Link building is one of the most important SEO
activities but this certainly doesn't mean that you should build links at any
price ? literally and figuratively. Link building can be very expensive in
terms of time and money. There are many costly link building mistakes and here
are some of the most common:
Linkexchanges are still one of the white hat ways to build backlinks but
unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous webmasters, who will cheat you. One
of the scams is when you pay somebody for a backlink, it suddenly disappears or
has the “nofollow” attribute. That is why you should check from time to time if
the link is still there and if it doesn't have the “nofollow” attribute.
It is greatwhen PR of the site you are getting links from is high but when the anchor text
is “Click here!” or something like that, such a link is barely useful. Keywords
in the anchor text are vital, so if the backlink doesn't have them, it isn't a
valuable one. Analyzing the anchor texts of links takes time but the Backlink Anchor Text Analyzer tool can do the hard job for
you.
Sometimes
when web masters hurry to get backlinks, they skip minor details, such as
anchor text. Yes, an image link is great and it could even bring you more
visitors than a text link (if the image is attractive, of course and users
click it) but for SEO purposes nothing beats a keyword in the anchor text.
Image links
might be the worse option than text links but if an image link is the only
possibility to get a backlink, don't reject it. However, make sure that the ALT
text of the image link has your keywords ? this is more than nothing.
Now, this
mistake is really a popular one! When hunting for backlinks, you should
concentrate on relevant sites only. If you have a dating site, getting links
from a finance one is not valuable. It is true that it is not easy to find
relevant sites to get links from but unless your site is in a very narrow
niche, chances are that there are hundreds or even thousands of relevant sites
you can get a backlink from. If you need a list of such sites for your niche,
try the Backlink
Builder and see what suggestions it can give you.
A backlinkis more valuable, if it comes from a page, which is not cluttered with tons of
other backlinks. Many pages have 200, or more links and if your link is one of
them, this isn't a great achievement. On the other hand, many directories put
the “nofollow” attribute on nonpaid links, so actually even if there are 200
links on page and most of them are “nofollow” (but yours isn't), this still
counts.
A link mightlook perfectly legitimate (i.e. keywords in the anchor text and no “nofollow”
attribute) and still it might not be a link. This is especially an issue with
link exchanges because you put a link to the other site but the other site
doesn't do the same for you. Links Google can't index can be placed on dynamic
pages or simply on pages, which are not indexed by Google because robots.txt
bans it. That is why it doesn't hurt to check from time if the pages your links
are placed on are accessible to spiders. The Search Engine Spider Simulator tool can help you do this in
no time at all.
There ishardly a web master who hasn't heard that paid links can hurt your rankings but
still many web masters don't miss the chance to make a few bucks. If you really
want to sell links, you'd better use the specialized link selling services, such
as Backlinks.com because they are more discreet. However, have in mind that
while some of the paid links networks try to hide the fact that the links are
paid, the rest are not that discreet. Also, maybe the worst gaffe you can make
is to include phrases in website like “Buy 5 PR links for $10”or any other hint
that you are selling links. You can include “Advertise here!” or similar
messages and still de facto sell paid links but this is not as explicit as
listing your prices for links.
Linking to
sites with poor reputation, also known as “bad
neighbors” is one of the worst mistakes you can make. When you link to such
sites, for Google this means that you endorse them and this results in
penalties for you. That is why you must absolutely always check the sites (and
their reputation) first before you link to them. Even if you are offered a lot
of money to link to a site with poor reputation, you'd better decline the offer
because otherwise your rating with search engines will suffer and this will
cause you a lot of problems.
Even if you
check carefully the sites you link to, sometimes it happens that a site, which
used to be more or less decent all of a sudden starts publishing porn ads or
other objectionable content. That is why it doesn't hurt if you check not only
that the outbound links you have are not broken but also where they lead to.
Links are very important and that is why you should
pay attention to what links you are getting. It is not a waste of time to
monitor what's going on with your links and in addition to the tools listed in
the article, you can also try the Backlink
Summary tool.
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