Backlinks: The Basics you need to know

What are Backlinks?

Backlinks are incoming links to your website from an external website.

Why are they important?

Backlinks are important because they show Google that your site has credibility. This external website a sign of trust. They are vouching for you that your content is relevant.

How do you get Backlinks?

This part of SEO is done off your website. Contacting vendors and venues that you’ve worked with before is a great place to start. I encourage photographers to create a featured venue page or a favourite vendors page, one-click off of their home page and then put in the vendors there that you’d like to get backlinks from. Then when you contact them to ask for a backlink, you can let them know that you’ve already done that for them.

Tips.

• You want the backlinks to be on the home page or one click from the home page. If it’s buried deep into the website it won’t help you much.
• You want the backlink to be descriptive and use your keywords & name. For example Website Design by Joanna Moss Creative. This is a backlink that I create on every website I design.
• Choose sites with high authority to get backlinks from. For example, a link from Style Me Pretty or People Magazine will have a higher authority than Local Little Directory 411.
• Submit for publications. Use apps like Two Bright Lights, to submit your work to publication. They always create backlinks to the vendors after they publish their work.
• Sign up for a service like HARO to know when journalists are looking for information to finish an article. They will usually provide a link back to your website if you help them out.

Backlinks are important for Search Engine Optimization. It gives your website more credibility with Google. Having lots of quality links will help boost your website’s SEO.