What do backlinks mean in SEO?

As the core of search engine algorithms such as Baidu and Google, the importance of backlinks is self-evident. Building abundant backlinks is also the core of SEO . There are many ways to increase backlinks. Among them, querying the backlinks of opponents and following the footsteps of successful people are the most effective and simple methods!

Regarding the analysis of backlinks, in China, the commonly used query tools are limited to quantitative analysis, that is, you can only see the number of backlinks, but not the precise source of the backlinks.

In foreign countries, the theory of accurate backlink query has been systematized and matured, and search engine optimization practice has also proved the correctness of this theory.

1. What are backlinks?

Backlinks are also called inbound links. External links refer to external websites that have your URL pointing to your website. In fact, it is a statement made inside the target document (web page) that requires the target document to point to itself (web page). In other words, a regular link is marked "points to document B" in document A, while a backlink requires "make document A point to me" in document B.

In simple terms, if there is a link on web page A pointing to web page B, then the link on web page A is the backlink of web page B.

Backlinks include links to external websites and internal links to one's own website. From an SEO perspective, backlinks are a very important factor in obtaining good search engine rankings, so the quality of backlinks directly affects the overall SEO optimization of the website and the traffic the website obtains from search engines.

2. The role of backlinks

The role of backlinks is to transfer web page weight and guide search engine spiders to crawl the website, which can be further divided into the role of external website links and the role of internal website links.

The role of internal links is to facilitate netizens to query relevant knowledge (or services), understand the website services in a more detailed and systematic way, increase website stickiness, and effectively improve user experience (for details, please see Ma Haixiang’s blog "What are Internal Links on a Website").

The main function of external links is to effectively transfer the weight of web pages and guide search engine spiders to crawl the website. Therefore, external links from relevant high-weight websites are particularly important (for details, please see Ma Haixiang’s blog "What are Website External Links").

Generally speaking, the more backlinks there are, the more valuable the site is. The search engine's ranking algorithm mainly relies on the weight of the backlinks. Link analysis is the main research content of ranking optimization. Therefore, accurate query of backlinks is very important for website construction, website analysis and optimization.

3. Backlink query instructions

There is no unified instruction for the query method of backlinks among major search engines. Here we mainly explain Google's link instruction and Baidu's domain instruction.

1. link

In Google, the command for querying backlinks is link, for example: link:http://www.mahaixiang.cn/, but it should be noted that this only includes the backlinks of part of the website. If you want to query all of them, you can use Google webmaster tools to check all the backlinks of the website.

The query method in Yahoo is different from that in Google. You need to add "http://", that is: link:http://(domain name). Note: the query results will be different if you add or not add www before the domain name.

In Baidu, link is not a command, but an ordinary keyword. When you enter "link:http://www.mahaixiang.cn/" in the Baidu search bar, Baidu will query "link:http://www.mahaixiang.cn/" as a keyword. The query result is all the pages containing this keyword, which is the same as the ordinary keyword query. This is not the backlink queried.

2. domain

In Baidu, the command for querying backlinks uses domain, for example: domain:www.mahaixiang.cn, that is, enter "domain:www.mahaixiang.cn" in the Baidu search box, and the search results are all web pages containing the keyword phrase (domain name), which is equivalent to directly searching for "xxx". In addition, if you want to know how many web pages contain your URL, this command can also help you.

Its meaning in Google is equivalent to that of Link in Baidu, and domain is just a keyword.

In Yahoo, it is the same as site, and it can search for all the included web pages under the domain name.

4. Principles of increasing backlinks

Since backlinks are so important to improving the weight and ranking of a website, we should add more backlinks. So, what principles should we follow when doing backlinks?

1. From relevant web pages

In Ma Haixiang's view, this is increasingly important. It is generally believed that links from relevant web pages have higher weight (not PR), so when looking for potential backlinks, you should spend time on websites related to your industry.

2. Different locations

It is best that all backlinks do not come from the friendly link area at the bottom of the web page, but should be in different places on each web page, which may be the main text, the website navigation, or at the bottom.

3. Web pages from different PRs

Of course, backlinks from high PR value web pages are good (for details, please refer to Ma Haixiang’s blog "What is PR Value" for relevant introduction), but if all your backlinks come from web pages with PR4 or PR5 or above, this is probably not natural.

4. Links from legitimate websites

Websites that link to each other form a community-like network. The quality and relevance of the websites in this network affect each other. If many of your website's backlinks come from illegal pornographic and gambling websites, this will affect your website.

5. From different IP addresses

The same is also to make the backlinks tend to be natural. If a large part of your backlinks are limited to a few IP addresses or a few servers, then the traces of trying to manipulate search engines will be heavier. How could it be such a coincidence that the websites linking to you are all on the same server? Once your website is noticed by search engines, it may be demoted.

6. Gradually grow organically

Do not add hundreds or thousands of backlinks in a short period of time. This unnatural rapid growth is one of the important reasons why the website enters the sandbox effect, and more seriously, it may be punished.

5. Notes on Backlinks

Although from the perspective of SEO, the more backlinks the better, but unrestrained backlinking will also bring penalties to our website. In this regard, we should pay attention to the following points:

1. Take it step by step

If you increase a lot of backlinks quickly in a short period of time, it will easily be put into the "sandbox" by Google. That is to say, the website will not be blocked by Google, but it will not be able to get a good ranking. Therefore, don't increase backlinks too hastily, but do it step by step.

2. Don’t just pursue quantity

If your website wants to obtain a good ranking for a long time, the quality of backlinks will be more important than the quantity. To increase backlinks, it is best to find those with close relevance. If there are many backlinks from useless spam websites, it will be very harmful.

3. Diversity of anchor text keywords

The anchor text of the backlink should not be just one or two core keywords, but should also consider the unique text involved in the website. It is best if the link comes from a related web page. This should be met as much as possible from the perspective of both the webmaster's user experience and the search engine.

4. The relationship between backlinks and website authority

Backlinks are a necessary optimization channel for any website. Backlinks are also the source of a large number of spiders. Many people say that text links cannot help with rankings, so SEO staff are very keen on building anchor texts. Ma Haixiang has also built a site with no anchor text backlinks at all, and it can still have 3 homepages and an average index of 80 words. For backlink construction, keyword relevance can bring about word rankings.

5. Backlink Adding Strategy

Links should appear in different places on the web page. The main text and navigation parts should be the best. Keywords can also be bolded in the website content.

In addition, some content pages of the website have well integrated long-tail keywords, but their rankings in search engines are not high. At this time, more links are needed to connect to the content pages in order to improve the rankings of the content pages in search engines. Here, I would like to remind everyone: the number of natural links should increase gradually, and should not increase and decrease suddenly, as this will easily lead to penalties by search engines.

Author: Ma Haixiang Blog

Source: Ma Haixiang's blog