6 Link building Lies You Should Ignore
SEO is an ever changing industry and what worked well for your website last week may now be causing your rankings to drop. Google doesn’t always help this cause and, in fact, they often add fuel to the ever-burning fire by holding back information, releasing ad-hoc updates and generally making it harder than ever to get that lucrative first-place ranking position. Whilst link building has been a trade for well over a decade, there is still a large amount of confusion which surrounds it.
Every so often, some of the controversies surrounding SEO techniques arise, sparking mass debate and arguments within the SEO and Marketing communities. Whilst some of these come from a need to fill voids within content, there are some issues which come from genuine confusion and concern. Link building is an SEO technique which is often clouded by lack of knowledge and misunderstanding and much of its reputation comes from this.
If You Build It, They Will Come
There is a notion favored among many SEOs and digital marketers that if you create good content and provide valuable resources on your website, then users will come to you. If you are an already recognized website or brand, then this can be a true statement. However, if you are like the vast majority of websites, then this could be a fatal mistake.
To be able to get people to find you, then you need to build the method which will lead them to where you want them to go. This is where link building comes in. A large majority of people who search through Google end up clicking through to websites via organic results and, in order to improve your rankings through search engines, then you need to build links.
Only Links With High Domain Authority Matter
As a link builder, then ideally you should be seeking target websites that have high metrics, but these shouldn’t be the only prospects which matter to you. Sometimes, having a low domain authority (DA) may just be an indication that the website is new, but forget about these metrics for a moment. As well as authority, relevancy also matters. If a link prospect is relevant to your website, but has a low DA, then you should still go after it. In actual fact, most websites will be so relevant to yours that will likely not have the most amazing metrics, precisely because they are so niche.
If you focus solely on metrics, such as high DA, then you will lose out on highly relevant opportunities which become available. A link which sends trust signals is much more valuable than a link which has been deemed as important by metrics created by entities other than Google. Google’s algorithm looks for diversity within your backlink profile and whilst you may think that a profile which has over 100 links of 90+ DA is the aspiration, Google will actually look at it in a suspect manner.
You Don’t Need Links In Order To Rank
There are still some SEOs who still believe that you don’t need links in order to rank, but this is untrue. The more authoritative and relevant backlinks that you can build, then the higher your website will rank for target keywords. Whilst this isn’t to say that links are the only factor which matters within Google’s algorithm, there is no doubt that having a relevant and robust backlink profile will go a long way.
You Need To Build Links To Your Money Maker Pages
By money maker pages, this means the pages where you are specifically looking to make conversions, whether its users converting into leads or leads into sales. You may think that if you are going to put the effort in to build the digital highways which lead traffic to your website, then you should divert all that traffic to these money maker pages. However, in reality, you should take the complete opposite approach. Firstly, if you approach websites which are within your niche and ask them to provide links back to your money maker pages, then this will come across as a spam or potentially aggressive technique and risk shooting yourself in the foot.
Most importantly, these pages are usually not the pages which have the most valuable information – the information you actually want visitors to see. Webmasters are far more likely to provide links to pages which has resourceful information or great content on, rather than a page which displays your services or products. Building links to your linkable assets will likely increase your link building success and potentially raise the profile of your money maker pages in the long run.
Conclusion
SEO and link building is not rocket science. Whilst there is a lot of confusion out there, which is mainly due to the fact that Google’s standards change very quickly, old habits die hard and strategies which you seek out don’t always work. Link building comes with some very old fashioned and outdated myths, which may be damaging your SEO and marketing campaigns. There are a number of digital agency services out there which can help with your long-running SEO campaigns and dispel any myths you may have heard.
