The importance of Backlinks in your SEO Marketing Plans
Firstly, let us tackle the question of ‘What is a backlink?‘ – Backlinks, which also go by the name of inbound links, incoming links or one way links are simply the word to phrase links from one website to another website. So a third party website will contain a link to your website thus your website gets itself a (vote) backlink from a third party website.
What is the purpose of backlinks? The most important factor here is their importance towards your ranking on search engines such as Google which use backlinks as a points scoring system to improve your site ranking. The more influential, higher Domain Authority ranked websites that have back links to your website proves to Google that your website is of importance and relevance when it comes to the keywords being searched for.
Ok, so now you ask what is domain authority – The term Domain Authority (DA) is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz that predicts how likely a website is to rank in search engine result pages (SERPs).
So what about the importance of backlinks to your business? Well, I am hoping it is relatively clear from the descriptive explanations above that backlinks can drive more visitors to your website. The better job that you do in obtaining backlinks, ie influence status of third party websites and key word links, then the more targeted traffic you can look to acquire.
Within estate agency the importance of backlinks continues and especially relating to localised keywords and local third party websites. With any business you are looking to base your content around what you do and as an estate agent it will mostly focus on local property and local information – By building backlinks with relevant key words such as ‘property for sale in xxxx‘ or ‘how to buy your first home in xxxxx‘ then you are telling Google that your website is a quality reference point when consumers are typing in such terms on their search engine.
How can you generate backlinks? Here is where the hard work begins, but you will see positive results relatively quickly if you do a decent job. For estate agents looking to build their backlinks I suggest the two following main ways in which to do so:
- Create quality content that is likely to be shared and quoted: I am sure that many people within marketing realise the importance of quality content and having plenty of it. If you are going to take the time, say for this example in writing a blog, then you should make sure it is in-depth and educational. By writing powerful content and sharing it out as wide as possible (ie social media channels) then it is likely that it will be read, shared and (importantly so) referenced in other people’s blogs. For example if I wrote an article based on ‘10 ways to save money on your first time buyer mortgage‘ and someone reading uses one of my quotes in their article and kindly references where they got it from, then I have achieve a valuable backlink which the value increases depending on the domain authority of that sharing website. As a reverse example, the subject of first time buyer mortgages and saving money I will refer to an article from the website ‘which’ including their quote ‘the best mortgage deals currently available to first-time buyers‘.
- Guest posting: Another great way in which to get your links on to third party website is to offer them your content for free. Here you will soon realise that the quality of your content (and possibly your profile too) will depend if you get a yes or no or even a request to pay for estate agency themed backlinks*. Nothing stops you approaching local / target websites that you would like to get your content on to with a polite introduction email and a suggestion of a topic. For example you could approach the local blinds company and suggest that you will write an article on how blinds can increase their value / appeal of your home – You will simply request a link back for such a service on relevant key words within the article ie ‘as a local estate agency in xxxxxxx we see many luxury property that are calling out for blinds instead of net curtains‘.
* Another option that is growing in popularity is paying for backlinks. This is usually the process adopted when you employ the services of an SEO company, they will seek both free placements, on your behalf, on to third party websites and sometimes pay if the website has a decent DA.
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