Link building is considered to be an effective SEO strategy and it truly helps a website gain top rank within the shortest period of time. Backlinks or inbound links prove the authority of a website. However, if you ask any SEO expert New York, he will tell you that link building is a double-edged sword and should be implemented cautiously. After the Penguin update by Google, search marketers started believing that link building exercises can damage the rank of a website instead of boosting it. If Google discovers any link that seems unnatural or violates its guidelines for webmasters, a penalty from world’s dominant search engine is unavoidable. So, the million dollar question is- “what type of links can lead to a penalty from Google?”
Building backlinks on poorly rated sites: Though PageRank is no more; Google still measures the authority of a website. Therefore, if you build backlinks on a site that is considered low quality in the eyes of Google, then Google will deem your site as a source of spam as well. Basically, link building is like having a friend circle. If your friends are tagged as notorious by the society then your reputation gets affected as well.
Contextually inappropriate link building: This concept is not very clear to maximum website owners and as a result, they get penalized even when they link to a reputed website. Let me explain what contextually inappropriate link building means. Suppose you are writing about health issues and want to get links from reputed websites to enhance page authority. Now, if you provide a reference link to Apple Watch page, it will be inappropriate. Apple gets millions of web visitors every day and you may say that Apple Watch helps in leading a healthy life, but it is a vague reference. A medical company can’t bask in the glory of an electronics company to attract millions of customers.
Keyword stuffed links: When you write guest blogs, it is very tempting to use keywords as anchor texts and link them back to your site. If you are doing this too, then stop it immediately. Instead of using keywords, try to use words like “read more”, “see it here” or something genuine that will encourage users to click and also keep you safe from the wrath of Google.
Link exchange and link wheel: Professional SEO experts are well aware of menaces of these two SEO tactics. Both are paid strategies to shuffle link between two, or a group of sites to acquire backlinks quickly. This is an outdated technique and Google will surely penalize your website if you apply this black hat SEO method.
Google’s main goal is to make sure that webmasters don’t manipulate the links manually to increase the authority of their websites. As long as you are helping the visitors get quality information and your links are relevant, you have nothing to worry. Stay away from the link building techniques mentioned above and you will be able to enjoy the positive effects of backlinks.
