogs are very good at selecting high-quality content to link to in the first place.

While browsing, click on links they have in their articles. You are looking for a link to a low-quality post or website. As soon as you have found one, the hard work begins.

You are going to write a post on the same topic the post is linked to. But that’s not all; you will create a post so incredible, there is no way they will not change their link and link to your website.

This may entail creating a longer post, having a better web design, formatting the post better, or including more graphics.

This is also a great way to improve your SEO, as this method is also used within content marketing.

Broken Link Method

Quite possibly, one of the most common backlink building methods is the broken link method. This consists of finding broken links to your competitors. You then alert the website owner about the broken link and supply an alternative from your website.

The first step in this process is identifying your competitors. There are multiple ways to do this, but the easiest is to search for the keywords you rank for on Google.

Write down the top five-ten results and repeat the process for a few different keywords. You will find a few domains that rank for most or all of the keywords. This website can be deemed a competitor.

But how do you find their broken backlinks?

Ahrefs has a free tool that you can access here. When you enter your competitor’s domain, a list of broken backlinks will show up. Be sure to select broken inbound links and not outbound links.

You now need to check each article and see what the link was supposed to be going to. If you have an article for the same topic, that is perfect! If you don’t, write one.

You will then want to reach out to the blog owner with a script similar to this:

If they know the slightest bit about SEO, they know that broken links are poor for SEO and will change it. If your article is quality, they already have a great site to link to without any work.

This is why this strategy has been used successfully for years.

Use HARO

Help a reporter out (commonly abbreviated HARO) is a service powered by Cision where journalists can find sources for interviews, reviews, and opinions.

The service works by sending three emails daily, once in the morning, afternoon, and evening. Each of the emails contains opportunities you can “apply” for. 

To “apply,” it will provide you an email address to send a proposal to along with any required information. Be sure to have a complete and concise biography and be ready to sell yourself.

If you are selected, more than likely, you will receive a backlink for your review, testimonial, or opinion.

If you are not selected the first few times, do not be discouraged. Hundreds of people are applying for the same opportunity. Remember that most of these sources are very high-authority, and it will be worth it.

Submit Reviews

Businesses love good, quality reviews. If you received a thorough, complete review about how fantastic your service is, you would want to share it with the world. At least I would.

If you use a service, product, or software frequently, write a great testimonial about it! Make sure it covers all significant aspects of a service or product:

• Price
• Usability
• Flexibility
• Support
• How it has benefited you

You will have a great review by covering all of these topics, which the company can’t help but put on their website with your backlink.

Do Awesome Work

This only applies to services companies, but you won’t hear it in many other places. 

DO AWESOME WORK 

Why?

This will make your clients very happy. Happy clients are willing to leave reviews and good reviews at that.

Reviews don’t directly give you a backlink, but if you earn enough excellent reviews, you can be listed on high ranking blogs for top providers in your area.

For Example, Render Results has a free backlink from themanifest.com because we are a top web design agency in the Nashville, Tennessee area.

Buying Backlinks

All of the strategies listed above sound like a lot of work, don’t they? There has to be an easier way…

Can’t you just buy backlinks on sites like Fiverr?

Yes, but DO NOT BUY BACKLINKS.

Being able to buy backlinks is not new; in fact, it is nearly twenty years old. Twenty years ago, this was a great and easy way to jump in rankings. 

However, today, Google can determine if a backlink has been paid for. When you pay for a link, it is usually put on a poor quality website. If you remember from earlier in this article, these would not be quality backlinks and would not affect your rankings.

Unless you want a penalty from Google, take my advice and not try and take the easy way.

The Problem With Backlinks

Remember when I said backlinks act as referrals? Google needs referrals because it is not quite intelligent enough to determine if your content is good or bad. 

I believe in five to ten years, backlinks will not matter much at all. Google will be smart enough to determine what is suitable based on other metrics and the actual content.

Nick Jordan at Content Distribution has already proven this. For his clients, he does NO backlinks at all. His philosophy is content velocity. The more quality content you can publish, the more Google will rank you.

Why don’t I do this with my clients?

The current content velocity needed is around 400 2000 word posts a month. Most small to medium-sized businesses can’t afford this. 

However, I think it is only a matter of time before backlinks are a thing of the past.

Further Resources

167,000 Organic Visitors/Month in 12 Months With No Backlink Building – Content Distribution

The Skyscraper Method – Brian Dean

Best SEO Software for Small Businesses – Render Results

Domain Authority – Moz