Back in the early days of social media (specifically Facebook) there was a little game that took the internet by storm. A game called Farmville. There were a couple of social aspects to the game that catapulted it to the level of fame and success that it accumulated, aspects that—when you think about them—can be equally applied to SEO.

Got no clue what it is, I’m talking about? Let’s break it down. Because there’s a reason why Backlinks are still important for SEO, and those reasons can be related to this decades-old farming game that dominated social media once upon a time.

What is Backlinking?

When boiled down to its core, backlinking is ultimately the act of cultivating the relationships you have between you, your audience, and other blogs or websites. It’s about getting other website owners to trust in you and your work and share it with their own audience.

When you think about FarmVille, players cultivate relationships with their virtual neighbors. This involves helping them with their farms by plowing and planting crops.

Similarly, backlinking involves cultivating relationships with other websites. Just as helping neighbors in FarmVille enhances the gaming experience, linking to other reputable sites enriches your website’s digital ecosystem.

Why Are Backlinks Important for SEO?

1. Backlinks Are a Sign of Trust and Authority

In FarmVille, the trust of your virtual neighbors is crucial. When players collaborate, exchange gifts, and assist in farm activities, they build trust within the community.

Similarly, backlinks are a sign of trust across the digital space. When reputable websites link to your content, it’s pretty much them vouching for your credibility and reliability. Just as in FarmVille, where trust facilitates collaborative efforts, online trust through backlinks enhances your website’s Authority.

In the same manner, when you think about an actual farm, trust in your produce is critical. However, the only way that you can build and create a sense of trust is by having others who have tried your produce recommend it.

Recommendations are backlinks. They link back to you and the work that you do on your farm. In other words, the more recommendations or backlinks you have leading back to your website, the more trust signals you send out to potential customers and clients.

2. Backlinks Continue to Increase Discoverability and Ranking

Remember how in Farmville you could visit your friends’ farms and help them out with a couple of chores and tasks that they need to get done on their farms? Helping friends clear debris often helped open up new areas for exploration and cultivation.

And chances are, whenever you helped a friend out with their tasks, then they were more likely to return the favor and help you out as well.

Backlinks act similarly. They’re ultimately an exchange in either goods or distribution, both of which help in increasing your authority as well as your discoverability and rankings.

When websites link to one another, it’s like placing signposts directing traffic to each other’s virtual farms. More signposts, more visitors, more discoverability! This, in turn, tells Google your content is worth finding, further boosting your ranking.

Similarly, you might remember selling your produce at the Farmville market.

This is a shared space between the community where users can check out what the neighboring farms are selling. If a farm has a certain type of produce that they’re looking for, they may purchase from that farm, and maybe even pay them a visit or add them as a friend.

Backlinks are like you asking other farmers to share their stalls with a couple of your prized goods. When relevant websites link to your content, they’re essentially exposing your offerings to their audience, expanding your reach and discoverability.

3. Backlinks Uplift Your Domain Authority

Step back from the intricacies of farming for a moment and try to recall what everyone was doing with their farms back in the day.

More often than not, they were sharing screenshots of how grand and massive they’ve built up their farms—so much so that whenever you saw one of your friend’s huge empires, you found yourself trying to engage with their accounts more often.

These big farms literally increased their domain’s authority.

Domain authority in SEO is like your scorecard, indicating your overall SEO performance and reputation in the eyes of search engines. It’s a number (typically from 1 to 100) that reflects how likely your website is to rank well in search results.

A high domain authority signifies that your website is considered a reliable source of information in your niche. As a result, this makes your website more visible in search results.

Websites with high domain authority have more “power” online. Links from these websites carry more weight, meaning even a single backlink from them can significantly impact your own domain authority and ranking.

Similarly, a large, reputable plot of land on Farmville means players and users are more likely to find the crops that they need from your farm. This keeps them coming back, which then increases the value of your farm even more—which then increases your visibility and traffic.

What Makes a Backlink Good or Bad?

Now, granted, just as not everything a farm produces is top-notch, not all backlinks are necessarily of good quality either. Some backlinks will sprout robust SEO growth, while others will be like stubborn weeds, choking your online visibility.

So, how do you discern the good from the bad?

Good Backlink Traits:

• Relevance: The website linking to you should be thematically relevant to your niche. A backlink from a gardening blog to your tech website will offer little SEO value.
• Authority: Choose links from websites with high domain authority. Think of them as established, respected figures in your online community. Their endorsement carries far more weight than a link from a brand-new, unknown website.
• Natural and Organic: Avoid link schemes or paid backlink services. Search engines penalize these practices, potentially harming your website’s ranking. Focus on earning links through high-quality content and genuine relationships.
• Followable Links: Choose websites with followable links, as these pass “link juice” to your website, directly impacting your ranking potential. Nofollow links, while valuable for referral traffic, don’t offer the same SEO boost.
• Context and Placement: Ideally, the backlink should be embedded within relevant content, naturally mentioning your website. Randomly placed links, especially within footer sections, raise red flags for search engines.

The key thing here is to choose quality over quantity. Just as you wouldn’t buy bad quality produce from a farm to use for the dishes at a fancy restaurant, you don’t want to have just any random website link back to yours. Choose your backlink partners wisely. Just as you would tend to your precious farm, nurturing good backlinks will yield a bountiful harvest.

Should You Also Be Linking Out to Other Sites?

Just as you would water the crops or send fertilizer packs to your Farmville friends, it’s always a good idea to link to other relevant websites in your niche. While it may seem counterintuitive, it’s actually a very good practice that can yield you positive results.

Every relevant, high-quality link you share reaches potential partners and influencers, increasing the chances of them returning the favor and sending you fertilizer packs too. In the end, both your virtual plots of land grow and increase in value.

What’s more, sharing valuable resources, citing sources, and linking to relevant content showcases your expertise, your willingness to collaborate, and your authority on the subject. This fosters trust and respect, making you a more attractive partner for potential link givers.

The blog The Marginalian (formerly known as Brain Pickings) is one such website where the owner, Maria Popova, links out to a plethora of sources on a great number of subjects. Popova deems the website as a record of her readings, where she shares her insights and reflections on the many subjects she reads through, from science and philosophy to poetry and children’s books.

In her case, linking out does not detract from the value that she brings. Rather, it elevates her expertise and authority.

Ultimately, the importance of backlinks has never diminished. So just as you should continue to build backlinks to your website, so too should you embrace the spirit of sharing in the digital landscape! Link out to relevant websites, build connections, and cultivate a collaborative online presence.

Remember, in the digital co-op of the internet, sharing truly is caring, both for your website and the wider online community!

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