Regards Lynn
International SEO based in Hillcrest, San Diego, Southern California
The 7 Deadly SEO Linkbuilding Mistakes
SEO linkbuilding has become one of the main high leverage activities in any online business. The simple fact is that backlinks will give you a high page rank and a high page rank will rank you higher in the SERP's. Obviously this means more traffic and more money.
Backlinks make up 90% of your Google rank and because of this linkbuilding has taken on a life of it's own. Most people seem to misunderstand it complete. For starters you should know that not all back links are good links. They can actually hurt you more than help you.
SEO Linkbuilding is all about building links that are natural. Google did not design their ranking system to be manipulated. It was designed to reward good sites that get linked to naturally. That's why getting the right links can be incredibly difficult if you try and do it manually.
Unfortunately you have to build links these days otherwise you will not be competitive. If you sit around and wait for sites to link to you, you might wait forever. The good thing is that this also give the "small guy" a fair shake to get good rankings in Google, Yahoo and MSN.
Most guys build back links "kamikaze style" - that is they go ion there and just get as many links they can from wherever they can and at whatever cost. This is a recipe for disaster. Once your site gets marked by Google, you might as well start over again.
Rogue linkbuilding techniques can render months of hard work useless, so be very careful when building backlinks. Here are the 7 deadly SEO linkbuilding mistakes. Avoid them at all costs.
Mistake #1: Mass Link Packages
Obviously some sleazy and unscrupulous people are out there selling link packages that are not even worth a mention. Most of the time they blast ads out to classified directories or other spam filled network. These links are the equivalent of buying spam email lists. Don't do it. Your links might end up on banned sites that can really hurt your Google image.
Mistake #2: Link Exchanges
Back in the day, exchanging links was the main SEO linkbuilding strategy. You link to me, I link to you and we both win. Right? Wrong! Google caught on to this when hundreds of link farms opened up. Google can easily trace reciprocal links and they simply don't count for much anymore. Getting links from big link exchange networks can actually hurt you.
Mistake #3: Linking From Non-Indexed Sites
Most people who spend hours building those free backlinks make the mistake of building links on non-indexed sites. For your back links to count, the page on which you have your link has to be indexed. Having links on non-indexed pages means nothing. It's a waste of time.
Mistake #4: Not Using Anchor Text
At first this probably won't sound too scary, but if you build 2,000 links without relevant anchor text your site can easily pass for a spam site that just gets random links. By using anchor text that is related to your site, it gives your links linkjuice - meaning it makes your links relevant and increases the perceived value of each link.
Mistake #5: Not Being Relevant
Google is getting smarter by the day. After all it is their business to provide the most relevant information for each and every search that is conducted. If they don't people will stop using Google. That's why they protect it so vigorously. When you get back links from relevant and related sites that would naturally link to you, then the link count for a lot. Unrelated and random links from any old site really does not make Google see your site as being important.
Mistake #6: Inorganic links
As I mentioned earlier, Google designed the page rank system to work organically. They are looking for links to come to your site naturally. For the most part that means, slowly and consistently over time from a variety of related sites. If you go and get 1000 links overnight from the same site then Google's alarms will go off and you might land yourself in some backlinking trouble with the big G. Slow and steady wins the race - especially if you have a new site.
Mistake #7: Buying Links
High PR backlinks are worth gold. Quite literally. I've seen a single PR7 link sell for as much as $250 per year. There are a lot of link networks out there that make it their business to sell links on high PR sites. These links have become quite expensive, but the lure of instant results have people buying links like it's going out of fashion. Google is catching on and there's been widespread reports of Google slapping page rank. If links are publicly traded then Google can probably trace them and penalize you.
SEO linkbuilding is all about being as natural and as organic as possible. Always go after links that are 1-way, relevant and on sites with a high page rank. If you can get links on pages with a high page rank, even better. Don't fall for the quick-fix promise of so many link building services. In the long run, slow and steady links that look natural will keep sending more and more traffic your way.
Regards Lynn
International SEO based in Hillcrest, San Diego, Southern California
