Link Building Myths and Secrets for Success

Link Building Tips Revealed…!

There are a myriad of articles online about link building and how not to link build,  but not too many on how to specifically build fool proof links; eg.  links that look natural and achieve robust long term results on the first page of the SERPS.

Rankability have studied link building patterns, and carefully monitor the behaviour of rankings related to building links, and can offer some invaluable advice on how to link build effectively.

Myth 1: You only have to use your keyword as the link anchor text. Wrong: Often those high performing websites are those that do not have too many links using the keyword anchor text. These sites have a good variation of anchor text, and more often than not are mainly linking back (75%) using their domain name or company name. Tip: Vary your anchor text. Build a foundation of links using your domain name/company name before targeting your anchor test for your keyword.  This way is more natural and you won’t be setting a precedence later in always having to build links with anchor text at a too faster rate.

Myth 2:  Off Topic links are not good.

Wrong: Google knows that you as a webmaster do not have control of who links to you. Off topic links from sites out of your niche are ok, but you still require a number of on topic links for good measure and robust rankings in the SERPS.

Tip: Conversely it’s ok to link out to other web sites, especially sites with in your niche. They may link back at a later stage if they find your site interesting and content worthy.

Myth 3: ‘No follow’ links are not worth having.

Wrong: No follow links essential for a natural link profile. If you only go after ‘do follow’ links, this looks suspect and un-natural. Many web 2.0 sites and social bookmarking sites are ‘no follow’ and help give the impression of natural linking.

Myth 4: Forum Links are spammy

Wrong: For low competitive keywords this can be a good strategy if mixed with other sources of links. Links from forum sites with in your niche are definitely worth having and will mature over time.  Be fussy which forum sites you comment on – look through the forum topics and see how many people are dropping links. Don’t link from a page with already too many OBL. Start your own topic, give some valueto the forum, solve someones problem or issue and don’t always link back using your keyword.

Tip: Remember  if you don’t rely on one sole method of link building over a given period, you won’t get caught out! Varied source and type of links with varied anchor test is the key!

Myth 5: Building too many back links too quickly will get you penalised by Google.

This is said many times but no one ever seems to quantify or give any examples.  Basically this is called link velocity.  Building links too quicky can often only have short term ranking gains. If you build say 25 quality PR 4 back links in a day from different domains, this can be dangerous and will set a precedence in that Google will expect to see this link velocity continue. Do you really want to spend more time gaining links than you have to? Build slowly and with variation.  A site wide link that heralds say 125 links on your keyword anchor text will see you benefit, but needs to be followed up by links with your domain name as the anchor text or other variations.

Example: Let’s say you are targeting the keyword,  ‘scuba diving holidays’ to your domain called www.scubydoobydoo.com (this is made up obviously). It would be a good idea to link build using the following varied anchor text;

‘www.scubydoobydoo.com’  ;  scubydoobydoo ; www.scubydoobydoo.com scuba diving ;  ‘scuba diving holidays’ ;  ‘scuba diving” & ”http://www.scubydoobydoo.com’

The number of links for each will really depend on your competitors – how many links and quality of links they have.

Next time, we will talk about how to carry out a competitor analysis on your rival companies and cut throught their rankings with a carefully planned seo strategy.

Tip : Having more back links with your domain name as the anchor text than your targeted keyword is a very good idea to look natural.  If you have good on page seo aswell, you can reap the benefits of top 3 rankings.  Many no 1 companies with the no 1 position and placement in Google do exactly this.  You can choose not to do this, but you may find you are more likely to be placed bottom 5 than top 5 positions, expecially for the more competitive search terms. This is big difference when it comes to

Typical Scenario:

Some SEO companies will start building you links and gain some improvement for your rankings, but you will then drop off. You call them up and they say you require more links (more money obviously)  and you improve for a short period. This pattern continues and is increasingly costing you money.  It is very likely that they are targeting yor keyword with too much vigour and are relying on link velocity to push your rankings up. This is not a robust long term link building strategy, and probably points to a lazy SEO company who doesn’t seek varied links from different sources including social media etc.

Rankability can offer in house training to companies seeking to create or further develop their internal search marketing  teams. If that’s not for you, we can do it all for you and create a tailored SEO plan for your business.

How good are we? Well, type ‘managed link building’ into Google. We are No 1 in Google.  Need I say more..!