04 Jun Some Common Mistakes to Avoid While Building Backlinks
Link building is a very important task in search engine optimization. As we all know, backlinks – links from different sites(external links) are one of the top 3 ranking factors for Google to rank any website in Google search results. SEO and digital marketers literally do anything to get links including black hat tactics to achieve higher rankings.
But wait, is it safe?
As Google continuously working to improve the search results and fighting with the different types of spam with different algorithm updates, there is a big risk while playing with backlinks. Google does not link the manual link building and you are better aware of this than accept guest postings and naturally coming links, all the other tactics to get links including directory submission and web 2.0 linkings for ranking purposes are illegal in Google’s eyes.
If you get caught, Google will reward you with a penalty and de-index your site. Online businesses that totally depend on the website and online portfolio sites and spend a big amount on SEO services can’t afford this penalty at any cost.
Topics Covered
Below are some of the mistakes you need to avoid while building backlinks
Linking to sites with a bad reputation:
This is a common thing yet people make mistakes. You should be better aware of the sites which you are linking to. A bad site linking will put you with it in quality of the website. Avoid spam sites, sites with duplicate content, or thin content (never link to auto-blogging, illegal sites, and adult sites). Similarly, never get links from this type of website. It will downgrade your website in search with a spammy link reference.
Paid links:
There are many services and bloggers you will find who link to your site in exchange for some fixed amount. If the blogger is selling a link to you for money, means he also selling to other bloggers and linking to too many sites with different quality, mostly, lower-quality PBN sites.
If you are planning for a long run, never buy links. It will ruin your good backlink efforts and put you in danger of getting a spam penalty from Google.
Links from only high PR sites:
When building links, it is all about looking natural in Google’s eyes. if you focus only on high PR sites and do not mix them with lower DA sites or blogs, you will easily get caught by Google.
It is very important to get links from the same or related niche and from a different type. Like a mix of EDU links, org, and .com links. This will give a good signal.
As we are talking about the link weight balance, you also need to consider getting a good amount of nofollow links as well. I know I know, nofollow links do not carry link juice and will not help you rank high, but it is very important to make your link profile look natural. You can get balanced nofollow and do-follow links to play safe.
Irrelevant links:
A good example of a quality link is a do-follow link from a high PR site from the same or related niche. If you are running a blog about food and you get a 90DA link from an automobile blog, it makes no sense. It is totally irrelevant to what you are offering to users on your site and hence it will not help you rank in any way. Links from the same niche/topic will increase your content authority and Google will surely reward you with better rankings.
Anchor text:
Anchor text is very important when building links. It tells Google what the linked page is about. And related keywords as anchor text will increase that page’s ranking in search results. However, Google is enough smart. It can easily detect the anchor text spam. If you start building links with the same exact targeted anchor text, you will get a penalty. So never, make this mistake of targeting the exact ranking keyword in the anchor text. Instead, you can mix all the anchors with different types.
A natural link profile is mostly made of below different link anchors.
Brand word:
website or brand name. If building a link for Semrush. Use “Semrush” as anchor text.
Exact URL:
Exact URL means, the naked URL itself. “www.semrush.com” as an anchor linking to page https://www.semrush.com
LSI + long tail keywords:
You can add related long-tail keywords and phrases as anchor text. it will keep the relevancy without spamming.
Generic words:
Generic words are some mostly used keywords to link the site like “learn more”, “click here”, and “website”. Use these types of words when linking to make it look more general and less spam.
Moss Clement
Posted at 09:27h, 07 JuneGreat and interesting read you have here. Link building is a remarkable SEO tip that can skyrocket your website traffic more than you can imagine. I love using LSI keywords to optimize my content, and also long-tail keywords because they are less competitive but has the power to drive massive traffic to your site.
Thanks so much for sharing this insightful information.
Navin Rao
Posted at 09:42h, 14 JulyAny new website needs a lot of links to rank the pages better in the search engines. Yeah, I agree, it’s all about mixing all type of links, Nothing to be overdone and be safe. It’s always wise to have a diverse Anchor text for your site.
I big no to Paid links, if they are selling links then sooner or later it will be a spam website. Staying away from it. SEO is interesting if done in the right way without stressing too much.
Great Insights. Have a great day!
Santanu
Posted at 02:49h, 20 JulyWithout backlink, it is impossible to get the higher ranking. But for a new website, it is very difficult to get a natural backlink. But one can try guest post, blog commenting and at the same time write a quality article to attract share. This is an awesome article for beginners to learn and avoid mistakes.