The Value of Backlinks

The Value of Backlinks
by: David Chionsini
http://www.InetWareTechnology.com
Do you remember the movie "Fields of Dreams" with Kevin Costner? Do you remember the famous quote from the movie? That quote was "if you build it they will come". I hate to tell you this, that’s not true with websites. I usually tell potential customers "just because you build it doesn’t mean they’ll come". Just because your website is on the Internet doesn’t mean people automatically know how to find you.
A website without any visitors is nothing but a cost and responsibility for a company. Its mere existence is pointless unless it gets quality traffic to the site. A website can get traffic with what’s termed backlinks. Backlinks are incoming links form other websites on the internet that simply point back to your site. The number and quality of backlinks is one indication of the popularity or importance of your website or page. These backlinks are an indication to the search engines of who is paying attention to your website or page.
Building link popularity is a very important component to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) in order to obtain more traffic to your site. As such, it really should be carried out in a thoughtful and appropriate method in order to gain targeted traffic back to your site.
SEO methods have and continue to change from time to time. However, one thing that has remained fairly constant is that of developing quality backlinks. I want to stress one point again – it’s actually one word, quality. You want your site to support strong and high quality backlinks. Backlinks make your site common and credible on the Internet. It’s important to remember that these backlinks don’t just support connectivity to your site; they also improve your sites search engine ranking. An easy way to think of it is that these links are counted as votes on a search engine like Google, Bing, or Yahoo.
Not all backlinks carry the same weight or value. The significance and value of a link depends on the relevancy and credibility from the linked site. Think of it this way, if your business is a roofing company, getting links from a roofing supply company or a residential contractor would have more weight or value then a link from a Pro Golf Shop.
Developing a number of quality inbound links from similar and preferred websites will greatly improve the kind of traffic you want coming into your site. Most consumers would rather look for products and services on well known and reliable websites. As such, links developed with other sites can direct traffic back to your site.
The quality and quantity of traffic coming back to your site depends on the quality of links posted on other sites. Only relevant and qualified links enable the development of targeted traffic. If you’re looking to develop backlinks for your business, don’t build links just for the sake of building them. Backlinks from unrelated sites will likely drive unrelated traffic to your site. Sites can also be penalized if all they are doing is creating links for the sake of creating links. This is a good point to mention link farms. There are a lot of places on the Internet where you can buy links but I really would discourage that approach unless you’re getting high quality links from relevant sites through the link farm. Again, be selective!
Keep in mind that backlinks are one of the building blocks that assist in creating greater visibility on the Internet. You should carefully consider how and where you create these links. Remember, its quality, not quantity of links. If you develop quality links that are posted on relevant websites, these links can provide a long term benefit for your site not just in terms of traffic but also in terms of sales and Page Rank.
If you are a business owner or you know of a business that could benefit from Search Engine Optimization, please call or refer them to InetWare Technology.
Office: (210) 401-3441

http://www.InetWareTechnology.com
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