The Backlink is a Reference from one Web Page to another Web Page
The term ‘backlink’ describes a regular hyperlink – a link which, when clicked, leads from one website to another. The backlink is nothing more than a reference from webpage A to webpage B. The kind of backlinks we’re specifically interested in here are ones where the operator of webpage A recommends the content of webpage B to their visitors on a certain topic, by providing a link. Backlinks help Google to decide on the relevance of a website; they’re usually a reliable indicator of high-quality content, because, as already mentioned, a backlink is a kind of recommendation that a website makes for another website.
Since website operators usually only link to websites where the content offers a useful added value for their readership, backlinks from trusted, high-quality sites are of prime importance for Google – get these, and they will help you to achieve a better ranking. In truth, any quality backlinks to your site gained over the years will improve your website’s ranking. But relying on this scattershot process can take a long time.
The magic wand here is ‘link building’ – in which you actively seek out backlinks to your website from quality, relevant sites, to improve your placement in the search results. Link building is a part of off-page SEO optimization. However, a fundamental part of link building is to take the time to include clear and targetted ‘anchor text’ with your links – this anchor text contains the description of the link’s target in text form.
This anchor text should be written so that it describes the content of the link’s target website in the best possible way. If it does so, a potential visitor to the website can quickly see what content is behind the link. Anchor text helps search-engine crawlers to more easily match the content behind a link to the relevant topic in a search query. To avoid being penalised by search engines, however, you should always ensure your anchor text is ‘natural’ – for example, don’t solely use anchor text such as ‘click here’.
The best practice for the ideal way to approach anchor text changes over time; up until recently, the motto was: the more backlinks that use the desired keyword as anchor text, the better. Today, however, using ‘natural’ and varied anchor text and securing high-quality backlinks from websites with a medium-to-high visibility are considered higher priorities.
Good backlinking does not depend on amassing a hgh number of links; instead, it is built on securing high-quality backlinks. Websites today which amass many low-quality inbound links to their site can be suspected of ‘link spam’, and can incur a penalty from the search-engine providers: this can even, in extreme cases, lead to a site being removed from Google’s search index. So it is much more important to focus on link building that grows naturally.