what are backlinks

What Are Backlinks? How to Set Up a Successful Backlink Campaign

Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

What are backlinks? Backlinks are one of the strongest ranking factors for improving your position in search engine results pages (SERPs).

While there are over 200 signals Google uses to determine the ranking of a site, there’s no doubt backlinks are and should be a part of your SEO strategy.

In this quick guide, we’re going to show you what you need to do to build a successful backlink campaign.

First, What Are Backlinks?

For starters, they help with identifying which sites are trustworthy and relevant. For example, if high-authority sites in your niche are linking to your content, then it shows Google you’re a trustworthy site.

Unfortunately, the opposite is also true – if spammy sites are linking to your site, then it can hurt your ranking.

So how do you get more trusted sites to link to your website?

Here are a few ideas.

Write Amazing Content for Natural Links

One way to get trustworthy (and hopefully high-ranking) sites to link to your site is to create content that’s high-quality.

Not only should the grammar and spelling be on point. But the overall value should be great. Provide data-backed facts (and link to them), helpful resources, and actionable advice.

And most importantly, it should be relevant to your target audience.

Reach Out to Bloggers for Manual Link Building

Another way to build a quality backlink profile is to reach out to certain bloggers in your niche. These blogs shouldn’t compete with your own site, of course.

Some sites are openly seeking guest bloggers to post to their site. Wherever you end up posting content, you’ll be able to include a link back to your site, which helps drive traffic as well.

Social Sharing Does Count

While Google doesn’t include links shared on social media with backlinks from websites, they still hold value.

There’s still an ongoing debate as to how these links affect your ranking. However, don’t overlook using social media as part of your SEO backlink campaign.

Promoting your content on social media will also help build awareness for your posts. Eventually, someone may click on your post and find it worthy enough to link to in an upcoming blog post.

Keep an Eye On Your Backlink Profile

It’s good to know which sites are linking to your content. This will help identify whether you have a good or bad backlink profile.

If the majority of the sites linking to you are spammy, then this could be affecting your ranking.

You can look for the contact info of the site owner to see if they can remove your link from their site. There are also tools like SEO Jet you can use to manage your backlinks.

Creating a Backlink Campaign

Now that you know what are backlinks, are you ready to build a successful campaign? These tips are just some of the methods you can use to boost your ranking in the SERPs.

Just be sure to use white hat backlink building methods so you don’t end up penalized by Google and other search engines.

Want to learn your site’s current ranking in search engines? Then Ranking Check can help. We offer a free tool to check your rank and guides for improving your SEO.