How Links Are Votes for Better Google Indexing

Back when Google was starting out, the only thing it considered in its ranking algorithm was the numbers. And one of the numbers that was very important to Google was the number of backlinks - how many other sites had your URL. If you wanted to make your website popular, you just got lots of backlinks. You could purchase them, swap them, or beg for them. It didn't matter what the quality of the backlinks was. It only mattered the amount.

But Google didn't stay young and naive for very long. Its algorithm developed and became more sophisticated. And how it viewed backlinks also developed considerably. Currently, with Google, the backlink quantity is not very important at all. It doesn't care how many you have. The quality of backlinks is the most important consideration now.

A high-quality backlink is one that is on a quality site. It also points to your site for a legitimate reason. A valid reason to point at your website is that you provide high-quality content that they want to tell their members about. Or it could be that you are a partner in some type of venture. Or you utilize some of their content or materials, and they point to you because of that.

What we know is that when evaluating a website, Google considers several different factors - one of which is backlinks. While they don't tell us exactly what value they place on these different factors, we do know that high-quality backlinks are one of the most critical factors.

WHAT IS A BACKLINK

A backlink sometimes called a citation, is when someone puts a link on their website pointing to your website. And when Google is crawling the web looking for new information, it will notice that you have a link pointed to your site. The crawler thinks of it as a vote for your website. Google, being a computer, keeps track of that type of thing. When it notices you have more and more links pointing to your site, its search algorithm will be more likely to recommend your site to its customers. Because of this, your website will rank higher, and that will cause it to get more traffic. In turn, more traffic will cause it to have more conversions, more customers. It's a win all around.

Having more backlinks and the marketing campaigns that create them are very important to succeeding in search engine optimization. So it's in your best interest to discover the best ways to earn quality backlinks for your site. We have a few suggestions about obtaining quality backlinks for your website.

GOOD CONTENT IS HIGHLY VALUABLE 

The clear winning method of getting backlinks is by creating high-quality content and having people point to it. High-quality content means interesting blogs, pictures, memes, or any useful and engaging multimedia. For instance, you could create an instructional video on how you do your job and post it on your website. Then publicize it through social media, email, and any other outlet that is available to you. When people read it, and if they like it, they will share it with other people by sending them a link. That link is a backlink. And it happens to be the best type of backlink in existence. When they share your link because of good content, Google takes notice and will reward you in their search ranking.

Different types of content are easier to produce than others, and some will be more appropriate for your purposes. Try out making content in different formats to see what agrees with you the best. The most common is written text, often in a blog format. And of these blogs, "How to" articles are 30% more likely to be shared than all other types of content. Infographics are another powerful format and one of the easiest to produce for the most significant impact. Infographics communicate a great deal of helpful data in a small package, and they are easy to share. Because of these, they often go viral.   When you create an interesting piece of content such as an infographic, make sure that you post it on all of your social media sites. 

Another relatively simple kind of content to produce is instructional videos. Not only can they provide you with many backlinks, but they also create social proof and help establish you as an expert in the subject matter. Other websites will often include your videos on their site because videos are easy to consume, entertaining, and answer many questions from their customers. And don't be afraid of being in front of a camera. Videos do not need to be studio quality to be valuable. Today people are looking for useful, actionable information. One of the most successful sales coaches on YouTube gives helpful tips two or three times a week using video. The format she uses is what we call a talking head. She simply stands in front of the camera, with a white wall behind her, and tells her advice. It takes all of two or three minutes, but it contains actionable quality information. She is rewarded by having hundreds of thousands of followers. 

KNOWLEDGEABLE AND TRUSTWORTHY

When you create high-quality content that is helpful to other people, you will get a reputation for being knowledgeable and trustworthy. It is this reputation paired with the content you create that is the motivation for people to share your content. When people share this kind of high-quality material, the backlinks that are created are precisely the kind that Google is searching for. Google loves quality content and will reward you with high placement on their search results page when you produce it. Also, Google's algorithm is incredibly complex and is very good at weeding out the impostors.

BACKLINK QUALITY

The quality of the backlink is the very thing that makes it valuable and useful. Think of these backlinks as references during a job interview. You would never put an ex-cons name on your list of references. In the same way, you should never have a low-quality site store a backlink for you. Backlinks on poor quality sites can actually hurt your search engine ranking. And Google is very good at deciding what a high-quality site is and what is garbage.

Alternatively, backlinks of very high-quality are extremely valuable. If you could get a backlink listed on a site that Google rates highly, that would go a long way to promoting your ranking. A website such as a national, well-known news site, or a Fortune 500 site will carry a lot of weight with Google. And if you can get citations from .gov sites or education sites (.edu), those will be very powerful with Google and will result in a higher ranking on their search results page.

AVOID BLACK-HAT BACKLINKS

Some services exist that promise to supply you with many backlinks. By participating in these kinds of activities, you'll be quickly flagged by Google. Google spends a lot of money making sure their algorithm catches cheaters. Buying backlinks, trading backlinks, or any other activity that goes against Google's Webmaster Guidelines won't help your ranking - and if you use these methods, you will probably be punished by Google. 

THE CLICK DEPOT AND BACKLINKS

Backlinks or citations - think of them as other websites giving you their votes. When it comes to whether Google will put you high on the search result page, they will count these votes. The Click Depot can give you a free SEO audit to first evaluate your website and then design an SEO program for you to get more quality backlinks. We have been creating powerful SEO programs since Google was young. We know the scene, and we know the technology. Call and talk to one of our SEO consultants, and we can create an SEO program specifically designed for your company.