It’s almost impossible to find a web page without a link. That’s a simple statement but it has a lot of levels of meaning. And all those meanings are true and important. Links are important in helping us go further than what we’re reading. They let us dive deeper and find what we’re looking for. And they’re important for search engines, too.
I wanted to talk a bit about why links are so important – and why not to exaggerate their importance. There’s a lot we know, a bit we guess, and even some things we don’t fully understand. But it’s still helpful for anyone who wants a website to understand the role links can play.
Internal vs. External vs. Backlinks
Let’s start by looking at three basic categories of links: internal links, external links, and backlinks.
Internal links are links on your site, to other parts of your site. For instance, at the top of this page, there’s a menu that has internal links to other parts of our site. Later in this article, you’ll find a link to our article on Google Search Console. These are all “internal” to our site.
External links are links on a site that direct the user to another website. In our menu, you’ll also see links to our LinkedIn and Facebook pages. We’ll also link to an article from Search Engine Journal. These direct people to look at information on a different website.
Backlinks are external links – but they come from someone else’s site to your site. For example, from the perspective of Search Engine Journal, our link to them is a backlink.
All of these play important roles. They help your users, so they help your site. And since they help users, search engines also use them to help rank your site.
How do they help? Imagine an internet with no links. That means you couldn’t use a search engine. You couldn’t move from one page to another without copy-pasting or typing an entire address. Websites wouldn’t have menus. For that matter, you wouldn’t have images on pages, either, because they are placed there by a type of link, too. (That’s true even if the image isn’t a clickable link. To show the image, a link is used, too).
So it’s easy to see how links make the world (at least the world wide web) a better place. They’re all about connections to other information that will help round out our experience.
In the same way that links help us understand connections, they do the same for search engines. Search engines use “spiders” that crawl the web. These spiders explore each link to see where it leads. This helps the search engine understand the connections that we also understand by seeing and clicking on a link.
Getting Good References
Backlinks are emphasized a lot when you start talking about SEO. Unfortunately, some of the information out there is inaccurate. Some is outdated. So what’s the simple truth?
It’s important to remember that Google doesn’t tell us exactly how they rank web pages. Sometimes they give hints. And they constantly emphasize that high-quality content is the most important factor.
What we do know, though, is that backlinks are a factor, among many others. Based on many in-depth studies, they seem to be a relatively important factor, too. But not all backlinks are created equal and they’re not the be-all and end-all of SEO practices.
Why can backlinks be helpful? I like to think of them as references – the kind of references you might list on a resume.
Your references – a former boss, a coworker, a peer – are people who are willing to say something good about you. They serve as a connection to you and endorse your ability and your character.
When another site adds a backlink to you, they’re doing the same thing. They’re stating that your site – or at least the particular page they link to – contains valuable content that they are willing to promote.
At the same time, the character and reputation of the person giving the reference matters. If they’re a respected figure in the industry or community, their words will help you a lot. But if they’re known to be, well, less-than-reputable, then the recommendation doesn’t do you any good. In some cases, it might even hurt.
Apply that to web pages. If your site is linked to by a high-quality site, that speaks volumes about you. Both real people and computer algorithms respect that and it can boost your ranking in search engines. On the other hand, links from sites without a stellar reputation, or ones that haven’t yet established themselves, doesn’t offer as much of a boost.
There was a time when it was possible to game the system, but those days are past. Now, search engines excel at determining whether backlinks are natural and of good quality.
I have to mention, too, that not every link, even from a good site, will boost your rankings. Directory listings, social media links, links in comment sections, and ads are all excluded from the ranking algorithms. They can still help generate traffic – but they will not help you rank better in organic search results.
Is It Worth It To “Build” Links?
Links are important, but they should always be natural and appropriate. Whether they are internal or external, you should always have links. And encouraging people to link to your content – again in natural and appropriate ways – can be an important part of your SEO strategy.
At the same time, don’t put all your eggs in one basket. Link building is not going to fix your ranking problems all by itself. Google repeatedly emphasizes that what’s most important is to focus on quality content. And there’s that external link to Search Engine Journal I promised!
If you do want to build links, do it honestly. Don’t fall for tricks or schemes. You could even end up being punished in your rankings for shady practices like creating other sites just to link to your main site.
One of the features of Google Search Console is that it provides a list of links to your site and shows exactly where they link from and to. On your Search Console control panel, you’ll see a link titled “Links.” From there, you’ll be able to see how many internal, external, and backlinks your site has.
If you’re concerned that there are a lot of spammy links to your site, there’s even a tool to “disavow” them. In most cases, this isn’t necessary. But if it’s on a large scale, you may want to use this so Google knows you’re not trying to trick them into ranking you better.
You can learn about other features of Google Search Console in another article on our site. (And that’s an example of an internal link!).
In short, link building is a good thing. But quality links are always more important than quantity. And quality content is more important than quality links. At least officially, good content will outrank lesser content even without links.
Building Internal Links
Link building usually refers to backlinks. However, it’s important to have links within your site, too. For example, I just linked to one of our blog posts. I did that to illustrate an internal link. But it also provides value to users, especially those who aren’t familiar with Search Console.
Making it easier to find content on your site is always a good thing. Linking within the site – through good menus, links within articles, and in other ways – is one way to do that. Design and a natural flow are others that also make for a great user experience.
As your site grows by adding blogs, pages, or products, it’s always good to review for new opportunities to create links between content. That means not only in the new content but also looking to see if old content could benefit from new links to more recent material.
Conclusion
Links make the world wide web into a web by connecting one part with another. They’re important to make the user experience better. When handled correctly, they can also help you rank better in search engines. Using links correctly and developing backlinks to your site will help you increase your ranking, leading to more site visits.