Backlinks are one of the primary factors in search engine optimization (SEO), determining where a website ranks on Google. All else being equal, pages with more quality backlinks typically rank better than ones with less. Yet for beginner marketers and marketers looking to break into SEO, understanding exactly what a backlink entails may prove difficult.

Backlinks are links that direct to your website from other web resources, such as blogs or articles. Backlinks play an integral role in SEO by increasing trustworthiness of content with search engines like Google.

There are different kinds of backlinks, both paid and free. Paid backlinks refer to links you purchase or acquire through exchange; authoritative websites with.edu or.gov domains carry more weight in search engine rankings due to their trustworthiness and authority.

Outreach backlinks are another type of paid backlinks you can acquire, which involves reaching out to relevant websites with requests to link back to your content. While cold emails can work, creating valuable and helpful content that adds value for these websites and their readers may make more likely for them to want to share your link resulting in backlinks from these third parties.

Alongside considering the type of backlink, another consideration is anchor text. Anchor text refers to the clickable text section of a link, which can be used to influence ranking performance. For maximum impact, try choosing natural-sounding anchor texts that match the content of the pages it links to, this will signal to Google that your link fits seamlessly and has not been artificially promoted.

Location is also key when it comes to backlinks; for instance, having one in a blog post is more powerful than placing one in a sidebar or footer because search engines view links located within the main body as more trustworthy and authoritative than those located in sidebars or footers.

Finally, the top-level domain of a source website matters as well. For instance, links on an authoritative news website carry more weight than links from random blogs due to how its top-level domain indicates what niche the content on that website falls into and influences its overall quality.

All this information may seem daunting to beginners, but there are some basic best practices they should all abide by. Focusing on quality over quantity is paramount; avoid spammy tactics such as keyword-optimized anchor texts; treat other with respect and genuine interest when creating link building strategies; treat others how you would wish to be treated yourself when developing them – these will all ensure successful backlink building efforts with positive outcomes.