As discussed in Link Building Basics for SEO, links to your site are votes for your site. Without them, you will not achieve higher rankings in search results. I like to say that links are the streets of the Internet; they help people get from one place to another. Smart SEO’s know that out of the bazillion (yes, I said it) link building tactics out there, only a few actually work. Google is reconfiguring their algorithms everyday to better define how they value certain links that point to your site. Lucky for you, Kaila Strong’s recent article on SocialMediaToday.com identified 5 link building tactics that aren’t worth your time. We thought we would recap her article and add some editorial content to the discussion.
She starts by talking about how keywords in anchor text on quality sites used to be a great way of acquiring quality links, but they are no longer a great way of building your link profile. I disagree to a certain extent. It really depends on what you consider a “quality site.” For example, local media sites might run a story on how to protect against carbon monoxide then point people to an HVAC company using the anchor text “St. Louis HVAC company.” The anchor text might look a bit solicited to some, but what if the journalist truly thinks that people will gain the most from visiting this local HVAC company’s website? Now, I do agree with Kaila’s analysis that acquiring a couple of selectively chosen anchor text links won’t hurt you. She goes on to say, “You want ... diversity in your backlink profile as well, or you don’t want a profile with anchor text that is clearly gamed.” I completely agree. You should have a nice spread of anchor text in your link profile to keep Google off of your back.
Her second piece of advice is to avoid producing and soliciting bad content. But, what if the content you produced isn’t bad but just attracts the opinions of those who think they can do better or are sour about the acquired link, like a competitor? For example, Noggin’s recent infographic featured on the St. Louis Egotist got a few comments that would supplement her assessment with arguments on both sides. One commenter actually used the exact same words as Kaila: “It just clogs up the Internet.” This is laughable. First, I’m not entirely sure how an infographic that was beneficial to ten agencies in the STL area was “clogging up the Internet.” I’m certain that there are many other things more “clog worthy,” if that’s even a term worth using. Kaila does make a few good points in this section. One of them is to write natural, quality content for the end user. In the infographic’s case, it was for STL ad agencies looking to improve their digital presence.
A more recent issue to Google is exact match domains. Kaila brings up great points about how Google is reducing low-quality exact-match domains in SERPs. She uses the examples of Diamond.com, among others, that bought their domains for massive amounts of money. These domains used to be extremely valuable because if someone searched for “diamonds” on Google, they would be presented Diamonds.com in the first listing in SERPs. She explains that these domains are no longer useful by saying, “If you don’t have the quality content and links to back up such a ranking.” Nice job bringing this to light, Kaila.
Overall, I think Kaila did a great job explaining why these link building tactics are no longer valuable to SEO consultants and business owners. The comments below the article offer some other ideas on what links to avoid and pursue. That being said, I urge you to read her post and get in the conversation!