In the article 6 Costly SEO Link Building Mistakes You Should Avoid they discuss the importance of link building and what mistakes to avoid. Before I get into my thoughts on their blog post I would like to provide a definition for link building.
link building: 1. In the field of search engine optimization, link building describes actions aimed at increasing the number and quality of inbound links to a page. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_building
Now I would like to offer my definition which is a bit less technical.
Link Building: a strategy employed by a website owner to get valuable links back to your website. This means that another website has for whatever reason linked to your website. This could be in a blog post reference like above or because you filled out a form such as your website url when you left a comment on a blog post.
So now that we know what it is let’s cover a bit about their listed pitfalls.
1. Getting back links with a ‘nofollow’ attribute
Back links with nofollow attribute tells the search engines that you do not want them to consider that particular link. Google ignores the nofollow links and would not count them as a backlink for page rank.
You can read their full explanation on their site but their main point here is that it is a waste of time to comment on blog posts that you know upfront do not offer follow links. The idea is that the only reason that you would take the time to comment on a blog post is so that you can the value of a link back to your website.
I would like to take issue with this idea. If someone takes the time to write a well thought out and wonderful article such as the one that I am discussing here by Inbound Now then I would say that you can pay them back with a comment. Comments are extremely valuable to bloggers for many reasons but if for no other than to stimulate conversation. So if you read a blog post and have a thought, positive or negative, go ahead and leave a comment.
2. Having a good link but with useless anchor text
Ok so in this point they are spot on but I would like to caution that you should not always use the same anchor text. Google is actually starting to pay close attention to link bait and so I would like to recommend that you have a list of anchor text to choose from. My tip here is that when you do your initial website keyword research create yourself a spreadsheet of relevant keywords and pull from that list. Do not always use the same phrase or you may be punished.
Excellent video by Julian Goldie
3. Having a link from a site that has tons of links
As you will read in their original article they do not believe that you should spend time on a post that has hundreds of comments and in some ways they are right. The odds of you gaining much from commenting on a Seth Godin blog post in the terms of link juice is not very high but there are other reasons to comment.
I would suggest that you consider a completely different strategy and comment on the comments. Entire conversations can happen inside of the comments and it is amazing the connections that can be made and the ideas that can be learned. Use the comments to your advantage and if the string is big enough treat it like a networking opportunity. If I see interesting comments from someone on a blog post I will actually look that person up and bookmark their blog.
4. Place an image link in place if having a text link with keyword is not feasible
Images are a great resource and you should always link an image when it makes sense.
5. Not using ALT text, if you can only have an image link
It can seem like a lot of working remembering all of these SEO Tips and it can sure seem like a lot of work implementing them but the alt text for an image is crucial. Do not skip alt text if you are presented with the opportunity.
6. Getting backlinks from irrelevant niche sites
Yes! They said more on their blog post about this but this is just crucial. Do not get together with a group of twitter friends and randomly exchange links. If you source out a link make sure that it is relevant to your industry. I would take this a step further and say that you should actively monitor links to your site and do what you can remove ones that are not relevant.
Do you have a link building strategy? Please share any tips or ideas that would be beneficial in the comment section below.
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
