When we think of Internet marketing, the word “backlink” doesn’t
automatically come to mind. In fact, most people who aren’t involved with a
website would not even know what a backlink means. To put it simply, a
backlink is any URL link from another website that will take web surfers
directly to your website. So, a backlink is like a business card (in the form of
an Internet address) that you gave to someone who then refers other people
back to you. Using this metaphor, one can see that the more backlinks you get the more business you get too. However, that’s not the sole reason why
backlinks are important in Internet marketing.
While a backlink is a type of referral, it also can be a measure of your
website’s reputation. This is why major search engines use backlinks in their
search algorithms. They catalogue the number of backlinks and the strength
of the people who are backlinking to your site and use this in their algorithm
to determine how well you rank amongst other sites that deal with your
website niche. Using backlinks you can raise the visibility of your site by
getting your site highly ranked in the search engine. This, in turn, will lead
to more people visiting your site and thus more business.
As if that weren’t enough, the backlinks are also used to determine the
worth of the website should you decide to sell the domain later. So,
backlinks can turn into dollar signs, even if your site happens to be a blog,
instead of a full website. That’s how powerful backlinks are!