Strange link building myths | Weboptim
The rules of link building were not always written in black and white, so if you did it wrong the result could be frustrating.
But what is the benefit of link building rules if they don't actually work?
We present 8 common link building myths:
1. Never get a link from a site with a lower Authority score than ours
A domain authority is a Moz a learning system developed by. It looks like all the other indicators. It shows the best correlation with Google rankings.
Does this mean that, all other things being equal, based on low link authority only, will the site perform poorly for a random keyword in Google rankings?
When building a link, domain authority can be a good sorting criterion. But it is not a clear good or bad thing for linking. Yes, links from sites with 80-90 DA are very good because they can give a lot of authority value.
It seems that sites below 10-20 do not give much value and probably have a high spam rate. But for new websites that have just been published or have very few links, it might be good. If we have a high quality site, we will be happy to be linked to by other good sites, so we don't need to worry or fear that just because their DA is low, they won't give enough value or will be harmed by the link.
2. Never get links from catalogue sites
There are low quality, SEO-focused or even paid link aggregation sites that are not worth linking to. Many of these aggregators have been penalised by Google, but also many websites with a link profile that is strongly linked to such aggregators.
However, many link aggregators and catalogue sites are of good quality (e.g. lap.hu). So it's more about good judgement to be able to distinguish between a link aggregator and a link collecting site.
3. Don't get links too fast or Google will penalize you
This is not the case at all. Google has introduced some standards in the past that, if a site has low quality or spammy links at a certain rate, it encourages the search giant to look more closely at the link profile of the site, the link building practices used.
If you use black hat link building techniques, if you buy links, or if you participate in link exchange programs, these are all ways to get too many links too fast. But if you use link building methods that are correct, there is no risk. As long as you get links from the right places, you don't have to worry. There is no such thing as too fast.
4. Do not link to other sites or you will lose link strength or PageRank
The myth is based on a few facts. In the past, PageRank was used in a certain way: if the site linked to many external sites, if you had 4 such links, your site's PageRank would be a quarter of the value and all 4 sites would get a quarter. But that's not how it works anymore.
PageRank is no longer the only part of search algorithms. We don't need to be afraid of outbound links. In fact, it's good to use them. Outward linking correlates with better rankings. Many studies describe a cause and effect relationship between them. If we add follow type links to subpages, these subpages actually outperform non-linking subpages in many tests.
5. The link text variations must be specified with precise accuracy
The myth goes that there is a magic formula for what percentage of your link text should be branded, keyword, etc... type. But this is not true. If Google suspects spamming, it should take a closer look at your link text. If you see that there are a lot of keywords and not enough brand, then you're looking more seriously.
However, if you are using black hat SEO techniques, then of course you need to pay close attention to link text ratios.
6. Never ask for a link directly or you will be penalised
Many companies send out emails asking their customers to provide them with a link to their website in exchange for a discount.
Google may take action against those who use manipulative link acquisition methods. But take a newspaper that writes about us, but doesn't link to us. If we ask for a link is that wrong? No, not at all, in fact it is not. Besides the bad ones, there are many good ways to request links directly.
7. More than one link from the same page is useful
The basis is that the diversity of linked domains is an important indicator. Sites that receive links from multiple unique domains rank better than those that are linked by only a few sites, even if they receive multiple links within a given site.
But you don't have to say no unequivocally. You don't have to stop link building within a site, especially if it brings us good traffic and quality visitors. Links are not just for SEO. They also generate traffic so they are worth investing in.
8. Links from irrelevant sites or those that are outside your niche will not improve your rankings
Google claims to check the relevance of links. But if the link is editorial, or if it comes from a high quality site, all are reasons to ignore strong relevance.
Off-topic links can be very useful, because it is difficult for competitors to get them. They are often pre-worded, especially if they are acquired links rather than bought or manipulated links.
With all of this in mind, we need to be mindful of our link building methods, but we don't need to be as strict as many claim. Most of the assumptions are just myths.
Source: moz.com