Backlink or Backlinking

Backlinking also known as inbound links or incoming links, refer to hyper-texts links from external websites that link into a target domain or URL.  The importance of backlinks or backlinking is tied into the way in which the Internet Search Engines and most specifically Google uses backlinks as part of its calculation used to determine which web-sites appear first in the SERP (Search Engine Results Page).

Backlinks are definitely still an important part of the algorithm used by Google to determine domain authority and therefore which web site should appear first in the result set, but the importance of the backlink has lessened as the search engines have evolved.

In the early days of the Internet, when search engine technology was still in its infancy, a web-site's PageRank (see 'PageRank') or Internet authority, was primarily determined only by the number of other websites that linked to it.  The theory goes something like this:  if website A has links pointing to it from website B, C, D, and E then website A must be real important so website A would be given a higher ranking than say website F who doesn't have any inbound links pointing to it at all.

To some extent this same methodology is still practiced, but today it is much more nuanced.  Many factors affect the importance or weight of the backlink and how it passes this 'weight' or authority onto the landing site.

According to Google's PageRank system, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. Knowing this has helped to contribute to a considerable amount of 'linkspam'. Linkspam refers to the process wherein a website tries to shotgun as many links as possible out all over the Internet that point back to their website, regardless of whether or not the placement of the link is on a website that is in any way related to the target site.

A couple of things that help determine the 'value' of a backlink are: 1. where the backlink is coming from, a backlink from an authority site with high PageRank, is highly valuable. and 2. If both websites, the receiving site and the giving site have content that is relative to the anchor text of the backlnk then that backlink is considered relevant and is much more valuable.

To find out how back-linking could help boost your web site's rank on Google call and speak to one of our SEO Specialists.

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