Top Link Building Mistakes You Should Avoid

Link building is the process of acquiring links from other websites to your own.

There are a number of ways to go about?link-building, and some methods are more effective than others. In general, though, link building should be approached with caution.

If done incorrectly, it can result in decreased search engine rankings and even getting banned from Google.

To avoid these penalties, here are four common link building mistakes you should avoid:

1. Not Diversifying Your Link Sources

One of the major link-building mistakes most?SEO companies?do is not having a diversified link profile. If the vast majority of your links are coming from a single source, then you're not diversified and thus more vulnerable to algorithm changes or penalties.

Guest posting and commenting are the two most common methods for gaining links.?If you simply use one form of a link, you will not be able to achieve the desired results within the time frame. Try to get links from a variety of sources, including guest posts, directories, and social media profiles.

Some people use no-index pages, domains, or websites to build links. If a website or page is not indexed by Google and you try to gain links from those sites, your site is likely to be penalized as a result of Google's search algorithms. Make sure to avoid such errors, whether you're doing it knowingly or unknowingly, to stay safe in Google search results.

2. Using Exact Match Anchor Text

In the early days of SEO, people would stuff their anchor text with exact match keywords in an attempt to game the system. For example, if they were trying to rank for "eCommerce SEO", they would use the anchor text "eCommerce SEO" over and over again. However, this is no longer effective and can actually be harmful.

Google's Penguin algorithm is designed to identify and penalize sites that are using exact match anchor text, so it's best to avoid it altogether. Google considers optimized anchor text links to be a black hat SEO practice, and if you overdo it, your site may be penalized.

If you use the same anchor text when creating links on other blogs, you will almost certainly suffer a penalty rather than a promotion. The search engine would quickly flag these links as spam. To make it more natural to Google bots, avoid utilizing the same anchor text too frequently and instead use a variety of permutations.

3. Participating in Link Farms or Commenting

Link farms are groups of websites that all link to each other in an attempt to boost their search engine rankings. Unfortunately, link farms are a big no-no in the world of SEO.

Not only do they provide little to no value for users, but they can also get your site penalized by Google. If a blogger publishes an excellent essay, he will almost certainly receive praise in the comments area. However, this does not imply that this part will be flooded with thousands of comments with links to their own websites. If you come across such a page, it is always best to ignore it rather than commenting and having your message lost in the shuffle.

4. Buying Links

Buying links is another?common SEO mistake. Purchasing and selling links might be detrimental to your blog's ranking in search engines. Search engine crawlers are becoming more intelligent, and they have algorithms that may detect when you buy links from other sources.

Google even has insider reporting systems where users can report spammy links sold by directories or PBN networks, so avoid making the mistake of buying links. When Google Page Rank became popular among bloggers, it became common practice to create links from external sources in exchange for minor sums. One of the reasons Google terminated its PageRank system was because of spam links.

While there are some legitimate ways to buy links, such as through sponsorship opportunities, most of the time it's best to avoid it. This is because Google can easily identify paid links and will penalize your site if they suspect you're buying them.

5. Using Spammy Link Building Tactics

There are a variety of?link-building tactics?that are considered spammy by Google. This includes things like link directories, article marketing, and blog comment spam. Avoid using these tactics as they will only hurt your search engine rankings in the long run.

People are still trying to build links from PBN (Public Blog Networks) directories, which are actually bad. If you're one of them, avoid these deadly link-building mistakes as quickly as possible to avoid being penalized by Google engines. Blog networks and PBN sites attempt to deceive Google algorithms to some level, however they frequently harm your site's SEO.? These networks are made up of unrelated categories, and we would advise you to avoid such spammy links.

6. Not?Checking for Broken Links

When you're building links, it's important to make sure that they're actually working. There's nothing worse than spending time and effort on a link-building campaign only to find out that most of the links are broken. Use a tool like Check My Links to?check for broken links on a website?before you link to it.

7. Not Keeping an Eye on Your Link Profile

It's important to keep an eye on your link profile to make sure that it's healthy and diversified. If you notice that a large portion of your links are coming from a single source or that you have a lot of low-quality links, then you need to take action to fix it. Building backlinks specifically for the main page has been a popular technique, especially among novice bloggers.

If you only generate links for one page, Google will perceive this as artificial. This is why, when undertaking link building, you must also consider your other pages. This will not only improve your linking, but it will also help you rank these posts higher in search results. The best way to do this is to use a tool like Monitor Backlinks.

8. Not Building Links Naturally

One of the biggest link-building mistakes is not building links naturally. In other words, don't try to force links where they don't belong. Google can easily identify unnatural links, and they will penalize your site if they suspect you're building them. If you run a cloud computing blog, getting a backlink from a beauty portal is probably not a good idea.

Also, bloggers frequently build links on high-ranking sites without considering niche matching. Before you add a link, make sure the host blog has a comparable specialty to your own. Some SEO experts believe that you may still develop excellent links from different niches, but you must be extremely careful to write a high-quality guest post that is also relevant to your topic. Only then will you see profitable results; else, your link-building strategy is ineffective.

9. Not Disavowing Bad Links

Even if you're careful about the links you build, there's always a chance that you'll end up with a few bad ones. When this happens, it's important to disavow them. Toxic backlinks are typically unnatural and irrelevant links that hurt a site's search engine rankings.

So the Penguin update was introduced to primarily penalize sites with a large number of harmful links as well as a poor backlink profile. The Google Penguin Update was launched in 2012 and named the 'Webspam Algorithm Update'. Penguin search update was created to improve Google's search results by deleting web pages with harmful backlinks.

So, how can you get rid of harmful poisonous links in order to improve your Google rankings?

This is a process where you tell Google to ignore certain links when calculating your search engine rankings.

You can do this by submitting a disavow file through the Google Search Console. Here are the steps to be followed-

Step 1: Make a list of links to be removed.

Make a list of the pages or domains you want to disavow in a text file that you will upload to Google.

Link File Format:

• Disavow only one URL or domain per line. A whole subpath, such as?example.com/en/, cannot be disavowed.
• To repudiate a domain (or subdomain), use the "domain:" prefix, for example: domain:example.com.
• The text file must be encoded in UTF-8 or 7-bit ASCII.
• The file must end in.txt.
• The maximum length of a URL is 2,048 characters.
• The maximum file size (including blank and comment lines) is 100,000 lines and 2MB.
• You may insert comments by beginning a line with a # sign. Google will ignore any lines that begin with #.

Step 2: Upload your list

• Navigate to the tool for disavowing links.
• Choose a property from the list of available options. The list will only apply to this property. If a list for this property already exists, you will receive a summary of disavowed pages and domains. When you upload another list to this property, it will replace the existing list.
• To upload your list, click the button.
• As directed, select the disavow file from your local computer.
• If the upload is successful, it can take a few weeks for Google to include your list into the index while Google recrawls the web and reprocess the pages that we view.
• If there are any mistakes in the file, you will receive a list of them right away. Your previous list will not be updated. You can fix your new list and re-upload it.

10. Not Linking Out to Other Sites

One of the most common link-building mistakes is not linking out to other websites. People are so focused on getting links that they forget about the importance of giving them. But if you're only linking to your own website, then you're not providing any value for users. Not only that, but you're also missing out on an opportunity to build relationships with other website owners.

When you do link out to other websites, be sure to use your keywords in the anchor text. This will help?improve your search engine rankings.

FINAL THOUGHTS

SEO is a complex and ever-changing field, so it's important to stay up-to-date on the latest best practices.

These are just a few of the?major link-building mistakes you should avoid. If you're not sure whether or not a certain tactic is considered spammy, it's always best to err on the side of caution. The last thing you want is to get your site penalized by Google.

When in doubt, reach out to a reputable SEO agency or consultant for help. They'll be able to offer guidance and advice on the best link-building strategies for your website.

If you're looking for more help with your SEO, be sure to check out our other articles. on?our SEO blog. We cover a wide range of topics, from on-page optimization to technical SEO.