okay so you ever heard people talk about seo and they keep saying stuff like backlinks and referring domains and you’re just sitting there like bro what even is that
yeah me too i was hella confused at first but then i started reading and watching youtube videos and stuff and now i kinda get it so imma try to explain it in the easiest way possible so even if you new to seo you will understand it like for real
so let’s go
first what even is seo
ok before we even start with backlinks and referring domains lets just talk real quick about what seo even is
seo means search engine optimization which just means doing stuff to your website so google likes it more and puts it higher in search results
like if you have a website and you want people to find it you gotta make sure google understands what your site is about and trusts it and thinks its good quality
that’s what seo agency do they help businesses make their websites better so they get more visitors from google
ok now let’s get to the good part
what are backlinks
backlinks are like links from other websites that point to your website
so imagine you write a blog post about the best pizza in riyadh and then another blog also writes about food and they say hey check out this cool post about pizza and they put a link to your post
thats a backlink
so it’s basically when someone else on the internet says hey look at this website and links to you
google sees that and goes hmm if other websites are linking to you maybe you have good stuff maybe you know what you talking about
and so they start to trust your site more and maybe push it higher in search results
seo agencies always talk about backlinks because they super important they help build your site’s authority and trust
but what about referring domains
ok now here is where people get confused
referring domains are the websites that the backlinks come from
so let’s say you have 5 backlinks right and they all come from 1 website like exampleblog.com then you got 5 backlinks but only 1 referring domain
but if you got 5 backlinks and each one is from a different website like one from blog1.com one from blog2.com and so on then you got 5 backlinks and also 5 referring domains
see the difference
so backlinks are the actual links and referring domains are the unique websites giving you those links
why does this matter tho
okay so you might be thinking like ok cool whatever but why does this even matter
here’s why
google doesn’t just care how many backlinks you have they also look at how many different websites are linking to you
like if you have 100 backlinks from just one site its not as good as 100 backlinks from 100 different sites
that’s cause if many different sites are linking to you it looks more natural and it shows that many people trust you not just one
that’s why marketing agency always say you need backlinks from different domains not just a bunch from the same one
real life example to understand better
let’s pretend you have a youtube channel and 1 friend keeps commenting on every video saying you’re awesome
that’s cool but now imagine 100 different people all say you’re awesome
which one sounds more real
the 100 people of course cause it shows that many people like you not just your one friend
same with backlinks and referring domains google looks at it the same way
how do backlinks and referring domains help with rankings
okay so google has these little robot things that crawl your website and see who is linking to it and what they say
if a lot of good websites link to your site google thinks oh this website must be important
but they dont want you to cheat and just make a bunch of fake links from one place so they check how many referring domains you got too
when you got lots of backlinks from many different good websites your chances of ranking higher go up
and that’s what seo agencies try to do they build good links from good websites to help you move up in the search results
are all backlinks the same
nah not really
some backlinks are better than others
like if you get a backlink from a big news site or a university or a government site that’s super powerful
but if you get a backlink from some random spammy blog that just copies content that’s not good and it can even hurt your site
seo agencies always check the quality of backlinks not just the number
they want high quality backlinks from websites with good reputations
so its not just more is better its about better is better you get what i’m sayin
can you have more backlinks than referring domains
yes totally
actually that’s normal
like i said before you can have 10 backlinks from the same site and that would still be only 1 referring domain
most websites have way more backlinks than referring domains and that’s fine as long as the backlinks are good
but you still wanna try to get backlinks from new websites too cause it helps your domain authority go up
seo agencies usually keep track of this with special tools like ahrefs or semrush or moz
how to get more backlinks and referring domains
now this is the part where you gotta put in work
or you can ask eMarketing Egypt to help if you lazy
but anyway here are some ways to get backlinks and referring domains
- guest blogging – you write a post for someone else’s blog and they let you link to your site
- share cool content – if your blog or video or whatever is actually good people will link to it naturally
- submit to directories – like business directories and listings and stuff
- ask for links – email bloggers or site owners and ask if they can link to your site if your content matches theirs
- fix broken links – find broken links on other sites and suggest your content to replace them
- get featured – try to get mentioned in news sites or interviews or social media pages
- make infographics – people love visuals and they often link to good infographics
how to track your backlinks and referring domains
okay so you dont just get the links and forget about them
you gotta check them regularly to see whats working and whats not
there are some tools that seo agencies use that you can use too like
- ahrefs
- semrush
- moz
- ubersuggest
they show you how many backlinks you have who is linking to you how many referring domains you got and if any bad links are hurting your site
seo agencies usually make reports with these tools to help you see progress
can backlinks hurt your site
sadly yes
if you get too many bad backlinks from spammy sites google can think you’re trying to cheat and they might punish your site
that’s why you gotta check your backlinks and disavow the bad ones
disavow means you tell google hey i didn’t ask for these links please ignore them
its like telling your teacher hey i wasn’t cheating someone else just wrote my name on their paper lol
good seo agencies help with that too cause they know how to clean your backlink profile
how long does it take for backlinks to work
not gonna lie seo takes time
it’s not like you get a backlink today and boom you rank number one tomorrow lol i wish
it can take weeks or even months before you see the effect of backlinks especially new ones
seo agencies usually tell you that results come slow but steady like building muscles you gotta keep going and be patient
how many backlinks do you need
there’s no magic number
some websites rank high with just a few good backlinks and others need hundreds or thousands
it depends on your industry your competition your content and stuff like that
but in general the more quality backlinks and referring domains you get the better your site will do
as long as they come from legit websites and not spam
thats why working with good seo agencies is helpful cause they know where to get the good stuff
backlinks vs referring domains quick summary
- backlinks = the actual links that point to your site
- referring domains = the websites that give you those links
- more referring domains = better for seo
- many backlinks from one domain = okay but not as strong as many from different domains
- quality matters more than quantity
- seo agencies focus on both to help sites rank better
why seo agencies care so much about this
seo agencies are always checking backlink profiles for their clients cause it’s one of the main things that helps with google rankings
they build strategies to get links from the right places they remove bad ones and they make sure your backlink game is strong
so if you really serious about growing your website getting traffic and making money online you probably need help from seo agencies at some point
even big companies use them so don’t feel bad
final thoughts
alright so now you know what backlinks and referring domains are and why they matter in seo
they might sound the same but they different and both important
getting lots of backlinks is cool but getting them from many different websites is even cooler
thats what helps your site grow and rank and get more visitors
if you a small business or just starting out try to build backlinks slowly and from different places and if you stuck you can always talk to seo agencies who know what they doing
just don’t try to cheat or buy fake links cause that can mess everything up