While you might have heard all the praises for link building and how beneficial it is for your business website, the reality is that these links work in the long run only if they are acquired ethically. Most people who have recently discovered the digital marketing scene just rely on cheap SEO companies and most of them promise quick results. A quick outcome indicates to using unethical means of link building that are considered bad.
Good link building is just a little time-consuming and businesses want to get results as soon as possible. We understand the desperation to rank in the search results to boost traffic but what is the point of it when you might face consequences in the future? Also, good link building is not that expensive in fact cheap link building techniques are mostly time-consuming and good tactics.
Bad link-building techniques will lead to getting penalties from Google which one cannot afford. In most cases, you will be required to shoulder the additional financial burden of hiring specialists to assist you in recovering your website. In this article, we will find out about the good and bad link building and other basic link-building subjects.
Google’s Link Building Rules
Table of Contents
When you begin a strategy to establish links to your website, you need to proceed with extreme caution since not all backlinks are created equally. Create connections for your company and for your consumers, ensure that the links are appropriate, and link them to excellent content. Your customers will be satisfied, Google will continue to include you in its search engine results, and your company will see expansion. You need to make absolutely sure that the backlinks you create are organic so that Google does not come to the conclusion that you are attempting to influence its search algorithm.
It is possible that any links that have the intention of manipulating PageRank or the ranking of a website in the search results provided by Google are deemed to be part of a link scheme, which is a breach of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. This covers any conduct that manipulates backlinks to your website or links that leave your site. Here is guide about the ethicality of good and bad links.
1. Mutual Link Building
Bad Link building: A website’s rating in search engine results will suffer if it engages in an immense accumulation of link exchange (also known as link my website and I’ll link yours) or has connections to backlink exchange sites that exist only for the purpose of cross-linking.
Good Link Building: The practice of exchanging links is not inherently problematic so long as it is not done to an excessive degree, if the links exchanged are relevant to the discussion at hand and sound right from the user’s perspective then it is not considered bad.
2. Web Directories
Bad Link Building: Submitting your website to an online directory for the sole purpose of obtaining a backlink can have a detrimental impact on the position of your website. There are certain directories on the web that don’t really provide anything useful to th websites, thus Google doesn’t include them in its search engine results. Your website is the last thing you would like to see listed there
Good Link Building: The most effective directories are those that, in addition to listing businesses, provide prospective clients relevant and helpful information. Relevance and quality is the most important factor in creating links. Therefore, it is important for you to develop links in directories that are specific to your sector and are related to informational websites that are integral to your business niche.
3. Guest Blogging
Bad Link Building: Keyword links that are too optimized and are used in blogs or press releases syndicated to other websites. This means that articles, blogs, or other content that uses the anchor texts more than it is normally needed are considered bad link building. You don’t need to overstuff your content with anchor text links.
Good Link Building: It is quite flattering when other people are writing about you and refer to your website; however, the linking should be done in a natural way for it to be considered complimentary. It is not natural to overstuff the affiliate links with commercial terms, and doing so will almost certainly bring you into problems. In this particular scenario, it might be beneficial to make use of navigational or branding keywords.
4. Forum Link Building
Bad Link Building: Comments on blogs or message boards that aren’t helpful and include optimized links inside the thread or signature are useless. It is unethical to sign up for backlinking communities only for the purpose of obtaining connections to other websites.
Good Link Building: If you contribute to an ongoing conversation on a blog or forum that is pertinent to your company and if your contribution adds anything of worth to the context of the conversation, then you won’t need to worry about whether or not you should provide a hyperlink to a relevant resource. However, you need to be careful not to overdo it by putting a lot of business-related keywords in the anchor texts.
5. Purchasing Backlinks
Bad Link Building: Google has made it quite clear that violating their criteria by purchasing backlinks in order to increase your results is not permitted. They see links as votes, and they believe that it is wrong to pay for votes. Paid connections of poor quality carry an exceptionally high degree of danger, in addition to the possibility that they will be a waste of money. Your site will be penalized by Google if it has links that were purchased from websites that advertise openly.
Good Link Building: Rather of paying for links, you should put your money into producing content of the highest possible quality and advertising your website in such a manner that it draws in organic backlinks. If you use this technique, it won’t cost you any more than purchasing a large number of poor-quality links would, and in the long run, you’ll get far better results; the only difference is that you’ll need more patience. Do not purchase links if you really want an SEO strategy that is completely devoid of danger.
Now that you are aware of the good and bad link-building methods, you are smart enough to choose the best for you and your business. Be wise with your decisions!