Link-Building Techniques To Avoid

The old days of churning out thousands of low-quality, irrelevant backlinks to rank a website are gone. This would have worked 5-6 years ago, but Google has since updated its algorithm to target spam tactics such as this. Today, webmasters must tread carefully when building backlinks to ensure they aren’t caught in the crossfire. This week, we’re going to discuss some link-building techniques that you’ll want to avoid.

Low-Quality Web Directories

Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with submitting your website to authoritative web directories, but you should avoid directories that are riddled with spam. Many webmasters toss up a directory template on their unused domains, selling links to webmasters. Submitting your site to such directories, whether it’s free or paid, may have a negative impact on your search ranking.

Sponsoring Themes and Templates

Ever notice how some websites and blogs have a link in the footer saying something along the lines of “theme sponsored by websitename.com?” The web designer who created the template or theme sells sponsor packages, allowing the buyer to include their link in the footer. The designer will then distribute the template or theme for free, at which point anyone who uses it will automatically display the footer link. Again, this used to be a helpful SEO tactic for boosting a website’s search ranking, but Google is now cracking down on this type of deceptive link-building practice.

Automated Blog Comments

Commenting on relevant blogs related to your industry or niche is a great way to generate traffic, backlinks, and credibility. However, you should only add manual comments, not automated ones. Spammers often use automated software to send thousands of generic comments to blogs of all shapes and sizes. The allure of generating 1,000 automated comments in the time it takes to create 1-2 manual comments may sound enticing, but chances are it will hurt your site’s ranking. The bottom line is that you should only submit manual, relevant comments to blogs in your niche.

Paid Backlinks

Google explicitly states that buying backlinks is against its webmaster guidelines. And when Google offers advice on something, it’s usually a good idea to follow it. Try to focus your efforts on building content that users want to read and share and you’ll find backlinks come easier and more naturally.

What’s your preferred method for building backlinks? Let us know in the comments section below!