![\"Attracting](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/attracting-links-420.jpg\")
<\/p>\nPhoto by Les Chatfield<\/a> (CC by 2.0)<\/a>, modified<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Links have been the lifeblood of search engine optimization for a long time. Ever since Google cofounder Larry Page invented PageRank back in the late ’90s, links have been a primary way search engines determine rankings. Still today, getting quality inbound links from other websites (aka “backlinks”) is a crucial SEO ingredient \u2014 if they are obtained naturally, safely within search engine guidelines.<\/p>\n In this lesson, you’ll get to use two free SEO link tools<\/strong> that will help you identify links, AND you’ll learn:<\/span><\/p>\n Backlinks are incoming links (excluding ads) that point from another website back to your own. Evaluating a site’s backlinks (or inbound links,<\/em> or external links<\/em>) helps search engines determine the site’s popularity, authority, and relative importance on the web.<\/p>\n In Google’s PageRank algorithm, each hyperlink to a web page acts like a vote of confidence for that page<\/strong>, similar to a popularity contest. It’s expected that websites will naturally recommend high-quality resources to their readers, and that’s the simple concept behind PageRank (as well as the link measurements used by other search engines). For example, a site about fishing would link to a site where someone can get a fishing license; a site about stamp collecting might link to the U.S. Postal Service; and a marketing blogger might link to this SEO tutorial. Every keyword topic is like its own popularity contest, and the top spots in search engine results pages (SERPs) go to the most-linked-to websites on that topic. Er, not exactly …<\/em><\/p>\n Unlike a popularity contest, the PageRank system doesn’t give every backlink an equal vote. In fact, some backlinks can even have a negative<\/em> impact on your website’s ability to rank. In an effort to stop sites from trying to manipulate PageRank and game the system, search engines analyze links and penalize sites suspected to have unnatural backlink profiles. In the next lesson, you’ll find out more about search engine guidelines and avoiding Google penalties<\/a> in particular. But for now, suffice it to say there are:<\/p>\n The image to the right is Google’s description<\/a> of “link schemes,” the kinds of things you want to avoid when thinking about link building. (To be safe, think of it as link earning<\/em> instead.) “Never buy links”<\/em> is something Bruce Clay repeats over and over in every SEO Training<\/a> class. <\/p>\n Definitely ignore those emails that offer you “20,000 links for $29.00” \u2014 otherwise, you will rue the day you burned down your own site rankings for (knowingly or unknowingly) getting involved in a link scheme.<\/p>\n Link popularity is not a numbers game anymore. Even more important than the quantity<\/em> of your backlinks are the quality<\/em> and relevance<\/em><\/strong> of the sites where those links are coming from.<\/strong> If enough relevant, quality sites link to you, then your site becomes a more trusted, authority <\/em>site by association. So you want the best sites, not the most, linking back to you. Likewise, if you link to quality sites in your field, then your site seems higher quality by association. However, the sites and the destination page must be about the same topic as your linking page for them to remain relevant to each other.<\/p>\n\n
What Are Backlinks?<\/h2>\n
It’s about Link Popularity<\/h3>\n
Actually, It’s about Authority, Trust and Relevance<\/h3>\n
\n
\n <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n![\"Google](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/google-link-schemes.jpg\")
<\/p>\n