All you need to know about backlinks

Backlinks, also named inbound links, reflects the popularity of a site and its audience. For webmasters, they are the key factor in search engine optimization, for improving the traffic of a site.

The PageRank algorithm, that made Google's success, is entirely based on the links.

Challenge.
Why to add external links?
Who get links to his articles?
When one does not make a link.
Rules for links.
Site design and backlinks.
Quality links.

Links in footer.
Reciprocal Links

Riskiness of backlinks.
How to know the backlinks.
Conclusion.
More.

Challenge

They give visibility to an article on the Web. They provide visitors who follow links, but also improve the score of the article to the algorithm of search engines, and thus its position in the result that are the main source of traffic.

The challenge for a Web site that wants to expand its audience is to get from other webmasters, external links on his pages.
In this goal it is important to know why webmasters add these external links or when they do not add them.

Why to add external links?

You must know what let to create links. Most often, external links are added in the following cases:

To give more information if the webmaster does not wish to deepen the self-same subject.
To quote hes sources.
To indicate where to get a document that he does not provide itself. For example, a graphic, animation, script or software...
When he likes a page and what to share it with other.

As for blogs, which obey to a little different rules, to direct visitors to friend sites.

Who get links to his articles?

Portal sites

When the site has authority.
For a fairly long article.
A well-written article.
A reference article. Lists. For example "10 things" to do this or that.
If the page has a good PageRank.
The article creates enthusiasm.

Blogs

The rules are different. The social networking aspect outweighs the other, one must have friendly sites to have links.

When one does not make a link

There is little chance of getting back links in the following cases:

Article copied or releases of news from AFP.
Article poorly written or poorly presented.
Article implausible. It does not cite its sources or do not provide reliable reference.
From the sites with which it competes.

Rules for links

These rules cover rather portal sites, blogs depend mainly on their social network.

Design

The site design should be consistent in the sense that the interaction works the same on all pages.
The layout should be clean, give a professional impression.

Authority of the site and the author

The main factors that can give authority to a site:

A domain name short and generic.
A well-known author (blogs).
A good style.
Illustrations or photos on which the author have rights.
A good PageRank and a good position on Alexa.
Specialization.

PageRank reflects either a significant number of back links or links from pages with good PageRank.
Alexa ranking is unreliable but nevertheless inform on the traffic of a site, gives the position of the site on the web. Being in the first 100 000 is a reference.

See How to know the traffic of a website.

Specialization

Must (unless it is an encyclopedia) specialize to obtain an authority that creates backlinks, and do not pose itself as a competitor to a greater number of webmasters.

Site design and backlinks

Various aspects in the design of a site should be considered for getting backlinks.

Page size

It goes without saying that the larger the size of an article is important and more likely it is to get backlinks. On the other hand, short articles seem preferable for the engine, and to create content quickly.

Professionals sSites solve the dilemma by dividing the articles into several pages. The rule of division is as follows: Each page corresponds to a query on search engines.

External Links

They enrich an article and improve its position in results and therefore the traffic, but the drawback is that they send visitors to other sites.

However, wanting to keep visitors at any price would be a mistake, it is more important to get visitors than to keep them, and backlinks are the most important factor in improving the traffic by improving ranking in search engine results.
So the benefits of external links outweigh the disadvantages, do not hesitate to add them because it often happens that articles that get the most backlinks themselves have many external links.

Quality of links

According to Matt Cutts, that leads the Webspam team of Google, a quality link has the following characteristics:

It must have been given voluntarily.
It is an editorial link in the body of the text, and to complete the text.
It is pertinent: in connection with the topic of the article.
It has an explicit anchor what said on what it point out.
It is not malformed.
It contains no artifice that could deceived about its nature.
The connection is made because we want to let something known by his visitors.

These are links that are requested by those who provide elements of site such as templates for Wordpress for example. The author wants to have in a footer link on his site, and embeds the link in his template.
These links obey to a general law, if they are not relevant, if they have nothing to do with the content of the blog, they have no value.

Reciprocal links

Google previously advised against reciprocal links. Then his record has been refined: it discourages excessive reciprocal links. But what is excessive?

If the links are not natural, and irrelevant, if you request a backlink when you make a link to a site, these interactions are considered excessive.
They are not if they are useful to visitors.

Reference: Interview with Matt Cutts by Eric Enge July 16, 2008.

Riskiness of backlinks

In hopes of improving their position in search results, some sites set up link farms, these are satellite sites created for that purpose and containing quantities of links on their site.
They can also piggybacking collaborative sites to host these pages of links... before they are deleted by moderators.

How to know the backlinks

If you are the webmaster of the site, you can find a partial list of links to a page through Google Webmaster Tools.
Otherwise, you can use the Explorer from the Yahoo engine.

The command link: of Google does provide only a small fraction of links on a page.

Conclusion

A recent thematic site must specialize and do not write on all topics. The theme should be clear. The content must be made of long articles well written, with original content.
Blogs depend mainly of social network and little of content. But to broaden his audience one must go beyond the blogroll and use the principles of thematic site.

Google Webmaster Tools.
Diagnosis of referencing. Form to fill to get a free evaluation of your site.
FAQ of PageRank.
How to get backlinks.
Analysis of PageRank.