Awkward Silence… the most uncomfortable sound in the world. Everyone has experienced a moment when a certain topic comes up, someone states their opinion and the rest of group sits there…in silence. The nature of the subject is the reason the awkward silence occurs. No one wants to put their two cents out there for fear of losing a best friend, causing conflict between mom and son or worse husband and wife.
The same type of “awkward silence” is happening within the SEO world. Many people are asking hard questions concerning the correct policy for building links with Google. Despite a patent developed years ago, there are gray areas where you can go either way. Meaning there are obvious loopholes in certain link building tips but one has to question, how far is too far?
David Jenyns breaks the “Awkward Silence” and addresses the three most asked questions about building links.
Do links need to be from topic-relevant sites?
When it comes to building links from related websites, one should try to stay within the same Niche. This is hard to do because in theory who is to say your subject isn’t relevant to the link you are building. For example, say you have a website that is all about bikes. The subject of bikes could mean bike parts, bike races, bike trails, even exercise bikes. Each of these examples goes into another subject, which is broader. Let us look at exercise bikes. Technically, you could link to gym websites, stores that sell exercise bikes, medical research concerning exercise bikes and the list can go on. So, in order to stay within the realm of Google’s Patent concerning building links and relevant sites, tread carefully. You do not want to draw attention to yourself.
No matter what remember any link is better than no link.
Can you get in trouble with certain links? Internal vs. External Websites
The best way to approach this question is by looking at two types of links: External and Internal Links.
When a website such as gambling, porn or spamming links it to your website, there is a chance of Google penalizing you. There has been some “buzz” of this happening and the websites being bumped down in the ranks. SEO’s can overcome this problem by building more links. The more they build, the less chances of this happening to you.
Internal Links are a different scenario. If your website is linked to a bad website, then you are willingly doing this. So yes you can get in trouble. You want to make sure to keep your reputation online morally high. It is better to work harder by building more links than doing it the easy way and getting in trouble.
Can you build links too quickly?
There is no definite answer concerning this question. If you think about press releases, you can merit 950 overnight. By manufacturing links at high numbers, press releases or news articles will causes this to happen at rapid speed. The best way to avoid crossing the line is to remember if you are building links naturally you are okay.
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I’ve heard some SEO experts say that a link is a link no matter where it comes from. Maybe that is why many are aiming for quantity instead of the quality of their site’s backlinks. My opinion in getting links from relevant sites is that it helps Google to determine the niche of your site, although it is primarily attained through the anchor text.
With the Farmer update, article directories have been compromised. And I’ve watched a video of Matt Cutts saying out right that he does not like links coming from these sites. As long as the editorial of that site is pretty much automatic (wherein you yourself can put the backlinks) I think the value of the link will be less.
All the more reason for us to stop using SEO as a crutch. With links in article directories now lower in value, we’ve got to start exploring other ways to use with SEO to get on top of the competition. Social media anyone?
@Ricky,
Yes, I have the same thinking about links, a link is a link no matter where it comes from. The only difference is the value that’s associated with that link, not only the PR juice but the overall reputation of the source of the link matters IMHO.
@MJ,
Maybe that’s one of the reasons Ezinearticles became stricter when it comes to approving articles. What do you think? 🙂
Most choose topic relevant sites thinking it will drive more traffic to their sites. But that’s not usually the case. You want traffic on your site but you also want to get ranked highly on Google. I think the quality of the backlinks and where you put them are another great factors. You also need hard work to create quality backlinks. Thanks for the tips!
What can you say about a site that is already building links through paid means but doesn’t have a content yet? As in zero, just the theme and got nothing to read other than the title of the site.
I was approached if I am okay to share a link to his site but was surprised that he is heavily building links to something that doesn’t have a decent content yet. Of course I declined the offer. Would you think that this will soon send a red flag to Google? How much content (like number of articles/ posts) would you recommend a site owner should post before he can start building links?
Cheers,
Nhil