Stop doing this, it doesn’t help you.

The question I get asked the most when we get a Newspager coverage in the media is: “Could you ask the publication to put a backlink to our business website?”

No, I most certainly won’t because, just like your mum, I care about you and have your best interests at heart.

I get why you ask and it comes from a good place – you want your business to rank high on Google. It’s one of the big benefits of being featured in the media. You have it on good authority as well, that lad in your tech team who lives off of Red Bull and wears Metallica t-shirts told you that backlinks are the Holy Grail of search engine optimisation – nothing else matters.

He’s not wrong. Metallica is a great band.

Whether a publication gives you a backlink or not is a question of editorial styles. In plain English that means some will, some won’t. Most often they won’t. A normal news article will quote several people and littering the article with links isn’t visually appealing.

Just read any article from the publication, if there’s a link to the firm of someone they’ve quoted, then they use backlinks. Simples.Now you know.

To a journalist, being asked if you can have a backlink is like a parent hearing “are we there yet?” from the back seat for the fourth time, seven minutes into an eight hour drive. 

It grinds a journalist’s gears and is a guaranteed way to get you put on the naughty step. So don’t do it.

You still get plenty of Google juice from being quoted and name checked in a publication, even without a backlink. News sites have high domain authority and anyone googling you or your business will come across those articles, making you appear like the credible expert you are.

Being featured in the media helps your business to “own” the first pages of any google search. When you’ve been quoted in the media regularly, it’s your business website followed by those publications that you’ve featured in that pop up first. That’s web dominance right there and it’s easy to obtain.

Yes, backlinks are the best, no doubt about it, they do all the things Metallica t-shirt SEO boy wonder told you. But please, take any backlinks you get as a bonus. 

So stop worrying and stop asking for backlinks. Instead, sign up to Newspage and get your business featured in the media today.

Jay Vaananen, CEO, Newspage