Backlinks are one of the most important factors that Google takes into account when ranking a page. If you do not have backlinks, you will struggle to get your website to the top of the SERP.
Today, a variety of link-building techniques are available. But, we must determine the right link-building techniques, or we risk being penalized. Here we’ll look at some of the most common link-building mistakes that can lead to a penalty.
Spam Backlinks
Spam Backlinks are low-quality backlinks from poor authority or spam websites. If your website contains spam links, Google will get an indication that your website has poor quality content that is not worth enough to generate natural backlinks.
A website might have spammy backlinks due to several reasons. Some of them are listed below,
1. Comment Spam
If you’ve ever managed a WordPress blog, you probably must have dealt with comment spam. In the comment section of our blogs, we can frequently see brief, generic comments that are linked with a long URL. These kinds of comments/messages are generated by spambots and should not be ignored because:
- It will be difficult for genuine users to have conversations if the comment section is flooded with spam messages.
- Spam comments are a threat to your website’s SEO and can make it appear unprofessional.
2. Guest blogging
Guest blogging is one of the highly effective link-building techniques. Guest posts that are informative to users and relevant to our services are always beneficial to our website. Guest posts, on the other hand, must be incorporated naturally. Incorporating guest blogs that are not related to the website is one of the major black hat SEO practices. Moreover, if these guest blogs are only a few hundred words long, it is against the Penguin algorithm, which favors longer content.
3. Directories
The main function of directories is to link to other websites. Some directory submissions are negative for search engine optimization (SEO) such as:
- low-quality directories
- Directories that are out of ****
- Directories that include *****, ****, or ******** websites
Submitting your website to these kinds of directories will not help you improve your rank, and it may harm your site. Also adding our website to an inappropriate directory can trigger the Penguin algorithm update.
Focus on Anchor Text
We all know that backlinks are linked to the website via anchor text. The site’s name, the title of an article, or a specific URL can all be used as anchor text. However, if a specific keyword appears frequently in your backlinks, Google will be skeptical about it.
Moreover, if we build natural backlinks there is no possibility to have identical anchor text on the website.
Like highly optimized anchor text, the use of incorrect anchor text can harm our backlink strategy. Google will check whether the website associated with our anchor text is relevant to our content. It is possible to receive a penalty if the page linked to the anchor text is unrelated to our website.
Avoid Paid Backlinks
Purchasing links is considered a black hat SEO practice. If you’re new to the world of digital marketing and don’t know how to build organic backlinks, you’ll probably opt to buy them. But this kind of practice should be avoided at all costs, as search engine algorithms are quite capable of distinguishing between paid and unpaid links. It not only lowers a site’s search ranking but also leads to a poor user experience.
Foreign Language Websites
Relevancy is a crucial element in Google’s ranking decisions. Google seeks to deliver results that are relevant to the customers ’ needs. Hence if our website is in the English language, then we have to restrict our link-building activities to websites that are in English.
DoFollow and NoFollow links
According to Google, Nofollow links do not pass any SEO juice to the website linked; hence they have less SEO value. Dofollow links, on the other hand, are highly valued in Google’s ranking algorithm.
Do you think it will be beneficial for our website to include Dofollow links while ignoring Nofollow links?
Then you’re mistaken. A natural backlink profile is always preferred by Google; for that, you should include a mix of both Dofollow and Nofollow links on your website.
Stay away from low-quality links
Google evaluates the quality of the website that is linked to our sites. If the links are from unreliable/non-reputable websites, they should be avoided at all costs. Some of them are,
- PR release links
- Unsecured websites
- Links from sites aren’t relevant to your industry
- Site-wide links
- Discussion forum links
- Private blog networks (PBNs)
Conclusion
Natural link building is always preferred by Google. Extensive research and efforts are required to obtain top-tier backlinks, which are beneficial to your SEO.
Thank you for visiting our blog and, we hope this blog will help you avoid the most common link-building mistakes that can result in penalties.
To get the best backlinks for your business, contact us!
