7 Link Building Mistakes To Avoid in 2020

Building a successful blog is not an overnight task. It takes its own time and process. Link building is one of the most important activities to take your website to a higher authority.

Does link building still work in 2019?

Of course, it does. There are more than 200 ranking factors related to UX, mobile usability, technical performance, query intent etc. to rank your article. But out of them, backlink profile plays a major role.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”‘Content, links, and RankBrain are the top three ranking factors.’ – Google ” quote=”‘Content, links, and RankBrain are the top three ranking factors.’ – Google “]

But how does link building work? What are the crucial link building mistakes that you should avoid? And, w hat are the best SEO link building techniques to rank faster in 2019?

How do you track your keyword ranking? use this Rank Tracker Tool.

I am not going to debate here on whether you should build links or earn natural backlinks, but will definitely talk about the common link building mistakes to avoid, that we do generally.

In 2019, we must avoid such link building mistakes to stay safe from Google penalties and put efforts into writing awesome content along with blogger outreach to attract natural links.

Backlinks are very important ranking signals or votes for search engines to understand how worthy that particular page is for users. Do you think link building is dead in 2019?

As many backlink means, more websites found that article worthy and that is why that article or website will get better ranking in the search engines.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”This is just a generic statement, I know that while building backlinks it’s quality matters, not quantity.” quote=”This is just a generic statement, I know that while building backlinks it’s quality matters, not quantity.” theme=”style3″]

Building backlinks are one of the essential SEO features which can help you rank higher and gain more traffic. But, not everybody is an expert on building them properly.

7 Link Building Mistakes & How To Fix Them in 2019

What is natural link building? 

Well, if you write an epic or shareable content to help someone, then your article will be linked or referred by many people as a reference. This is called natural link building.

Read More:  100+ Best Commentluv Blogs 2019 [Top link building sites]

If you find it difficult, you can explore various other ways to build backlinks in 2019. But stay away from bad sites to avoid Google penalty. So, what are the other ways to build backlinks? Well, I will share about that in another article, but make sure you know at least which link building mistakes you should not make while building backlinks for your blog.

Take a look at the list of 7 most common backlink building mistakes and how can you fix them to stay penalty proof.

1. Quantity Madness

Although it is important for your blog to be linked to many different websites, quality is still more important. In order to create as many backlinks as possible, people often go for the quantity instead of quality.

Precisely, some bloggers link their blogs to websites with

• worthless content
• lack of trustworthiness

As a result, your blog is being linked to something your audience will recognize as bad. That leaves you with a backlink doing more harm than good.

To avoid making this type of a basic mistake, slow down. Revise. Choose wisely. And don’t let quantity take over quality. Choose reliable websites with valuable content and stay focused on your reputation.

How To Fix this Link Building Mistake? This type of link building generally works great for one-time event blogging niche. If you know that you are just working for that blog to rank on that event day, then you can do that. But for long-term blogs, if you build such links you will face problems in the future. The best way to fix this is by running a link audit and list out the bad/irrelevant links. Then finally disavow them.

You can use SEO SpyGlass: a powerful backlink checker tool

2. Diversity in Linking

When creating backlinks, you need to ask yourself: What do I want to achieve with this?

We do realize your main goal is to get people to read your blog and to drive more traffic to it. However, that shouldn’t be the end of the story.

Some bloggers create a majority of backlinks directing towards the home page of their blog. But what about the rest? This type of mistake will only give the average reader vague knowledge about who you are and what your blog is all about.

How To Fix this Link Building Mistake? To avoid this mistake and ensure more people actually stick around and read some of your content:

• build less “home page” backlinks
• link to specific content on your blog
• diversify

This way you’re ensuring more valuable traffic and engagement. Building links to the homepage are also bad for domain authority. Yes, if you want to increase your domain authority fast, then you should build links for internal pages.

Useful Resource: How to Build a Diverse & Healthy Link Profile

3. Uninviting Anchors

When building backlinks, bloggers have to use anchors to make the links more suitable for the average reader.

This anchor needs to fit in the text but still evoke some interest among the readers and preferably make them click.

To make sure the readers click the backlinks, some bloggers opt for anchors such as CLICK FOR MORE or VISIT THIS.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”Don’t ‘follow your heart’ there is no such thing in SEO. Experiments and trial-and-error is the way to go. – seo-hacker.com” quote=” Don’t ‘follow your heart’ there is no such thing in SEO. Experiments and trial-and-error is the way to go. – seo-hacker.com”]

However, the types of anchors are extremely uninviting because the readers feel like you’re forcing them to do something they may not want to.

Therefore, your anchors need to be a lot more subtle. Blend them in with the rest of the text, only suggesting the readers that there’s more for them to explore and learn about.

Useful Source: How important is Anchor Text to a Backlink?

4. No-follow links

If your goal is to rank higher on Google or other search engines, you need to be SEO friendly in every aspect, including your backlinks.

However, not so many people realize that building no-follow backlinks is worthless when it comes to SEO. And here’s why.

No-follow links do not allow search engines to follow them and reach your blog. Only humans can do it, but not bots.

“In general, we don’t follow them. This means that Google does not transfer PageRank or anchor text across these links. Essentially, using nofollow causes us to drop the target links from our overall graph of the web. However, the target pages may still appear in our index if other sites link to them without using nofollow, or if the URLs are submitted to Google in a Sitemap. Also, it’s important to note that other search engines may handle nofollow in slightly different ways.” – Google

That means that these type of link won’t help you rank higher and climb the SEO ladder.

Therefore, consider building more do-follow links which are completely opposite. They allow both humans and bots to follow them and help you increase your ranking.

5. Checking Old Backlinks

Once you place the backlink successfully and you like what you see, you may be thinking you’re done and you can move on to the next one.

You may do it like that. But, we don’t recommend it.

What happens if the website you linked your blog to has changed over time? Maybe they have started publishing low-quality content. Maybe their popularity has drastically decreased. Maybe these links are broken now.

And, maybe, you no longer want your blog to link with it!

How To Fix this Link Building Mistake? Make sure to have your eyes wide open and regularly check your old backlinks. Don’t allow your blogs to be linked with deteriorating websites. Remove all the bad, broken or negative backlinks to ensure your blog stays on top of its game.

You can run a complete website audit using WebSite Auditor Tool: best On-page optimization tool

6. Buying Backlinks

Yes, building backlinks take time. And natural backlinks are hard to build, but they’re worth it.

To avoid spending time on building natural backlinks, some bloggers decide to spend some money instead.

So they go on and buy backlinks, thinking they’re all set.

However, buying backlinks is probably one of the worst things you can do to your blog and here’s why:

• some search engines might ban you for doing this
• your links could be considered spam
• it may be illegal

Check This Awesome video from Nathan Gotch

How To Fix this Link Building Mistake? Make sure to stick with the natural backlinks and invest some effort in building them the right way. Do not buy backlinks.

7. Being Irrelevant

You need to focus on getting the most use out of your backlinks. That includes making smart moves when it comes to finding suitable websites to link your blogs to.

If your blog is about photography, there’s no point in searching for backlinks on websites dealing with finances or agriculture.

Irrelevant websites of even high authority won’t help you build your audience.

This type of mistake is more common than it should be as bloggers forget to aim for specific websites.

How To Fixthis Link Building Mistake? Aim for websites closely connected to your niche. This will get you the desired results and help you achieve your goals. It does require walking the extra mile and putting in some serious effort to find the suitable website from your niche. However, definitely, it is worth that effort.

Let’s Rewind the Common Link Building Mistakes

Now that we’ve covered most of the common link building mistakes, let’s stop for a second and revise what we’ve learned:

1. link your blog to quality websites
2. drive traffic to a different segment of your blog
3. use subtle and inviting anchors
4. do-follow links increase ranking
5. check your old backlinks
6. do not buy backlinks
7. relevancy wins over authority

Of course, it goes without saying that backlinks should lead to quality content on your blog. Therefore, focus on providing valuable and informative content for your blog readers, before creating backlinks for it.

Ensure you’ve got a solid foundation and content you can be proud of. Once you’ve got that covered, you’re ready to start building backlinks.

Need a powerful link-building tool? Go to LinkAssistant.

Backlinks can be your best friends, if only you take them seriously. Before you start building them, think about the potential link building mistakes you could make along the way. Make sure you avoid them and build your backlinks properly.

Use the list we’ve given above to remind yourself of how to build effective backlinks. Once you get a hold of it, you’ll have nothing to worry about. 

Author’s bio.

Daniela McVicker is a passionate digital marketer. Daniela is interested in everything related to SEO and blogging. She collaborates with Trust My Paper and Top Essay Writing, where she shares her experience and helps marketers make their name in the online world.