Backlinks are one of the most important factors in getting good ranking in the search engines. Nevertheless, there are many talks going on the web that links has lost its value. But if you ask me, I would say that backlinks are still the big factor for search engines, specifically Google to rank websites. But I would agree that if your website’s on-page optimization is not good then backlinks may not help much.
Link building is the traditional way to get better ranking, but since the Google Penguin rolled out, the way of doing it has been changed a lot. If you do wrong, your site might be penalized, and in some cases it might get de-indexed completely. So, you need to be very careful while building links for your website.
In this blog post, I am going to share the 10 link building mistakes you should avoid to stay safe. Here are they:
1. Backlinks from irrelevant sites
In the early years, getting backlinks from any kind of sites worked great, and that is the reason many people still build links from irrelevant sites. As I said above, things have been changed a lot in SEO industry, and thus you must update yourself with the trend and search algorithm updates. Getting links from irrelevant sites puts your website at risk as in most cases, Google might consider such links as paid, and that is against the webmaster quality guidelines.
Therefore, always try to obtain links from relevant sites because links from irrelevant sites don’t help you rather do more bad to your site.
What do you mean by irrelevant links?
If you have a technology website, then getting links from dating sites is irrelevant and unnatural.
2. Links from sites with the same C-class IP
Backlinks from the sites that have identical IP addresses can do more bad than good because Google considers that these links are obtained from some link network which is a red flag. Your site might get a penalty, or even banned forever.
Therefore, while running your link building campaign, be sure to get links from sites having different C-Class IP addresses to stay safe.
3. Using Same Anchor Text
When SEO was new, building hundreds of links using same anchor text was the best way to rank fast in search engines, but Penguin changed the game entirely by labeling this strategy as link spam.
If you use same anchor text while building links, you are doing blunder mistake, and you may receive a manual penalty from Google.
Therefore, use semantic keywords as anchor texts while building links for your website. Don’t use exact anchors everywhere.
4. Getting links from the pages which have tons of outbound links
When a web page link out to tons of websites (say hundreds or thousands) then the SEO value flows to each link drops badly. And most importantly, those web pages look spammy and low-quality. Google might consider them as link farms. Thus, getting links from such web pages are of no use. So avoid them!
5. Link Velocity
I have seen many SEO experts are making the mistake by building tons of links so fast. Link Velocity should be maintained by building links in a slow and steady manner.
Just think, if you have a new blog and you have built 500 backlinks for it in one day while having only a few blog posts.
Doesn’t it look suspicious to Google?
– It surely does!
According to Google, backlinks should come naturally which is not possible indeed, but you can always build links in the slow and gradual manner that look natural.
You can do something like, in the very first month, you build 30 links while having 10 blog posts. Then you can try building 50 links in the next month while having 20-25 blog posts. It might look natural, but when you create 100 links in the very first month while having very few number posts, then it may alert Google to suspect your site. [There are no fixed numbers; it’s just an example to make the concept clear].
– Image credit: gobloggingtips.com
Therefore, you must maintain the link velocity as per the content growth.
6. Links from the pages that not indexed or de-indexed in Google
Getting links from the pages that are not in the index of Google is not going to help you because they are not crawl-able. Thus, no link value will flow to the those links.
If you have links from the pages that are de-indexed sites (they might have been de-indexed because of some penalty), then it might be a red flag.
Therefore, always check the pages whether they are indexed or not before getting links from them.
7. Huge number of Sitewide links
Sitewide links are fine if they are few in numbers and from relevant sites, but if you are having tons of sitewide links, your site may receive unnatural inbound link penalty from Google.
Therefore, try not to get sitewide links heavily. A few from relevant sites are fine.
8. Getting Only Nofollow links
This can be the biggest link building mistake if you are not checking the links to know whether they are dofollow or Nofollow. Nofollow links don’t pass any link value, so they don’t help you improve ranking of your site. So, while building links make sure that majority of your backlinks are dofollow.
9. Getting links only for Homepage
This is one of the biggest mistakes I have noticed while I was working for a firm. Most of the SEOs there used to build links for home page only. Google can apparently find that you are building links to manipulate page rank because this kind of backlink profile looks unnatural.
Therefore, you must focus on the overall site, and build links to internal pages as well. Always remember that your backlink profile must look natural.
10. Underestimating or avoiding Interlinking
I am happy that bloggers are doing well when it comes to Interlinking, but if you see business websites, you will find they either have not done interlinking or done poorly. This is one of the biggest link building mistakes in my opinion because when you cross-link your pages, they pass link value.
Suppose one of your web pages has got so many links from quality sites, then you can make use of it, and link out to other pages from this particular web page to pass some link value to them as well. Therefore, don’t avoid doing interlinking on your site.
[color-box color=”white”]Pro Advice: Monitor your site’s backlink profile time to time! Make use of backlink checker tools for monitoring.[/color-box]
Final Words
Links are very important for getting ranking in search engines, and you must know the best ways to do it in order to stay safe from Google penalties.
In this blog post, I have mentioned 10 link building mistakes that you must not commit. One mistake can put your website in danger, so stay safe while you build links.
Thank you for reading my post! Share your views in comments.
Hi Atish bro,
Link building mistakes is what most of us are guilty of. I loved it that you decided to write a post on it.
sing the same C class IP: Well I still don’t understand this concept. Can you please help me a little by elaborating this.
I used to get links only to homepage but glad I now am trying to keep a balance with the post pages too.
Sitewide ;inks are a big no no for me. Glad you wrote it because many still rely on them for “good” SEO.
Thank you for this awesome post.
-Swadhin
Hello Swadhin,
Thanks for coming by, and reading the post. About C class, I have provided a reference link, please read that, and your confusion will be cleared.
I am happy that you are not working on getting sitewide links. Keep up the good work.
Good piece of content for the bloggers, Atish. I agree with all these mistakes that you’ve listed here.
Some of them are new to me but I’m not practicing those faults, so I feel good.
Honesty has more value!!! Not only in life, but it is also good to follow the uprightness in building links as well.
As you told, I always wanna build genuine links for my blog.
Thanks for your valuable guidance to lead the right blogging path.
Expecting more blog posts from you, have a good rest of the day.
Thanks for reading the post, Nirmala. Good to know that you are not indulged in such spam practices.
Hi Atish,
What a genuine post on link building and how they work and the ten mistakes people are doing, using them. I’m new to SEO and am learning from people like you.
This post is a learning experience for me. The only links I have used are those that go to other people’s blog posts, their URL.
I’m going to bookmark this post and when I’m ready to use backlinks, I’ll come back to it.
Thank you for the information, Atish. You are so smart.
You have a wonderful day and week ahead!
Linda
Hello Linda,
Thank you for the visit, and comment. Link building is an important part of SEO thus we must know the good and bad things about it. I am happy that you found it useful.
Enjoy the week ahead.
I always built 1 high quality link rater than 100 low quality link on one of my website as you already be knowing quality comes first.
Yes Prakash,
Quality comes first. Its good to build 1 quality links rather than 100 low quality links. You are on good path.
Hi Atish,
I don’t focus much on link building and I naturally get links from the ✎ mentions. Now, reading this post I’ll be more careful about checking my backlinks time to time.
Glad that you mentioned about usage of the same anchor text at multiple places. Using sematic keywords is a great solution but one must also make sure first the content for humans to interpret then search engines. ☺ ☻
Thanks Atish for sharing this informative post. Can’t resist sharing this with my friends. Wishing you a great week ahead. 🙂
Rohan. ツ
Hello Rohan,
Link earning is great, I too get tons of links through mentions and other bloggers’ post. But still you have to monitor the backlinks as how your blog posts are getting linked.
Just a few days ago I say few of good links high DA domain, but once I started analysing, I saw that person has published same article on 10 sites, and in every article my blog post link with same anchor text was there. I disavowed those links because those links might do more bad than good to my site.
Glad you liked the post. Thanks for coming by.
Wow, that’s an interesting example Atish, highlighting why monitoring back-links is important. Will surely work on whatever you suggested. Thank you. 🙂
Cool!
Hi Ranjan, nice tips there brother. I am still new to the IM world and still getting my feet wet. I am loving your blog posts and sincerely, they are important and I am learning new things. Thanks a lot brother. Looking forward for more of your posts, especially on the SEO stuff 🙂
Nice day Atish
Cheers
I am happy that you loved the post, Kumar. Learning is never-ending so keep learning, and implementing them.
Thanks Atish.
Once again you successfully delivered very helpful content. I found this article very helpful and now, i am going to try not to do these 10 mistake’s when i will make back-links next time for my blog.
Great to know that AKhil.
Hey..Link building mistakes is what most of us are guilty of. I loved it that you decided to write a post on it.The only links I have used are those that go to other people’s blog posts, their URL.Thanks Atish for sharing this informative post. Can’t resist sharing this with my friends. Wishing you a great week ahead. 🙂
Good to know that you have enjoyed this post. Thanks for sharing with your friends, Sneha.
Hi Ranjan. Really helpful tips you share. I agree with this your word you say,
This is one of the biggest mistakes I have noticed while I was working for a firm. Most of the SEOs there used to build links for home page only. Google can apparently find that you are building links to manipulate page rank because this kind of backlink profile looks unnatural.
I just like this post. And also bookmark.
Hello Atish
Thanks for sharinf very helpful tips for link building. As a newbie, I was unaware of google penguin update and don’t know that building links with same anchor text can be marked as spam by google .
Thanks again.. Keep writing
Thanks for coming by Utsav.
Hi Atish,
What a great learning curve for me! I usually am pretty careful of who I accept on my blog and make sure the link goes directly to a blog and not a sales or home page. But that’s it! Now I have some work cut out for me.
I really had no idea of how these links effect us. I had done a broken link checker a while ago and spent a weekend fixing my entire blog. Now it’s about time I do that again.
I realize as I was reading this post that I’m pretty careless when it comes to this. I’m saving this post as a guideline. I do need to create some time to check things out.
Many thanks for the wake up call.
-Donna
I am happy that you found this post helpful. Links are the things which need to be taken care of because Google is very strict about it. I have been cleaning up my site for few months, and still working on it.
Thanks for coming by Donna.
Hey Atish, thanks for list of mistakes. This will surely help me for link building as i am new in blogging. Very informative post, keep posting.
Good to know that Swapnil. Keep up the good work.
Hey Atish,
This is all new to me. I knew backlinks were important because of Google Penalties, but I am still not 100% clear about it all. I will keep this post and read it regularly until I understand it. I appreciate the detail you have put into this post. It is just a little overwhelming.
I have been doing the linking all wrong from what I am reading. There are a few post of mine that I am sure I have done the correct linking only because they come from a community that is well trusted. But in saying that, I have not done any research. It appears the time has come for me to know more about this.
Thanks for an informative post, you have opened up my eyes.
Rachel.
Hello Rachael,
You are right, its the time for you to take care of these because one mistake can lead a site to penalty. So be careful while you give and get links for your blog.
Thanks for coming by.
Hello Atish,
Again an informative piece of writing. I understood all the points you mentioned and I take care of most of them. But the point 9 you have mentioned that ‘Getting links only for Homepage’, is quite hard for me to understand. Can you explain how can we make link other than the home page? Can you specify the point 9 more clearly?
Sonam,
You haven’t gone through a proper link building strategy yet, thats why you find difficult to understand. Anyway, let me know tell you that many SEO experts when submit their articles either in article directories or submit for guest post, they always link to their website’s home page. That shows a red alert to Google because backlinks must be natural, and as the backlinks are just for home page, its clear that they are built for manipulating the Page Ranking. That is what Google doesn’t like.
Therefore, whenever you start building links, you must get backlinks for your internal pages as well. Suppose you are doing 10 guest posts a month, then you must get all those 10 links only for homepage, rather you should link to some of your important internal pages as well.
Thanks for the explanations Atish. I think I need to work more on proper link building strategies. Thanks for your quick response. 🙂
Any time. thanks
Hello Atish, this is a pretty informative article; I must say. Just shared your article on Twitter. Although this is a nice list of the most important factors a blogger should remember while creating links, I could not agree with one point that we should not invest our time creating nofollow links. I have built and ranked sites with only nofollow links to them. So I can confidently say that even when you have only nofollow links, you can rank well. It all depends on the the keywords you are targeting and the pages you are getting the links from. This is true that nofollow links don’t pass link juice. But if the links are received from a lot of pages with same kind of LSI keywords, you might expect a ranking boost. The main purpose for everyone is getting ranked. So keyword research is more important than even link building for me. Because with right keywords you can even rank your pages without any links or just a few nofollow links only because of the keywords it is linked to and from.
Thanks for sharing your views Tamal. Glad you find the article useful.
I agree that we should have a good balance between dofollow and nofollow links, but many people don’t know whether they are getting the links are dofollow or nofollow. Dofollow indeed does the great help when it comes to ranking.
Nofollow links are fine to get referrals, but how a nofollow link can help in ranking because as far as I know those are links don’t count.
I agree with that the page you are getting links should have some relevant text and keywords to yours.
Keyword research is indeed important when it comes to creating content for the site, but here we are discussing about the link building mistakes, and not about the content.
I agree that if you have placed the keywords very well, and it has low or medium organic competition then ranking for them even without backlinks is fairly possible.
Thanks for sharing your views here Tamal. I am glad you have started a discussion here. Love to get such comments on my posts..
great article.
how can i know about my “Link Velocity” ?
Hello Kaji,
I am not sure if there are any tools to calculate Link Velocity, but you can easily find out by exporting your backlinks from Google webmaster tools which will be with you with dates. So that you will know that how many links you have built in a month or a week.
Thanks for the comment, mate.
Hi, Atish,
I really missed this on your page.
Nice that i found it today on the pages of Inbound. Org and I up-voted it to? 🙂
Very informative.
Thanks for sharing.
Have a good day.
~ Phil
Hi Atish ,
very informative post and I see it is helping many here.
I did not look at all after things like this,but I am not a
professional blogger. But I see how useful your information
here is .and know now where to go for questions about this .
Thank you,keep up the great work
Erika
Hello Erika,
I am glad to know that you find this information useful even this is not useful for you because you don’t look at these things.
Please keep visiting my blog, and share your views.
Atish ,I may look more for it in the future now that I know about 🙂
A very nice checklist for linkbuilding but do you really think too many nofollow links harm rankings? I just want to know your views.
Neeraj,
Too many nofollow links won’t harm ranking but they don’t help boost ranking as well. Therefore, it is advised to have a link profile a balanced combination of nofollow and dofollow links. Thanks for coming by.
Hi Atish,
Read the whole post, I love it.
You described all of the mistakes in an excellent way!
Thanks for sharing.
~ Ahmad
Thanks for liking this post, Muhammad.
Hello,
When it comes to Link building, I always fall behind, don’t know why, but I have never succeeded, when it tried building links manually, although, I am good at writing content and sometimes, I get natural links, but not much, those links are not enough.
So, I tried things like Guest Posting, but never has any benefit from it.
Now, I am very much confused, whether to build links to not.
What Should I do now? Should I build Links or avoid?
Hello Reene,
Can you please share your detailed link building strategy that you are doing. So that I would be able to find out what is wrong that is not letting you to get profit of your efforts?
Thanks for coming by.
Indeed a great post about link building mistakes.
Link building is the most effective part of ranking any website to the higher pages in search engines like Google.
Without having right backlinks, We cannot bring our site or post at higher position. Most people think that buying links is a link building mistake but I don’t think so that It is a mistake because there are so many internet marketers who are doing it the right way and also getting benefits from it without having any issue.
Rather I must say that building too much backlinks in short span of time is a mistake because I have personally experienced it, Google sand boxed those sites who tries to build more links in short time.
Either way, Thanks for sharing it with us. 😀
Hello Brenda,
Thanks for stopping by.
Yes, backlinks are important for ranking a site. Buying links in a good and ethical way is not a problem. Until Google discovers that you are buying links, you are safe and the links do work great.
Link velocity is very important in such case. If you are maintaining good link velocity, you won’t find any issues.
Thanks.
Hello Atish,
I am big fan of your this article because you told us link building mistakes in a very simple way.
and i know most of the SEO person made this mistakes.
Can u tell me what is C-class IP?
Thanks
Hello Sandeep,
Get more information on C-class IP from here => http://www.tutorialspoint.com/ipv4/ipv4_address_classes.htm
Hello Atish
Your Article is very imformative ,its helps me lot to building the backlinks and avoiding the mistakes done earlier while doing Off Page activity.
I have one query about nofollow and Dofollow backlinks.
most of the Free websites of Article Submission, Blog submission sites gives the nofollow backlinks .If we go for paid website they charge a lot. then how to build dofollow backilink for my site. Please suggest me a solution.
looking forward for your reply. Thank you.
Hello Amit,
Article directories are not the good resources anymore, they are spammed. Why don’t you check this post of mine, that may help you get some better insights for building dofollow backlinks => https://www.techtricksworld.com/link-building-strategies/
Thank you Atish it will really help me for my link building.
I just want to ask you, if I handle all my Web 2.0 blogs from same IP and make backlinks from them can it will affect my actual blog??
Thanks Again
Hello Rajat,
It should not affect even if you are maintaining from a single IP. The thing is your all web 2.0 should not be hosted on single IP which obviously is not the case as you are using different web 2.0 websites.
Still, if you have some confusion about it, you can simply use a free VPN extension in chrome, and use those web 2.0 with different IPs. Simple!
Really nice article, But i have some doubts it would be great if you clear.
We do follow those link building techniques unintentionally or just because of lack of knowledge.
Personally i have avoided some of mistakes as per my knowledge, but some are done by me unintentionally. Like 2nd one, link from site with same c-class IP did it mean use of subdomains of single website (like xyz.abc.com and def.abc.com)
Then third point same anchor tag, I am not targeting single keyword for anchor tag. But i have short list of keywords which i use to give anchor tags. So i use those keywords repeatedly to give anchor tag, Does it also affect?
4th point, getting links from the page which have tones of outbound links, now consider social bookmarkinh sites or directory submission sites which have n numbers of outbound links.
Can you explain me this point?
Hello Ketan,
Thanks for asking questions.
About Anchor texts, yes it affects when you use same anchor text for link building for a page. Google considers it as link spam. So, better you diversify the anchor text.
Now, the next point, where you are asking about links from the page that has a lot of outbound links.. Yes, there is almost no benefit if you get a link from a page where 100s of other links are there. The thing is, link juice passed to every link on the page, so as the number of links increases on a page, the link juice gets divided in each. So, more the number, less the value flow to each.
Hope things are clear to you now. Let me know if you have more questions.
Hey,
I train in one of Digital Marketing Institutes, I just shared your article to people who are new to SEO and link building just to avoid simple mistakes.
I think link velocity is really important part but many new people are not aware of such terms.
Anyways thank you for sharing some valuable points.
Hey Atish,
I am great fan of your this article because you told us link building mistakes in a very simple way, i used to do alot of them.
and i know most of the SEO person made this mistakes.
Can u tell me what is C-class IP?
hi, Atish sir it was a nice article very interesting…You have supplied a good article….thanks for sharing.