Backlink: An Introduction And SEO Link Building Guide

A Backlink Checker is a tool used for checking incoming links pointing to your domain. A backlink checker is essential to view every relevant and spam links pointing to your domain.

So if you really need a backlink checker to view all the incoming external links pointing to your domain at absolutely no cost at all? Then you need to add this post to your RSS feed, as I will be showing you one of the best and uncommonly used backlinks checker available on the internet. 

As a blog owner, I’m sure you must have heard of the Google Search Console. It was previously known as the webmaster tool. Search console is a free service offered by Google to help submit your sitemaps and index your blog for search engine ranking.

Aside from the fact that it is used for submitting sitemaps, this tool has unlimited features like a backlink checker tool. The list of what you can do with these tools is just endless. But before I take you any further, let’s know what a backlink is.

WHAT IS BACKLINK?

BACKLINKS literally mean all external or incoming links from other blogs pointing or coming to your webpage with a hyperlinks anchor text or an image link that leads people to your own webpage or homepage when they click on it.

Building Backlinks are still very essential in the game of SEO. Moreover, backlinks are powerful and can help skyrocket your search engine ranking enormously. 

As a web owner, you need to set aside or hire some agency to help you build backlinks to your blog. But hiring an agency to build backlinks for you is very expensive. That is why I recommend you build them yourself. But how do you build relevant backlinks? 

EXAMPLE OF A BACKLINK

Backlinks are a way of telling the search engines that what you are linking out to is relevant is important.

Take, for instance, you submitted your cv for an interview with a very reputable company. Let say Wikipedia. Inside your cv, there is a recommendation from another reputable company, let say Facebook. The recommendation from Facebook in your cv will boost your chances of getting a job with Wikipedia.

That is how backlinks work. When a more prominent website gives you a backlink, it tells the search engine that the website receiving the backlink is relevant. As a result, it will increase your ranking enormously.

A backlink from a related niche will boost your relevancy, your authority.

HOW TO CREATE BACKLINK?

So now you know what a backlink is? How do you create them?

• Go to any post you intend to create the backlinks with.
• Highlight your desired anchor text and click on the link icon.
• Now go to the website you want to give the backlink.
• Copy the URL of the webpage or homepage, go back to the post editor, paste the copied link in the space and click on apply.

And voila, your backlink is ready.

WHAT IS THE ROLE OF THE BACKLINK IN SEO?

Without a doubt, backlinks are essential in the game of SEO. Backlinks are very important that they cannot be overlooked.

A few backlinks from authoritative websites can earn you a soft spot in search engines. Backlinks are so important that big brands hire people or agencies to build them high and quality backlinks. So therefore, backlinks are essential in SEO.

TYPES OF BACKLINKS

TWO WAYS TO BUILD HIGH-QUALITY RELEVANT BACKLINKS

Getting backlinks from other blogs is not easy at all. It is not something you just get, especially when your blog is new. But when you get famous, you will start getting them without asking for it. When you create excellent content(Recommended proofreaders like Grammarly and ProWritingAid), people will automatically link up to it. But for now, you need to do the job by asking for backlinks. Let’s take a look at some of the ways to build backlinks. 

Also checkout: six ways to build a better blog

GUEST POSTING

This is an excellent way of building relevant backlinks. Formally guest posting was very hot years back because virtually everybody was doing guest posting. Guest posting is no longer blazing hot. But still relevant if you are looking for a faster and more convenient way of building backlinks. 

Basically, this method involves you creating content for another blog in your niche. You get to create content for other blogs in your niche with an anchor text link in the content leading people to your own webpage.

Anchor text is a clickable link text that is capable of leading prospects or Google crawlers from one page to another.But how do you start guest posting on other blogs?

Simple, it is easy to look for blogs that accept guest posting. Search your niche site that accepts guest posting on google. Then, pick up a blog that still accepts guest posting on their blog and starts creating content for them.

Things to remember when getting backlinks from guest posting

The content you create for them should include a link that directs prospects to your web post. It is advisable to use a specific keyword you are trying to rank for as the anchor text. Also, it is advisable to use other words as your anchor text. Because, it helps communicate with google that your blog is not spam. But it must be related to the content. Remember always to create unique content without plagiarism.

You should always remember that you should not keep building external links from the same blog. Because, it adds only little authority and relevancy to your own blog. 

Another thing to look out for when guest posting is that you should target blogs with higher domain authority than yours. This way, it builds your trust and relevance in google. 

Guest blogging is also a significant way of driving great referral traffics to your blog.

BROKEN LINK BACKLINK BUILDING

What exactly is broken link backlink building? You may be confused right now, but trust me, this also one of the easiest ways of getting backlinks.

So what are broken links backlinks building? It’s merely referred to as the broken link found on a web post. Maybe you are reading an article that is related to your blog niche, and you notice a broken link when you click on it, it leads you to a 404 error display page. That means the page you are trying to reach no longer exists.

This could be your next avenue of getting backlinks. The owner of the blog may not be aware of the broken links on its page. 

When I notice a broken link on an old blog post, what I do is I alert the web owner about the broken link on its page. Because it can ruin the UX (user experience) of the people reading the blog post.

The blog owner’s chances of linking to you are high because you are doing them a big favor of bringing the broken link on their blog to their notice.

But before I alert the web owner about the broken link on its page, I make sure I create similar content that that is related to the broken link. Nevertheless, you can alert the web owner immediately if you already have similar content that is related to the broken link found on the page.  But how do you identify a broken link?

Also Check: 20+ Best White Label SEO Tools

How to identify a broken backlink?

Simple! Finding broken links is not much of a task, as there is a chrome extension that can help you identify broken links on the web post. This extension comes very handily when you read a post on another blog related to your niche.

Go to chrome browser and search for check my links extension and install it. Anytime you are reading a blog post, all you have to do is activate the extension. Doing this, you will see a list of all the valid and broken links on that webpage or a blog post. Valid links are highlighted with green colors, while broken links are highlighted in red colors.

Try to click on any of the broken links and see where it leads you. It will lead you to a 404 error display page. This could be as a result of the web page been deleted, or the permalink is changed. So now you have found broken links. How then do you discover what the broken link is all about?

How to know what a broken link is about?

Knowing what the broken link is all about, you can do this by taking a snapshot of the broken webpage on archive.org. This website shows you a snapshot of what a broken web page is about before being removed or deleted.

This is helpful because it gives you ideas on the previous web page that got deleted. Once you have an idea of what the deleted page is all about, you can create your own version of the topic. But make sure not to plagiarize the contents.

Note: when building backlinks be careful not to build links from spam blogs as this will eventually make google to flag off your blog as a spam blog. So how do you avoid such backlinks?

TYPES OF BACKLINKS YOU MUST AVOID

Without been said, External links are indeed an essential part of SEO. As important as they are, there are some external links you should avoid at all cost why because they can lead to the google penalizing your blog. Let’s take a look at some of the backlinks you should avoid at all costs.

Buying Backlinks

Whatever you do, I’d recommend you never buy backlinks or whatsoever, especially from fiverr.com. External links from these blogs are highly spam and could get your blog google penalty. 

Google bots are very smart and can detect backlinks that are bought. Especially as a new blog, you should avoid buying external links because they will land you in hot soup. You can’t be having 200 monthly traffic, and your site has more than 50 backlinks pointing to it; that’s a considerable flag off. 

Reciprocal Backlinks

The is another type of backlinks you should avoid most times.  Just like the name sounds, take, for instance, if you link out to another blog in your niche, and that particular blog is also giving you backlinks, then it becomes a reciprocal backlink building.

This method is totally fine with google but can be irrelevant if the backlink exchange between the two blogs becomes ordinary or regular. Hence, it will decrease your blogs’ value.

BEST BACKLINK CHECKER TOOLS

After building your relevant backlinks, the next thing is, how do you check or know the blogs that are giving you the backlink? There are tons of backlink checker or white label SEO tools available on the internet.

I want to show you some of the best and amazing tools out there for checking your backlinks. Some of these tools require a fee to be able to peruse the full features of the tools.

Moz.com

The tool above is a great backlink checker. The free version of the Moz tool offers a lot of great features. You can use the Moz open site explorer to check all incoming links pointing to your domain. Moz free version allows you to view up to 50 backlinks on your site and five search queries in 24 hours.

This amazing tool also has an extension that can show you the DA and PA (domain and page authority) of a blog when you turn it on. The extension, also known as the mozbar, can reveal the number of backlinks pointing to a particular page or post.

Ahrefs.com

This is another excellent backlinks checker tool. But unlike Moz, you pay on the go. The Ahref tool allows new users to use the tool for $7 for seven days, which they claim to be their free version. After the seven days expires, you will need to pay as high as $99 per month, which is actually expensive for people starting out.

Semrush.com

Just like Ahrefs, with SEMrush, you will also need to sign up with your credit card details before you are allowed to use the tool.

When you sign up on SEMrush, they will give you a free trial for 7 days, after which you will be charged from your credit card when your free trial expires. But you can always cancel the trial before it finishes so you won’t get unnecessary debit alerts from your account.

Google Search Console

This is the most uncommon backlink checker; this tool is from Google, which has so many functionalities. You can use this tool to check your SERP, submit a sitemap, and index a page for search engines to crawl. For you to access this tool, you need a blog. Create an account and add your blog properties to the search console, which is very easy.

After all the necessary steps, this is how to check your backlinks. Login to your dashboard on the search console and scroll down to links in the menu options, here you will see all the information regarding all external links pointing to your domain and the anchor text they used.

Also Check: Why Does Outsourcing Link Building Matter In Digital Marketing?

FAQS ON BACKLINK

Many questions are being asked around the internet regarding backlink building, but these are the most frequently asked questions.

Conclusion

If you use link building techniques above, you will generate powerful and relevant backlinks in no time.

Also Check: How To Make Money With Guest Posting?

Images by Parveender Lamba