5 Common SEO Link Building Pitfalls You Should Avoid

Link building is an essential SEO strategy that should be part of your overall digital marketing campaign, regardless of the type of your business. When lots of trusted websites link to yours, it sends Google a signal that you’re an authority in your niche/industry and you’re someone your audience can trust.

Indeed, having quality backlinks can contribute to your success. A study of over 1 million Google search results revealed that of all ranking factors, backlinks have the most impact on a website’s search rankings. Therefore, if you want to boost your site’s performance on Google, you should have a solid link building strategy. 

Link Building Mistakes You Shouldn’t Make

The principle behind link building seems simple enough. However, there is more to it than merely asking websites to link back to yours. If you’re not careful, it can be easy to make mistakes, which could lead to a Google penalty or reduced search rankings. As such, make sure to avoid the following link building pitfalls to ensure your off-page SEO strategy’s success. 

1. Failing to remove bad links

A few years ago, Google launched its Penguin update, which punishes websites with bad or spammy backlinks. A backlink is considered bad or spammy when it points to a website that is unnatural or irrelevant. If your site has spammy backlinks, you’re at risk of receiving a penalty from the search giant.

Always ensure that your site is free from bad backlinks. There is a wide range of SEO tools that can help you analyse the quality of your links. Then, after using these tools, you can use Google’s Disavow tool to remove those unwanted links from your website. 

2. Building only one type of backlink

Another mistake you should avoid is building only one type of link. When you rely solely on dofollow or nofollow links, you’re putting yourself at a significant disadvantage. What’s more, you’re encouraging Google to send you a penalty since this strategy is considered a bad SEO practice.

For example, let’s say you decided to build only dofollow links. Although nofollow links don’t provide you with link juice, they help boost your site’s SEO, particularly when you comment on blogs and receive nofollow links from other websites. 

As such, instead of building only dofollow links, you should give attention to your nofollow links, as well. This way, you can make your site more SEO-friendly and at the same time, avoid a potential Google penalty. 

3. Over optimising anchor text

Here’s one of the most crucial link building pitfalls you shouldn’t make. If you think you can get higher search rankings by using anchor texts with keywords in them, think again. It is because Google considers this strategy as blackhat SEO. Instead of receiving higher search rankings, you might end up getting a penalty from the search giant, especially when you use the same anchor text on different blogs/websites.

For this reason, you should avoid adding links to optimised anchor texts. You should also avoid using the same anchor text repeatedly when link building on various websites. Instead, you should vary your anchor texts and use a different combination of words so they would look more natural to Google’s search bots. 

4. Acquiring site-wide or footer links

Before, it was a common practice to get links from the footer and sidebars of websites. However, after Google noticed that many marketers are abusing this strategy to get better search rankings, it immediately took action. Now, the search giant penalises anyone who obtains backlinks from the sidebar, footer, and other sections of websites.

Instead of getting site-wide links, what you should do is build links naturally. Obtain links from webpages that are relevant and ensure that you incorporate them seamlessly into your web content. With this strategy, you can avoid a Google penalty and receive much better results. 

5. Building irrelevant links

If there’s one glaring mistake that you shouldn’t make, it’s got to be this: building links that are not related to your site or niche. For example, if your website is about interior design, you shouldn’t post a guest blog on a site about baby products just because it’s popular and has a high search ranking. You have to make sure that both your niches are related to each other. Such dissonance can hurt your search ranking.

Nevertheless, it is still possible to link to a site that is from another niche or industry. However, you must ensure that the website you’re linking to is relevant to the topic of the content you’re creating. 

Seek Expert Help

Link building is a vital part of SEO that you should incorporate in your overall digital marketing strategy. Not only can it help improve your search rankings, but it also enables you to establish yourself as an authority in your industry or niche.

While link building looks simple enough, it can be easy to make mistakes that could result in a Google penalty. For this reason, it’s best to obtain the help of experts, like us here at Springhill Marketing. Our team of highly experienced SEO specialists can help you build quality backlinks to your business website. Please speak with us and let us help you make most of the opportunities Google can offer.