How to Link Build to Avoid a Penalty

If you work in SEO industry, you will be fairly familiar with Google penalties and how they can totally destroy your website and your business (if you are relying solely on the Internet to generate business). Google is the boss of the search engines and if you wish to appear on page one you will have to follow their rules – being a rebel will only make you an SEO outcast.

What Are Backlinks?

Backlinks are the backbone of any website and the foundation for your website’s Internet profile. If you practise blackhat techniques then your website will collapse in the same way a building would with weak pillars.

A good example to explain backlinks is how Ebay works. When you are browsing through Ebay you tend to look at a user’s profile score (feedback) before making a purchase. This is built by people recommending the user to other users of Ebay, and in the same way your backlinks are a form of recommendation which search engines take into consideration when it comes to ranking your website (along with many other signals). One thing you will have to bear in mind is that like Ebay feedback scores, backlinks are not about quantity – they are more about quality.

What to Consider When Building Links

Link building is a delicate process and should be given some thought before you go ahead. There are many things which should be taken in consideration before you place your link on a website. Contextual links are the most natural form of back linking from another website (currently!). Below are some of the points you should keep in mind:

Quality over quantity

Depending on how old your domain name is you should always make sure your approach is natural when it comes to link building. You should not go all out and purchase links in bulk, as this will damage your back link profile more than helping it.

Say no to Spam sites

Again think quality and not quantity. With this in mind, stay well away from spammy websites – blog networks are a big no no! You and your website are better off having no links

than having links from websites that are complete spam.

Variation

You have to vary your anchor text. Exact match anchor text links are no longer going to give your keywords the juice that you’re after. Use your company or your website for linking (branded), or use synonyms of the keywords you optimising for.

Relevancy

If you are trying to build a profile for a local plumber, don’t place your link on furniture websites! Remain within your industry and don’t build links which are nothing to do with your business, services or your industry sector.

Above are some of the key points to think about before placing a link on any website. Take your time and don’t build a link for which you will later need to request a removal – in this case it is better not to have that link at all.