SEO and Links – Everything you Should Know

Search Engine Optimization (SEO), in English Search Engine Optimization is an obvious form of marketing for many companies. Since the customer journey begins on search engines for the majority of customers, it is a matter of course to work to appear high in the search results and be found by the target audience.

Due to the immense power SEO has in digital marketing, businesses are fighting to be seen at the top. The competition is tough but with more right strategies and consistent work you can achieve great results.

In this article we will take a closer look at search engine optimization and links. When it comes to links in SEO, there are several aspects to consider. The first and most obvious are so-called backlinks, or backlinks which are external links that point to your website. Backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors that search engines use because they are a sign of authority. A website that has many high-quality links is seen as a credible source by search engines, which means that they are rewarded with higher rankings in search engines.

In addition to backlinks, we have internal links, which are links within your website. For example, it could be a link within an article that refers to another link on your website. Internal links are important both for a website’s internal structure but also for improving the user experience, which is rewarded by search engines.

In this article, we’ll take a closer look at everything you should know about search engine optimization and links.

In search engine optimization (SEO), different types of links are a key component in influencing a website’s performance in search results. These links can be categorized in different ways and each has specific implications for how search engines index and rank a website. Below is a detailed exploration of some key types of links in SEO.

Incoming links (Backlinks)

First of all, we have inbound links. This is the most common (and most important) type of link in SEO, best known as backlink.

Backlinks are links that point to your page from another, external website. In SEO, links are one of the most important ranking factors to determine how established and credible a website is. A backlink can be seen as a “vote” or recommendation from other websites. However, recommendations are not equally valuable. A recommendation from an authority and expert in a certain industry, for example, usually has more weight and credibility than a recommendation from someone who is completely  unknown. The same is true in SEO, which is why not all links carry equal weight. Having said that, numerous and high-quality links to a website are an incredibly important part of successful search engine optimization.

Importance of backlinks

Authority and Popularity: Inbound links (backlinks) are considered votes or endorsements from other websites. Search engines assume that if many websites link to a specific page, it must contain valuable and reliable content. Therefore, the number of high-quality inbound links often increases the website’s authority. But as discussed, not all links carry equal weight.

SEO Ranking: Search engines use inbound links as one of many factors to rank websites. The more high-quality inbound links a website has, the more likely it will rank higher in search results.

Quality and Relevance of Inbound Links

High-Quality Links: Links from authoritative and trusted websites carry more weight than links from lesser-known sources. Search engines value links from high-authority websites highly which can have a positive impact on your own website ranking.

Relevance: Inbound links should be relevant to the content they link to. Search engines look for correlations between link text and page content to ensure that the links are meaningful and not manipulated to trick search algorithms. A page about shoes that links to another page about shoes is generally seen as more relevant than a page about children’s clothing and then links to a page about diet pills.

Strategies for acquiring backlinks

High-quality content: Creating and sharing valuable, relevant and shareable content increases the likelihood that other websites will want to link to your page naturally.

Guest Posts and Collaborations: Writing content for other websites or collaborating with industry-related partners can generate inbound links and build networks within your industry.

Use of Social Media: Sharing content on social media can increase visibility and thereby increase the chance that other websites will link to your content.

Buying Links: While natural links are great, sitting around and hoping someone will link to you is often not enough. For this reason, buying links is one of the most popular link building methods. This is because it is easy and flexible and you yourself have control over the number of links you build.

Outbound links

The next type of links are outgoing links, known as external links. These are links that go from your website that point to other websites. Although outbound links are not as powerful as backlinks for SEO, they play an important role in creating good structure on your website.

Although not as powerful as backlinks, outbound links affect a website’s SEO in several ways and can be used strategically to improve user experience and indirectly influence a website’s authority.

Meaning of Outbound Links

Relevance and Quality: Outbound links should be relevant to the content in which they are used. By linking to high-quality and authoritative sources, you can strengthen your own website’s credibility. For example, search engines can see it as attribution, which shows that you have done proper research and refer to credible sources to back up the information you share.

Enhanced User Experience: By using outbound links to refer to useful and relevant resources, you help visitors delve deeper into the topic and create a positive user experience. This can help increase engagement on your website and improve the user experience – something that search engines place a lot of importance on.

Indirect Impact on SEO: Although outbound links themselves do not provide direct SEO benefits, they can still indirectly impact a website’s authority. By showing that your site shares relevant and credible resources, you signal to search engines that your site is a reliable source of information.

How to Optimize Outbound Links

Relevance and Context: Make sure outbound links are relevant to the context they’re in. Link to pages that complement your content and add value to visitors.

Balance: Excessive use of outbound links can be perceived as spammy or as unnaturally trying to manipulate the link structure. That said, you want to avoid including too many outbound links on a single page. A tip is to include 3-10 paragraphs depending on the length of the text. For example, a shorter article may have 2-3 paragraphs, while an in-depth article of several thousand words can absolutely include 10 or more – if they are relevant.

Opening in New Window (target=”_blank”): When relevant, consider setting outgoing links to open in new tabs for use. This allows you to ensure that users stay on your website which is important to show search engines stay on your website for a long time as it is a sign that they find your website relevant and high quality.

Update Links: You should regularly review and update outgoing links to ensure they lead to current and relevant resources. Links that lead to a page that no longer exists, for example, can instead have a negative impact on the user experience and thus your SEO.

Internal linking (internal links)

Another type of links in SEO are internal links. This is also important for search engine optimization.

This is about creating links that lead from one page of your website to another and it affects both the user experience and how search engines index and understand your website.

Meaning of Internal Linking

Navigation and User Experience: Internal links guide users through your website. A well-crafted internal link structure makes it easy for visitors to navigate and find relevant information on your website. This improves the user experience and minimizes the risk of visitors leaving your site because they cannot find what they are looking for.

Search Engine Indexing and Hierarchy: Search engines use internal links to map website structure and hierarchy. By creating relevant and well-structured internal links, you can help search engines understand which pages are important and how they relate to each other.

Distribution of Link juice: Internal links make it possible to distribute link juice between different pages on your website. This means that if a page has high authority and is linked internally to other pages, it can also improve the position of the linked pages in the search results.

Optimizing Internal Linking

Anchor Texts: Use relevant anchor texts when creating internal links. The anchor text should clearly reflect the content of the linked page to help search engines understand the topic of the page.

Hierarchical Structure: Organize your website in a clear hierarchical structure. Important pages should be easily accessible and accessed with a minimum number of clicks.

Avoid Broken Links: Ensure that internal links are correct and lead to current and relevant information. So-called broken links are links that lead to a dead page. It may be that the page no longer exists. Broken links can negatively affect the user experience and can also signal a lack of website maintenance to search engines. Of course, search engines don’t want to favor pages that are outdated and may not contain up-to-date and relevant information.

Update: Update internal links when pages change or are added. This ensures that users and search engines are always referred to current information.

Find a balance: Avoid excessive internal linking. This can seem annoying to users and overwhelming to search engines. Quality is always more important than quantity when it comes to SEO.

Nofollow and Dofollow links

Two types of links that apply to both outgoing and incoming links are nofollow and dofollow links. This does not determine the type of link but is an attribute added to the link.

Nofollow and Dofollow are used within HTML to regulate how search engines should treat a specific link on a website. These attributes play an important role in search engine optimization (SEO) and affect how link power is transferred and how search engines index linked pages.

Dofollow links

Dofollow is the default mode for links unless otherwise specified. Dofollow links allow the transfer of link power from the linking page to the linked page. When search engines see a link that has the dofollow attribute, they are instructed to take the link power with them and use it to judge the relevance and authority of the linked page. Dofollow links are typically used to endorse and recommend the content of the linked page.

Optimizing Dofollow links

Relevance: Use dofollow links to link to pages that are relevant to your content and complement the topic of the linking page.
Authority: Link to pages with high authority and credibility to strengthen the linked page’s position in search results.
Balance: Use a balanced strategy for dofollow links to avoid excessive linking and ensure it looks natural.

Nofollow links

Nofollow links are used when you don’t want to transfer link power to the linked page. This can be for strategic reasons, such as to avoid supporting unwanted or untrustworthy websites, or to control how search engines “crawl”  through a website. The nofollow attribute is inserted into the HTML code of the link by adding rel=”nofollow”.

Use of Nofollow links

Unsolicited Links: Use the nofollow attribute to avoid transferring link power to links you don’t want to support or be associated with.
Sponsored links: If you have sponsored content or affiliate links, it is often good practice to use the nofollow attribute or “sponsored” attribute to avoid these links affecting organic search positioning.
Crawl Exclusion: Nofollow can be used to control search engine “crawling” by specifying which links should not be followed when indexing.

Strategic Use for Optimal SEO

Natural Link Profile: A balanced combination of dofollow and nofollow links creates a natural link profile that is perceived positively by search engines.

Customization as needed: Use nofollow when strategically appropriate, such as for user-generated content where you don’t have complete control over the links. An example is the comment field on your website where there is otherwise a high risk that people will spam your comment field to build links.

Anchor texts

Anchor texts are the visible and clickable text in a hyperlink. This text gives the user and search engines an indication of the content expected on the linked page. Optimizing anchor texts is an important aspect of search engine optimization (SEO) as they help define and reinforce the relevance of linked pages in the context of specific search terms. For example, a backlink to your page about shoes that has the anchor text “buy shoes here” has more context than a link that only has the word “here” as a link.

Meaning of Anchor Texts

Search engine understanding: Anchor texts provide a direct indication to search engines about the topic or keywords associated with the linked page. It helps search engines understand the context and content of that page.

User Experience: For users, anchor texts act as lead text and provide a preview of what to expect when they click on the link. Relevant and informative anchor texts improve the user experience and can increase click-through rates.

Optimization of Anchor Texts

Relevance: Anchor texts should be directly relevant to the content found on the linked page. This not only helps users understand what to expect on the new page but also signals relevance to search engines.

Variation: Use a varied set of anchor texts instead of always using the exact same phrase. This makes your link profile more natural and diversified.

Keyword optimization: If possible, include relevant keywords in the anchor texts. This helps reinforce the page’s relevance to those specific search terms. One tip is to use the keywords you want to rank for that you’ve identified in your keyword analysis.

Short and Concise: Keep anchor texts short and concise. It is important to clearly communicate what is expected on the linked page without unnecessary text.

Examples of Optimized Anchor Texts

Bad example: “Click here”

Problem: Lacks relevance and gives no indication of the page’s content.

Better example: “Learn more about search engine optimization”

Advantages: Clearly indicates the topic of the linked page and contains relevant keywords.

Optimal example: “Guide to improving your SEO strategy”

Advantages: Combines relevance, informativeness and includes keywords.

Having said that, variety is important so using things like ‘click here’ to get some variety won’t hurt.

Important factors that affect search results

Keyword

Using relevant keywords in website content is a basic principle. Search engines judge how well a website matches the user’s search query by analyzing the use of specific keywords and phrases. With that said, gone are the days when you could populate a page with keywords and then rank well for those keywords. Instead, it is important that your page includes keywords in a natural way and offers a good user experience. You want to strive to use several different keywords that are relevant to your industry, business, and target group.

Content quality

High-quality content is the basis of a successful SEO strategy. The goal is to create content that is high-quality, valuable, and provides answers to what the user is looking for. It is therefore important that you put a lot of focus on creating valuable content on your website as it will be a prerequisite for successful SEO.

User experience

Search engines place great emphasis on offering their users a good user experience. That said, you should look at all aspects of your website to ensure this. This will contribute to a positive user experience which will make your page rank better. This includes things like fast load times, responsive design, and easily accessible information.

Link structure

The link structure means the total design of links to and on your page, both external and internal. It is important to have a high quality link structure of both internal and external links to build authority and create a clear link profile.

Qualitative links from other authoritative websites are considered a sign of the website’s authority and relevance. Understanding your target group’s behavior and which terms they use when searching is important in this work. By integrating these keywords into your website structure and content, you increase your chances of being seen by the right audience.

Using keyword tools such as Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush or Ahrefs facilitates the process of identifying relevant keywords and analyzing their search volume and level of competition. Continuous monitoring of trends and changes in keyword popularity is also important for successful SEO.

Technical SEO

Technical SEO lays the foundation for good SEO by ensuring a technically qualitative page and a good user experience. There are several steps in the domain of technical SEO that you should focus on.

Website structure

In SEO, it is important that you have a user-friendly website structure. A well-structured website contributes to an improved user experience and makes it easier for search engines to index and understand the content. A clear and logical structure with user-friendly navigation menus and a hierarchy of pages makes it easier for visitors to find the desired information and for search engines to categorize and rank the pages.

Optimization of loading times and mobile adaptation

Page speed has become even more important than ever – especially due to the fact that a majority of all searches are done from mobile.

Search engines, especially Google, penalize slow pages. In addition, mobile adaptation has become increasingly important, with “mobile-first indexing” which means that search engines use mobile pages to determine the ranking even for searches made on the computer.

Meta tags and descriptions

Title tags and meta descriptions are important HTML elements that are sometimes forgotten, as they affect how a website is presented in search results. An enticing and informative title tag entices users to click on your link, while a well-worded meta description summarizes the page’s content and increases the chance of high-quality traffic. An increased click-through rate means that search engines perceive it as users finding your search result valuable, which leads to being rewarded with improved ranking.

A good SEO tactic is to include relevant keywords in title tags and meta descriptions. Additionally, these elements should be unique for each page on the site and not exceed recommended character limits to avoid being cut off in search results. Review the meta information on different pages regularly so that it is current and optimized.

Technical SEO lays the foundation for success with SEO as it creates a technically sustainable foundation to build on with all other components of SEO. It helps to make your site more accessible and attractive to both users and search engines.

Content optimization

As we already discussed, content is the foundation of success in SEO. Without high-quality and optimized content, you will have a hard time succeeding in SEO.

Remember that search engines strive to deliver the most relevant and useful results to users. For this reason, they value high-quality, unique and relevant content highly. That said, focus on creating content that answers users’ questions, solves their problems, or provides valuable information. In this way, you increase the chance of ranking higher in the search results.

Target audience analysis: Start by evaluating your target audience’s needs, interests and questions. Use this to create content that really engages and appeals to your target audience. Of course, if you want to reach your target audience, you need to create content that appeals and targets them.

Keyword Integration: Include relevant keywords in your content in a natural way. Avoid over-optimization and focus on creating valuable content for users.

Varied content: Use a combination of text, images, video and other multimedia elements to make your content diverse and engaging. Today more than ever, other forms of media have become increasingly important to SEO. Since Google owns YouTube, a smart strategy is often to embed YouTube videos on the page. Videos also increase the visit time on your page, which is a sign that users like what they find on your page.

Optimized file size: Make sure your images and videos have the appropriate file size to not negatively affect load times.

Design details: Use alt text for images and include descriptive file names to help search engines understand the content.

Link Building

Last but not least, we have link building, which is the process of actively creating links (backlinks) from other websites to your own.

As we have discussed, backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors in search engines today. With this in mind, it is important to have a clear strategy to actively increase the number of backlinks to your site. The more high-quality and relevant links you have, the better your site can rank in search results.

Strategies to get relevant and authoritative links

Create share-worthy content: Create content that others want to link to. This is the foundation of a successful link strategy. This may include research, studies, guides, designers, or other resources that provide value.

Guest Post: Write content that is published on other websites in your industry and include links to your own website.

Buy Links: As we have discussed, buying links is one of the most popular link building strategies. Buying links gives you full control over the type of links you get and also the number of links.