If you're struggling to understand what backlinks are and how they affect your rankings in search engine optimisation, I really think you should take a look at this video and save it for later. Now in order to understand what backlinks are, I want to show you an analogy from a movie made in the 1980s. The movie is called Can't Buy Me Love.
The premise in the background of the movie is basically there's this nerd in high school and he goes to the most popular girl in school and he said, I'm gonna pay you to be friends with me because basically if people see that you're friends with me, I'm gonna get some of your popularity passed on to me and then I'm gonna become popular as well. Just take a look at this quick clip. What are you talking about?
Are you high?
I wanna rent you. You wanna rent me? Yeah, you pretend you like me and we go out for just a few weeks and that will make me popular.
Just going out with me is not gonna make you popular.
Well, I have $1,000 it says it will. Good to see all ladies. You're beautiful.
That's right.
Mom, Dad, send money please. I'm broke, lady. Now the idea is very similar with regards to search engine optimisation and backlinks in a natural, the way that backlinks work is that if you get a backlink from a popular website or that Google sees as Authoritative, you are getting some of that popularity juice or called authority down to your website.
What Google is saying is if this website is popular and authoritative and referring down to your website, that means that your website must be quite good as well.
Now I know it's a simple analogy, but that's in a natural what backlinks are. If you can get backlinks from good authoritative websites to yours, you are building up the authority and the popularity of your website because those other websites are popular.