Conquering Google with Phyzoom, Part 1: What Are Backlinks?

Many clients ask us, “How can I get on the first page of Google?”  One way that the search engine determines page rank for any particular search is through backlinks.

Backlinks are links to a particular website from other sites on the Internet.  They serve as votes of confidence for your website, which shows search engines like Google that you are an authority for that particular word phrase.

For example, let’s say you are an orthopedic practice, and you have some general information about your specialty on your website.  Patient X runs across your site, and decides that he would like to share your content with his friends.  While typing up a new blog post, Patient X writes, “For more information on orthopedics, click here.”  He hyperlinks “click here,” giving your practice a backlink, but the problem is that your vote of confidence will be for searches with the phrase “click here.”  Instead, Patient X needs to hyperlink the words “information on orthopedics,” which will help your site’s ranking when that phrase is typed into a search engine.

The more link text backlinks that you have, the more points that your site has for that keyword phrase.

Check in next week for Part 2 of Phyzoom’s Conquering Google series, where we will go over various ways to increase the number of backlinks to your site.