Linking is one of the most important aspects of any REFERencing strategy. But that doesn’t mean you should have incoming links at all costs. Google hates any form of manipulation and trying to fool Google can cause you big problems. Many people continue to make costly mistakes in building links that can cost their sites dearly.
Link creation is an essential part of off-page referencing. When Backlinko analyzed more than a million search results on Google, it discovered that backlinks affect search engines more than any other SEO ranking factor.
As you know, the number of backlinks of a website has greatly contributed to its popularity in search engines. Indeed, Google will consider that sites with higher quality backlinks are more relevant than those with fewer backlinks when it comes to a search query.
Having a high number of quality backlinks goes:
- Increase your ranking in search engines
- Improve your website’s traffic
- Increase your conversions
Link score
It’s not enough to focus solely on many backlinks to your website; they must be quality links. In fact, having many poor quality links referring to your website will have a negative impact on your SEO efforts. Focus on quality rather than quantity.
How does Google determine the quality of the backlink?
Each incoming link has an individual quality score called PageRank. Thus, links to credible sites such as government websites, popular websites, educational sites, etc., have more weight than little-known websites. By having many links to different quality websites, your link score increases. Remember that you can’t afford to have spam links. It’s also important to note that having multiple links from the same domain has little weight, as Google will probably have only one link from each domain.
Crucial factors you need to know to create links
In addition to the number of backlinks pointing to your website, other factors determine the success of your backlink. They include:
1. Relevance: Your backlinks must be relevant to your website. For example, if your website aims to lose weight and you get return links from websites that are not related to weight loss or health, Google may think that you have not properly generated your links.
2. Anchor text is important: an anchor text is a specific text used in the link pointing to your site. The anchor text should ideally be based on relevant keywords. It’s a good idea to mix your anchor texts across the pages of your website.
3. Have good content: content is king. If you don’t have good content, then it will be difficult to attract quality links from authority sites. In addition, publishing quality content will increase your confidence factor in search engines.
That said, the links won’t disappear anytime soon and will continue to be the litmus test for future Google ranking signals. Although Google regularly updates its algorithms, about 600 times a year, link building hasnot changed.
8 mistakes to avoid when creating links
Although links play a critical role in search engine rankings, many people still make serious mistakes without their knowledge. Below, we’ll discuss some of the mistakes you might make when creating links that could affect your ranking.
Error No. 1: Links to poor quality sites
If you connect to poor quality sites, it is likely that you will get reciprocal links from these poor quality sites. Show me who your friends are and I’ll show you who you are. The inclusion of outbound links to poor quality sites tells Google that your content is neither quality. Therefore, your site will not be treated favorably either. Therefore, avoid linking to poor quality content, including pages with low word counts.
Error No. 2: Buying unnatural links
Google prohibits both the sale and purchase of links such as those made in link farms. Google search engine algorithms are becoming smarter and they can detect purchased (unnatural) links. Google also uses insider systems to report suspicious links. So be careful not to make the mistake of buying unnatural paid links.
If, by chance, you’ve paid for links pointing to your site or sold links, be sure to delete them all before Google catches up with you, if you haven’t already. However, that does not mean that people do not buy links and do not get away with it. You have every chance of successfully buying quality links on quality websites, at the high authorities, without Google noticing.
Error No. 3: Just follow the links
An untracked link will not be taken into account in your search engine’s ranking. This won’t improve your PageRank either. In other words, an untracked link doesn’t help a site in terms of ranking in search engines. An “unfollowed” link sends a signal to search engines so they don’t count it when ranking websites. For this reason, many bloggers and site owners avoid following the links like a plague.
However, it is not so dark as not following the links. These links play an essential role in ensuring that the online world is free of spam. No follow-up link will provide valuable reference traffic as in the case of comments and forums.
It should be noted that only following links is also bad. Building only one type of backlinks will put you in trouble with Google. To stay safe and ahead of time, try to give equal importance to the following links. For example, if you use guest blogs to gain links, use blog comments and forums to also create untracked links.
Error 4: Optimize your anchor text
Yes, your anchor text is important for creating links, but optimizing your anchor text and stuffing it with keywords will pay for it. Google treats optimized anchor text as a Black Hat SEO technique.
Avoid using the same anchor text or keywords when creating links on different blogs. In other words, incoming links pointing to your website must have different anchor texts that seem natural to the content. Try not to pay too much attention to the keywords in your anchor text.
Error 5: Making links too quickly
Of course, Google hasn’t explicitly defined how long it’s going to be like to create links, but if you create links as quickly, it tells Google that you’re trying to get unnatural links. This could mean that you are buying links. For example, if you receive thousands of links in the first week of building your site, you run a real risk of being penalized by Google.
As we have said before, pay attention to quality rather than quantity. Getting a link from a domain authority of 80 is preferable to getting hundreds of links from links with a weak DA. As a general rule, create few links from important DA sites.
Error 6: Link only to homepage
Many bloggers make the mistake of generating links only to the home page of their blog and pay no attention to the rest of the site. Google can penalize you if you have many links back on your homepage and you ignore the rest of the pages. Make sure you balance your backlinks across the pages.
Error 7: Don’t monitor your backlinks
You may have built links from relevant and quality sites. However, you should always remember to check these sites regularly. Some websites may end up being disconnected. There is also a chance that these sites will eventually become less reputable. Regular lying on these sites will help you identify deleted or broken links.
So how do you find these backlinks harmful?
You may think it’s impossible to find these harmful backlinks, especially if you have hundreds or thousands of backlinks. Fortunately, there are several online tools you can use, such as Google Search Console, Ahrefs and Majestic. Once you’ve identified the wrong links, contact the site owners and ask them to remove them.
Error 8: Assuming the links come automatically
There is a saying that says, “If you build it, they will come.” Well, not at all with SEO. Even if you create great content, links won’t come automatically. You need to get there and build relationships with other site owners to create the right links. Don’t stand there and assume that the links will come automatically.
Latest thoughts
Link creation has evolved from 2010. Google continues to update its algorithm every hour and is increasingly able to capture unnatural link creation strategies. Focusing on getting relevant and quality links and removing harmful links from your site will help you succeed online.
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