Backlinks are not just nice to have. They’re essential to generating real search engine optimization (SEO) value.
Not only do they drive more traffic to your site, but they also increase your overall page authority and trustworthiness. Search engines reward websites that earn links from high authority resources.
In fact, Google’s search quality senior strategist, Andrey Lipattsev, said that links and content are among the top three ranking signals. This makes sense because both of these go hand in hand.
Great content delights readers and boosts website authority. Some of those delighted readers might share this awesome content to their followers, which further improves authority and, therefore, ranking potential.
However, not all backlinks are created equal, and many sites struggle with increasing their number of links on other sites.
Backlinks earned from helpful content that appear on authoritative sites are more likely to bring in sustainable traffic that grows along with your business.
When building backlinks, you should also know what not to do to prevent being penalized by Google and other search engines that could send you plummeting in the page rankings.
Here are 12 tips you need to use to build awesome backlinks for your website.
1. Review Google Webmaster Guidelines
Before building backlinks, review the Google Webmaster Guidelines. This is your best resource for learning about what constitutes high quality links and which practices to avoid.
Google cracks down on spammy and low-quality links with changes to its search engine algorithm. For example, its famous Penguin updates downgraded sites that participated in link buying or questionable link networks.
