Video transcript
Does it matter where your backlinks come from? Absolutely it does. You need to show Google context. Hey, these people are like me, and they’re talking about me; therefore, I must be important. Don’t bother buying links. Just don’t.
The role of context and reputation in backlinks
Let’s explore why context is so important. Let me explain it using a scenario: if you have decided to start a rocket-building company and you wanted Google to understand how important you are, then getting a link from NASA would be really helpful. A lot of SEO can be viewed through the lens of basking in the glory of the people you surround yourself with.
If you’ve got really good, trustworthy friends, and they all have brilliant websites that all rank well, and they link to you, then Google can see how fantastic you really are. If all of these brilliant friends happen to work in the same industry as you, then that makes it really clear to Google that you must be important because everyone is talking about you.
Let’s look at the other side of this coin: if you have lots of friends who are part of an organized crime syndicate and they all link to your website, you’re probably going to look bad. So, if you buy links from mysterious sources, not only will they not help your SEO in the long run, but they may also damage your reputation in the eyes of Google.
Context is also essential when earning backlinks. Google has a pretty good understanding of how context and semantically linked content and ideas work. So, if you are running a company that sells gardening tools, Google understands that there’s a good chance gardens, nurseries, and professional gardeners might talk about you and, therefore, link to your website.
Not only does Google understand these things, but they also help Google learn more about language. It’s not too much of a stretch of the imagination to say that Google is a language engine that happens to have a search engine as its primary output.
Over the coming years, as Google develops its own AI tools like Google Bard, it will become even more imperative that the links to your website are natural and come from reliable contextual sources. This current leap forward in AI is just another example of Google getting much better at understanding how the world operates from a language and authority perspective.
We also need to look at other sources from which you can get backlinks, like social media. Social media links aren’t as useful as links from authoritative websites because they’re much easier to obtain, but they do have a use, especially if a post that you have published goes viral and is shared by lots of people and that post just happens to have a link to your website in it. But in terms of effort to reward, building up lots of backlinks using social media doesn’t really work.
So, what’s the absolute best way to get backlinks for your website? I’m afraid the answer is a bit dull. If you’re looking for a quick fix, there isn’t one. To get the best links to your website, you need to create the best content.
Your articles need to be the best in your industry. If you can crack this, people naturally want to link to you. It will be a pleasure for them to link to you, and it will be a joy to watch your website go up the rankings.
Often with SEO, we are looking for the most efficient way to make gains, but when it comes down to earning backlinks, there’s no getting past the fact that you do need to create brilliant content.
Last Updated on December 22, 2023
