Tons of SEO professionals and webmasters nearly collapsed at their keyboards in the wake of Google’s Penguin and Panda updates. SEO professionals believed that “link building was dead…” and this was a huge concern, to put it mildly. However, as time went on and both webmasters and SEO professionals adapted to the change, the fear dissipated regarding link building for search engine optimization (SEO). In fact, the initial reaction was a bit over the top.
Link building continues and should/should continue as it is an essential aspect of search engine optimization. All search engines are link driven.
With that said, we’ll move on to more information on link building, which you may find exceptionally useful and informative.
Misconceptions about link building that should be discarded immediately
– Don’t create links and make sure your content is awesome. This is far from the truth… In fact, even Google’s Matt Cutts said that “links are still the best way we’ve found to find out how relevant or important someone is…”
This statement came from the head of Google’s web spam team. For starters, the guy who released the Penguin and Panda updates. So maybe now we can all just relax and try to breathe again? Maybe…
You see, although backlinks are still a vital aspect of SEO and are also one of the best methods search engines use to rank and index content – the old way of linking is a thing of the past. Those days are gone!
Google now targets particular types of link building methods/strategies. These particular strategies are ones that webmasters and SEO professionals should avoid or risk algorithm and manual penalties, which Google has the power to uphold at any given time.
Things to avoid when making backlinks
Google’s goals and hopes with the implementation of Penguin and Panda were to get rid of spam and suspicious link building shenanigans. Bottom line, stay away and don’t use “quick fix” link building tricks. For a long time, website owners and webmasters spent a lot of time and money exchanging links with other websites to increase page rankings.
However, these link building methods did not offer anything of value to users. Its very existence was to develop as many links as humanly possible and trick search engine algorithms to advance a website’s page ranking. These are the types of link building methods that Google discourages and now, with the implementation of Penguin, if someone uses these unethical link building strategies, they will be hit with a pretty hefty penalty for such practices.
Do not use the following link building tactics:
1. Cross Linking or Exchanging links with other web pages for the sole purpose of building a link tree to increase page rank… This is the type of tactic that should be subjected to a lethal injection. DO NOT DO THIS!
2. Placing links to a website in low value directories is not recommended as most of these online directories are not good. You will be able to tell the difference between low value online directories and the really good ones. Make sure they are applicable and relevant to your business, industry, and/or niche.
3. Guest Blogging or Guest Posting for the sole purpose of inserting keywords, stuffed links within the body of the content is also a big NO, NO! As mentioned above, you will know which blogs are high value based on domain authority or social shares.
Here are some invaluable link building tips…
4 Tips on Safe and Effective Link Building Strategies
Now that we’ve established unethical link building tactics and are in fact attacking them by Google, we’re ready to move on to what we should all really be focusing on, which are four basic building principles that will make your link building efforts work. construction are invaluable and your SEO campaigns are a complete success!
Stellar and quality content. It’s been said many times, but once again it won’t hurt a bit… Creating high-quality content is vital! High-quality content provides value to online users. So naturally/organically you will get quality, Google-friendly and approved links. In addition, this will also develop “Link Earning”. If you continue with high-quality, engaging content, eventually, your website will be recognized and your link building will go into autopilot mode.
Keep the links applicable/relevant. Google counts on your inbound and outbound links to stay relevant. For example, the links must be connected to other web pages that have an organic and direct connection to your business, industry and/or niche in your business. Example: If you have a website that offers professional cleaning services and you link to a website with professional cleaning equipment, this would make a lot of sense to Google instead of linking to a medical equipment company that flies at night.
Less is more. With the new ways of link building, less is definitely more! Using just a few links from a small number of high-quality websites is much more valuable than using a large number of links from low-quality, spammy, and suspicious websites. Quality over quantity will triumph in the link building process. Focus on deep links when looking for high-quality websites.
Investment in social networks. Social media networks and/or platforms are more important than ever. Although Facebook shares or likes are not perceived as links, they nevertheless provide a great avenue to spread your message. Also, it will increase your brand visibility and attract users to your website. The content, which is shared through social media platforms, will organically boost and improve the visibility of a website. It is recommended that you use tools, such as – HootSuite or Buffer, so that you can schedule social media posts in advance.
As you know, the world of SEO is constantly changing and although it can become overwhelming at times, it is up to SEO professionals to adapt to these changes, so that your website stays up-to-date and even more successful and fruitful. So when you hear people say that link building is dead, know that this is a total misconception and that link building is still a valuable aspect of SEO practices.
