Backlinks, backlinks, backlinks.
It’s a word you probably see thrown around a lot, but you might not necessarily understand the difference between quality vs quantity.With backlinks being one of the driving forces behind a comprehensive and effective SEO campaign, acquiring and earning these links is imperative.
Links essentially are the signals to search engines like Google that one website trusts another - and websites with higher authority have an even bigger impact on visibility.Today, we’re going through some of the most popular types of backlinks that are a must-know if you’re looking for a top tier SEO plan.
Get settled, and let’s get started.
Always, quality over quantity
Years ago, link building took on the form of acquiring high quantities of links, without exactly looking at where the links were coming from.This all changed in 2012 with the release of the Google Penguin Update, which was designed with the aim of ridding search results of being manipulated by marketers.The Penguin update, in particular, targeted those buying links, link farming, and using sneaky methods to apply high quantities of spammy and low quality backlinks.Since then, professional SEO has acclimated to suit Google’s preference of both relevant and quality backlinks.
What are the different types of backlinks?
There are 20+ different types of backlinks that you can utilise for your site in order to gain as much visibility as possible.Here are some of the most popular ones, how Google sees it, and how you can build them for your own site.
Guest posts
Guest post backlinks are completed by writing an article as a guest author on another website, with a link back to your own website.Google doesn’t discourage guest blogging if the content is both valuable and provides helpful information to users.They have, however, warned against high-volume and now-quality guest posting efforts just as links. This goes against Google guidelines, and falls under link scheming, which can greatly penalize your site.If you want to build guest post backlinks in the right way, focus on creating high-quality content that offers real education and insight to readers.
Paid links
Paid backlinks have been acquired with the exchange of money - a practice which isn’t supported by Google and goes against its webmaster guidelines.According to Google themselves, this falls under link scheming, and those caught by Google’s algorithms (which continue to get more sophisticated by the day) will be caught and receive a manual action website penalty.We strongly advise, therefore, to not engage in buying backlinks - it’s a black hat SEO technique that will do so much more harm than good.
Social bookmarking links
Social bookmarking when it comes to link building involves saving links to web pages that they want to keep for later or share. These bookmarks are also made public.Google themselves have said that this isn’t a particularly strong link building tactic - if they are even picked up by Google in the first place, they tend to be ignored.There is no value, therefore, in bookmarking site link building today - with Google’s creations of nofollow links, they’re essentially redundant.
Directory page links
Web directories, also known as link directories, are online catalogs of websites and/or businesses. Today, using masses of low quality directories can result in a penalty.Links from a web directory on Google nowadays are significantly less influential when compared to contextual links.Because they don’t have a crazy amount of influence, it’s likely best to steer clear of links like these - especially low quality ones.
Editorial links
Editorial links are links that have been obtained from having a site that produces good quality content and engages with white hat SEO.Editorial links are looked at highly from a Google standpoint. In fact, these are the types of backlinks that Google wants webmasters to build.Google continues to use editorial backlinks as examples of how to build healthy and strong backlink profiles on your site.Because of this, you should prioritize them by prioritizing your content creation!The best way to do this is by creating unique, high quality, well-written content that other websites will naturally choose to reference and link to.
Social media links
Social media platforms often allow for profiles to include a link to their external blogs or websites.Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn also allow links in posts to external websites or pages.Google, however, has not indicated that social media links play a role in terms of link building and link factors for your search engine ranking.Whilst social media profile links aren’t a link building tactic to provide any SEO benefit per se, they do help solidify your online presence and help enhance the trustworthiness of your business.
Website footer links
Footer links are placed in the footer of a page, and overused footer links are more than likely to result in unnatural link penalties from Google.Essentially, Google’s stance on footer links is that they’re acquired not earned, meaning they’re unnatural and won’t positively impact your rankings in any way.These links overall don’t carry a huge weight for SEO either way, and sitewide links aren’t encouraged as a general rule - so it’s definitely best to avoid this area.
You’ve come so far!
Well, that was it - our super succinct, super summarised version of the many, many logistics that go into the different types of SEO backlinks.Some are beneficial, not so much, but all are commonly used in the SEO world - whether they should actually be used, however, is a different story.If you’re still confused, or looking for that extra edge - we can help.Local Digital offers premium, full service link building to put together the highest quality links possible, followed by the inevitable Google visibility you’re looking for.With our link building services combined with our comprehensive SEO strategy tailored to your individual business - how can you refuse?
Get a free proposal with Local Digital today to see how we can take you to that next level faster than you can say ‘backlink’.
