Assignment #5: The Background of Backlinks

 Introduction

In Web Metrics, there are many categories, components, and sections that make up its entirety. In order to fully understand Web Metrics, one must understand each category and its components and sections. Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one of the most important categories of Web Metrics, and within SEO there are many components. First, to understand SEO, it is essentially “the art of persuading search engines to recommend your content to their users as the best solution to their problem” (SEMrush, 2020). In short, it is the process of “improving your site’s organic traffic and ranking on search engines such as Google and Bing” (SEMrush). Additionally, within SEO, there are three crucial categories, Off-Page, On-Page, and Technical. Each of these is very different but complements each other to improve a site’s organic traffic and optimize rankings on search engines. As shown in the image below, Technical SEO focuses on the “under-the-hood” aspects of a site such as crawling, indexation, UX, and rankings. While On-Page SEO focuses on creating site content relating to keyword optimization to improve site relevancy and ranking. Lastly, and what I will be concentrating on for this report, Off-Page SEO is centered around acquiring and managing backlinks from authoritative relative sources to boost site ranking and domain authority. 

Figure 1: The SEO Sweet Spot 

Backlinks

The whole category of Backlinks is a topic that definitely piqued my interest. Backlinks are more commonly known as ‘external links’ or even ‘inbound links.’ They are essentially referred to as “links on one website pointing to another website.” Backlinks are also known to be one of the most important SEO ranking factors. According to Google, backlinks are one of the two most important signals used to ranks websites (SEMrush, 2020). There are several different types of backlinks including Nofollow Links, Dofollow Links, Sponsored or Paid Links, and User-Generated Content Links. So what do all these links mean, and which are the most important for optimization? That is a question one must consider when aiming to improve their site’s presence. 

Nofollow Links vs. Dofollow Links 

Starting with nofollow links, these are fundamentally regarded as links that are needed to be linked within a site but aren’t necessarily links that the site would vouch for. While, on the other hand, a dofollow link does pass the trust authority. A user cannot tell the difference between the two, but the two both hold a great impact on the website’s performance. Since nofollow links do not pass the trust authority, they will not help a site to rank higher on the search engine results pages (SERPs). On the contrary, dofollow links have a more positive impact on a site’s ranking on the SERPs. 

Figure 2: Nofollow Link vs. Dofollow Link

Sponsored Links

Moving on to sponsored or paid links, these are exactly what they are titled as. Sponsored or paid links are present when money or a product or service has been exchanged for a link. For example, a website such as My Happy Snails may sponsor a blogger or influencer to promote a piece of their content or to simply post a review of their products and/or services. Sponsored links certainly have a positive impact on a site’s ranking. As they should since the company is paying for these links. Sponsored links are undoubtedly beneficial but they should still be used sparingly since they require more of an investment than the other links. 

User-Generated Content Links 

Following the sponsored links, the next type of links and last are the user-generated content (UGC) links, which are actually a new type of backlink as of 2019 (SEMrush, 2020). These are links that come from the likes of forums and blog comments. The link is formatted in a way that it informs search engines such as Google and Bing that the link was placed by a user and not the webmaster. Once again, the UGC links have a positive impact on a site’s rank but are definitely harder to achieve because it is hard to get users engaged with one’s website. 

Quality of Backlinks 

With all these different types of backlinks to consider, it is also important to the quality of each type of backlink. The quality of a backlink is measured in three different levels: high authority links, toxic or unnatural links, and editorially placed links. High authority backlinks are those that are retrieved from high-authority websites that hold high site relevancy. Some factors that help to determine if a backlink is of high quality are the high number of referring domains, placement of the page (the higher the better), contextual backlinks, and relevant anchor text. The opposite of these high authority links is toxic links, which are exactly what they sound like. Toxic backlinks can ultimately hurt a site’s ability to rank or even negatively impact the site’s current ranking. Toxic links usually come from low-quality or suspicious sites that violate search engines such as Google’s and Bing’s Webmaster Guidelines. These toxic backlinks only exist to manipulate or ruin search engine rankings. Therefore, toxic backlinks are something a site definitely wants to refrain from incorporating onto their site. Lastly, editorially placed links are backlinks that are editorially placed or earned by a journalist or webmaster who has provided a link to another website or webpage due to it “being deserved of being sent traffic and authority” (SEMrush, 2020). These backlinks are simply used to enhance a reader’s experience. They do not have much impact on the search engine algorithm. 

Conclusion 

In conclusion, SEO is a very complex category within Web Metrics and backlinks are even more complex. There are several different types of backlinks and different ways to measure their quality. It is important to consider which backlinks may help or hurt your site, and which may be more costly and those that do not technically cost anything at all. It is certainly not easy to weigh out all the pros and cons, but once done it will ultimately improve a site’s SEO and overall boost its overall ranking. 

References

Introduction to technical seo. Rankwatch.com. (n.d.). Retrieved September 23, 2021, fromhttps://www.rankwatch.com/learning/content/12-introduction-to-technical-seo.

Barnard, J. (2020). What is Seo? A beginner's guide to search engine optimization. Semrush Blog. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-is-seo/. 

Brockbank, J. (2020). What are backlinks? Semrush Blog. Retrieved September 28, 2021, from https://www.semrush.com/blog/what-are-backlinks/.