“For search engines that crawl the vast metropolis of the web, links are the streets between pages. Using sophisticated link analysis, the engines can discover how pages are related to each other and in what ways.” – Moz
Search Engine Optimization(SEO) is one of the cornerstones of a successful digital media marketing presence. Its primary goal is to increase the overall visibility of your website on the Search Engine Results Page (SERP). Additionally, as SmartInsights.com states, “SEO is arguably the most cost-effective digital marketing technique.” Therefore, it makes sense to include it in your digital media marketing strategies and campaigns.
Briefly, SEO consists of three parts, on-page, off-page, and technical SEO. This article does not concern itself with on-page and technical SEO. However, the overall goal of SEO is to rank your website in the top three-pack on the SERP across a wide range of phrases searched for by the search engine users.
Backlinks: A definition and purpose
The original definition of link building (before 2012) was defined as the process of publishing your website’s link on every site who would be willing to post your site’s URL on it. This tactic resulted in a significant amount of spammy, low-quality connections to your website. But it also was a useful way to get your site to rank high in the SERP.
However, the Penguin algorithm, launched in April 2012, ended this practice as it punished websites that Google deemed to use paid link building tactics. Google’s official position on the subject of link building is that it considers it a violation of its webmaster policies.
However, the modern approach to building backlinks to your website is seen as a high-quality strategy which emphasizes the value of well-written, well-researched, content-rich, original content. This material will usually contain a reference to your website, and it is either published on your site (blog section) or relevant third-party, high-authority websites. The main aim for this content is to go viral and attract natural inbound links to the content itself.
Thus, it is safe to say that content marketing or content strategy is a vital part of SEO, which in turn is an essential component of any successful marketing strategy. Furthermore, to avoid the pitfalls and challenges of putting together a poor content marketing strategy, it is wise to consult a professional company such as Valpak to advise and guide you through the risks of implementing a weak backlink strategy.
Backlinks: Why are they necessary?
As noted above, backlinks are a vital part of your search engine marketing (SEM) strategy. In fact, they are considered to be one of the main building blocks of a successful SEM campaign. Not only do they alert users to the fact that your website exists, but they also inform a search engine’s web crawler apps that your site is out there and needs to be indexed and ranked. One of the most fundamental ways a web crawler crawls around websites is via links (both external and internal).
Therefore, while remaining relevant, the more active and more diverse your backlink profile is, the greater chance there is that your website will be ranked in the top three to five results in the SERP.