It is true that SEO has evolved a lot over the past few years. With many other factors now playing a huge role in determining a website’s SEO ranking, backlinks remain relevant in the year 2018. With quality backlinks, you can improve your SEO ranking and take your business to the next level. With that said, it is important to note that Google has wiped out some useless methods of boosting one’s website so you must have very high-quality backlinks for them to have a positive impact. In this article, we talk about the advantages of backlinks. We also give you tips on how you can generate quality ones in 2018.
Benefits of Backlinks in 2018
Having quality SEO backlinks in 2018 will benefit your website in the following ways:
- Google Relies on Backlinks
Search engines such as Google rely on quality backlinks to determine what good and helpful contents on the internet are. If anything, Google Search is simply an algorithm. On its own, the search engine cannot determine whether your content is good or bad even if you found a cure for a dreadful disease. However, with many people talking about your content saying how great and useful it is, Google can tell the same therefore improving your SEO ranking. The stakes are even higher when you have people advising and referring others to your website. Google and other search engines use these signals to improve your rankings.
- Quality Backlinks Help Improve your Business
Having many quality backlinks show that you have many people talking about your website positively. If it is a business website, it means that people are probably enjoying your products and services. Moreover, they are not afraid to refer other people to come and try out your services. In the end, this helps boost the traffic to your website with some people turning out to be potential buyers, therefore, boosting your business.
- Backlinks Give you Much Needed Feedback
Through the comments that people leave on your website, you will be able to tell what aspects of your business people like and what they do not. From there, you will be able to plan yourself sufficiently and make proper decisions. You will be able to tell what services to improve and which ones to improve. Through backlinks, you can take your business to greater heights.
Where to Get Quality Backlinks in 2018
As aforementioned, the concept of SEO backlinks today differ a lot with what is used to be sometime back. Google has put in significant measures to differentiate quality and non-quality backlinks. The tips below help you to gain quality backlinks that will see your SEO rankings rise:
- Get Backlinks from your Business Listings
Many advantages come with listings your business website with local directories that serve your area. For instance, by listing your website, people will find it easily, therefore, accessing your services. Also, you can get quality backlinks from these business listings, therefore, boosting your Website’s SEO.
- National Directories
In 2018, many sites where people look up reviews of businesses such as Houzz, TripAdvisor and Yelp are available. By including a like to your website on such directories, more people will be able to discover it, therefore, boosting your chances of getting quality backlinks.
- Social Media
The recent trends in technology see many people spending their time on social media. Unlike in the past, today many people own smartphones and can access social media platforms without the need to get to their computers. Take advantage of this by sharing the link to your business on these social media platforms. For instance, you can tweet about an event that you are attending then include a hashtag with the link to your website at the bottom of your post. While people go through your posts, some might click on your website’s link, therefore, giving you quality backlinks. On Facebook, you can post your business’ link together with some details, let the people like, comment, and share your post.
In addition to that, create social media accounts for your business’ website. Share about your products and services on these accounts and ask people what they think. If you offer quality services, people will refer others, and you will have more followers all of whom contribute to getting quality backlinks.
- Blog Commenting
You can also get quality backlinks from commenting on other people’s blogs. For instance, if you comment on a person’s blog post and leave a link to your website on the same page, people who will read your comment might also follow your link. However, this method requires that you are not spammy in any way. For example, it does not make sense to ask people to buy your widgets on a lawyer’s site. That is not relevant, and it will not take long before your comment is removed by the blog’s webmaster.
- Write Articles on your Website
Write articles with details explaining what services you offer, your opinions and goals. At the end of each article, ask your readers to leave a comment, like and share. The more people read and comment on your articles, the more you get quality backlinks.
Point Worth Noting
In the past, backlinks used to be everything in SEO. The more a website had backlinks, the higher the chances it will appear on Google’s first page. This prompted some people to start using underhand methods to acquire these backlinks. However, as time went by, search engines such as Google caught up with this trick, and that is no longer the case. In 2018, if you use dubious methods to gain thousands of backlinks overnight, your domain might be flagged and incur hefty penalties from the search engine. In some cases, the punishment is more severe as Google can remove you from its indexes altogether.
Conclusion
Even though backlinks had a bad reputation when people started to abuse them, they are still very relevant in 2018. With quality backlinks, you can boost your Website’s SEO ranking, therefore, improving your business. Some of the ways that you can get quality backlinks include using social media, commenting on blogs and writing articles on your services amongst others. It is important to note that getting quality backlinks is very important to avoid flagging by Google and other search engines.