Backlinks Breakdown: What They Are, Why You Need Them & How To Get Them
You may not know this, but you probably interact with backlinks every day, without even noticing.
In fact, don’t panic, but there could be one inside the house with you — right now.
If you’re not familiar with them, backlinks are just links to a website, from another website, like the one you probably clicked on to get to this page you’re reading right now.
Or if you somehow got to this page without a link, we could do another example — this is a backlink, right here — and if you click it, it goes to a backlinking service.
Neat, right?
Basic Machines
So backlinks are actually nothing complex, at all, it’s just a link to someone’s website — practically the simplest tool on the internet.
However, it’s best not to be fooled into thinking simple machines aren’t powerful.
Maybe you remember the famous quote from Archimedes, “Give me a lever long enough, and a fulcrum on which to rest it, and I will move the world.”
With even the simplest tools, you can do wonders — if you know how to use them.
Now here’s the best part, for you — using them isn’t tricky either, I’ll explain how they work, in a nutshell.
When you click them, they take you to another website. Ta-Daa!
No, no, I’m just kidding — I mean, they do that — but they also do a lot more.
Here’s the short version though: They get your brand listed on top of the Google search results.
Is that short and sweet enough?
Explanations Expanded
Oh, so now you want more information, do you?
Well, good!
The best way I can think of to explain this is if you imagine that the Google search engine algorithm is actually Little Red Riding Hood — there is no big bad wolf in this story, it’s my metaphor.
One day, Red’s grandma called her up and asked “Best Used Electronics Store In California” — as Grandma’s are known to do.
So Red, the obedient search algorithm that she is, starts skipping away to Grandma’s house, and along the way, she collects information about her Grandma’s search query.
You wouldn’t know it from my story, but her journey usually takes her some fraction of a second — she’s quite fast, and that’s why there’s no wolf in this story, he wouldn’t stand a chance.
Now here’s the thing, Red wants to impress her grandma, by providing some exciting news, not the same boring old junk — so here’s what she does.
Instead of picking random bits of news along the way, she only picks the most relevant, interesting, and noteworthy bits — and arranges them with the newest and most interesting on top.
That way when her Grandma sees her beautiful bouquet of search results, she’ll most likely only even look at the few, the best ones, that Red placed on top.
Does this sound familiar?
Where Do The Backlinks Come In Again?
Did you think I forgot? I didn’t.
Along the way, as Red is skipping at the speed of electricity through cables strung all over the Earth, she’s picking the best parts to show to Grandma, but how does she know?
Red is only a little search algorithm girl, and can’t possibly know what would interest Grandma the most, especially because it’s not just her grandma, it’s every grandma, every time — right?
So Red does a little trick, an easy one — along the way, she keeps her ears open, to hear what everyone is talking about.
If everyone is talking about “Blue’s Used Electronics In Cali” then obviously, that’s noteworthy, interesting, and relevant, it must be!
So throw that one on top of the pile, Grandma will love it.
But if we were to step outside our metaphor, for just a second — and think about how Red knows, how the search engine knows, what’s relevant?
How does it know what people are talking about?
In case you didn’t catch it, this is where we close the circle in this little example — because what she’s listening to is Backlinks.
The more backlinks there are to a website, the more people want to share it, the more interesting it must be.
That’s simple logic, and Red is, while vastly complicated in some ways — still a rather simple algorithm deep down.
I think the only thing we didn’t cover is how to get your backlinks…
How To Whisper — Very Effectively
Honestly, take my advice — don’t bother trying to build them on your own.
Building enough backlinks to make a difference, manually, sounds like a nightmare, and there are professional services out there that will handle it all for you.
You could say they’re like a whisper campaign — they get a bunch of townspeople together and start whispering about your business, as Red is passing by.
They don’t shout — they don’t scream, “Hey look at me!” — that’s advertising, and it’s a whole different game.
The problem there is, when everyone is shouting “Look at me! Look at me!” We tend to just ignore the whole lot of them.
That’s why you’ll never catch Red listening to shouts, and the professionals.. I mean the townspeople, only ever whisper.
They just whisper about your business, at the right time, and the right place — to make Red take notice.
That’s all you really need, that’s what Backlinks are, what they’re for, and uh, sort of, maybe a little bit, about how to get them.
Now if you don’t mind, I’ve got a basket that needs to get to Grandma’s, ASAP.
