When you’re new to the world of e-commerce, or the online space in general, you probably come across “internet jargon” almost everyday. These are words and phrases that you’ll mostly hear from tech-savvies who’ve been in the e-commerce game for long enough to know a lot of how all this stuff works — especially where it involves digital marketing.
But the thing is, much like you, these now so-called experts all started somewhere. And much like you, they probably felt the same type of overwhelm you do as you’re trying to piece together and make sense of what running an online business is all about. So don’t you worry about starting from square one; it’s exactly where you need to be.
Moreover, we’re here to gladly walk you through the basics! In this article, we’ll give you a rundown of what digital marketing is all about and specifically discuss one of the most prominent strategies in digital marketing: backlinks.
What Is Digital Marketing?
Marketing has been around for as long as businesses have been around. It also evolves with the industry as companies learn, unlearn, and relearn from each other through the years (read more).
When the printing press came to be, marketing evolved to printed media. When the radio was invented, broadcast marketing became the biggest thing. When TVs started to pop up in every home, video commercials entered the scene without a minute to spare. Marketing has always evolved to meet consumers where they are most comfortable.
So, when the market started favoring the internet at the advent of the digital age, you can probably guess what came next: digital marketing.
Digital marketing is the umbrella term used to refer to methodologies, techniques, tactics, and other such processes geared towards bringing products and services to consumers’ awareness with the intention to convert them into paying customers through the use of digital media which can present itself in many forms, such as:
- Online graphics, photos, pictures
- Short-form or Long-form Videos
- Social Media Posts
- Influencer Content
- Creative Ads
- Blog Posts
- Guest Posts
And the list goes on. Depending on the nature of your business, these types of digital media may be something you’re already familiar with. You might also even be implementing strategies and making use of digital marketing materials that are not as mainstream as the ones mentioned above. Either way, the world of digital marketing is vast and encompassing; you might already be dipping your foot into it without realizing.
Among these strategies, a digital marketing method, specifically a Search Engine Optimization (SEO) method, that always seems to fly under the radar is backlinking. The fact that it’s not as talked about can be both a good and bad thing. Good, because it means that you can get ahead of the competition if you take advantage of it first. Bad, because it pretty much means that information about it can be quite limited.
Well, until this article of course. Fret not, as we introduce you to the beautifully intricate world of backlinks. We’re here to tell you everything you need to know about them and why they would matter to your business in the long term.
What Are Backlinks?
If you’re an avid online reader and reading a couple of internet articles a day has already become a part of your routine, then you’ve probably come across backlinks many times before – you just didn’t know what they were called.
If you’ve noticed, many online content or write-ups feature highlighted texts, usually in the shade of blue, that redirect you to another page or website as soon as you click on them. These are what we call backlinks or inbound links in the world of digital marketing.
As for their purpose? Well, we’ve got to start by discussing how link building works.
In the digital marketing world, there are many complicated-sounding methodologies, fancy-shmancy techniques, and seemingly clever tactics that professional marketers use. However, if you zoom out and try to see the bigger picture, you will realize that all these marketing media, all of these elaborate graphics, videos, and content are all geared towards achieving one outcome: establishing the brand’s authority.
Every online entrepreneur knows that the only way for their business to flourish online is to be able to win the market’s trust and confidence. Once you have established your brand as the authority in its respective industry, it is much easier for you to have buying influence over the market. And one surefire way to establish authority is to “belong” with other established businesses in the market. This is where backlinks come in.
When your website or content is cited by another brand or another reputable company in one of their social media posts, blog articles, or news features, they are basically vouching for your business as a reliable information source or a trusted brand (in the case of product mentions). This nurtures trust in their immediate audience who see their brand as authority and may encourage them to see your products and services in the same light.
On top of influencing the immediate market, backlinks also have a more technical impact to your online business as it also helps search engines like Google, Yahoo, or Bing categorize your website or social media pages more accurately. The more backlinks you have, the more it tells Google that you have certain information, products, or services that people want to see or use. Thus, the reason why many websites and other reputable sources rave about you in their respective platforms.
As a result, this cumulation of citations, mentions, and links will influence search engines’ algorithms to make your content or your brand more visible to the market by getting you in the upper pages of the search results. Better yet, ranking in the top ten search results for Google searches that you’re categorized for.
We can go on and on about how this whole process works but taking up a crash course on SEO will take more than just a single article. On top of backlinks, there’s keyword optimization, featured snippets, UX, traffic analysis, on-page and off-page strategies and so much more, as you can see here: https://www.simplilearn.com/main-types-of-seo-techniques-in-digital-marketing-article.
But for now, we’ll stick our focus on backlinks and why it’s a good first step towards optimizing your online marketing efforts.
Do I Need Backlinks For My Business?
The short answer is yes. Inbound links direct traffic to your website or social media pages and consequently builds authority for your brand not just for immediate buyers but for search engines which are key players to bringing your brand to the world.
Tell me, how many times have you bought something because it was the first thing that caught your attention when you did a quick Google search? How many services have you signed up for because you’ve heard of them through the online grapevine?
The thing is, a lot of the purchases we make are largely influenced by information sources we trust. So if you want to establish your brand’s authority, bring it up the search results, and have it mentioned almost everywhere, then backlinks are hands down necessary for your marketing campaign. It will help build your brand’s network and make it more visible to your target market, especially when you know which sites you should be featuring your business on to optimize visibility.
How Can I Get Backlinks?
There are several ways for you to get backlinks or inbound links. If you have several websites you own, ideally under different names or owners, you can build links internally across your different sites. The same thing you can do when you have friends, acquaintances, or business partners in the same or related industry.
Another way is to do guest posts or blog articles to feature on other reputable websites, like online news publications, magazines, or other high-traffic websites. The better results the more relevant these websites are to your brand and also, if these websites have already built considerable brand authority in their respective industries.
Many websites allow featured posts, both paid and non-paid, as long as it matches their criteria for quality content, and it provides real value to their reading audience. In return, you are allowed to feature 1 or 2 guest posting backlinks to your own website, your own by line (in some cases), and usher some traffic to your brand.
Lastly, consistently producing good quality content and posting regularly on your own platform can get you backlinks organically. This is one of the biggest benefits of having your own blog for business. It allows your immediate audience to get direct value from your business and learn more about it. At the same time, it educates other business owners and if they get credible information from you, chances are they’d voluntarily cite or mention your article in theirs.
And there you go, the art of backlinks made simple. Don’t miss the opportunity to market your brand organically and start building your link network asap.