Does Link Building Work Less For SEO Than It Used To?

One of the biggest things that I’ve realized over the last three years is that a lot of efforts on link building are wasted. Many SEOs fail at link building because they overlook the importance of one simple thing – is the page I’m getting a link from even in Google’s index? Links on pages that are not indexed by Google provide little to no SEO value. Before investing in link building, it’s crucial to ensure that the pages containing your backlinks are actually indexed by Google.

?? Watch the video ??

Why Is Indexation Important for Link Building?

One of the main reasons SEOs struggle with link building is that they focus on acquiring links without verifying if the pages containing those links are indexed by Google. If a page isn’t indexed, the link likely has zero SEO value. If Google doesn’t have a record of the page, how could it possibly pass ranking equity to you?

How Does Google Decide Which Pages to Index?

Google doesn’t index every page of every website. It prioritizes indexing pages that contain unique information and are actively used by users.

For example, Citysearch.com and Yelp.com are both sites that businesses build citations on. However, there are far more pages on Yelp in Google’s index. This is because CitySearch’s content is a lot worse compared to Yelp. For example, this dentist’s profile on CitySearch hasn’t had a new review since 2010 and has a spam comment/review that has been sitting there for over a year unmoderated:

Yelp, on the other hand, has more recent reviews and photos.

What Should You Check Before Building Links?

Before starting a link-building campaign, it’s crucial to evaluate the indexation rate of the site where you want to place your links. Tools like Ahrefs can help you check how many pages a site has in Google’s index and whether that number is increasing or decreasing. You should look at the organic pages metric to get a good idea of how many pages are currently in Google’s index and rank for something. A declining graph can be a red flag, indicating that your page on that site is not as likely to provide value.

What Are Private Blog Networks (PBNs) and How Do They Affect Link Building?

Private Blog Networks (PBNs) are sites set up specifically for SEO purposes, often to manipulate search engine rankings. These sites may look good initially, but they are highly susceptible to penalties from Google, leading to a rapid drop in indexed pages. If you build links on PBNs, there’s a high risk that those links will lose their value over time. A lot of the sites I have looked at in the last year look very similar to this:

How Can You Avoid Wasting Money on Link Building?

To avoid wasting money on link building, check to see if the pages where your links are placed are in Google’s index. The tool we use to do this at scale is IndexCheckr (yes, this is an affiliate link). If these pages are not indexed by Google, you are likely wasting the money you spent to get them.

Want to learn more? Check out this YouTube Video where @ColanNielsen

and I discuss links and their impact on the local pack! Be sure to subscribe for more information just like this on the regular! ????