Importance of Backlinks for Search Engine Optimization

The world of SEO is complicated. There are many websites being outranked by the competitor sites that have lesser backlinks and content than them. All they want to find out is the “why” behind this and how they can win those search rankings.

There is a lot of confusion surrounding the backlinks, and many SEOs are uncertain about whether getting thousands of backlinks from one website is considered spam or not. 

There are websites with 1000 backlinks that outperform sites with 10,000 backlinks, while the same site with 1000 backlinks is outperformed by another website with copied content (with a backlink to the source). So one must wonder whether or not backlinks are an important ranking factor in SEO. 

In this blog, we will address these questions and try to offer the readers a bit more clarity on the importance of backlinks for SEO. 

Is It Considered Spam to Get Thousands of Backlinks From a Website?

It is circumstantial whether or not it will be considered spam. How those links are perceived (whether natural paid, or intentional attempt to acquire backlinks. 

Natural links:

• Brands linking to their own other brands in the footers or primary navigation tab to switch between them easily.
• When you are creating heaps of visual content, and the site is using your content across various posts. 
• When you do something buzzworthy, and bloggers, media companies, and other publications feature, mention or source you for it. 

Unnatural links:

• Giving databases and feeds for selling products on other websites linking to your website.
• Posting comments on community websites, blogs, or forums. 
• Widgets, badges, and feeds that are definitely marketing tactics and not anything real or unique. 

These were just a couple of examples. So the answer to this question will be both yes and no. 

Sometimes they might be considered spam, and other times they might not be. 

It all depends on the backlinks, your relationship with the site, and whether they’re natural or not. 

Importance of Backlinks for SEO

Backlinks are absolutely crucial for SEO, but it has got nothing to do with numbers. 

Websites with fewer backlinks can easily outperform national brands. It’s the quality of your links that will help you win rankings along with other factors like site structure, quality of the content, how the page renders, etc. 

Remember, backlinks are important, no doubt, but they are just one of the many signals that a search engine utilizes. The main purpose of the search engines is to present a user with the most accurate and relevant response to their search query in the best, fastest, and most convenient way possible. And that result could be a para, list, bullet points, video, image, etc. This is just as if not more important than links. 

Why a Website With Fewer Backlinks Beats a Site With More Links

In order to answer this question, first, we must take a look at what a backlink is. 

Before smartphones, schema markup, and concepts such as E-A-T existed, the search engines needed a way to ascertain the credibility of a website and a particular web page of that site. 

Back then, backlinks were one of these determining factors, especially PageRank with the search engine giant, Google. 

Now that too much uncertainty surrounds PageRank, there are numerous other ways that can help us build the credibility and authority of a site. 

If your site and specific web page fulfill these credibility and authority signals, you might be able to compete and outrank the websites or web pages with more backlinks than you. 

• You can build the credibility of your website by having certified and credible professionals in your niche to produce or sign off on your content. Remember, this might be a bit tough to accept, but just because a person is your company’s CEO doesn’t necessarily mean they are credible.
• Use links and schema to source the content to the writer and relevant sources.
• Have a strong internal linking structure that gives more in-detail explanations for resources or concepts stated in your content. 
• Make sure that your site is secure.
• Give a better explanation of your concepts, create an easier purchasing process, or implement a better, easy to digest formatting.

You might also want to consider these:

• Have a lightning-fast website speed so that users using mobile devices or have a slower internet connection can easily access your site. 
• Structure your content correctly using headers, titles, optimized images, and appropriately formatted sections(using tables, lists, paragraphs, etc.).
• Add correct schema markup to explain what’s on your web page and every section. 
• Use an appropriate site structure to ensure that your primary web pages are being sourced wherever suitable. 

Conclusion

Backlinks do have a lot of importance for SEO, and it has always been like that. But it is also essential to bear in mind that there are many other signals besides backlinks that search engines consider for ranking. Undoubtedly, high-quality backlinks will help you gain better search rankings more easily than excellence alone. But then again, there are various things you can do while you simultaneously start obtaining backlinks to improve your ability to outrank a website or page with 10x or 100x or 1000x more backlinks than your site. Keep this blog in mind and start preparing your website to beat its competitors.