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When you link to any webpage on your website, it is referred to as a backlink. For example, when I link to our homepage, I have created a backlink. This is referred to as an internal link as I am linking to a page in the same domain. However, most backlinks will be exterior to your domain, as this creates a more reputable pool of references.

There are two main types of backlinks, do-follow links and no-follow links. No-follow links are links that you can put on your web page, but search engines such as Google will disregard them. Therefore not making them very useful for the most part.

Do-follow links are the opposite; search engines will see these links and use them to help rank your website. These links must be from reputable sites as the quality of where your backlink is from is vital to more people seeing your website.

Why Should I Use Backlinks?

Backlinks are a crucial part of search engine optimization (SEO). SEO is all about getting your website to appear when people search for questions or topics related to your site. There are multiple facets of optimization for search engines that will benefit your website, backlinks being a major one. Backlinks help your website rank higher on search engines. Therefore, if you are an electrical company and someone searches for "Rewiring Lighting Systems", the better your SEO, the higher chance you will pop up first, bringing more traffic to your website.

What Constitutes A Good Backlink

There are a couple of factors that contribute to what would be deemed as a ‘good’ or high-quality backlink. The more high-quality backlinks you have the higher your website will rank on a search engine.

Relevance

The backlinks you have tied to your website should be relevant. In the electrical industry, this means sites that have anything related to helping a homeowner understand their electrical in their home better. It could be home improvement blogs, electrical blogs, but also real estate blogs are relevant. If you have backlinks from websites that review movies, search engines will not view those backlinks as relevant, so you will get little benefit. Viewers are more likely to stay on your website from relevant backlinks because your content is related to what they were previously looking at, so their interest is already piqued.

Good Sites

Backlinks should come from sites that generate traffic. The more traffic that passes through a site with your backlink, the more traffic is directed towards your website. Sites that drive more traffic will appear more reputable and higher on a search engine, meaning it is a more valuable backlink for you and will help your website do the same thing.

Backlinks should also come from sites with authority, which are recognized to be reputable and secure. This is crucial because it is possible to generate harmful backlinks. Links from sites that aren’t trusted and not secure will negatively impact your SEO score and decrease the traffic that comes through your website.

Pro Tip: The person running your SEO should be able to evaluate backlink sources and determine the authority of referring websites.

Good Examples

We’ve established that you need good backlinks, but what do they look like? In the electrical industry, an example of an excellent backlink is your Google map local listing. This provides a quick and easy backlink verified by the very body you are using to search with. Listings such as Yelp and social media platforms are also great easy backlinks to have that immediately help you with your search rankings, however, be cautious of platforms that require a login to access the content.  If users need a login, then so does Google, and that breaks the link.

Another excellent example of backlinks is industry-specific directories and existing relationships with other companies. These can be much more effective than local directories because they are trusted and directly related to your line of work. For example, if your company is aiding in doing the electrical wiring for a developer and you are a trusted partner, having a backlink on your site is a great way to boost traffic.  Be cautious that if it’s a paid sponsorship like a directory, Google doesn’t value that link as highly.

Last Tip: Building good backlinks may seem like a slightly tedious process, but trust us, as long as you’re doing it correctly building backlinks and improving your SEO is crucial to driving up your online presence for your business.