Do Backlinks Still Help Your Website?
Links were once one of the most important ways that people would navigate around the web, and unless your website was linked to another website, it could be very difficult to deliver visitors to a website. Since those early days search engines have largely replaced the long lists of links that were found online, but links appear on websites on a regular basis, and are still important when it comes to navigating online. However, backlinks have also been important in the algorithms used by search engines to determine search engine rankings, but are they still useful to developing your website’s online presence?
What Are Backlinks?
The simple answer to this is that a backlink is a section or work on one website that will divert the user from the website they are looking at to your website. Historically these played a vital role in determining the search engine rankings of websites, and there were websites or groups of sites that would be dedicated to providing links to websites to help with this ranking. However, as search engines and their programs have become more advanced, simply having a large number of links has become less important, and there is greater emphasis on quality links as opposed to just the volume.
Developing A Network Of Backlinks
With the search engine algorithms constantly changing, one thing which has become more important is the role of backlinks that come from successful or authoritative sites on a particular subjects. This means that work such as exchanging links with other successful sites and obtaining referrals from larger websites with an established audience will have more significance than backlinks from much smaller websites.
The Main Roles Of Backlinks In Marketing Strategy
While historically having lots of backlinks would have benefited a website, these days the quality of the backlinks is much more important than the number of links that are feeding in to your website. Having links into your site from other websites can help to bring traffic to your site, but the main role of these links is to boost the search engine rankings of your website. There are many different ways in which you can achieve this, some of which may require advertising while others will simply involve work in liaising with other websites that may be willing to publish content with links to your site.
The Continuing Role Of Backlinks
Google is the largest search engine and has been for many years, and in 2014 one of their leading programmers Matt Cutts said that backlinks are reducing in importance when it comes to search engine rankings. However, he did say that backlinks would still have a role to play in their algorithms for years to come. This means that links will still be useful and will help your website for years to come, but that it is becoming more important to include these links in quality content on respected websites, as these links will have more longevity as search engines continue to tune their algorithms.
If you want to know more about Backlinks and their role in SEO, RC Website Group offers a free consultation that will help you understand what your next steps should be.
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