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Link building might be a controversial SEO tactic, but it is also highly effective. If you are devising an SEO plan in 2021 that doesn’t focus on link building, you will not produce great results.
Link building refers to an SEO tactic in which you create links on other websites that links back to your website pages. It is a technique that helps you boost your rankings by connecting you with authoritative and high DA websites. You can click here to find more information on how link building works and why it is crucial for your business.
If done right, link building can do wonders for your business. Acquiring high-quality links that link to your website can help you improve the following.
- Google SERP rankings
- Website traffic flow
- ROI
According to best link building agency Globex Outreach, link building was the most important ranking factor in 2020, and it will continue to matter the most in the coming year. It is crucial for website owners to not ignore link building if they want to reap the benefits of their SEO efforts in the near future, which is why it’s also important for them to find a link building solution that works.
The majority of the websites that are serious about their SEO are already paying great attention to link building. However, a lot of these websites aren’t achieving great results and are struggling to boost their position in the SERP rankings.
This happens when you are not running link-building campaigns the right way. If you are making mistakes, it will not only cost you time and money, but you could also see a drop in rankings. That is why it is strictly advised you learn about the most prominent mistakes people make while building backlinks and try to avoid them at all cost.
In this article, I have discussed some of the major mistakes people make during link building that you need to avoid. Let’s take a look:
Avoid Buying Links
One of the easiest ways of acquiring backlinks is to purchase them from a high DA blog. Crafting and executing link-building campaigns is time-consuming and requires effort. Some businesses prefer to take the shorter route, and they simply end up buying placements on high DA blogs.
While this may seem convenient, it is not the right way to acquire backlinks. Google’s algorithm is consistently evolving and becoming smarter every day. It can differentiate naturally acquire links from the paid ones and crawls them accordingly.
Playing with paid links is dangerous because it not only wastes your effort but also adds negative points to your website. Using paid backlinks is against Google’s policy and can do you more harm than good.
Even if you have to buy paid links, it is crucial that you get them from the right sources. If you get them from bad sources, Google can penalize you, and your site can take a nosedive in rankings.
Don’t Just Stick to Do-Follow Links
There are two main types of backlinks that you can acquire for your website:
- Do-Follow
- No-Follow
Virtually, they are the same type of links, but there is a big difference when it comes to their source code. Do-follow links are the ones that you want Google to crawl while scanning your page, and do-follow links are the opposite of them.
If you don’t want Google to crawl certain backlinks, you can mark them no-follow. It helps for links that can do more harm than good, and you don’t want Google to consider them.
Building one type of link is not considered a good SEO practice. Many businesses focus only on do-follow links and complete no-follow links entirely.
It is true that no-follow links barely offer any benefit to your SEO, but you still need to make them a part of your link-building campaign for better results.
Ignoring Toxic Links
Toxic backlinks are the ones that are either irrelevant to your page or were acquired by unethical means. Since Google’s Penguin update, toxic links have become even more dangerous and can badly affect your website’s SEO rating.
It is crucial for you to regularly audit your links so that you can identify toxic links and get rid of them.
You can do that with the help of a paid SEO tool like SEMrush. You can also use Google’s Disavow Tool to identify any links that aren’t good for your website and are adding negative points to it.
Avoid Irrelevant Links
One rule you must follow strictly is to always create links that are relevant and offers context.
If you are offering home renovation services, then getting yourself a backlink on a technology-related website won’t do you any good. That is why you must make sure that there is some relevancy between your page and publisher and the link is offering context.
If you are practicing Guest blogging, you should only consider blogs that are relevant to your niche. Going outside your industry is never a good idea and will only waste your time and resources.
Avoid PBNs
If you are still trying to build links from PBN, then you need to stop this practice right away. Getting links from PBN was common a few years ago, and it worked too for some websites. However, this practice isn’t effective now and will only waste your time in 2021.
The reason Public Blog Networks are becoming harmful is that they try to fool Google’s crawler. Misdirecting Google’s algorithm has become very difficult because of the new updates and advanced crawling. That is why avoiding PBNs is always the smarter choice, even if they appear to be high-quality.
Summary
Knowing what to do while crafting link-building campaigns is important but knowing what to avoid throughout the process is equally crucial. It is important for you to stay away from link-building practices that will waste your time and provide no value.
Some of these practices are so simple that you can avoid them just by learning about them. You only have to create a small list of guidelines that you need to adhere to while doing link building.
