Search engine optimization consists of many ways that can reach your goal for the website. SEO focuses on keyword research, blogs, link building, etc. Links play an important role in giving your website the desired position in the search engine.
A link is a short form of hyperlink. If you ask what are hyperlinks in SEO, hyperlinks are clickable entities such as text, images, and buttons. These entities take you to another page when clicked. Link building is a common and popular procedure where someone (mostly an SEO expert) creates a hyperlink on content that leads the reader to your website. Search engines go through the links on your website and to different pages to determine the good links. The links are the signals that indicate whether the website is a good resource that provides trusted information. One can use different link-building techniques.
Link Building With White Hat SEO And Black Hat SEO
White hat SEO means the right and natural way of link building. One should follow webmaster guidelines when developing links. The importance of link building in SEO includes getting better visibility gradually. It may take more time but provides long-term results.
Some of the common link-building tactics ate guest posting, infographics, commenting on blog posts, website directories, business listings, etc.
A black hat is exactly the opposite of a white hat SEO. It is generally risky and you can lose your ranking. It involves unethical practices. It is generally faster and violates the guidelines set by the webmaster.
Some of the common link-building tactics are hidden links, keyword stuffing, automatically generated content, doorway pages, etc.
Types Of Link
Internal Link
An internal link is a link that takes the user from one page to another inside the website itself. If the link takes the users to a page that is in the same domain, it is an internal link.
Major Functions Of Internal Links
Websites Navigation
It helps a user to find the right page on your website. Websites with multiple pages will have links to the other pages in the top bar, sidebar, footer, etc. It helps in keeping different topics separated.
Related Pages
A part of the page that is dedicated to other relevant page links. It helps users to find the topic or content they are looking for.
User Sitemaps
A sitemap is a page that is linked to every other page your site contains. Internal links also help search engines to visit your site with minimum effort to reach from one page to another.
In-Content Links
We can place links in the paragraph of the content present on the site. People either use it extensively or don’t use it at all but utilizing it in the right way can prove to become beneficial.
Inbound Link
Inbound links are links from a different domain name and other websites to your site. There is a constant debate on inbound links vs backlinks. Essentially both of them are the same. When a content creator adds a link, usually it is because they liked the content. The link indicates that your page has relevant information that assists the information on the main page. Sometimes the creator wants to criticize the content. Both these reasons actually help your website with the main content. If the reader moves to your page, it increases the credibility, trust, and authority of the page. Each link acts as the vote and it can improve ranking.
The Importance Of Inbound Links
Inbound links are beneficial as PageRank gets passed on to your site from other websites. More inbound links will indicate more PageRank. Commonly the homepage is the page with the most inbound links.
With time, Google has introduced many algorithm updates. The penguin update by Google checks the quality of links. Natural links will always act as the quality increasing factor. The penguin update ensures that the ranking website has quality content that deserves the place.
Outbound Link
What is external linking in SEO? It is the same as outbound links. When your website contains a link that takes the user to a different domain or website, it is considered an outbound link.
People used to utilize nofollow links as outbound links were considered a leak. Outbound links are supposed to give the PageRank to the following link. Pagerank leaking is still relevant but there is some site with many outbound links which managed to rank higher. So you have to do what brings your site on top.
You should not nofollow all the outbound links. Many put nofollow to avoid giving the following site the PageRank it wants. Over optimizing this feature will seem unnatural to the search engines.
Putting up links is equally important. If you do not publish links to other sites in your site’s content, it does not seem natural. Good quality sites always put links to a good site. If you can add a good quality site’s link to your website, it will enhance the credibility.
In a nutshell, you should use nofollow links but not always. Use them moderately. Always link good quality sites.
How Can Link Building Help My Website
Links Improve SEO
SEO links add credibility to a website. Algorithms determine which site has credible information that will provide the best experience to the users. When you follow the guidelines and incorporate natural links, you will be considered trustworthy.
Brand Awareness
Anything that improves your website’s rank will improve brand awareness. It receives more attention if your website is ranking higher. Many visitors will consider you.
Decreases Bounce Rate
Bounce rate means how long a user stayed on your website’s single page. Any business owner will want viewers to stay longer to find out more about your business. A higher bounce rate is not always bad as the viewer may read a blog post. However, staying on a purchase page without taking any action is a bad reputation for the site.
Long-Lasting Process
Do not ignore SEO link-building importance as it can eventually give you unimaginable business. When it brings results it lasts for a very long time.
There are numerous reasons why link building is important. Link building can guide search engines to discover new pages. It also makes sure that a credible new page ranks higher on the search engine. As a website owner, it’s your primary concern to influence people to link your website or its content. When you earn a link, your credibility increases and results in a better rank.