Today, we shall understand further about the types of links and the links that matter for SEO. Excited and eager to learn? Great, that’s the attitude we want!
Have you ever wondered why 99% of blog posts contain links? Come to think of it, aren’t they redirecting viewers’ attention from blog posts to other websites? Well, they do, and website owners are well aware of that. However, website owners still add links because certain types of links matter for search engine optimization. Yes, you read that right…links are important for SEO.
SERP
Search engines use links on websites to help them choose which sites should be ranked first and foremost. It’s just one of many characteristics that search engines take into account when assessing a domain. Through links, a search engine may determine whether a website is of high quality.
The term “link juice” refers to how links transfer value and equity from one page to another. Link equity is determined by a number of factors, including a page’s trustworthiness, topic relevancy, value, and authoritativeness.
When Google originally launched, the number of links a website received was used to measure its quality. Many people, on the other hand, took advantage of the situation and constructed multiple websites with links to their own.
Here are the 5 types of that links
- Internal links
- External reference
- Natural Links
- Links received manually
- Self-created links
Today we will learn more about link types, which are used by SEO services in digital marketing services, and links that matter for SEO.
Search engines actually look at links on websites to help them decide which website ranks at the top and on the first page. This is just one of many factors that search engines take into account when evaluating a domain. A search engine can determine the good quality of a website from links.
Links transfer value and value from one page to another and they are called link juice. Link equity is measured by several parameters, mainly by reliability, the relevance of the topic, value, and authority of the page.
Back when Google first started, the quality of a website was determined by the number of links a particular website gets. However, many people have taken advantage of this and created several websites that link to their own main website.
These people were trying to trick Google into thinking their websites were important, popular, and relevant. You guessed it… as a result, most of them ended up on the first page of the search engine results page (SERP).
Today, things are not the same as they used to be. The Google search engine introduced the Google Panda in February 2011. The goal was to remove low-quality sites from the top page and put higher-quality sites at the top. Search engines now determine the quality of a website by carefully evaluating it against a variety of criteria.
You can learn more about the criteria Google takes into account when ranking a website here. For those of you who don’t know, the blue underlined “here” is an external link. What is an external link, you ask? I got you covered, read on to find out. By the end of this post, you will know more about the different types of links on and off the website and how to use each one.
What is a natural link?
A natural link is a link that you receive from other website owners without your request. In other words, it indicates that your page has great content. Think of it this way: if you’re an athlete and they think you’re cool, people give you attention without you asking.
It’s the same with a natural link; your content is too good for people to want to show it. Other website owners are redirecting their readers to your page because your page contains content they think is worth sharing.
What is a manual link?
Manual links are links that you get through effort. What do I mean? You have to spend time and effort contacting other website owners and bloggers to link to your page and post it.
These manual link-building methods when they request links are common among small businesses where they are still unknown in the industry. One doesn’t just show another website as this will affect the quality of the other.
To get links, you have to show bloggers and other businesses that your content is worth sharing and showing. Keep in mind that the websites you want to post must be relevant to yours or the link won’t have much authority or value.
Why do natural links and manually generated links matter?
This is the same concept as external links. If you’re getting links from other websites, it tells search engines that your site is up to date and of good quality. Both types of web links are considered good links. What do I mean by good? I mean there are bad backlinks too?
The answer is yes. These are so-called self-created links designed to trick search engines.
What is a self-created link?
This is the only link among the 5 types in this article that does not matter for SEO. As the name suggests, self-created links are links that are created by the website owner themselves to deceive search engines that their links are relevant and important.
Now the difference between good and bad backlinks is clear… Good backlinks are links created by other people and bad backlinks are links created by the owners themselves. There are many types of self-created links, such as adding a backlink to forums and blog comments.
Most blog entries, you’ve probably noticed, contain links. Backlinking is an important part of any SEO plan. Links may indicate to search engines that a site is recognizable and trustworthy, and so deserving of the top spot on search engine results pages (SERPs). However, having a large number of incorporated links is insufficient because their types are also important. Different types of links serve different objectives and have varying degrees of impact on search engine rankings and the results you can expect from generating them.
The anchor text of your links also matters.
Equally important to the nature of your links is the anchor text you use. Without the right strategy, your links can appear spammy and hurt your SEO and your rankings!
BiQ SEO Suite is a great tool that you can use to check your on-page SEO and make sure your anchor texts are properly optimized and don’t contain too much spam.
The tool has a built-in content checker that can quickly scan your content for any important SEO rules you need to follow. And one of them involves checking your anchor text to make sure it doesn’t look too spammy to reduce the quality of your links.
Getting Backlinks Naturally or Buying Them?
A good mix of the two.
You can have both natural and manually obtained relationships in general. When other websites link to yours, it notifies search engines that your site is relevant and of high quality.
A normal and natural link is one that you receive without asking for it from other platform owners. It demonstrates that your platform contains high-quality content, as well as the endorsement of other authors. They send their visitors to your site because it provides information that they believe is worth sharing.
