How Inbound Links Actually Work
It is no secret that major search engines like Google consider the number and quality of inbound links as one of a multitude of factors (reportedly over 100 factors) that influence a website’s ranking.
What Are Inbound Links?
Inbound links – also known as backlinks, inward links, or incoming links — are links that start from outside of a website and lead to it. For instance, if you have a dot com website and someone posts a link to your site in a blog posting or a facebook update, from your vantage point as the webmaster of the dot com site, this is considered an inbound link to your site.
Why Does Google Rank Sites Higher with Better Inbound Links?
Some webmasters make the mistake of believing that it is the sheer number of inbound links that affects their site’s ranking. While quantity is a factor, the quality of the content and the perceived value of the websites from which the traffic is drawn are both important.
How to Get Quality Inbound Links for Your Website
One of the best ways to ensure quality in your inbound links is to avoid link exchanges (reciprocal linking). This is when two site owners trade links. The search engines are more attracted to sites that have many inbound links which are not reciprocated. This shows that your site is attracting internet users in a natural way due to being a site of value, not via some kind of forced exchange.
Another mistake is to introduce additional very poorly-written websites and to send inbound links to your own main site. The reason this is ineffective is because search engines take into account the quality of the site where the link is posted. It is ok to link to your own sister sites, but only if those sites are of high quality. And again, avoid reciprocal linking.
Finally, make certain that all content inbound links are a part of is indeed good quality content. If the content itself is keyword stuffed, uses forced language, is too short or too sales-y, it will not be as likely to constitute a proper home for a quality inbound link.
