A long time ago, the term “link building” simply meant getting as many links as you could. As the Internet has evolved to become more sophisticated, so has the art of link building for SEO.
Don’t be a dummy and follow bad linking practices. Here are 5 simple rules to remember when link building your website.
1. Choose Your Links Wisely
Although tempting at times for the purpose of quick and easy link building, stay away from linking up with link farms and FFA sites. Connecting with sites with bad reputations can negatively affect your website rankings. Search engines will see you as “guilty by association,” as the old saying goes, and can lower your positions in the SERPS.
2. Relevancy is Key
Links pointing to your site don’t mean a thing if they are irrelevant to the content on your site. All of the new updates to search engine algorithms, such as Google’s Panda updates, have the focus on relevancy as one main key point. Relevancy keeps unscrupulous website promoters from spreading irrelevant links all across sites just for the purpose of link building.
3. Slow and Steady Wins
Rushing to connect with a mass amount of link exchanges could land you the reputation of a spammer as well as raise suspicion with the search engines. Gaining too many links within a short amount of time could be considered a forged way of getting to the top of SERPS. Link building should be natural- don’t try to rush to the top or you could end up at the end!
4. Shout Out to Supporting Roles
The homepage shouldn’t be the only page with the spotlight. Links to other webpages and subpages on a website could improve your site’s rankings significantly. A good rule of thumb is 30-40% homepage and 60-70% connecting to deep links.
5. Anchor Away
Ultimately, search engines need to understand what your website is all about. With backlinks and the right anchor text, you will successfully accomplish this. Think of anchor text as pearls found in the ocean of content. Backlinks pointing to your website with proper anchor text will increase changes for high SERP rankings.