Practices to Avoid in Link Building
Explore the practices to avoid in link building so you can create a safe link profile without breaking Google’s rules.
Link building is a sensitive field of SEO. However, it’s not hard to tell which tactics are OK and which ones will be considered spam by Google, even if we go with our instincts.
If a website builds thousands of links overnight through link directories, it’s clearly inviting trouble from Google. Instead of rising up in search results, the website is likely to be removed from SERPs altogether.
There are certain practices in link building that are considered link spam. Google’s response to different kinds of link spam varies, but they’re all considered risky. A smart SEO expert should be familiar with the popular link spam so their link building strategy does not fall into any of the danger zones.
What to avoid when building links
Here are some practices that can raise the red flag for Google:
Acquiring links unnaturally fast
Link building, when done the right way, is a gradual process. As already discussed, acquiring thousands of links overnight is suspicious and may invite trouble.
Though John Mueller says Google doesn’t count links like that, acquiring too many links too fast may sound unnatural and against the guidelines [48]. Links should be acquired naturally and gradually over time instead of created in bulk within a small time interval.
Buying links
Buying and selling links is considered a ‘link scheme’ by Google and a violation of Google’s webmaster guidelines [49]. Search engine algorithms are smart enough to detect purchased links and can respond by pulling our site off search results. Sometimes webmasters may get away with it, but it’s not worth the risk.
Spending thousands of dollars in purchasing links in bulk from companies promising to rank us overnight may or may not work—or it could end up tarnishing our site’s ranking. Instead, spend the same money on building quality content (for example, blogs, infographics, and videos) and paid ads to bring more traffic our way.
Link exchanging
Link exchanging, link bartering, link trading or link swapping all mean the same thing, which is “I’ll link to you if you link to me.” Excessive link exchanges is also considered a link scheme by Google and penalized.
It’s easy to detect for Google that the link was not earned if site A links to site B and site B links back to site A, as shown in the diagram above. If done on a limited scale, though, and only with high-authority and relevant websites, we’re likely in the clear.
Building links only for the homepage
If the homepage is the only page on our website receiving inbound links, it may appear sketchy to Google. If people are only linking to the homepage and not to any other content on our site, the direct presumption is that the links were built, not earned. Make link building appear natural by building links to other pages as well besides our homepage. Depending on what the linking page’s content is about, we can acquire links to our product pages or blogs too.
Linking to other pages besides our homepage benefits in multiple ways. We can also rank for keywords targeted by our site’s pages other than the homepage’s keyword. It will bring relevant referral traffic to our site that might actually be interested in the specific page being linked.
If the linked page is a product page or a landing page, it can drive conversion! However, it’s not a good idea either to link only to our product pages. Product pages don’t typically rank for informational queries, and informational queries constitute 50 to 80% of the total search queries.
Comment spam
The comment section in blogs and message boards are possibly the first areas that link spammers will target. Not interested in what the blog is about, webmasters leave a comment only to get a link from the body of the content.
Sometimes these commenters insert keywords in place of their name and link back from it. Either way, Google’s algorithms won’t find it hard to detect whether it’s a genuine comment, or an artificial one, solely created for the purpose of linking back to the commentator’s site.
Most bloggers and website owners have spam filters to detect and remove such comments. Even if there isn’t a spam filter, such comments don’t give high-quality links and won’t benefit our site’s ranking in the long run.
Spammy guest posting
Guest posting is one technique that we will include in both, the list of things to avoid in link building, and the list of the best link building strategies, discussed in a later lesson. Why so? When executed incorrectly, guest posting can raise a red flag for Google. When done correctly, though, it can give us some high-quality links that can help us rank.
In 2014, Matt Cutts went as far as saying “So stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy.” in his blog [50].
Yet, guest posting is still alive and bringing results. We should understand that guest blogging with thin or duplicate content on low-quality sites solely for the purpose of getting a link from the blog’s body isn’t going to cut it in 2022.
Additionally, there are some additional signals for spammy guest posting that can trigger spam alerts:
Making payments in return for publishing a guest post.
Publishing on websites whose sole business is to publish guest posts.
Publishing guest posts on websites not relevant to our content.
Recycling content on different sites.
With reference to the last point, webmasters often use software to switch words and phrases of the article, submitting it to different websites as guest posts. Regenerating content like this still counts as duplicate content and can negatively impact our ranking.
Directories
Links from low-quality web-directory listings can also be a liability. Free directory submission websites are highly unlikely to improve our ranking on Google. In fact, they can do more harm than good. As early as 2012, it was noticed that Google began deindexing such directories [51].
However, submissions to relevant directories with high-quality listings are not a bad technique. Securing a listing in directories like Yelp and Manta is a robust technique to promote a local business. Another sign to distinguish a high-quality web directory is that it will charge us a fee. Even though we’re paying to get a link, Google does not consider it manipulative, as explained by Matt Cutts in his blog [52].
While certain types of directory links can be helpful, going overboard and building thousands of links in this way may invite trouble. To be on the safe side, if we have directory links, keep them below 10 to 20% of our total inbound links.
Any other manipulation
Besides the ones mentioned in this list, there are countless other manipulations that webmasters often do to increase their inbound links, but they may not always work as planned. We could probably get away with it, or Google might take the technique as a violation of the webmaster’s guidelines and penalize our site for it.
So how do we know if it’s a permissible link building technique or a manipulation? If our intuition tells us that the link acquired might look artificial to Google, take it as a sign to skip that link.
Paid site-wide footer links, for instance, have a good chance of being perceived as a manipulation by Google. Links from social bookmarking sites and PBNs (Public Blog Networks) carry no true value and are far from Google’s good books.
Point to ponder
Are all link building techniques bad?
Test your knowledge
Choose the correct answer for the following questions.
Which practice in link building is considered a “link scheme” by Google and violates its guidelines?
Link exchanging
Guest posting on relevant websites
Building links gradually over time
Creating high-quality content
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