When they embark on natural referencing for their site, neophytes are very quickly confronted with technical and English-speaking jargon most of the time. It would be difficult to establish an exhaustive list, but today we will focus on two terms that are regularly confused: netlinking and backlinking. In reality, these are two rather simple concepts to understand: we do netlinking thanks to backlinks!
What is netlinking?
Also called link building, the netlinking can be translated in Enlish by “construction of a strategy of links in order to better reference its site ”. It's a bit long and netlinking is still classier!
To understand the principle of netlinking , let's go back a few years, when Yahoo and Alta Vista were the most used search engines. They ranked their search results based on the content of a page. It was the one and only criterion. But when Google entered, these search engines quickly declined. In question ? Google's famous Pagerank algorithm that analyzed not only the content of a page, but also the number of people who suggested it through the links.
Obviously, it was a revolution and it is partly thanks to him that we Internet users manage to find exactly what we are looking for on Google. In 20 years, the algorithm has improved considerably and even today manages to determine the quality of the backlinks that a site receives.
What is a backlink?
A backlink is simply a link. A link from a third-party site to yours that includes an anchor. In other words, it is an inbound external link. It therefore differs from internal incoming or outgoing links, which are made solely from your site, to one of the pages of your site or to a third-party site.
For the little info, the anchor is the word on which the link is affixed. Most of the time, it is indeed textual (especially when building a netlinking campaign). But the link can also come from an image or even be embedded in a video.
How to netlinking with backlinks?
Let's go back to the concept of backlinks. As we said before, Google is able to analyze the quality of the backlinks received by its dreaded algorithm: Penguin. Unfortunately for us, website publishers or SEOs, we can no longer rely solely on the number of backlinks. The quality of the links even takes precedence over the quantity.
But what is a quality backlink?
No one can fully answer this question because only Google holds all of Penguin's secrets. Nevertheless, the giant still gave some instructions to avoid us receiving algorithmic penalties. The most important is: do not make links!
Yes, there you say to yourself “how can we do netlinking without a link?”
In theory, netlinking is “forbidden” by the search engine because it is artificial links, designed with the aim of manipulating algorithms. Except that in practice, nobody follows these rules and netlinking is one of the most used and most successful SEO strategies. So it's the snowball effect: my competitor does a little netlinking and manages to pass me, so I'm going to do even more, then he will do even more...
There you go, so Google we have a scoop for you: everyone is making artificial links!
Now who says artificial links does not necessarily say “link placed on a site that I found by chance and basta”. Algorithms are powerful but do not yet compete with our vile and creative human brain! To create “juicy” backlinks (which transmit a lot of SEO juice ) and thus build an effective netlinking strategy, there are certain points to respect:
- The third-party site must be as much as possible in your theme (or complementary)
- It must generate a minimum of traffic and ideally be followed on social networks, forums, etc.
- The link must be contained in a quality article whose theme correlates with yours
- The site must be “popular” (we also say that it must be authoritative). It must itself receive quality links and offer unique and relevant content. Several tools can be used to measure the popularity of a site, such as Majestic SEO, Seobserver and Ahrefs.
Finally, there is one last golden rule to respect in netlinking: do not "stuff"! It's hard enough to find quality backlinks, so there's no need to go through the hassle of looking for thousands. On the one hand, it's frankly mission impossible (or else you need an army of subcontractors) and above all, it's counterproductive. Your link profile must remain natural and receive too many backlinks , it is not.
Related: Magento: 11 tips to optimize the SEO of your e-commerce site
If we recapitulate, a netlinking strategy therefore makes it possible to increase the popularity of a site thanks to the backlinks generated by other sites. If this lever is considered the goose that lays the golden eggs of natural referencing, it is also very time-consuming and complex to implement so as not to trigger the Penguin's wrath. Evaluating the quality of sites and their links is a meticulous job that is best left to a netlinking expert.
This won't stop you from asking for natural links when the opportunity arises. Yes, in natural referencing you should not hesitate to play the opportunists. If one of your partners has a quality site, don't hesitate to ask them for an article with an SEO link. The main thing is not to make reciprocal links ("I make you a link, you make me one"), but rather to favor the exchange of triangular links.
For example, if you are site A, your partner site C, a third party site B:
- A linked to B
- B links to C
- C links to A
Thus, Google does not see a direct link between A and C. The more you complicate this diagram by adding sites and links between your site and your partner, the less you will be able to be detected. In the same way, you will be able to use the link to link technique to give more power to your indirect backlinks. This way, you also save them from falling into Google limbo.
Do not hesitate to contact us to be accompanied on a strategy adapted to your site and sustainable over time.
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