- So if you own a website you probably
wondering how to rank first on Google.
Well this comes down to something
called backlinks,
and they're one of the most important
ranking factors for your website.
So, today we're gonna learn
What backlinks are?
How they work?
And how to build high quality links
that actually drive more traffic to your site.
So, if you want to rank first on Google,
and grow your website,
then keep watching.
So, back links basically links from
other websites to yours.
So, you know, for example
if you're reading a blog and you click
on a link and it takes you to another website,
that's essentially a backlink.
And it's pretty much as simple as that.
But, links kind of act like a voting system
and in Google's algorithm,
links like ways to measure how authoritative
your website is.
So for example, the more votes AK backlinks
you have, the higher your content is gonna
rank on Google.
But it's not quite as simple as that
and not all backlinks were created equal.
So for example, if you get a link
from a very authoritative site like bbc.com,
that's worth a lot more than a website
no one's ever heard of. Okay?
And also relevance counts.
So, if you have a website about cats,
then you wanna get a link from some
of the most authoritative websites
in the cat niche,
because that's way more important
than getting a link from a website
that's not even related to your content.
So it's important when you're building links
to focus, number one on quality,
and number two on relevance.
But do backlinks actually work?
Well, the short answer is yes.
Okay, so there's three reasons for this.
Number one, you know SEO experts
around the world have been interviewed
and they always say that backlinks are
one of the most important ranking factors
for your website.
So if you follow people like Neil Patel,
or Branden from Backlinko,
they always say that backlinks are
one of the most important ranking factors
but not just that,
ahrefs.com have even done a case study on this
and when they looked at over one billion pages
on the internet,
they found that most of them don't
get any traffic.
And why is that?
Well, the number one reason is
because they don't have any links to the page.
So it's really important to note
that if, okay, you're going to publish content
and you're gonna spend that much time
investing in it,
then you also need to build links
to the content too.
Because there's no point publishing
and praying that your content's gonna
get fees from Google.
You have to build links to it too,
and you have to promote that content also.
And finally, the third reason
that backlinks work is that Google
have even revealed that of 200 factors
in their algorithm,
backlinks are one of the top three.
So, you know, this is how important it is.
Now as I said before, not all backlinks
are created equal, okay.
And there's a good type of way
to build links,
and there's a bad type, okay?
So, this is what's commonly referred to as
Whitehat and Blackhat backlinks.
And Whitehat links are ethical links
that you build in because your content
is awesome and people want to share it.
And Blackhat links are links you build
that you're only building because you
want to manipulate Google's algorithm
and it's not particularly because your
content is good it's just because you
wanna try and trick the system and rank
your content higher.
You have to be really careful of this
because if you're building links that are
Blackhat, you can get your website penalized.
And Google actually, you know, they
can de-index your content,
they could give you a manual penalty,
or you could even face a harsh algorithm
penalty that, you know, basically dwindles
your copy traffic overnight.
So it's really important to focus on
building Whitehat links.
Google doesn't like people trying
to manipulate the system.
Instead, they want you to build links
because your content is that good,
and you have amazing content that people
want to share and promote on their own websites.
It's so important to know that some link building
methods are better than others.
So this comes down again to Blackhat
and Whitehat tecniques, okay.
So for example, if you're promoting
your content via [inaudible] reach,
and you're networking with people,
then that's a Whitehat link building method.
And that's one you should definitely try yourself.
But, you should avoid paying for links.
You should avoid buying software and automating
your link-building,
and you should definitely avoid manipulating
the type of words that people link to from
their website to yours,
which is also known as anchor text.
Because, these are all ways you can
get penalized by Google,
and they're all Blackhat link-building methods
that you should try and avoid.
The other thing to know as well,
is you have to be careful who you link out to.
So, you know, if you're linking out to,
like gambling sites or porn websites
or casinos from your website,
then that's gonna reflect really badly on you.
And Google's algorithm is gonna detect
that you're linking out to spammy websites,
and therefore you're not quite an authority
or you're doing something unethical on your website.
Um, so it's really important to be careful of that.
But why does Google use link building as
a ranking factor?
And why not just look at your content instead?
Well, one of the reasons for this is that it's
externally validating your content
so it's kind of checking, okay, from neutral
third-party sources,
is it something that other people are linking to?
So for example, very hard to fake
high-quality link building.
And if you're getting links from other sites,
it's usually because your content is really good.
And also, the other thing is that
if you have a website that's got really poor content
or you're doing something unethical,
or maybe your website isn't very good
for user-experience,
then that means you won't be able
to attain the sort of high-quality links
that you'd need.
No body's going to link to you.
So Google's algorithm picks up links
and uses a ranking factor
because it's a powerful way to authenticate
and validate that your content is good
from external third-party sources.
So once you start building links to your site,
you're gonna to see the power
of the compound effect.
And this can work both ways, okay?
So you could get
a really strong
backlink profile, with lots
of high-quality links from really authoritative sources
that are highly relevant to your website
and therefore you're gonna have a really
strong backlink profile.
Or you could have a poor backlink profile.
And this would be a network of spammy websites
linking to and from your website.
And if you do that,
either way, Google could really quickly
check your backlink profile with its algorithm
when it's crawling your site.
Um, the other thing is, as well to know that,
this is an overall picture of the
backlinks to your site.
So, you know you wanna start building
high-quality links straight from the start,
as soon as you start building links.
You don't wanna, you know, try and get
some spammy links and then figure out,
okay if it doesn't work, let's get
some high-quality links.
Instead, you wanna focus on building
high-quality links straight from the start.
And you wanna focus on
a high-quality backlink profile that reflects
well on your website.
I'd also recommend regularly auditing
the backlinks of your site.
So, you can do that with HTTPS://AHREFS.COM
and you can see who's linking to you
and who you're linking out to.
And if you do that, you can get
a really strong picture
of how authoritative your link profile is,
and if there are any links you need to disavow.
So, to sum it up:
Backlinks are basically like votes
from other websites to say
that your content is good.
And this is one of the most important
ranking factors for Google.
In fact if you want to rank your content,
you really need to focus on building links
not just publishing content and praying
that it's gonna rank.
Um, and the other important factor to focus on
is creating high-quality, relevant links
to your site,
because that's what's gonna get your results.
You really wanna shy away from
the Blackhat link building techniques
that could get your website penalized
on Google or even de-indexed completely.
So, thanks for watching.
Let me know if you have any questions
about link building.
And if you want more advice,
don't forget to subscribe and check out
my other link building tutorials.