It is accepted that backlinks are one of the most important ranking factors for Google. But if you had mistakes, they may lead to Google penalties. Once your site gets penalized, it is hard to recover. So, you should always be careful about any link building mistakes.
Now, Google has the better technology in detecting link spams and manipulative techniques. Create quality backlinks, you’ll get the benefits. When it comes to link building, there are a few common mistakes that can trip you up. Be aware of them from the following list.
Common Link Building Mistakes to Avoid
1. Not improving on-page SEO and content strategy
If your site is not search engine friendly and you don’t develop a content strategy, your link building campaign will not be effective to get results. So, first improve your on-page SEO and develop a content plan.
> Check these on-page optimization tools
2. Not creating linkable content
Without creating linkable content, you will not get your link building success. A linkable content is an article or any other form of content that other websites would like to link.
Analyze the most linked pages of your competitors and get the linkable content ideas for your site.
3. Outreach mistakes
All naturally gained backlinks are good. But we can’t hope we will always get them. To beat your competitors on the SERPs, you need to build more links. So, you need to search prospects and outreach them. But if your outreach emails look like repetitive and automated, you won’t get the opportunities to build links.
So, craft your emails unique and special to make the link prospects happy to find you and link to you.
> Check these link building and outreach tools
4. Building links from pages or sites not indexed by Google
If you build links from pages or domain ignored by Google, that is a great mistake. If so, you won’t get any traffic and SERP ranking improvement from your efforts.
5. Using PBN sites
Don’t use PBN sites and other ones made specially for link building purposes. You may attract Google penalty and get no good results for your efforts.
6. Building links from sites without editorial supervision
If you search, you can find many websites accepting you publish articles and create backlinks without any intervention. They are low quality sites ignored by search engines. So, backlinks you get from them are also low quality.
7. Building links on pages with too many outgoing links
The more a page has outgoing links, the quality of the page decreases. So, avoid such pages or domains.
8. Not diversifying your link sources
When it comes to link building, it’s important to diversify your sources. Don’t just rely on one type of link, such as directory submissions. Instead, mix things up and get links from a variety of sources, such as guest posting, blog commenting, and social media. Practice various ways of link building. If so, even though one type of the practices doesn’t work, others will work.
9. Not using keywords in your anchor text
When you’re building links, be sure to use keyword-rich anchor text. This will help improve your link’s click-through rate as well as your search engine rankings.
But be careful of overdoing it. If it looks like unnatural and manipulating, you may get penalized. So, also use other similar anchor texts instead repeating the same.
10. Linking from low-quality websites
When you’re creating backlinks, be sure to find high-quality websites. Linking from low-quality websites may not be effective for your efforts. But if your site’s DA is low, they may not be interested in linking to you. If so, find other related sites with similar DA.
11. Linking to the wrong pages
When you’re building links, be sure to link to the right pages on your website. Don’t link to your homepage all the time – mix things up and link to other pages, such as your blog or product pages. If so, many pages of your site will get improvements in Google rankings and traffic.
12. Not making use of social media
Social media is a great way to build links. Be sure to make use of social media sites, such as Twitter and Facebook, to help promote your website and build links. Even though they can’t help improving your Google organic rankings, they will bring a lot of traffic to your site.
13. Linking to bad neighborhoods
When you’re making links, be sure to avoid linking to bad neighborhoods. Bad neighborhoods are areas of the internet that are known for spam or other undesirable activities. So, create backlinks from related and reliable sites, but don’t link to such spammy sites.
14. Not using Google Webmaster tools
If you’re not using Google Analytics, you’re missing out on valuable data that can help you improve your link building efforts. Google Analytics can help you track your link building progress and see which strategies are working and which ones aren’t. Like that, use Google Search Console to track your backlinks.
15. Not tracking your results
When you’re building links, be sure to track your results. This will help you see which strategies are working and which ones aren’t. There are a number of free and paid tools that you can use to track your results. The tools also help to find your link building efforts and outreach them.
> View these best link building tools
16. Not Building Links Gradually
If you try to build too many links too quickly, it will look suspicious to search engines. Slow and steady wins the race when it comes to link building. So, start slow, then you can grow your campaign.
17. Buying Links
You might be tempted to buy links, but this is a bad idea. Not only will it hurt your search engine rankings, but you could also get penalized by Google. So, don’t buy links, instead consider white hat techniques.
18. Exchanging Links
Link exchanges were once a popular link building tactic, but they’re no longer effective. Search engines can easily spot link exchanges, and they won’t do anything to help your rankings. Instead, use techniques to attract links.
19. Using Automated Link Building Tools
Tools that promise to quickly and easily build links for your website are often nothing more than spam. These tools can even get your website penalized by Google. If you want to build links the right way, you’ll need to put in the time and effort to do it manually.
20. Building links Without Context
Links that are placed without any context are far less likely to be effective. A link that’s placed within the context of relevant content is much more likely to be clicked on and considered by search engines.
21. Focusing on Do-Follow Links Only
Do-follow links are great, but no-follow links can also be beneficial. No-follow links can help you increase your brand awareness and reach out to new audiences even though they are not helpful much for search engine ranking.
22. Not removing toxic links
Google’s Penguin update penalizes sites with toxic links. If you have spam backlinks, remove all them before they are tracked and then penalized by Google.
Use a backlink analysis tool on your site and view your backlinks marked with high risks. You can use Google Disavow to remove all those links from your site.
23. Neglecting internal linking
It’s a big link building mistake. Internal linking is the process of linking to other internal pages on your website. This helps to improve the user experience and can also help to boost your SEO.
When creating a new page or updating an existing page on your site, don’t forget to place links to other relevant pages of your site. WordPress users can install an internal linking plugin to get some automation.
Books & Courses
Link building is a hard part of search engine optimization. But with proper understanding and skill, you can make it effective and successful. Read some books and courses and learn how experienced link builders run their campaigns fast and easy.
| Best link building books
| Online courses on link building
Services
There are many SEO experts who can build quality backlinks for you. Their price is affordable. If it is a workload on you, you can outsource the work to one of them.
| Check this safe link building service
| View other link building services
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Ibochouba Singh is a content writer and reviewer with a passion for writing about digital marketing and tech gadgets, including software tools and new tech gadgets. He has over 15 years of experience writing for several consumers and clients, including tech startups, marketing agencies, and software companies. He is writing many articles and product reviews for many websites, including nigcworld.com, buywin.in, medium.com, and quora.com.
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