Besides being one of the essential pillars that hold up SEO, link building is a pivotal search engine ranking factor. In essence, link building involves promoting trust between three parties; your website, other websites, and search engines like Google. Therefore, you should never compromise on this aspect of SEO.
Yet, sometimes even the SEO pros can stumble and compromise the link profile of their websites. How do you avoid getting stuck in these mistakes? By gaining necessary knowledge about them. Developing an efficient and good-quality link-building strategy for your online marketing helps you tackle your competition better.
Some standard SEO link-building essentials include:
- Using the right anchor words
- Linking with reputable and niche-related websites
- Creating engaging and top-tier content
- Accounting for relevant links
- Incorporating do-follow links
The points mentioned above comprise link-building best practices in SEO, i.e., white-hat SEO. Below we elaborate on some of the common mistakes of link building in SEO, a.k.a black-hat SEO tactics.
Spamming the Link Building
The most common instances of link spamming occur under blog posts. For example, when you see users post links to poor-quality websites in a comment section of a guest post, you can identify them as spam links. Another thing you should watch out for is the anchor text. Sometimes, to promote their website, users can post their spam links in that text or the comment box.
To solve this problem, you can take the help of online SEO tools. These tools can protect your website against link spamming and guarantee that your website remains free of black hat SEO.
Buying Links
No search engine, including Google, finds buying links from sites acceptable. If you get caught doing so, you may get banned from search engines permanently or temporarily. It’s good to remember that search engines look for organic and natural links.
According to Google’s official stance, trading links is considered spam that websites need to avoid. So, what can you do instead? Focus on hiring an SEO or digital marketing agency like LinkBuilding HQ link building agency. These firms can help you acquire relevant and high-quality guest posts with a backlink that points directly to your page.
Only Considering High Authority Websites
Quality remains at the heart of SEO, yet many beginners struggle to acquire links from websites with a high authority score. For instance, it takes the same to generate one high authority link and to generate ten lower-quality or smaller links for your website. So, you might be misguided if you plan to target only high-domain authority websites.
When researching link-building websites, divide your search between high DA and low DA websites so that you can gain maximum benefit from your resources. Moreover, link yourself with relevant websites, such as ones belonging to your niche or specific industry.
Similarly, when exploring guest blogging opportunities, try considering blogs that align with your niche. You can even analyze your competitors’ backlinks profile using tools like Moz or Ahrefs. Unless you attribute some value to a link, search engines will deem the linked site irrelevant to yours. SEO agencies can help in this regard since they have ways to acquire out-of-reach links for your website.
Not Paying Attention To Links from Irrelevant Niches
At times, websites may send a do-follow link to your website. Whether intentionally or unintentionally, by doing so, they signal search engine algorithms to recognize your website as one of theirs. And most times, this scenario might seem dubious from the search engine crawlers’ perspective.
For instance, imagine if you would allow a gambling website to link with your website for NGOs. Probably not. To safeguard your website against such attacks, always check your backlinks and avoid allowing links from unrelated or irrelevant niches. This way, you can save your website’s grace and avoid unnatural linking.
Thinking Only Nofollow Links Matter
Certainly, Nofollow links are an integral component of a website’s link profile, as they help it appear more natural. However, these links don’t add much value or worth to your overall SEO strategy. So, instead of focusing entirely on no-follow links, try giving some of your attention to obtaining Dofollow links too.
Generating A High Link Velocity
Sorry to burst your bubble, but there are no shortcuts in link building. When websites generate quick links or have a high link velocity, search engines, such as Google, tend to penalize them.
To better understand high link velocity, you need to recall when you were laying the building blocks for your website. Back then, your content barely featured any backlinks, and your readership was relatively small.
But then the number of backlinks to your website peaked, along with your readership. This phenomenon is called natural link building.
You can also reach the same outcome by manipulating websites or sources to generate backlinks for your website. In which case, search engines will eventually find out that your website’s receiving high backlink velocity. Sure, these may be actual, credible, and legitimate links. But you’ll get penalized if they accumulate too fast or too unnaturally.
Therefore, it’s ideal you maintain a balanced and practical link-building strategy.
Focusing on Quantity Instead of Quality
Developing high-quality content is the ideal way to boost your overall link-building process and guarantee SEO success. Whether it’s short or long-form, it’s vital to keep good-quality content on your website. Hence, you need to prioritize the quality of your content, not the quantity
Owing to the recent updates in Google’s algorithm, you’re no longer going to get away with long-winded content that lacks quality. Now, your content’s engagement and quality matter more than its length. Incorporating informative studies or even visualized data is only half of the equation. You must also select the content that compels your audience.
Conclusion
To err is to humans, but some mistakes can be pretty costly, especially when they are easily avoidable. You need to identify and learn from your mistakes so you can avoid them in the future. Although link-building is an essential part of SEO, your overall success relies on your efforts and marketing strategy. Review every prospective link-building partner and recognize which opportunities are worthy of your investment. Link-building has a close connection to marketing, which deals with promotions and creating value.
So why not make the most of it?
