Websites with high domain authority (DA) scores receive top placement on the search engine results pages (SERPs) presented to users after they enter keywords or questions into a web browser’s search engine. Over two-thirds of all users click on links that appear on the first page of search engine results. Websites on the first page of search results are able to organically drive more traffic to their website, which can lead to increased sales.
Backlinks are an essential part of any search engine optimization (SEO) marketing strategy. When they are used effectively they will raise your site’s DA score. You can increase relevant traffic to your site and boost your DA score if you know how to find backlinks to your site, assess those backlinks effectively, and generate quality backlinks.
Definition
Links that lead to your site are backlinks. They are also known as inbound links. Backlinks can appear on social media bios, social media and blog posts, other websites, and discussion forums.
Importance of Backlinks
Backlinks enable people to discover your site through external links. When people post links to your site the links generate organic traffic. High traffic volumes raise a site’s DA score, which helps increase the site’s profile.
Backlinks are also important because search engine crawlers use them to travel to websites. If there are no backlinks to your site it’s possible crawlers will not access and index your site content. This means your website may not even receive a DA score, which means it will not be listed on the search engine results page.
Finding Your Backlinks
You can use a free backlink checker to identify backlinks to your site. The backlink checker lists each site that links to yours. It presents each sites’ DA score, the number of times it links to your site, and the anchor text the link is connected to. It also identifies the date the link appeared and the exact uniform resource locator (URL) the site links to.
This information can be used to determine which content on your site other sites found most relevant. This can help you tailor future content to increase its relevance and appeal to other sites. You can also use the dates to determine whether your site is increasing its volume of backlinks or not. Checking your site’s backlinks regularly can help you determine whether you are meeting backlink volume targets with new content.
Evaluating Backlinks
LinkGraph runs a free backlink audit. This backlink analysis identifies how many inbound links you have and determines how many of those links are good and how many are bad.
Good links come from reputable sources. When sites with high DA scores link to your site, search engines consider your site more authoritative and raise its DA score.
Links should originate from relevant sources because those links are more likely to generate relevant traffic. If a vegan follows a link to a company selling leather goods, they will likely leave the site immediately. If they follow a link to a company selling vegan products, they are more likely to engage with the site. Search engines raise DA scores when sites have high volumes of traffic that interact with the site by reading content, watching videos, clicking on links, or making purchases. Search engines lower DA scores for sites that have traffic that leaves without engaging with the site.
When you identify links from irrelevant sites you can take steps to have those links removed. This will decrease your volume of irrelevant traffic and boost your DA score.
Generating Backlinks
You can generate new backlinks by posting useful, relevant content on your website. People will be more likely to post links to information they find helpful. You can add videos or blog posts to your site to attract traffic.
You can establish your expertise in your field with helpful videos or guides explaining how to perform specific tasks. You can also input keywords in free search engine tools that list common questions users ask about those keywords. You can increase your traffic by customizing content to answer those questions.
Contribute posts to relevant blogs. This will help establish your knowledge of your industry. You can include a bio at the end of your post that has a link to your website in it. This is an effective way to increase your backlinks and generate more traffic for your website.
