What are Backlinks in SEO?: Definition & Roles

When working with search engine optimization (SEO), you will eventually hear of backlinks. It has an essential position in website architecture, but are peculiarly overlooked by many. What are SEO backlinks and how do they affect your website visibility? In this article, we will discuss the origin and the actual definition of SEO backlinks, types of SEO backlinks, as well as the importance of backlinks for SEO to help your marketing campaign be sustainable, last, and perform well in the search engine result pages (SERPs). 

What is the definition of SEO Backlinks? 

The question of what SEO backlinks are is basically simple to answer. They are links from other websites that direct visitors or readers to your page. The links can be an indicator of trustworthiness and credibility. The more you get, the better. However, in order to get backlinks, particularly the natural ones that can generate valuable SEO metrics such as organic traffic, impressions, and ranking, you can do several practices as listed below. 

• Creating valuable content on a specific and relevant topic while also maintaining high credibility. This means you can gather insights from experts, release trustworthy data sets, surveys, interviews, or studies that cannot be found on other websites. This kind of content will encourage other websites or internet users to cite your page. 
• Offering freebies or downloadable templates will also work as a magnet for organic traffic. Make sure that you only share copyright-free content, preferably your original digital content. 
• Strategic collaboration with other websites by building relationships with similar types of websites. For instance, being a guest contributor may also help you get natural backlinks. 

On the contrary, avoid these strategies if you do not want to smear your website reputation. Search engines like Google have a set of rules, and these practices, unfortunately, may potentially get violation flags. 

• Exchange links with other website admins.  
• Build backlinks with automated programs, as it can be detected as a link spam practice by search engines. 
• Generate links from low-quality websites. 
• Mention links without context in internet forums or comments. 
• Create content purely to generate backlinks without offering clear value. 

Difference between SEO backlinks and internal links? 

When we search for SEO backlinks, we obviously also hear about internal links. Whether SEO backlinks or internal links, all of them use links as a way to interact with other pages. So, what is the difference between SEO backlinks and internal links? Check the short explanation of backlinks and internal links below. 

• SEO backlinks: As we explained earlier, backlinks are links from other websites that mention and connect directly to our website. Thus, more and more backlinks can generate traffic on your website as well as build credibility and authenticity because other websites cite your website.  
• SEO internal links: Internal links, in contrast, are links that connect to your internal pages, whether it is the homepage, services, blog posts, or other internal posts on your website. The existence of internal pages is also important to help users navigate through all your posts and maintain a connection to the relevant pages within your website. 

From the displayed table above, we can see whether backlinks or internal links are important for SEO. Therefore, we can choose one of the links to optimize our SEO campaign. Instead, we encourage you to use backlinks and internal links at the same time to improve website performance and ranking on SERPs. 

Types of backlinks in SEO

There are several types of SEO backlinks you need to familiarize yourself with. Memorize and use them wisely based on your situation. 

• Editorial backlinks

Type of backlinks with high SEO value metrics as they will indicate credibility and authority for your website. Particularly if the websites that mention you also have good ranking and authority scores. 

• Directory backlinks

A directory page or site is the type of website that categorizes information into a searchable structure. It works as an online catalogue, and if you are mentioned, it may boost your page visibility. One of the most prominent examples of directory pages is Google Business Profile, but you can also manage to get direct backlinks from your business partner and other trusted industry-specified listings. 

• Guest post backlinks 

If a website owner or admin asks you to be a guest contributor or write for them, see it as a chance to get valuable SEO backlinks. 

• Sponsored backlinks 

You can also make paid link placements by collaborating with internet users. They can mention you in a page that uses user-generated content as its backbone, or you can also expect them to cite you in forums. Certainly, make sure that their content is meaningful and helpful to other users so that it sparks trust and positive impressions. 

• Social backlinks 

Social backlinks are links that have a nofollow tag or attributes. This means they will not be counted as a direct authority vote by search engines and, in that case, will not affect your page ranking. However, they still generate traffic and faster discovery. 

• Forum backlinks 

Forum backlinks, as their name suggests, are types of backlinks that connect to your website from a comment on the forum. As we know, on some forum platforms, such as Reddit or Quora, most of the communities are discussing or asking about some niche. Then, you can exploit the opportunities by answering the questions and directly mentioning the links to your website. 

• Press release backlinks

As its name implies, press release backlinks are links that connect to your website through press releases or news outlets. Therefore, as a business, you can exploit the media coverage by publishing newsworthy and relevant press releases. However, these backlinks are not for sustainable campaigns and must be complemented with other backlink strategies.  

• Image backlinks 

Image backlinks are links that connect to your website using specific images, whether it is an infographic or just simple images published on your article. With the help of high-quality shareable visual design, you can get a higher chance of acquiring image backlinks. You should use appropriate watermarks to claim the authoritativeness of the image. 

• Dofollow backlinks

Dofollow backlinks are known as passing authority to give signals that we endorse the origin site of content, products, or others to boost the website’s credibility. By securing dofollow backlinks, your website will gain domain authority, which also helps to improve the website’s ranking. 

• Nofollow backlinks

On the contrary to dofollow backlinks, nofollow backlinks are inbound links that are mentioned; you do not pass the authority or endorse the origin page. This means that your website does not get an endorsement that can help to boost ranking. However, acquiring nofollow links is not a bad thing and is still worth generating traffic to your website. 

Why do backlinks matter for SEO?

As you already know what SEO backlinks are, how do they matter for your page? It is actually mentioned several times above that backlinks essentially improve your page domain authority score. Authority score is calculated using these metrics below. 

• Organic traffic 

Amount of visitors that you earn naturally, instead of ad placement. This type of traffic is basically earned by alluring visitors or internet users with meaningful and relevant content. Compelling visual assets may also attract users as well. 

• Link juice 

Also known as link power, this metric calculates your page authority by analyzing and checking the links you added to your page. This works both for external and internal links. The best way to excel at this metric is by ensuring that your site is linked to popular or high-ranking websites. However, the score will improve if you can also ensure that the popular websites have a similar niche to yours. You are also advised to balance external links with internal links, which direct visitors to also check on your other related content. 

• Natural profile

This metric measures your website’s gathered natural backlinks. This means they also analyze whether your links are collected without manipulation or cheat tricks. 

Once you reach a high authority score, your page visibility and ranking will also automatically be enhanced. In SEO, this is one of the most prominent signals that your strategy is successful.  

How do backlinks work with AEO? 

Backlinks in SEO mean an approval of your page authority and visibility, but how does that work in the Answer Engine Optimization (AEO) framework? Backlinks still matter in AEO as the authority score will work as a consensus validator for AI platforms to choose your page as their citation. 

Despite different targets – AEO works for AI platforms, while SEO works for search engines – they both work with similar principles and metrics. If your SEO strategy is successful, you can expect your AEO metrics to be working well. This means building natural backlinks will also help your content be more discoverable by AI platforms such as GPT and Google AI Overview. AEO prefers trusted domains with high authority scores. AI platforms do not really care about ranking but rather cite websites, including blogs, with SEO backlinks and large organic traffic. 

Tips to build backlinks for your website

What are SEO backlinks without knowing how to build it in your website? In order to gain trust from search engines and AI platforms through backlinks, you can follow the tips below. 

• Alternate anchor text

Anchor text is clickable text that provides context to the users. It means they have to be relevant for readers and have a direct correlation with the content where they are positioned and the content they are referring to or directing to. In order to create the impression that your SEO backlinks are natural and free from manipulation tricks, you need to make sure that each anchor text is different from another. 

• Discover and fix broken links 

Uncover direct users to non-existent pages or non-relevant content. This is an important step to maintain your positive reputation and high authority scores. 

• Optimize competitor link gaps 

Building backlinks may help you make strategic decisions. You can ask them to collaborate, or you can also use the analysis results to fill the content and link gaps. 

• Boost partnerships with third parties

Backlinks cannot be independently controlled by ourselves, which means we need help from third parties to help us write about our services or relevant content. Therefore, you can build partnerships with other brands and businesses to conduct webinars, publications, or other joint partnerships. 

• Produce press releases and publications

Press releases also play a crucial role as a backbone of brand media coverage. They are also a tool to acquire SEO backlinks from news outlets or magazines that always need novelty stories, insights, and other fascinating information from brands. 

How to check and optimize SEO backlinks 

Now, you have comprehended how crucial SEO backlinks are and the huge benefits of backlinks to your website. Then, you need to know how to check and optimize backlinks on your website. Doing an SEO backlinks audit is highly recommended for you if you want to enhance SEO performance. Here are the steps to check and optimize SEO backlinks. 

1. Use an SEO backlink online checker

In order to check SEO backlinks on your website, it is actually simple: use an SEO backlink checker. There are many free SEO backlink checkers available if you do not want to spend more money on backlink analysis. 

These tools display all of the SEO backlink metrics, such as anchor text pattern, nofollow and dofollow ratio, authority linking domains, and others. If you want a full-fledged analysis, you can use paid tools that provide more detailed analysis compared to free SEO backlink checkers. 

2. Identify the quality of links and toxicity 

By using SEO backlink checker tools, you can identify the quality of links to your website. You can assess the toxicity rates, whether it is from irrelevant pages, low-authority domains, and suspicious or spammy pages. Instead of improving the domain authority, toxic links will decrease your website reliability and potentially decrease your ranking. 

3. Check nofollow/dofollow links and anchor text

Using an SEO backlinks audit will help you analyze the nofollow/dofollow links ratio. In essence, the nofollow/dofollow ratio stood at 60/40 or 80/20. Please take a look at the potential overimproving website by keyword-stuffing on dofollow links. In addition, check the distribution of anchor text and avoid too many identical anchor texts that can lower your ranking. 

4. Fix broken and toxic links 

When you have checked the backlinks on your website, then it is time to fix the links. As we said earlier, not all backlinks are helpful, and some of them, especially the toxic links, are harmful to your website. Thus, you can disconnect the toxic links to maintain a healthy website. 

Tool to optimize SEO backlinks

To optimize SEO backlinks, we obviously need a hand from SEO backlinks checker tools. If you are a small business or freelancer that needs an affordable way to check backlinks, then you may need to use a free tool instead. However, free SEO backlinks checkers mostly come with limited features, as they offer comprehensive features on their paid plans. Here are five SEO tools that can help you to optimize backlinks. 

1. Google Search Console

Google Search Console is a great tool to check the overall performance of a website, including backlink analysis. You can check the backlinks through the Links button on the right sidebar. Nonetheless, the app from Google only provides the basic link insights and does not show the full insights about toxic backlinks and nofollow or dofollow ratio. 

2. Ahrefs 

Ahrefs is a popular all-in-one SEO app, but interestingly, it provides a free tool for analysing SEO backlinks. Ahrefs Backlink Checker is a free tool that gives you a glimpse of your backlinks audit, including dofollow/nofollow ratio, domain rating, as well as anchor and target URL. If you need a comprehensive backlink checker, you need to pay for its plans. 

3. SEMrush  

SEMrush also gives a free tool for checking SEO backlinks, named Free Backlink Checker. Without the need to subscribe or create a SEMrush account, you will get insight into backlink analysis, including authority score, the number of backlinks, referring domains, and dofollow backlinks. Unfortunately, the free tool from SEMRush is only shows a glimpse of information, not fully covering all backlink insights. 

4. Majestic SEO 

Majestic SEO is known as one of the popular SEO tools, and it also offers a specific feature to analyze SEO backlinks for free. Similar to Ahrefs and SEMrush, Majestic only provides general information and not full insights, even if you need to sign up first before trying its backlink checker for free. 

5. SE Ranking

SE Ranking is also one of the notable all-in-one SEO tools that provides features to analyze SEO backlinks. Unlike the other tools above that provide limited free features, SE Ranking does not offer free features for checking backlinks. Thus, you need to sign up first and claim a free trial in order to use the backlink feature from SE Ranking. 

Conclusion 

SEO backlinks are still more relevant than ever. Despite the emergence of AI chatbots, internet users know that looking at human-made references from credible websites matters more than only believing what AI says. In order to be deemed credible, backlinks are highly necessary. It is one of the most prominent elements in website architecture, and understanding how it works is an obligation to master.  

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs): What are SEO Backlinks? 

1. Are SEO backlinks still relevant to make your content excel in AI platforms? 

Yes, SEO backlinks are still relevant if you want to improve your page discoverability in AI platforms. This is because AEO uses traditional SEO metrics to determine the relevancy of your content with users’ questions. This means AI platforms will also consider page authority score to pick websites for their citations. 

2. What are SEO backlinks compared to internal and external links? 

Do not get confused with these three types of links. SEO backlinks are links that are added by external websites and will direct visitors to your page. Internal links, on the other hand, work as connectors between pages within your own website. External links are the links you cite and direct visitors to other websites where you refer to sources you cite. 

3. What are SEO backlinks’ impact on your website? Why do you need them? 

SEO backlinks matter to improve your website visibility and ranking in search engine page results (SERP) by improving your page authority score, that signal credibility and trust from other internet users. 

4. What are forum backlinks? 

Forum backlinks are the types of backlinks from a discussion of niche communities relevant to your business that mention your website. Additionally, through forum platforms, such as Reddit and Quora, you can increase your credibility in the eyes of people who need your services. 

5. What are free tools to check SEO backlinks on our website? 

There are many free tools available online to check SEO backlinks, but the most renowned free tool is Google Search Console, a comprehensive tool to review SEO. However, there are other SEO platforms that provide free tools only for SEO backlinks with limited features, such as SEOptimer, SEO Spyglass, SE Ranking, Majestic SEO, Ahrefs, SEMrush, and others. 

6. Can we conduct SEO backlinks for free? 

Yes, you can conduct SEO backlinks for free, but it requires a lot more effort than paid backlinks through partnerships. You can use press releases to enhance media outreach and improve editorial as well quality of your content to convince others that our content is credible, so other websites want to link to our website.