Written by: Ryan Walsh

What are backlinks?

Backlinks, in short, are when another website directs a hyperlink towards your domain name. This could be featured on the homepage, a blog post, or a main page. The more quality links accumulated over time, the more links are added to your business’s backlink profile.

The businesses in the U.K. with the strongest backlinks are typically the ones that rank in the top three results on Google. Now, of course, the other search engine optimisation elements need to be good quality as well; for example, the content marketing will need to be very high quality.

However, good links usually are what drive any business up the ranks on Google.

Are backlinks still that important?

Backlinks are still an essential part of organic search engine optimisation. However, as we now move into this new era of AI and AI search, we are unsure at the time of writing how important backlinks will be in terms of how AI ranks businesses. However, for the time being, when talking about organic search engine optimisation, backlinks, and having a strong backlink profile are still very important.

Does the number of backlinks matter?

Yes, whether we are talking about backlink building in 2025 or whether we are talking about backlink building during the days when Google used Google PageRank as the algorithm to rank websites, backlinks were always important.

In a nutshell, if a business wins a business award and accumulates backlinks from reputable sources like the BBC, Wales Online, and The Guardian newspaper online, mentioning the product innovation award, linking to your business can significantly boost your organic search engine optimisation.

In terms of Google’s search ranking factors, how important are backlinks?

As most good SEO agencies know, there are now in excess of 200 ranking factors. Now, backlinks, or links for short, are the most critical ranking factor that Google’s algorithm uses to decipher how strong or weak a business’s SEO is.

In a nutshell, if a business has powerful backlinks and good on-page SEO, then it’s more than likely going to rank higher on Google.

Therefore, regardless of the business sector, whether you’re a plumber or a solicitor, usually the businesses ranked right at the top of Google’s organic results will be those companies which have the strongest and highest quality backlinks.

Are all backlinks worth the same?

Most definitely not; some backlinks, such as a good link from the BBC, can have a massive and dramatic uplift in terms of where the company ranks. For other links, such as spam links, this can actually move the business down a few places. In fact, accumulating too many spam links can result in a link penalty.

What’s the difference between a dofollow and a nofollow backlink?

The difference between a do-follow and a no-follow backlink is relatively simple: one passes SEO goodness known as link equity, and the other doesn’t. To supercharge your business’s organic search engine optimisation, you need good links that pass link equity.

No-follow links are not worthless; they are still worth accumulating. The reason is that they can enhance your business’s backlink profile and overall search engine optimisation. The reason is that having a lot of quality websites that link to you, whether do-follow or no-follow, is still a sign that the website has decided to link to you.

If several high-quality websites, such as the BBC, link to you, it’s a sign to Google’s algorithm that your content marketing is of high quality.

Google’s perspective is straightforward: if the BBC decides to link to you, it’s likely because you offer high-quality content marketing or are an innovative company that has achieved notable recognition, such as winning a business award.

How do you go about building good-quality links?

Regardless of which type of business you run, whether your best solicitor in a pin-stripe suit, or your best hairdresser sliced bread, to rank at the top of Google, your business is going to need a lot of links.

When you place your direct competitors’ websites into a good backlink checking tool, and try Moz Pro, it’s fantastic and one of the best on offer.

Then, using the backlink checking part of the website, you can see that your competitors who are currently ranking number one on Google will generally have good quality links. Typically, businesses that rank at the top of Google or Bing will have over one hundred quality links.

For competitive business sectors, let’s say your business sells legal services across the U.K.

Your business will be competing against thousands of other solicitor practices, so your business backlinks must be superior in every possible way. You will often need thousands of quality links. This is where a top-quality agency is usually required to improve the SEO substantially.

What does link-worthy content marketing even mean?

Regardless of the question the customer has, there are often thousands of businesses that have also answered that exact question. The reason is that they want the shopper to land on their piece of content marketing, which offers an answer to that question.

Then they can direct that shopper to a page where they can buy a product from them.
Content marketing is, therefore, a way of bringing shoppers to the company website.

However, for that piece of content marketing to even get close to page one of Google, you must have a lot of high-quality links.

And how do you get those good-quality links?

Well, your business must offer a superior, more detailed, and better answer than the competition.
If the competition has written 700 words which are boring to read, nobody is going to want to link to that work.

However, if you write 2000 words and have an expert in a YouTube video explaining the benefits of that product, the website is likely to have a low bounce rate.

Then you can cram the page with as much valuable and helpful advice as possible. This will decrease the bounce rate and also sometimes substantially increase the dwell time. Plus, because you’ve offered good advice, it’s clear as day that you have put a lot of effort into creating that page, and other businesses may link to you.

Now you may well be scratching your head, thinking, “Well, why would other businesses want to link to us?”

Well, because quite simply put, those other businesses may not be your competitors. For example, let’s say that you make and bake the wedding cakes. And you may have a partnership with a local hotel, where if you refer them, you get a commission. Therefore, on your wedding cake website, you may offer a link to an exclusive, luxury hotel where you know you send your customers to have a great day. Plus,

you have sent out a link, which also helps improve the hotel’s SEO.

What is link velocity?

Link velocity is simply a measure of how quickly your business is accumulating links. Is your business accumulating the links super fast?

Or are you accumulating the links very slowly?

When you have a chat with a leading SEO agency, they will always tell you that an ideal world is one where you accumulate links slowly and steadily.

If your business accumulates too many links too quickly over a month or two, it can appear as if you’re buying links. Google doesn’t want you to buy links; it wants your business to earn links slowly over a long period.

If businesses are buying links, they are ignoring Google’s rules.
It is then perfectly possible that the business will incur a link penalty. When you chat to any good SEO company that’s worth its salt, they will tell you that bad links, spam backlinks, can mean that your website disappears from Google. Getting back can be arduous work, slow, and expensive, especially if you’re paying an agency to do this work. So, don’t cut corners or buy spam links. Doing so can mean your website disappears from Google because it’s been hit by a Google Penguin Penalty.

Should I cheat and buy a load of links?

No, most definitely do not buy links. Google wants you to earn high-quality backlinks. If a business pays for links, such as spam links,

Google’s algorithm can often detect these low-quality links very quickly. If a company has too many spam links, it can soon obtain a Google penalty. When you sit down and have a chat with an SEO agency owner, they will tell you it can take a very long time for a business in the UK or globally to recover from a link penalty.

For example, a business, let’s say here in Wales, might be right at the top of Google’s organic results. However, because it has bought spammy links and built too many low-quality links, Googlebot can index these links. When Google detects excessive spam links being built, a link penalty can be applied to the entire domain name.

This can mean the website moves down substantially, or it could be totally removed from Google because of the link penalty.

To build quality links, we recommend choosing a top marketing agency to improve your business’s search engine optimisation. You should therefore ask if link building is part of the monthly process, as you want quality do-follow and no-follow backlinks built.

How can spam backlinks make my business’s SEO crash and burn?

Your goal is to have no spam links. Therefore, make sure that you take your time to hire the right marketing agency. You don’t want to hire a business that cuts corners or builds spam links, as this can massively damage your company’s SEO.

How do I get these top-quality links you’re talking about?

You need to write high-quality content marketing. Whether it’s a main page or a blog post, you should aim for that page to have a high

Google E-EAT score. Use Google Analytics to monitor the pages’ dwell time, make changes to improve the page over time, and lower the page’s bounce rate. You can use a good quality backlink checking tool, such as Ahrefs, or perhaps you would prefer to use Moz Pro to check for incoming backlinks.

How long should my content marketing be?

It depends on the question being answered; sometimes, someone prefers less text and more visual content. For example, if you were describing how to fix a dripping tap.

On the other hand, if your writing is an article for your family law practice, then often people want a more comprehensive and detailed answer. This means you should examine the amount of text your competition has written and aim for a similar word count, ensuring the work is high quality and has a high Google E-EAT score.

Why does content marketing require me to invest so much effort and time in the work?

Content marketing, such as the page you are reading, requires a significant amount of time to write; however, it’s essential work if your business aims to improve its Google ranking.

If you were to ask our agency, we would say that it’s practically impossible to get any business on page.

Why hire Ryan Christopher Walsh SEO?

We are a leading SEO agency based in Cardiff.

If you would like a free quote, then contact us today.