March 28, 2024

Link Building Things to Avoid

Link Building

Things to Avoid

Link Building - Things to Avoid

 

A lot of link building strategies can backfire, causing more damage than doing good. If you want to improve your ranking in the long term, using what we call a holistic SEO strategy, you should definitely avoid certain link building tactics.

 

In this post, I’ll describe link building DON’TS: tactics you most definitely should NOT use.

 

Risky Link Building Tactics

 

In the old days, link building meant putting links on as many external pages as possible, often by buying or trading links. Since Google Penguin these tactics have become a more risky SEO strategy.

 

If your link building tactics include spamming, your site risks a Google Penalty and could be banned from Google’s results completely. However, there is some leeway. Google makes such a big deal of this as it goes against their primary means of making money.

 

Therefore, they tell us how great and powerful Penguin is and what will happen if Penguin catches you. The reality is that if you do some excellent and worthy link building you can fit in some some less than ideal link building. After all to have 100% of your links to be ideal links would be wonderful but also very hard. When you do ever achieve the ideal?

 

Do some creative manual link building as part of your business building. Manage your link building and set aside time to do this as a regular part of your schedule. It will pay off nicely in the long run. In part because it is so hard. It is something most of your competitors will not do.

 

Here are the most obvious link building DON’TS.

 

Do not . . .

 

Acqurie Too Many Links All At Once

 

Even if you outsource your link building make sure that you work with a company that will build your in-coming links slowly – spread them out over time. This looks more natural.

 

Exchange Links

 

Link exchanges simply do not work well. The scenario is “if you provide a link to this page on my site then I will provide you with a link from this page on my site.” If you go to look at the page where the link to your site will be placed you may be disappointed to see many additional links. Essentially very few will be at all related to your business. In short the linking in page looks like a page from a link farm – Don’t acquire links in this manner!

 

Use Automated Programs To Acquire Links

 

There is too much at stake to depend on an automated computer program to generate links for you. Don’t do it.

 

Comments on Other Blogs

 

Engaging in a conversation by commenting on a blog post is a very nice way to build a relationship. However, if your comment are just designed to provide a link back to your content then this will become obvious and damage any relationship building. Guest blogging can certainly be a way to gain incoming links and to build long-term relationships but be sure to make your comments worthy and valuable.

 

Commenting on blogs or forums when your only purpose is to leave a link in the comment is a sure way to have people lose respect for you or even become mad at you. It is a method that will not last long and do more damage than good.

 

This is an old and overused technique. Many automated programs work using this method. Don’t use it.

 

Over-Optimizing Anchor Text

 

There are still many SEO “experts” touting that your links should be specific keyword phrases. This is no longer necessary and to have too many links with specific keyword phrase can work against you. Make sure your links are associated with relevant content but do not be overly concerned about the linking text. This is even more fundamentally true if the page that is linking to you is exactly on topic.

 

Unrelated Links

 

It makes no sense to have links that come from a page or website that is not on your topic. Don’t do it.

Spammy Site Links

If a site has very little content then it is hard to determine what the site is about. Gain links from sites that are exactly on your topic and that have depth and variety of content. Avoid getting links from sites with very little content. Sites that are just set up to produce links with very little content of value are sites you do not want a link from.

Link Building - Things to Avoid