High quality backlinks are a major piece of Google’s algorithm and they will continue to be, as they can be the deciding factor that pushes a website to the top of the search results.

While link building efforts are done solely for search engine optimization purposes, they are beneficial for several other reasons.

When building backlinks, it’s crucial to consider their quality and the value they add, not just for SEO but for overall online presence.

Google frequently updates its algorithms to penalize low-quality, spammy link building tactics.

A good guideline is to think about how Google would view the link during a manual review. Ask yourself if the link appears non-spammy and valuable, and if the anchor text isn’t overly optimized.

Focusing on high-quality backlinks keeps you safe from potential penalties and ensures your links are beneficial beyond just SEO.

In this guide, we will discuss the backlink benefits beyond SEO, outlining 8 additional advantages of high-quality links.

Let’s explore!

Key Takeaways on the Benefits of Backlinks

  • Enhances SEO and Website Visibility: High-quality backlinks are crucial for improving a website’s visibility and ranking on search engine results pages (SERPs). They act as a vote of confidence from one site to another, signaling to search engines that the content is valuable and relevant.
  • Drives Targeted Referral Traffic: Beyond SEO, backlinks from reputable sites can lead to a steady stream of targeted referral traffic. This traffic is highly valuable as it is coming from visitors already interested in the content or services offered, leading to higher engagement and conversion rates.
  • Builds Brand Authority and Recognition: Quality backlinks from authoritative sites help in building brand authority. They expose the brand to a wider audience, associating it with quality content and industry leadership, thereby enhancing brand recognition and credibility.
  • Facilitates New Relationships and Customer Engagement: Backlinks create opportunities for new relationships with other websites and their audiences. Readers who follow backlinks to your site are more likely to engage with your content, subscribe to newsletters, and follow your brand on social media, enhancing customer engagement and loyalty.

Backlinks, also known as “inbound links” or “incoming links,” are links from one website to a page on another website.

They are essential for Search Engine Optimization (SEO) because they signal to search engines that other websites find the content on your page valuable and relevant.

Essentially, a backlink to your website is a vote of confidence from another site.

When a website links to another, it’s as if they are vouching for the quality of content on the linked site.

This is why search engines, like Google, consider backlinks as a significant factor in determining the ranking of a website in their search results.

The more high-quality backlinks a website has, the more likely it is to rank higher in search engine results pages (SERPs).

However, not all backlinks are created equal. The value of a backlink depends on several factors:

  1. Relevance: Links from websites that are in the same or a related industry are more valuable than links from unrelated sites.
  2. Authority: Backlinks from authoritative and reputable websites carry more weight.
  3. DoFollow vs NoFollow: “DoFollow” links pass on link equity, while “NoFollow” links do not. However, a natural mix of both types of links is considered healthy for a site’s link profile.
  4. Link Placement: Links embedded within the main content of a page are typically more powerful than those in footers or sidebars.
  5. Anchor Text: The clickable text in a hyperlink. SEO best practices suggest that the anchor text should be relevant to the page you’re linking to.

In summary, backlinks are crucial for SEO as they enhance a site’s visibility and credibility in the eyes of search engines, thus potentially improving its ranking in search results.

However, it’s important to focus on acquiring high-quality backlinks rather than simply increasing the number of links.

Understanding the difference between good and bad backlinks is crucial in SEO. Backlinks can significantly impact your site’s authority and page rankings.

Here’s a summary of what distinguishes a good link from a bad one:

  1. Trusted Sources: They originate from reputable and relevant sources.
  2. Content Quality: Arise naturally due to the high quality of your content, encouraging organic linking.
  3. No Monetary Exchange: There’s no payment or incentives given for these links.
  4. Modest Scale Requesting: They result from targeted outreach, not mass emailing to irrelevant domains.
  5. Diverse Anchor Text: They use varied anchor text, avoiding repetition.
  6. User Expectation Alignment: They lead users to the expected content without deceptive redirection.
  7. Visibility: Good links are visible to both users and search engine crawlers, with no attempt to hide them.
  1. Monetary or Perk Exchange: Links created through payment or other incentives.
  2. Link Exchange Schemes: Resulting from large-scale link exchange practices.
  3. Spammy Source Sites: Originating from sites involved in paid linking schemes or spammy behaviors.
  4. Security Exploitation: Links injected into websites by exploiting security flaws.
  5. Keyword Overuse: Over-reliance on specific keywords in anchor text for manipulation.
  6. Hidden Links: Attempts to hide links from users or search engines.

In essence, good backlinks are those that are earned naturally due to the quality and relevance of your content, and from being recognized by trusted sources.

Bad backlinks are typically artificial, intended to manipulate search rankings, and can harm your site’s reputation and search engine rankings.

Now, let’s dive into the 8 backlink benefits outside of SEO:

1. Build Your Brand Authority

Sure, getting links on popular websites is great for your SEO efforts, but they also help to build the authority of your brand.

The same way Google looks as these links as a good indication that your website provides useful information, consumers see it as a good indication that your brand is one that they should take an interest in.

So, while high quality links on popular websites will greatly benefit your SEO, they will also help attract consumers to your brand simply by association.

This also helps to present your company as an information source within your industry, and can even result in websites linking to your content, giving you natural backlinks, which Google loves.

2. Drive Steady Referral Traffic on Autopilot

Not all website traffic originates from a search on Google, Yahoo, Bing, or another search engine. Referral traffic is also a large percentage of all traffic, meaning that people are clicking on links within content and being taken to the linked content.

High quality links on sites with a lot of traffic will not only help your SEO, but they can also drive targeted traffic to your website around the clock.

A single link on a popular website can continue to push traffic to your website for years.

The beautiful thing about referral traffic is that it is highly targeted.

Just think about how much money is spent on paid search. Some businesses have extremely high CPCs, so every referral click is driving high quality traffic without a cost per click associated with it.

If you currently have a company handling your link building use these tips to evaluate your SEO company.

The internet is one big source of data that will continue to grow and always be there to access information from.

If you obtain high quality links from reputable directories and other resource websites it can help to drive traffic to your website for years to come.

Imagine if your business sold “blue widgets” and you obtained a link on a directory of all blue widget manufacturers.

For years, consumers searching online for blue widgets come in contact with your link and click through, landing on your website and converting into sales.

Links like these can continue to attract visitors several years down the road.

4. Create New Relationships

When someone reads good content and sees a backlink pointing to the source or creator, there is a very good chance that they will click on the link to learn more about who or what is responsible for what they just enjoyed.

This can lead to that individual joining your newsletter or performing some other measurable action on your website.

They might connect and follow your social media profiles or they might read your blog and then bookmark it or subscribe to your RSS feed. A simple link can bring a company and consumer together without the aid of search engine rankings.

5. Brand Name Exposure & Recognition

When someone is reading content online they can quickly identify the visible links within the content.

When a consumer sees your brand name linked throughout great content they begin to associate your company with the particular topic(s) that they are seeing your brand name linked to.

The days of spammy anchor text links are long gone, and brand name anchor text is now a solid choice for safe link building. If you want to make sure that your SEO campaign is safe, make sure to check out these spammy SEO strategies to avoid.

When someone is reading content that you created and sees your brand name anchor text they will do one of two things:

  1. They will either click the link and visit your website
  2. They will register your brand name with the content they are reading.

Even if they do not immediately visit your site they will now begin to associate your company with the content subject. This can lead to website visits and brand interaction down the road.

6. Market Research Insights

Backlinks can provide valuable insights into market trends and audience preferences.

By analyzing the types of websites and content that link back to your site, you can gain a better understanding of your audience’s interests and behavior.

This information can be instrumental in guiding your content strategy, product development, and marketing campaigns.

Essentially, backlinks act as a form of indirect market research, offering clues about where your brand or products stand in the market and how they resonate with different segments.

7. Enhanced Customer Journey Mapping

Analyzing backlinks can also help in mapping out the customer journey more effectively.

By understanding the various touchpoints where customers find links to your site, you can determine the most influential stages in their decision-making process.

This data can be used to optimize your marketing strategies and improve the overall customer experience.

For instance, if many backlinks come from informational blogs or review sites, it indicates that customers are seeking detailed information before making a purchase decision.

8. Boosting Public Relations and Media Visibility

Backlinks from news sites, online magazines, and industry blogs can significantly boost your public relations efforts.

These high-profile backlinks enhance your visibility in the media and can lead to further press opportunities.

Being mentioned or featured on such platforms can elevate your brand’s status and open doors to more extensive media coverage, interviews, and features.

This not only broadens your audience reach but also solidifies your brand’s presence in the public eye as a noteworthy and newsworthy entity.

Final Thoughts

The main focus of a link building campaign will always be to improve the organic position of a website, but that doesn’t mean that it should be the only factor to use when evaluating the performance of the link building effort.

What if the rankings were slowly improving but during that time referral traffic was driving a large amount of traffic that converted into sales.

That would be considered a successful link building effort, correct?

Of course it would!

So, while organic search rankings will remain the top priority, don’t forget to take these other 8 backlink benefits into consideration when evaluating your link building efforts.

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