Backlinks are links from webpages on sites other than your site, than “link back” to pages on your website.
The image above should help illustrate the idea.
Back links are critically important to the success of your SEO.
In the early days of Google, back links were THE search signal, and while there are now 220+ (or so) individual search signals, back links are one of the most important.
However, don’t expect anyone to link to content that isn’t really good.
You need back links for your website authority to rise and for your content to rank, but to do that you need to publish stuff people are willing to link to.
If your website consists of nothing but fluffy light content that doesn’t really say anything, don’t be surprised if no one links to you.
The articles you want people to link to should be your best pillar posts, which should be so good that people don’t mind when they receive a content promotion message from you.
Obtaining back links also does not happen overnight, nor does it necessarily happen on it’s own.
The “recipe” is fairly straight forward, but like all things worth having, takes time and effort:
- Publish quality content.
- Promote it via social media and email.