Link building is among the most popular and effective strategies to boost search engine rankings. With this, search engine crawlers can identify new web pages, acquire organic traffic, and boost website visibility.
But simultaneously, it’s also known that 52.3% of digital marketers believe that link building is one of the toughest parts of SEO. So, mistakes are inevitable.
This article will show you exactly how to avoid making the most dangerous mistakes:
1. Content Neglecting
If you focus only on link building and ignore the content quality, it can ruin all efforts. You may only extract poor-quality links that negatively impact the website’s ranking.
Moreover, poor content will fail to engage the website visitors. They’ll leave your website quicker when they can’t find informative content. This spikes the bounce rate and improves website ranking.
Solution:
Ensure you create informative, engaging, and correct content.
Keep the content updated and relevant to keep visitors interested.
Perform keyword research to create content that focuses on target audience interests.
2. Building Too Many Links Too Soon
Inexperienced link builders think that more links boost search engine ranks. So, they try to build many links within a few weeks.
However, search engines perceive this as a spammy link-building strategy. So, the website may get penalized, or you won’t see a good enough boost in ranks.
Solution:
Build a backlink profile slowly and naturally with time.
Create high-quality content so that other websites find it link-worthy.
Connect with website owners and request links strategically. If that sounds confusing, you can always seek professional white label link building service providers.
3. Building Low-Quality Links
High-quality backlinks can boost website traffic, ranking, and reputation. But if there are even a few low-quality or irrelevant links or links from low-authority sites, it’ll ruin the entire website’s reputation and credibility. So, it’ll be more difficult to improve website rank.
Solution:
Focus on building high-quality links. It’s okay if you only get a few of them.
Don’t chase low-quality links, even if they are easier to build or get in bulk.
Before building links, check website authority using third-party SEO tools like SEMRush, Moz, or Ahrefs.
4. Getting Backlinks From Sites With Toxic Link Profiles
If a website you want to get backlinks from has a spammy and irrelevant backlink profile, it’s not worth it. That website doesn’t follow quality link-building ethics. They might also use black hat strategies to improve their ranks.
If you build backlinks from them, toxic juice will be directed toward the website, ruining its reputation and rank.
Solution:
Even if a website has a good rank, always check the website’s toxic score using SEMRush or spam score with Moz.
5. Extracting Links From Plagiarized Content
Your team works hard to write high-quality, precise content that engages readers. However, extracting links from websites with plagiarized, poor, or duplicate content can lead to major penalization.
Solution:
Check for plagiarism by simply copying-pasting that website’s content on Grammarly, PlagScan, Copyscape, or Turnitin.
Check whether the same website has several posts on similar topics. Google’s algorithm chooses only one of them as the best and renders the rest ineffective. So, it’s best to avoid links from such websites.
6. Going For Sites With All Do-Follow Links
Dofollow links are like a stamp of approval, according to Google. But a trustworthy website will have all – dofollow, nofollow, and UGC links.
But if a website only has to follow links, it’s considered suspicious by search engines. So, their links can spoil your site rank.
Solution:
Use Google Search Console on the website to find all types of links.
Use third-party SEO tools like SEMRush, Majestic, or Ahrefs.
After right-clicking, search for “nofollow” or “us” on the View Page Source.
7. Lack Of Diversity In Anchor Text
Anchor text holds the hyperlink on a webpage. Some mistakes are not diversifying the anchor text while link building, i.e., the same anchor text is used repeatedly. This makes the website look over-optimized.
Google algorithms detect it as a manipulative link-building practice. Thus, your website may get penalized, the ranks will be low, and SEO efforts will go to waste.
Solution:
Focus on using natural anchor text.
Use generic and branded anchor text for diversification and avoid over-optimization.
Don’t use exact match anchor text similar to the target keyword. Use related phrases.
8. Overprioritizing Third-Party Link Metric
Third-party link metrics help you understand the value of backlinks, traffic value, and keyword ranking and avoid spammy links.
However, obsessing over them leads to limited opportunities, creating an unbalanced link profile and poor subject evaluation.
Solution:
Accept that it’s connecting with authoritative websites for backlinks is not always feasible.
Site authority always changes, so don’t prioritize it too much.
Connect with quality sites even if they don’t have the highest domain authority.
Conclusion
Whether you’re conducting link-building for your business or a client, be cautious about these mistakes, and you’ll get the desired results. However, getting professional help is best if there’s any trouble!