Setting up a successful modern-day business comes down to creating enough attention and traffic on the internet in the first place, so that the product and service can be sold. However, simply creating a great-looking and functional website doesn’t cut it. There is something more to the mystery of gaining great traffic online. It might seem like magic, but it is actually called search engine optimization (SEO), where applying good link building principles is the name of the game. So, what are some of the mistakes which commonly emerge in link building?
Linking no-index pages
Some link builders, create links from no-index pages. A no-index page is flagged and therefore it won’t appear in searches. If you are trying to get a link from such pages, Google’s algorithm will respond harshly and penalize such practices. The problem is that this can happen knowingly or unknowingly, especially if you are not a professional link builder. That is why getting professional assistance from agencies like Four Dots is a great idea when trying to increase traffic on your page.
Failing to use relevant links
There is no doubt that you need internet traffic on your new page, like when starting an IT company. One of the easiest ways to lose traffic on a website is by linking to something completely unrelated. When link building is done in haste and completely carelessly, then it is common to see links on a tech-related blog leading to articles that are related to fashion. This is due to the fact that these unrelated links have huge traffic and it can seem tempting not to include them. However, this feels dishonest and inconsistent. It is possible to feature off-topic links in the form of a guest post which introduces the topic well. This way, a certain degree of relevancy is ensured and you can benefit from the huge traffic from the selected links.
Using too many links
It seems logical that the more links you use the more traffic you will get from each one; however, this has proved to be a fatal mistake in real-life scenarios. Google is great at identifying spamming and repetitive behavior. Not only does an increase in the use of links lead to less traffic, but the quality of the links also usually tends to plummet. The game-changer is finding fewer links that actually work well because they are of high quality and they are on point.
Not varying the building strategies
There are multiple ways to go about link building. Among some of the most popular strategies are guest blogging and commenting. While performing these, it is important to diversify the types of links used. In addition, it is also important to implement the links in various different ways. For example, people tend to only implement either dofollow links or nofollow links. Google is known for penalizing such behavior. Nofollow links usually do not immediately yield traffic through keywords, but they do offer good SEO value, especially if these links come from several different domains.
Linking poorly shared pages
A big part of Google’s algorithm revolves around rating the social outreach that a post has. So, a post that has a considerable number of shares, retweets, and likes is potentially outperforming other pages. That is why it is essential to understand what the status of social shares of a given page is. This can be done by assessing the social metrics hierarchy. Sources that prioritize the factors in this order tend to do really well; Facebook shares, overall Facebook activity, likes, tweets, Google Buzz, and Topsy are all influential. So, the next time you are writing guest posts in order to get links, you should first aim to get a decent number of shares because Google rewards this practice, which ultimately leads to further benefits for your own site.
Good SEO practices usually revolve around recognizing and understanding what not to do. Some of the most common mistakes to avoid include linking no-index content, failing to recognize relevant links, focusing on quantity over quality, sticking to a single tactic, and linking pages which are rarely shared.