Backlinks are the backbone of your website. To improve your SERP ranking, it’s important that you collect backlinks from high-authority websites. Thankfully, there are many ways to get backlinks. Posting high-quality content that drives your target audience to your website and offers valuable information is one of the common ways to get people to link to your pages.
Most people relax after they have got backlinks, thinking that their job is done. However, your backlinks will be useless if they are not indexed. To ensure that your hard work pays off, you must speed up the backlinks indexing on Google. Backlink indexing is the same process as content indexing. It’s just that with your content, Google indexes the links.
In this post, we will walk you through everything you should know about backlinks, how they are indexed, and why their indexing is important for your website.
What are Backlinks, and How are they Indexed?
Also called incoming or inbound links, backlinks direct people from one website to a page on another website. These are considered quite valuable for a website (that’s on the receiving end). Google considers each backlink as a “vote.” If someone links to your website when stating a fact, recommending a product, or for other purposes, your website authority increases. Google sees it as a reliable and trustworthy website. As a result, your website ranking on Google improves. It’s like a website telling Google that you post high-quality content that’s worth linking to.
Generally, websites with a higher number of backlinks rank higher in the Google search engine than those with few to no backlinks. Remember, the quality of the website that’s linking to your website also matters. A website with hundreds of backlinks might not rank well if these links are coming from low-authority websites, while a website with just a couple of backlinks from high-authority websites might rank on the first page of the search results.
On average, it takes around 10 weeks for a backlink to work for your website. But, if you get multiple backlinks, they might work faster and deliver your desired results within a few weeks. Ideally, the efficiency of your backlink strategy depends on three crucial factors: the type of link, the domain authority of the website that’s linking to your page, and keyword competitiveness.
Usually, backlinks are indexed automatically with the page they are published on. There is no fixed time for your backlinks to be indexed. For some websites, it may take 4-5 days, while others might take up to 6 months. Search engines crawl websites at different rates. So, how quickly Google crawls your website and what your crawl budget is will determine how fast your backlinks are indexed. There’s also a possibility that some of your backlinks get indexed faster than others, as not all websites share the same domain authority.
Why do Backlinks Don’t Get Indexed Over Time?
Type your backlink in the Google search bar and hit the search button. If the search results show your backlink, it means the link has been indexed. If you don’t see any results, your backlink hasn’t been indexed yet. Even if you have spent years working on your search engine optimization, content writing, paid advertisements, and other SEO strategies, your efforts will go down the drain if your backlinks remain not-indexed.
Since your backlinks drive organic traffic to your website, they must be indexed as soon as they are published. Your backlinks are ranked in search engines in the same way as your content. These backlinks are added to the search engine database. Here are some common reasons why your backlink might not get indexed easily.
- Slow Loading Website
Your readers won’t wait forever for your website to load. If it doesn’t load within three seconds, a majority of your readers will hit the back button. Search engine prioritizes websites that load quickly and offer a seamless user experience. So, if someone clicks on your backlink and your page doesn’t load, that will lead to a poor user experience. As a result, the search engine might not index your backlinks.
- You Have Duplicate Content
Posting the same content on different pages on your website or simply copy-pasting content that’s already published on the internet is another reason Google crawlers won’t index your backlinks. Having duplicate pages not only confuses your audience, but it’s difficult for Google to decide which content should be indexed.
- You Have Poor-Quality Backlinks
Getting backlinks won’t mean anything if they come from low-quality websites. It’s important that your backlinks are generated from high-quality websites so that Google can recognize your links and index them easily. That’s why you should never buy backlinks or sell them, as these are strictly against Google’s ranking algorithm and might hurt your website’s ranking. Remember, Google values your backlinks depending on the website’s domain authority. The higher the DA of a website, the more the backlinks are worth.
- Backlinks on Non-index Blog Posts
Backlinks are a part of your content. If these links are published on a non-index blog post, it goes without saying that these links won’t get noticed by the search engine. So, check if the article is set to non-index before publishing your backlinks in them.
- Spammy Links
Imagine getting your backlinks from a website that has tons of link directing their audience to just random websites. Do you really think Google is going to index such pages? Even if these websites get indexed, and your backlinks show up in the search results, chances are you won’t get any visitors from this page, nor will Google improve your website ranking based on spammy links.
What are the Possible Benefits of Indexed Backlinks?
To reap the best benefits of the backlink strategy, you must ensure that Google indexes them. We’ve already mentioned the easiest way to check whether your links are indexed. Below we have shared some benefits of indexing your backlinks and how it will affect your SERP ranking and overall website performance. Let’s take a look.
- Improves Your SERP Ranking
Every indexed backlink coming from a high-authority website improves your SERP ranking. The sooner it gets indexed, the faster Google recognizes your website’s authority, and the higher it ranks your page in the search engine. This means you will have a large number of visitors from the search engine and from the websites that have your backlinks. A good SERP ranking means organic traffic to your website, high conversions, and a better engagement rate.
- Improves Domain Authority
Your backlinks determine your page’s authority. That’s how Google checks your DA and identifies your site’s relevance to the specific subject. It’s obvious that the more backlinks you have, the higher your domain authority will be. Simply put, with every backlink you score from a high-authority website, your site’s DA increases. That’s why it’s important to check if your backlinks are indexed so that Google knows you are an authoritative figure.
- Increases Your Referral Traffic
Usually, the backlinks your website generates are from your competitors. There’s a good possibility that you share the same audience. So, it’s obvious that people visiting their website will click on the backlink and get to your page. This will increase your organic traffic, which will lead to more people visiting your website. An indexed backlink also means that your audience won’t be redirected to a page with an error.
- Good for Branding
Collecting backlinks from high-authority websites is the easiest way to appear as an authoritative figure and improve your branding. It’s basically a free branding opportunity for websites looking to educate people about their offerings and how they can help solve their customers’ pain points. Indexed backlinks do not only improve your website’s visibility, but that’s a sure way to build brand awareness. It’s even better if you get these links from a website with a 60+ DA. People are highly likely to trust your website and share your content with others.
- An Excellent Off-Page SEO Strategy
You may have heard of guest blogging. Well, that’s one of the effective off-page SEO strategies that help you generate backlinks, which in turn, improve your DA, bringing more organic traffic to your website and increasing your website’s worth in Google’s eyes. If you want a good SERP ranking for your page, you need to have an excellent off-page SEO backlink strategy. And getting backlinks is one such way to get a good rank.
How Quality Content Plays an Important Role in Getting Quality Backlinks?
Some people believe that the quality of backlinks matters more than anything. If you generate a few backlinks, but all of them come from websites with high domain authority, they will be very valuable for your website. Others believe the quantity of backlinks matters as much as the quality. In fact, backlinks from websites with 40-50 DA can help you rank faster if you have plenty of them. Well, both are correct.
Google identifies your website’s prominence based on its number and quality of backlinks. That’s why every website needs white hat backlinks to rank well and get recognized as a high-authority website. Remember, there’s a good chance that your backlinks will get indexed easily when they are high-quality and from a website with a high DA.
This leads us to the question, how important is the content quality in backlinks? Well, content quality is everything. In fact, that’s the only way to get high-quality backlinks from trusted sources. Note that the website publishing your backlink will consider your content quality, research the facts, and check other things to ensure that your post makes sense. Let’s check out a few things that can help you acquire backlinks from reputable websites.
Publish Original Research
Do you know why people share content? According to this report on the psychology behind content sharing, 94% of the respondents mentioned how the content is useful for the recipients before sharing.
There are tons of articles published on the internet, and your one post won’t make a difference unless it’s trending news that goes viral or you have filled your post with informative content that attracts your audiences’ attention. Research and publish content that encourages your competitors to link to your website. That’s how people earn white-hat backlinks. It improves your credibility, which eventually helps boost your SERP ranking, bringing more organic traffic to your website.
Publish High-Quality Content
There’s no room for duplicate, low-quality, and factually-incorrect content on the internet. Google identifies your content quality based on the number of visitors your site receives, your website’s bounce rate, customer engagement, and other metrics. So if you want a backlink, you need to post engaging, informative, and original content that isn’t published anywhere else.
You can use references, but don’t re-write, re-phrase, or copy what’s already published. Likewise, when mentioning stats, you must link to the sources. Also, visual content receives more attention than a post filled with text. So add more infographics, tables, charts, and images to make your content more interesting for the reader. The longer they stay on your website, the more they will learn, and the higher the chances they will link to your post.
Post Sharable Content
What exactly does high-quality content mean? For starters, it keeps your audience engaged till the end. Post something your audience can relate to and that your competitors want to add to their websites. Use quotes, stats, surveys, interviews, and research to make your content informative and valuable for readers. That’s what Google and your audience want. You won’t even have to write guest blogs if the content on your website is good enough to attract backlinks naturally. Write long and engaging blog posts. Make sure the data you put in your content is factually correct.
These tips will help you post content that’s worthy of getting backlinks from high-quality websites. Besides that, there’s not much you can do to get your links indexed. Just wait for Google bots to index the post and links in it.
Check Your Backlinks Regularly with SEO Tools
Any website can link to your content within its post. But what if it’s a low-authority website or a penalized one that might hurt your SEO ranking? To ensure that you don’t get backlinks from such sources, you should always monitor your backlink quality and profile.
Ahref backlink checker is the best tool to identify the quality of your backlinks, the domain authority of the website, how many backlinks you have for each post, who has linked to your page, etc. If you find spammy links that might affect your website’s SERP ranking negatively, disavow them immediately. This will add your backlinks to Google’s Disavow Tool, which means it won’t be considered.
Ahref’s Backlink Checker is a powerhouse that can research any backlink or source linking back to your website in one click. Remember, the quality of your backlink is your website’s most crucial ranking factor. Random backlinks that are irrelevant to your niche or coming from websites with low DA can hurt your ranking in the long run.
You can find other SEO backlinks tools to check backlink quality and performance, but Ahref is pretty much all you need to get insights into your link-building strategy, competitors’ backlinks, websites similar to your niche, and your existing backlinks.
Things to Keep in Mind While Building Backlinks
Generating backlinks is not as simple as writing articles, publishing them, and waiting for good results. No matter how great your content is, it’s always Google’s ranking algorithm that determines whether your content should be ranked.
Link building is not child’s play. You need to put effort and dedication into creating high-quality content that gets attention from your target audience. Let’s check out a few ways to build high-quality backlinks.
- Anchor Text
Anchor text matters when it comes to link building. Your anchor text is the keyword or the service relevant to the page that you are linking to. It must not look spammy or irrelevant to the post linking to your website. You can use junk anchors if your keywords do not fit in well. Junk anchors are like “read more,” “click here,” “here,” etc. They don’t perform as well as the keywords, but if your keyword looks irrelevant to the post, you can use them.
- Beat Your Competitors
How do you think people get hundreds of backlinks to their websites? Well, they spy on their competitors. Research the top 10 competitors and use SEO backlinks tools to identify the sources linking to their websites. Spying on your competitors might not seem viable, but you need to identify the sources that can give you backlinks.
Once you have gathered the list of the websites linking to your competitor’s blogs, you can check the domain authority of these websites and narrow down your list to the websites with a 60+ DA. Next, check these websites and see if they are accepting guest blogs. Then, you can reach out to them via email.
- Backlink Diversity
The worst you can do to your website is buy and sell backlinks. Buying backlinks in SEO is definitely not the right way to bring people to your homepage. People should naturally want to visit your website to find solutions to their problems and some valuable content. Whether your goal is to grow organic traffic or convert visitors into prospects, the best strategy is to create a diversified backlink profile that attracts the right audience to your page.
All traffic is not good traffic. Besides, generating backlinks from a single source won’t give you much exposure. It’s also not healthy for your SERP ranking. So, try to reach out to more websites in different niches and build a healthy backlink profile.
- Check Your Link Building Rate
It may sound tempting to generate backlinks quickly. But this can lead to a Google penalty. After the Penguin update, Google bots have been scanning your backlinks carefully to detect link trading. Instead of generating links quickly, you should follow a simple and steady approach for this. You shouldn’t use all your high-quality backlinks at once. Consistency is key to success. Make sure you stay consistent in your link-building strategy and use an appropriate strategy that guarantees success over time.
Conclusion
You know your SERP ranking will improve when you score a backlink from a high DA website. But this won’t count until the links are indexed. There are many tools that help you speed up the indexing procedure, but the best thing you can do is wait. Google will automatically index your backlinks that are valuable, posted on credible websites, and which are relevant to your business. Hope you have understood the importance of high-quality backlinks and how they need to be indexed to improve your SERP.
FAQS
What is an Index and no index?
A no-index tag tells Google not to index certain pages in the search engine. As a result, these pages don’t show up on Google search results. Make sure you don’t have the no-index tag turned on when publishing a post. If your content has a no-index tag, the backlinks on it won’t be indexed either.
Which backlink is good for websites?
Backlinks you earn from guest blogging on websites with a Domain Authority above 80 are considered good backlinks in SEO. You also get backlinks when websites find the content on your page useful and the information credible enough to be included in their posts. They link to your websites to give you credit. In addition, guest post bio, acknowledgment, and badge backlinks are considered healthy for your SERP ranking.
How to get backlink Indexing faster?
Post-high-quality content to get backlinks and use the right anchor text that fits naturally within your guest blogs. You can use Google Search Console, the most powerful backlink indexing tool, to have all your backlinks indexed and identify the problems that might affect your link-building strategy. You can use other tools like Ping Farm and GSA SEO Indexer to submit all your backlinks to Google Bots and have them crawled and indexed.
