What are “backlinks”? Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. Also knows as Inbound links (IBL’s). The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of that website. Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number of quality backlinks, and consider those websites more relevant than others in their results pages for a search query. <\/span><\/p>\n

When search engines calculate the relevance of a site to a keyword, they consider the number of QUALITY inbound links to that site. So we should not be satisfied with merely getting inbound links, it is the quality of the inbound link that matters.\u00a0 This goes back to our original premise of creating value.\u00a0 A search engine considers the content of the sites to determine the QUALITY of a link. When inbound links to your site come from other sites, and those sites have content related to your site, these inbound links are considered more relevant to your site. If inbound links are found on sites with unrelated content, they are considered less relevant. The higher the relevance of inbound links, the greater their quality. <\/span><\/p>\n

For example, if a webmaster has a website about how to rescue orphaned kittens, and received a backlink from another website about kittens, then that would be more relevant in a search engine’s assessment than say a link from a site about car racing. The more relevant the site is that is linking back to your website, the better the quality of the backlink. <\/span> Search engines want websites to have a level playing field, and look for natural links built slowly over time. While it is fairly easy to manipulate links on a web page to try to achieve a higher ranking, it is a lot harder to influence a search engine with external backlinks from other websites. This is also a reason why backlinks factor in so highly into a search engine’s algorithm. <\/span><\/p>\n

Lately, however, a search engine’s criteria for quality inbound links has gotten even tougher, thanks to unscrupulous webmasters trying to achieve these inbound links by deceptive or sneaky techniques, such as with hidden links, or automatically generated pages whose sole purpose is to provide inbound links to websites. These pages are called link farms, and they are not only disregarded by search engines, but linking to a link farm could get your site banned entirely. <\/span><\/p>\n

Another reason to achieve quality backlinks is to entice visitors to come to your website. You can’t build a website, and then expect that people will find your website without pointing the way. You will probably have to get the word out there about your site. <\/span><\/p>\n

One great way to get the word out about your site is through social media like Facebook.\u00a0 Simply place a “Like” button on your posts and when people read your article and click on the button it is posted to their Facebook wall.\u00a0 Others will see what they liked and naturally be drawn to your post to see what their friend liked!\u00a0 This is based on the Law of Curiosity.\u00a0 The Law of Curiosity occurs when someone is actively engaged in an activity that creates interest for those around him (or her). <\/span><\/p>\n

To create your own “Like” button, simply go to: <\/span>http:\/\/developers.facebook.com\/docs\/reference\/plugins\/like<\/a> and use the configurator by typing in the URL of your post in the “URL to Like” field in the configurator and clickety-click on the Get Code button.\u00a0 Then simply cut and paste the code above or below your post via the HTML area of your website.\u00a0 Voila!\u00a0 Insta-LikeButton!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are “backlinks”? Backlinks are links that are directed towards your website. Also knows as Inbound links (IBL’s). The number of backlinks is an indication of the popularity or importance of that website. Backlinks are important for SEO because some search engines, especially Google, will give more credit to websites that have a good number […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[54,53,56,55,47],"yoast_head":"\n