Most SEOs make common link building mistakes when executing a link building strategy. This is counter-productive to the goals of improving digital marketing performance.

Link building serves several important benefits for brand websites. According to Google, link building ranks as one of the top three ranking factors. This is why people spend so much time on blogger outreach and guest blogging efforts. Quality content and mobile responsiveness are the other top three Google search ranking factors.

In this article, we will look at some of the most common link building mistakes to avoid. We will also look at the major advantages of link building for your website.

Benefits of a Successful Link Building Strategy

If you ask some of the most experienced SEO companies, they will say that SEO is ninety percent link building. They are not wrong. A robust and successfully planned link building strategy can help:

• • Improve search rankings for industry specific keywords
  • Increase the metrics and SEO scores of a website
  • Add to the exposure and visibility of a website
  • Attract new target audiences and website traffic from authority sites
  • Gradually escalate lead generation and sales conversion for a brand.

Organic link building that is based on quality content falls within Google’s Quality Guidelines. In other words, you do not need to worry about Google coming down hard on your site from a penalty standpoint.

This is why the best SEO agencies always follow a White Hat Link Building strategy. In other words, Google penalties range from decreasing website metrics, lowering search rankings and lessening or organic traffic.

White hat link building is an approach to driving traffic to a website through manual SEO techniques, such as relevant linking to other, relevant content on the web.

In worst instances, Google might even de-index your website, if they find that you are using black hat strategies to grow your website. In other words, trying to manipulate Google’s algorithms to improve your rankings in the SERPs.

Common Link Building Mistakes To Avoid: The List

1.  Avoid building links only in low authority sites.

It is crucial to build backlinks on websites, which have good SEO scores, traffic and metrics. This adds to the credibility of the backlinks you are building. Avoid making links on sites that have low scores, high spam scores and/or exhibit duplicate content. Aways bear this in mind when buying backlinks or you could end up wasting a lot of time and money.

2.  Avoid working with Private Blog Networks (PBNs).

Private Blog Networks or PBNs are spurious websites that are there just for link building. They do not pay attention to relevance or the quality of the content. They are dangerous in as much as they stand against Google’s Quality Guidelines.

According to Google, link building ranks as one of the top three ranking factors. Avoid these common link building mistakes. Click To Tweet

3.  Don’t try to engage with link resellers.

Link resellers are third party vendors, who place backlinks in PBNs and link directories. They do not care about the quality of the content or the industry relevance of where the links are being placed. It is best to work with specialized link building agencies, who are professional in their approach and affordable in their prices.

4.  Try to avoid linking to non-relevant websites.

According to industry experts, relevancy is the new page rank! This means that Google wants you to place backlinks in sites that are related to your industry niche. Building backlinks in relevant sites means redirecting already engaged website traffic to your brand website. Do not place backlinks in sites that are different to your brand or the product.

When link building, try to gain backlinks to sites that are relevant to your industry. #SEOTips Click To Tweet

5.  Don’t create too many backlinks in a short span of time.

Most brands are excited to build too many backlinks in too short span of a time. This is not a good practice, as Google’s Web Spam Team takes note of such practices. You should spread out your link building evenly. This helps in not raising an alarm, as well as helps you pay attention to every aspect of your link building strategy.

6.  Avoid click bait link building.

Click baiting is one of the top link building mistakes you should avoid. In the past few months, sites like The Sun have been downgraded because of click baiting. Try to use your targeted keywords as anchor texts, rather than sensationalizing words that are used as links. Google is penalizing websites quite heavily if it finds that they are resorting to click baiting.

7.  Do not resort to low quality plagiarized content.

People tend to forget that their backlinks are carried in the vehicle of their content. Please try to avoid using duplicate content for link building. This sends a very wrong message to search engines and your website traffic. Google places a lot of emphasis on original, long format and quality content. Please ensure that you are creating high value and informative content at all times.

8.  Avoid building all backlinks on just one website.

Diversity is a key when it comes to building backlinks. Some webmasters build ten to fifteen links on a single site, as they get a good deal from some sites. However, this is a serious link building mistake. Google prefers to see your backlinks in as many industry related websites as possible. This shows diversity and opens your backlinks to new traffic.

Diversity is a key when it comes to building backlinks. Try to get backlinks from multiple sites, as opposed to just one website. Click To Tweet

9.  Remove or disavow low quality backlinks.

You are not the only one building backlinks. Many low quality sites might place your backlinks on their content or resource section. It is important to keep a check on where your backlinks are. Perform a once-a-month check to see where your backlinks are being placed. Remove or disavow your backlinks in external sites by reaching out to the webmaster of the site.

10.  Don’t lose patience when it comes to link building.

Patience is a great virtue when it comes to building backlinks. It is important that you exercise restraint and show caution when it comes to link building. Do not be overly aggressive when it comes to link building. The key is to be patient and engage with the strategy over a specified period.

Conclusion

As the foundation of any successful SEO strategy, link building has assumed tremendous importance in recent times. In fact, some might argue that SEO = Link Building. In this article, we have looked at some of the most common link building mistakes made by brands.

Do let us know other mistakes in the comments section below.

Ciao,
Miss Kemya

 

This is a contributed post by Mashum Mollahis, an entrepreneur, founder and CEO at BloggerOutreach.io, a blogger outreach platform. He is a passionate blogger and blogs at iDreamAgency.