What is a backlink? This is the first question that comes to many people's minds when they're first introduced to search engine optimization (SEO). Backlinks, called inbound links, are links from one page on one website to another. Top search engines such as Google consider backlinks "votes" for a specific page. They have long been considered an essential tool in determining a website's ranking on search. Pages or websites with many backlinks tend to rank highly in search engines. This blog will discuss what backlinks are and why they are still important in 2023.

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are external links from one website to another. They are also known as inbound or external links. Major search engines like Google and Yahoo utilize backlinks as a ranking signal. You can use backlinks to increase your website's ranking and visibility in search engine results. Backlinks represent another website's traffic coming to your site. Having high-quality backlinks can help a website rank higher in search engines.

Backlinks play an important role in your overall strategy for attracting traffic to your website. They can be a crucial factor in whether your site rises or falls in search results. Backlinks are clickable and let users jump from another website to yours. Websites with a high number of backlinks are more likely to get excellent organic search engine rankings.

Why Are Backlinks Still Important Today?

There are many reasons backlinks are still important for SEO. Backlinks serve as valuable votes from other websites. These votes tell search engines like Google that your content is credible, valuable, and useful. The more votes you get, the higher your website will rank in search engines. Even today, backlinks continue to hold their role as an essential ranking factor. 

Credibility is among the primary factors that Google and other major search engines prioritize when ranking your site. With quality backlinks on your site, making it to the first page of a search result can be easy. Backlinks help you with these three principal things: rankings, discoverability, and traffic.

Rankings

Backlinks can improve your website ranking. Usually, search engines see backlinks as votes of confidence. The more votes your website or pages have, the more chances they have to rank for related search queries. 

Discoverability

Google and other search engines find new and engaging content by reviewing pages they already know about to check for new links. Because they review popular pages more often than unpopular ones, chances are higher that they may find your content quickly if you have backlinks to popular pages.

Referral Traffic

Referral traffic describes the visitors who reach your website from other sites without searching for you on search engines. Generally, referral traffic comes from backlinks. It is also relevant for SEO. When someone reaches to your website from another site, they click a link or complete a social activity. When a backlink grows a website's referral traffic, it influences where the site ranks on search results for specific keywords.

What Makes A Backlink Good For SEO?

Backlinks are not created equal. They all are different from each other. Therefore, if you want to rank higher on search results, you should focus only on quality backlinks. Having a quality backlink is better than having thousands of low-quality backlinks. Search engines like Google place more weight on relevant backlinks as people are more likely to click on them.

Also, backlinks from trusted and high-domain authority websites can boost your website's organic search engine traffic. Because that link comes from an authoritative site, search engines put more weight on it. However, these types of links are hard to get. But they are definitely worth it. 

Furthermore, search engines like Google ignore links with the "no follow" tag. Nofollow links don't affect the search engine ranking. Therefore, it's best to get "dofollow" links. While most links have do-follow tags, links from sources tend to be nofollow are:

• Press releases
• Blog comments
• Paid advertisements

Conclusion

We hope you have understood what backlinks are and why they are important for SEO. Pages or websites with a large number of backlinks often rank higher on Google and other search engines, especially if these links are from authoritative sources. Backlinks play an essential role in increasing your website ranking. However, without quality backlinks on your site, it can be hard to make it to the first page of search results.

Many studies have proven the impact of backlinks on organic search results. These links are clickable and are considered votes for your website. These votes help your site rank higher on Google, Yahoo, Bing, and other search engines. Backlinks are not all created equal. Pages with quality backlinks tend to rank higher in the SERPs.