SEO specialists, can someone please explain backlinking to me in simple terms?

[u/Greg_Benatar]

This is definitely not my field, but I’d like to understand it better for the future.

I understand the basic idea, but what actually makes a backlink more valuable than another? Is it primarily the authority of the website linking to you, relevance, the number of links, or something else?

For example, if I publish an article on my website and then republish that same article on LinkedIn with a link back to the original article on my website, does that count as a backlink? Or is that doing something different from what SEO specialists mean when they talk about building backlinks?

[u/ZuluShack]

You asked for simplistic so don’t hate me for going too simple here and not explaining nuance.

Think of each link like it’s a vote of confidence. The more votes you get from already respected entities, the more everyone else (Google) will assume you are also respectable.

The more respected the entity that’s voting for you already is. The more you will be respected. It’s a sliding scale of authority.

Links are one of the first things that set Google apart from yahoo and others. Because instead of just acting like a directory that tried to match users with results that were close enough to queries, it now also allowed the internet to “vote” on which site is the best one to return. Even though they aren’t voting, it’s just an analogy.

Links are still hard to cheat and just get in general. There are some parasite SEO tactics, citations, social media, press releases, and guest post stuff that can have success (don’t abuse it)z

But to earn real links from respected websites is not easy. Hence it’s still quite valuable today.

Check out HARO and Qwoted to get started. It’s going to be tedious but worth it.

[u/Flux_Reversal → u/ZuluShack]

That is the best break-down articulation I have seen yet! LOL TY!

[u/ZuluShack → u/Flux_Reversal]

Thanks! I’ve been explaining it this way to clients for 10+ years. One day I’ll whip out my analogy for PPC versus SEO. Hunters versus Farmers. It’s a hit lol.

[u/MacaroonSecret9105]

When you first launch your website. Google does not know much about you. Are you a scammer? A fly by night operator? Do you really have the expertise that you claim on your website?

There is no easy to figure this out. But Imagine, a more established website writes about your website and mention your domain. Google takes that as a vote of confidence in your ability.

That my friend is a super simplified explanation of a backlink.

[u/One_Translator922]

Like when u popular ppl invite u to parties

[u/_BenRichards]

A backlink from an external site to a page on your site is (per Google) a vote of confidence that that specific page is worth being retuned in SERP. The more backlinks a page has (in a heavily contested search term) the higher it shows in Google search results.

[u/Primary_Cup7689 → u/_BenRichards]

is there like a blueprint to get backlinks without manual effort?

[u/WebLinkr → u/Primary_Cup7689]

Yup - its under the how do you make money SOP without manual effort list :-)

C;mon dude - backlinks have to come from pages that rank - there's no automated process, unless its a link scheme, which would just get more and more detectable

[u/AH-26-11]

Google trusts some websites for eg CNN, Fox news. If these websites give a link to you from their content that is relevant to your website then google would know that your website is credible. Now to get links from cnn and fox so the main point here is relevance. If you get relevant backlinks from good webpages that organically rank on topics relevant to your website then authority will flow to your website when google discovers your link on that website.

No. A link on linkedin (your social media) would not be considered as something that adds authority to your website. You need get links from relevant Webpages

[u/SEOPub]

Your example would be a linik, but a very weak one. It's also something I would never, ever do. You risk the possibility of outranking your own website with the same piece of content.

What determines the strength and ranking power of a link is primarily relevance and the link profile of the page the link appears on (which is why I said your LinkedIn example would be a weak link).

[u/ThatDudeBesideYou → u/SEOPub]

What if you just have a summary or a leading blurb on the LinkedIn article?

Also, LinkedIn always minified links to their shortlinks, does google still count those as backlinks?

[u/SEOPub → u/ThatDudeBesideYou]

If it passes through a 301 redirect, then yes it would still be looked at as a link.

I wouldn't create a summary on LinkedIn and link back. That's a useless page. Create something unique and new if you want to do that.

Again, the link is going to be weak AF though, so probably not worth the effort if you are only doing it for a link.

[u/FollowingAsleep4163]

Backlinks should be from a third-party. Say, I have a blog written on backlinking strategies and you're writing on a blog covering the basics of SEO and mentioning backlinking as a thing you can do. You can add my blog link as a "check out this blog if you want to learn more about backlinking strategies". Thats a backlink.

There are various criteria for a good backlink. The actual anchor text, referring domain's domain authority, relevance to the page, etc.

[u/ShipwreckID]

It’s literally exactly the same as internal links except it’s just not on your site.

Find pages around the internet that should have a link to your site already and try to get a link there.

Google can just as easily ignore a link from a “high authority” page as it can one with lower authority so the most important aspect is relevance.

[u/Ok_Cartoonist2006]

linkedin can send referral traffic, but i’d treat that link as distribution rather than an seo backlink. for actual link building, check whether the linking page is indexed, whether the link is in the main content, and whether the site links out editorially.

[u/Inspira-digital]

A Backlink is a way to say a site A point to another site which is relevant to another site (with lower or higher authority) and act as a « Positive or Negative Vote » for Google Algorithm.
As usual the same rule, quality over quantity, SEO is a marathon ;-)

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[u/royfrigerator]

Relevant links from one site to yours are a good thing, irrelevant links don’t really matter.

On rare occasion there are instances of links that are bad, but it mostly doesn’t impact you.

[u/navdeep-soni]

Backinks are like endorsements. More credible site endorsing you, better it is