Beware: Google Might Have Some Other Ideas About Websites Linking To You

Linking is one process that connects all the pages on the Internet. You have put links around your website to help people easily navigate through your site. In addition to that, you have external links to the websites you think will be useful for your visitors, and hopefully, you have inbound links from other websites.

Your search engine results are affected by all types of links that are related to your website. However, one of the biggest search engine ranking factors, inbound links could have the biggest impact on your search engine results.

Your site will be perceived as a popular website if Google sees that your website is being linked to by sites that are high in quality and authoritative. The concept is clear, your website should appear to be a popular and valuable resource to Google, and Google will make sure that your website gets placed at a higher spot in it’s SERP’s. This effect comes out from the “link juice” from other web pages that link to your site.

Having said that, it is not enough to just secure a couple of links on authoritative sites. Once your site gets indexed on Google, it checks for the pattern of links to your site over time. The right kind of links will pay off handsomely, while a wrong one could get you penalized, resulting in removal from Google’s database. With a bit of knowledge of SEO and some creativity, you could build up some valuable incoming links naturally, which would show its positive impact in the long run.

It is a renowned fact that Google updates its algorithm to prevent malicious ways of getting ranked on the search engine. This has become a major cause of concern for webmasters. The Panda and Penguin updates, meant to demote low-quality sites and those sites which violate Google’s webmaster’s guidelines, have completely changed the scenario of the search results. A number of English queries have been affected as a result of these algorithms. Webmasters and online marketers around the globe have been forced to modify their strategies as a result of these algorithms.

It is apparent that search engines are getting smarter. Therefore, it is essential to redefine the link building strategy. There are only two things that you could do with link building – implement some rarely used strategy or a widespread strategy. It is highly essential to stay updated with all the happenings in the search marketing industry and the latest strategies that could help you in a link building process.

In order to make the process flawless, here are some basic strategies that you need to keep in mind.

Recognize feasible links: You need to concentrate on finding linking opportunities. You need to check the authority and relevance of the link in terms of your business or services. It is vital to focus on those domains, which are related to your industry niche and approach such opportunities with a strategy. Ask yourself if the link, if built, on the targeted website will make any sense to the visitors. If there are no visitors to the targeted website, it is an absolute waste of time.

Analyze your competitor’s links: It is not recommended to do exactly what your competitors are doing, as this will automatically affect your ranking. It is vital that you create your own identity and follow the best examples set up by your competitors after you have thoroughly analyzed their link building strategy. Tools such as Open Site Explorer, Ahrefs & Majestic SEO are wonderful tools to help in looking up at the competitors’ links.

Avoid mass link building: Any kind of strategy that enables earning thousands of links in a very short span may appear to be suspicious to Google. Rather than bringing you up, it will drag you down in Google’s rankings, or get you penalized.

The Google algorithm detects the specific patterns of all those links which were built with the help of software or by purchasing. Only a viral content marketing strategy could help to receive high authority and massive links, provided that the content is of high quality, informative, interesting and engaging.

Branded links: Google’s list of search engine ranking factors also have a mention for branded and highly authentic websites. Not only does the homepage of the website have to be branded, but the internal pages also should be popular. These links prove to be highly beneficial for a website could certainly contribute to the search engine rankings.

Internal linking: Interlinking pages within your website are highly beneficial. Internal links are an integral part of your link building campaign. These links form a part of the search engine ranking factors. If you have an authoritative page on your website or the whole domain is high authoritative, it is a smart move to do internal linking. The more number of high authority pages on your website, the more number of authority links could be developed. However, it shouldn’t be overdone.

The basic strategies mentioned here could be used to build links in the current scenario, where Panda and Penguin are striking like lightning. Google is being very strict on those websites which seem to be spammy and unnatural. However, the traditional techniques of link building shouldn’t be ignored anymore.

What is your take on the future of link building? Please share your thoughts in the comments box.