Link building is very tricky and most of the strategies can easily backfire resulting in more damage than good. This does not only hold well for beginners but also for experts. To improve the search engine ranking there are certain tactics which one should avoid in doing the SEO. Since you all people out there already know what SEO is and how to do it, we will take the liberty of skipping the formal and basic introduction and will focus only on the points/tactics/tricks which one should avoid at all costs while building links for SEO. In good old days, link building simply means putting your links on as many external links as possible and this often includes buying or trading links. But with the advent of Google Penguin, these tactics become risky. If your link-building strategy includes building links via spamming then be ready to face the shock of the Google penalty which includes banning your site from Google's search results.
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We will start with the most obvious don’ts which you already are aware of and then we will move to some very typical ones which are not so obvious.
Purchase of links
Exchange of links
Using automated programs to get the links
Commenting only for the purpose of leaving a link
Over-optimized anchor text
Inclusion of links unrelated to the topic of your website
While building the links make sure to get links to different pages on the website and not only to the homepage. Receiving links only to the homepage will make your site look like spam. If someone is writing about the brand of your company then the link to your homepage makes complete sense but if someone is writing about products or news of your company then the general practice is to link back to your products, news or blog section of the website. Always try to link to specific pages of your website as this will result in more conversion rate.
You probably are aware of the fact that buying a link is not a recommended practice and can result in a permanent ban on your website but what about buying a link from only one company? Well, odds are that Google will not be able to recognize that link but the loophole is that, that company could be selling the links to other websites as well and as the number of questionable links increases on the internet so will your chances of getting hit by the Google penguin.
Spinning the content and trying to get it published on another site can also be risky. Beware of publishing the same content on different sites. Any article where only a few words are switched only to make it look authentic is considered a duplicate by Google. Content spinning is not content creation and it can backfire in the long run. Create your original content and yes, it can be a headache but we don’t remember mentioning either that link building is a high school job.
How can you forget social media in the link-building process? Though to date, it is not clear how much the links from social media will help in link building, but surely it is one parameter which you don’t want to skip for whatsoever the reason may be. Along, with your attempts to get the links from other reputable sites try getting the links, comments and shares from social media as well.
Your link-building process must be natural like we humans build links in our daily lives. Placed links must benefit the user of the website naturally and must fit the content of the page as well.
