What is a Natural Link?
A natural link is a backlink that a site gives you naturally, without you having to request it. You earn these organic backlinks through strong content that persuades others to link to you.
Many SEO experts believe natural links are hard to get. You have to make your content good enough that other sites want to link to you.
But while challenging, natural backlinks are possible. It depends more on creating awesome content that convinces sites to backlink, rather than paying or asking for links.
Why are natural links important?
Natural links are important in SEO in the following ways:
Organic links bring free, organic traffic to your site. This is better than paid traffic from ads which can be expensive.
More organic links signal to search engines that your content is valuable. This helps improve your search engine rankings.
Getting links organically shows you have credible & trustworthy content that others find useful enough to link to. This is a "vote of confidence."
More natural backlinks lead to more exposure for your brand. This helps more people discover and recognize your business.
Difference between natural and unnatural links
Natural links have a good impact on SEO and result from all legitimate efforts.
On the other hand, all the backlinks that involve spammy practices or require you to pay for them are unnatural links.
Natural links have these qualities that separate them from unnatural links:
Natural links are earned, not paid for. Paid links can hurt a site's SEO.
Natural links send users directly to the target page. Unnatural links may redirect people first.
Natural links are placed organically within useful content. They provide value to readers. Unnatural links are added just for SEO.
How do natural links influence SEO?
Getting natural links from other websites is the safest and most effective way to improve search engine rankings and do well in off-site SEO.
Natural links happen organically when website owners link to your content because they find it useful - not because you asked them to. You can't directly control getting natural links.
Instead of aggressive link-building tactics, website owners should focus on creating high-quality, valuable, and shareable content that other sites may naturally link to.
Posting content on other sites like guest posts can also help improve SEO, but only up to a point.
High-quality natural links can improve rankings more. The only way to increase the chances of getting natural links is to create excellent content that provides value to readers.
If the content is useful and relevant to others, there is a better chance they will reference it and link to it.
How to earn a natural link?
Although natural links are difficult to get and natural link building is a slow process, you need to invest your time and effort in earning them.
Quality content
The most important strategy for getting natural backlinks is creating high-quality, valuable content. Useful content that appeals to your target audience is more likely to be linked to.
Quality content does not necessarily have all these characteristics in one piece, but it should:
Be fresh and original
Provide helpful information
Answer user questions
Attract visitors to your site
Such type of content may include infographics, tools, case studies, surveys, new information, newsworthy stuff, etc.
Guest blogging
There are differing opinions on whether guest blogging counts as natural link-building. Some argue it does not since you are asking for links by writing posts on other sites. Others think guest posts earn natural links through valuable content.
Rather than focusing too much on labels, it is more helpful to focus on best practices for any link-building approach.
As long as a link-building method provides useful content and is seen as ethical by search engines, it can benefit your SEO whether directly natural or not.
Social media
Your personal social media accounts are centred around you and your interests. This makes them a good place to share your own content with your followers.
If the content is interesting and engaging, your followers may be inclined to share it further with their own networks. This can help expand the reach.
Takeaway
Natural links are important for several reasons.
Keep in mind that gaining natural links is a gradual, long-term process that requires patience and avoiding manipulative shortcuts.
Continuously produce content that resonates with your target audience. The lasting results are worth the steady effort of building your authority and earning those links organically.