If you are reading this post, then it means either your site has been doomed by Google algorithm update or you are overwhelmed by backlink strategies that you can’t decide how to proceed. If you look online, there are so many backlink strategies available on the internet, which might feel too advanced when you are starting out.
Well, there are some dos and don’ts you should keep in mind before you start building your backlinks. Because a poor backlink profile may affect your blog from future Google updates, you won’t be able to make it futureproof, so let’s get started.
Table of Contents
The Do’s
Create quality and relevant content
It goes without saying that if your content isn’t worth linking to, then the editor of the target blog will not approve it. In order to get a link from there, your content should be related to their blog and should be able to provide value to their readers. So by creating these types of content, it will be a win-win for both parties.
But what type of content should you pitch them, you might think? You can pitch them topic ideas by seeing what they have published in the past and try to come up with a great topic idea.
The article should not be promotional or written solely for promoting your business. You have created a linkable article in the first place then other people will link to your blog naturally, so it is the first thing you should consider to focus on backlink building.
However, some problems associated with link building are known as guest posts, which we will discuss below.
Rather than focusing on quantity, focus on quality backlinks
When you are building backlinks, you may become too greedy over any type of backlinks you can get. But this isn’t how it works, your goal should be to get links from authoritative sites rather than focusing on low-quality sites.
What I mean by this is if you were to get backlinks from ten low-quality sites, then it may be equal to one high-quality link. Furthermore, it is very time-consuming to reach out to those ten people.
So when outreaching out to bloggers, your main priority should be to target high-quality, authoritative sites first. And chances are that the links from those low-quality sites may result in ranking loss from any Google update in the future.
Look for quick wins
There are so many whitehat link-building tactics in existence, like hybrid traffic. By using any of them, you can see results, but what’s better than focusing on quick wins which will bring you results faster?
You can start contacting the people that are in your industry or you had partnered with them in the past. It is a quick way to get backlinks.
Other methods you can use are looking for the unmentioned name of your company in the industry and trying to reach out to them to link to your business, as you are providing one of the best services in your industry.
Never take shortcuts
In the link-building method, you will see many opportunities of getting easy backlinks but remember, if it is easy, then it is not worth taking.
One of the best examples of this would be the site that accepts all kinds of content just to get some traffic. So the people would spam it to get a backlink. Now the backlink from that spammy site may hurt your website.
You may not know this, but Google looks out for this. Google’s second-ranking factor is to point links to your website, while the first ranking factor is user experience.
The Don’ts
Don’t use low-quality sites, guest posting sites, and article directories to build backlinks
You may feel that the more the backlinks the more it will be beneficial to your site. Hold your horses there. Not all backlinks are the same.
You can check the quality of the site by using tools like Moz and Aherfs. In Moz. Use these tools to check on the spam score of a target website too. Also, if you build too many low-quality links to your site, it will definitely raise red flags to Google.
And after the penguin update, Google started to track such sites and penalize them. So it is better to stay away from those sites.
Don’t use specific anchor text
It is one of the main factors that affect the overall rankings and also decides the ranking of a particular website. If your site were to get natural backlinks then it wouldn’t have exact match anchor texts right.
But if you are building it manually, then you will definitely use exact match anchors.
Now that is where all the trouble begins. If you build too many backlinks using the same anchor, it will definitely cause problems. Google may consider it as an unnatural link-building scheme and penalize it.
So I would suggest you use various anchor methods like branded anchor, naked anchor, partial match, or anchors like click here, read more, etc.
Don’t participate in link exchange schemes.
If Google notices too many unnatural links being exchanged by two domains, then it may lend you a penalty. For this reason, it is best to avoid such types of link schemes.
I am not saying that you should totally avoid it. But what I am saying is to choose only sites you trust explicitly. The same goes when it comes to paid links.
If the editor sells links, then Google will know it and may penalize the whole network. So take extreme precautions when doing something like this.
Don’t post your article on unrelated sites for backlinking
This may sometimes affect the ranking and you may not see results even if you are placing your links on high authority site.
Let’s say you have a website about lawyer services and you want to build backlinks for that. But as you may know, there are slim chances that you will find another same niche (Lawyer service site) that WILL ACCEPT YOUR GUEST POST.
So what you do instead? Try to post your articles on other unrelated sites and you end up hurting your site’s ranking. It is in Google’s guidelines that a blog linking to your site should be related to your site.
Try to post your article on the related sites as possible because that would bring fast results and will definitely futureproof your blog.
Final Words
I have always said this that always be careful when it comes to building backlinks. One wrong step and it could ruin the work of your entire life. So it is better to be safe than sorry.
Follow the above-mentioned steps if you want to be safe from any future Google updates. Also, I would really appreciate your views on link building.
