Source: Pixabay

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is a highly valued asset by business owners, and generally anyone who has a website. SEO is the process used by these people to make their websites have higher rankings on search engines. 

A website having a higher ranking means that it will be more visible to people searching on the internet. From its definition, it is easy to think that SEO is an easy one-step or two-step process. 

However, this is not the case. SEO entails many processes that all culminate in the target result, which is to improve website ranking.

Backlinks

Of all the factors considered when optimizing a website, the use of quality different types of backlinks is the most vital. Backlinks are links to other websites or pages on websites. The use of varying backlink types on your site shows clients and search engines that you have put up quality content with reliable sources. 

To the common eye, one would easily think that all backlink types are the same. There are many different types of backlinks that one can use to improve their website’s SEO success. Some of the recommended backlink types for SEO success are:

1. Business Profile Backlinks

Marketing has largely evolved with the introduction of modern technologies. Social media platforms have advanced and now offer businesses the ability to market and sell their products there. This, therefore, means that businesses will have many accounts on numerous social media accounts.

When posting on your website, one can end up referring to a post on either of your social media accounts. One can also request readers to visit your social media account. Due to these two purposes, one can include a backlink that redirects the users directly to the business profiles on various platforms. 

It has also become a common occurrence to find that a business has linked its social media pages on the bottom page of every web page. This is a tactic used by businesses to redirect clients who have come across their business using general search to head over to the business pages. 

Businesses using business profile backlinks improve their website’s SEO ranking by showing the search engine that the business is genuine. It also shows the search engine that the business is linked to many people and has a following on different social media sites, thereby increasing its legitimacy.

In this era of using social media for business, the popularity of business profile backlinks is bound to increase drastically.

2. Tool Backlinks

Tool backlinks are more common on technical websites or those that post content regarding how to improve life using tech or applications. This type of backlink is used to offer readers the option to directly access the site that hosts the free tools mentioned on the websites.

Offering readers free direct access to a tool that is relevant to the topic in discussion attracts many people to your website. The increased traffic helps increase the site’s SEO ranking and online visibility to people making searches.

Sample use cases for tool backlinks range from various industries and reader cliques. Websites posting articles regarding programming and software development can opt to post links to free IDEs.

Sites posting android reviews or details about the android OS can have tool backlinks for applications that are recommended for the users. Tool backlinks also increase the trust a reader has in a site because they can see that the writer is offering actual tools to use for the topic in discussion.

3. Paid Backlinks

People running websites that are not meant for businesses, often have partnerships. Partnerships with sponsoring companies are a key source of funding for many websites that are not for businesses. 

When a web post on a website is sponsored, the article should include a link that redirects readers to the sponsor company. This is what is referred to as a paid backlink.

However, the issue of sponsored content on websites has led to many concerns globally. In most cases, websites recommended readers to bad businesses. Due to this, regulations were made to govern sponsorships on web articles, and social media. When including a paid backlink in your website, you are required to specify that the brand in the link has paid for that spot. 

Websites that build a reputation of having paid backlinks to reliable business sites gain trust from their readers. The readers are therefore always looking forward to new sponsors on the website. The recurring and loyal website visitors help increase the website’s ranking on SEO.

A key factor to keep in mind is that paid backlinks are not always paid in cash. In some instances, a business can include a paid backlink to a partner business in exchange for a certain service.

When using this backlink type, one should avoid engaging in backlink trading schemes. Search engines can easily detect such schemes and penalize a website. The penalty will affect the website’s ranking negatively.

4. Acknowledgment Backlinks

Source: Pixabay

Acknowledgment links can be difficult to differentiate from paid links since they promote another organization or business. Acknowledgment links are used on websites to mention and show appreciation to a business or organization that had a significant impact.

Acknowledgment links are very common on the websites of charity organizations. An instance of an acknowledgment backlink is when a company mentions another brand that offered funding for its event.

The use of acknowledgment backlinks on your website shows that you have partners and sponsors. This helps search engines to see that the business is more genuine thereby the ranking improves.

It is also important for you to get acknowledgement backlinks on other sites that redirect to your website. This helps refer their readers to your site. You can get acknowledgement backlinks by looking up events based on something similar or concerning what your website does. Once you come across the events, you can offer to fund or help in any way. This will get the main organizers to acknowledge your website on their organization site.

5. Editorial Backlinks

Editorial backlinks are used to link to the sources of factual information or writers of factual information. In most web articles, it is common to come across the mention of a study or infographic as evidence for a certain claim. When you quote or mention a study on your website, it is important to link to the source of the information.

Adding a link to the source of certain information on your website increases the ranking of the website on search engines. This is because the backlinks from your site to fact sources show that the web article is of high quality, mentioning accurate facts that can be proven.

When using editorial backlinks for infographics, studies, or research, linking to high-authority sites will offer better results. High-authority sites in SEO are websites that have been trusted by search engines, readers, and industry experts. The sites gain this trust through posting true and reliable information consistently.

Any websites that add a relevant backlink to a high authority site gain significant improvements in their ranking.

6. Guest Post Backlinks

As a blogger, your popularity can serve as an advantage to increase the amount of traffic you get on your website. Popular bloggers of specific niches can be requested to write articles to post on other websites. This is a common practice used by bloggers to switch up their content delivery styles on their websites.

As a blogger, if you write for another website as a guest, the website will include a backlink to your website. Guest post backlinks are used as a thank you to bloggers who have accepted to write articles on websites that are not theirs. As a blogger, including guest post backlinks to popular writer’s websites raised the visibility of your website on search engines.

For more established bloggers, writing for other websites as guest bloggers will raise the visibility of your website. This is because the search engines will note that many articles on the web link back to it, which is an indication that the website offers high-quality content. The use of guest post backlinks is therefore beneficial to the hosting website and the linked site. 

7. Press Release Backlinks

Press releases have helped businesses with their marketing and SEO for a long while. Press release backlinks are links from media outlets that redirect clients to a business that has made a major press release.

In this era, press releases have reduced in number as more businesses move towards the use of live events for business updates. However, tech companies still use press releases. Press releases can be used by businesses for:

1. Product releases
2. Business expansion announcements
3. Business mergers or acquisition announcements
4. Business rebranding announcements

As a business, you can opt to take advantage of press releases. The press releases should be significant and newsworthy to get media houses to speak about it. The backlinks to the business’ website from media houses will better the website’s ranking on search engines.

Conclusion

Though the use of different types of backlinks is vital for SEO, it is important to remember that search engines consider the quality of backlinks rather than quantity. This is why it is important to have varying backlink types on your website that lead to high-authority sites or different types of  backlinks from the high-authority sites to yours.