Types of backlinks for SEO

While surfing the Internet, we are accustomed to seeing various links inside the text, in articles, and social network posts. They direct either to another section or page within the site, or transfer users to another resource. The latter are of particular value to an SEO specialist and are called “backlinks.”

Backlinks or backlinks are any hyperlinks that are located on an external resource and lead to your website. A simple example: one of your friends, say, on some thematic forum, decided to recommend a product and left a link to a page on your website. Thus, your resource has a new external hyperlink from a third-party site, that is, a back link. If you have placed a link to your partners on your website, then this is already a backlink for your partners’ platform.

Backlinks signal to search engines that the resource is a reputable source of information. A good link profile is important for website promotion, as it helps to increase the resource’s position in search results for complex competitive queries.

Factors that determine the value of backlinks

The value of a backlink depends primarily on the platform on which it is placed. The quality of a website is calculated based on many parameters. The main ones include:

• domain rating;
• trust in the site;
• amount of spam.

And if a very high-quality and authoritative site links to your resource, then this is a very good signal for search robots to promote your project. Another important factor is the theme of the site. Links should look natural and relevant to what the text is talking about. Thus, the value of a backlink to a seafood resource posted in an article dedicated to indoor plants is reduced to zero.

Main types

There are only a few types of backlinks, each with their own characteristics and impact on rankings. Next, we will analyze each type in more detail.

Natural links

Natural links appear on the site thanks to users. Many people share hyperlinks to a product or service they like, recommend their colleagues, partners or friends, etc. Each backlink from one resource posted by a person to another is a natural backlink. For example, if you want to place links to your favorite songs from the Spotify website on your social network page, then without realizing it, you will create backlinks.

Natural links look natural to users and search engines, and are therefore considered one of the safest and most effective types of links for SEO.

Purchased links

SEO links or purchased links are links that can be purchased from other sites and are compiled by specialists. They are posted on various resources to promote their site. This is a good way to improve SEO, but quite risky. Search engines react warily and strictly to the sale and purchase of links. Sites caught in this process are often demoted in search results, and sometimes even completely excluded from the index.

Benefits of purchased links:

• It is possible to select specific resources (and pages) for placement.
• Promptness of receipt (after payment, backlinks will be posted within 24 hours or at most a couple of days).
• You can select reference packages of the desired volume and cost.

There are two types of SEO links: rented and eternal, let’s look at them in more detail.

Rented links

Rented links are links that are placed for a certain time and are paid for daily, weekly, etc. This method of purchasing links is much cheaper and can even be done automatically. It is possible to acquire a large number of links to your site in a short time. However, they are posted mainly on resources with a lot of spam. This factor has an extremely negative impact on the attitude of search robots towards your site. Also, if payment is not received or the lease expires, backlinks to your site are deleted, which significantly spoils the reputation of the resource in the eyes of search engines. The effectiveness of promotion using this method is quite low.

Eternal links

Perpetual backlinks are the most valuable for SEO, since after payment they remain on the donor site on an ongoing basis, thereby providing constant traffic and support ranking for a long time. Placed on sites inside articles or posts. For such backlinks, the most natural occurrence within the text is made. They are placed on high-quality sites without spam and a high level of trust in search engines. Purchasing is significantly more expensive than temporary (rented) ones.

Application in SEO

The collection of all backlinks to a site has the general name “Link Profile”. One of the effective ways to promote SEO is to gradually build it up using backlinks. The more links from good sites refer to your resource, the faster your project develops and its authority grows. Below we will take a closer look at what backlinks do.

1. Positions

Proper placement of backlinks on quality sites allows you to raise the position of priority search queries and influence the ranking of your site in search results. The more your key queries rank high, the higher the likelihood of ranking TOP 1 in your niche. This happens because search engines assume that a large number of quality links means that the content is valuable and useful to users.

2. Referral traffic

A well-written article posted on a popular website can attract additional traffic. Often in SEO, they use the services of professional copywriters to prepare a high-quality, unique information article where the backlink will look as natural as possible within the text. This increases the likelihood of conversion.

3. Recognition

In order to promote a brand, backlinks are also used. They are used in the form of so-called “brand queries”. Such links include a domain name or brand name. For example, if we see a backlink in text like a YouTube video, no one will have any questions about what resource it leads to. Search engine robots are no exception. The more backlinks they encounter, the better they understand what product or service relates to your site.

4. Authority

Authoritative backlinks from resources with good ratings improve the authority of the site itself. This happens because search engines perceive such links as recommendations or a positive assessment of your content. As a result, resources with a significant level of authority often occupy high positions in search results, which improves their visibility and attractiveness for visitors and search engines.

Rules for posting backlinks

• Quality, not quantity. One backlink from a reputable resource is much more valuable than many from unknown sites. Therefore, if you have to choose, choose reputable and well-known platforms.
• Backlinks from thematic resources. Place links to resources that have similar topics. For example, if you have an online store for indoor plants, choose sites about gardening and flowers. This will make it clear to search engines that your resource is authoritative in this niche.
• Nofollow and dofollow tags. It is better to use dofollow links, which robots follow and index the page. But at the same time, nofollow links are also taken into account.

To summarize

Backlinks are a powerful and effective tool SEO promotion. By choosing the right link profile building strategy, your site will confidently rise to the top of search results. Despite the high cost of this promotion method, the use of backlinks effectively increases the performance of your site and opens up new opportunities for business or project development.

Pavlo Vlasiuk

CMO

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