It all started when you, the business owner, went to meet with your SEO “expert” who happens to also be your web design guy and the guy you call when your computer has a virus or when you need to switch hosting. In fact, this is the guy you call for everything tech-related. You know SEO can dramatically boost the growth of your business, but you don’t know how to go about, so you contact your guy…
Your guy is now saying that your SEO will be based on link building which, lucky for you, he can get cheap enough from this other guy; that is how your link building strategy came to be!
SEO and links go hand-in-hand. However, even the most experienced of SEO strategists can make mistakes; mistakes that cost them in the form of traffic and conversions. What should you do to prevent these common mistakes in your business?
How can link building negatively effect your SEO strategy? Read below to find out more.
Many SEO providers start their link shopping by searching Google for things like “top links for SEO” or “Where to get top links for my site”, really????
We have been building links for many years and have seen and heard so many strategies for link building, some cheap like buy links for $5 from India (must love those…they look good on reports but 99% will eventually take your client’s site down the drain from which they have been generated).
There are also the impressive link builders, we will investigate the competition to see where they got their own links, must admit this is not a bad strategy but it can be time consuming and sometimes useless.
Where should I get my links from?
Start by conducting searches on Google using search phrases that your client want to rank for. Now take the sites that top the search results but be careful, don’t make the common mistake of selecting sites that “do a ton of things” as well as what you want to rank for because that will give you what we like to call “dirty results”, instead select sites that are on top positions that specialize in the exact same services as your client and share similar keywords.
Use link extraction tools like Ahrefs to see where their links come from, filter out links from regions not relevant to you as well as low quality links and links from sites with very high volume of outbound links. It get’s easier when you use tools to evaluate the quality of such links for you.
Okay, I got it so far, what now?
Avoid Linking Everything To Your Home Page
Logically, it might be easy to assume that all of your links should point to your home page; it is the star of your website and will adequately inform any potential visitors about you and your company. However, this is a common mistake that probably won’t land you on the first, second, or even third page..
Instead, spread your link distribution evenly across your whole website. Linking across the board, instead of just your homepage, will help your website achieve visibility. Moreover, linking to solely your homepage is a common mistake, and it is likely that some of your competitors are making that same mistake. Be a step ahead, and see the results.
Not Utilizing Blog Posts is never a good idea – Use Your Assets!
Blog posts are an important way to update and keep relevant info on your site, without having to update and constantly change existing pages.
Google likes changes. Actually, Google loves changes. Having monthly posts on your website will show Google that your site is evolving, developing, and staying up to date. Additionally, old blog posts will continue to work in your favor, but only if there is also new content, as well.
Relinquishing Efforts Once Your Hit The First Page – Google is a monster that loves being fed with updates…
SEO is not a one-and-done project. Instead, it takes meticulous and ongoing care. With the ever evolving Google algorithms, you especially need to take care that your SEO strategy is up to date. And yes, this includes links.
Hitting the first page is a great first base, but it’s not a home run. Continuing to build your links will help you stay at the first page, while halting your efforts all together will make you fade away into the Google background.
Not Utilizing Brand Anchor Text or Over Optimizing Anchor Text
Anchor text for linking and SEO is huge and well known, but many strategies neglect to use branded anchor text.
However, remember to not default to linking to your home page. If there is more relevant page for your branded anchor text, link to that page instead. Of course, there will be moments when your homepage is more critical to link towards, and this is fine- as long as it is not your sole link receiver.