Link Building Strategy Alert!
Are Your Inbound Links Hurting Your Site?
In your link building strategy, you want to have as many high quality links as you possibly can. So it’s very important that you stay in the loop on what’s working in the inbound linking world and what’s not!
In this article, I outline some of the link building methods that are no longer effective in boosting your Google’s rankings.
ARTICLE DIRECTORIES
Yep this is true. Submitting articles to hundreds of Article Directories will not do much to your rankings these days. In fact, they might even impact your site negatively!
Article directory sites were hit very hard with the Google Panda updates. Even the mother of all article directories, EzineArticles got hit hard in 2011. So submitting articles to any of these sites will not create much value in your link building strategy anymore.
So should you avoid these type of sites altogether?
If your website is brand new and you’ve just started building backlinks, then a few articles (note few, NOT hundreds!) in a couple of quality and niche related article directories will help you set the ball rolling.
But if your website already has a good number of backlinks, then you will see better results if you focused your efforts on other link building methods.
So choose these directories wisely. Submit only to sites that have high quality articles, are well structured and moderated. The more targeted the directory is to your specific niche, the better.
LINK EXCHANGES (OR RECIPROCAL LINKING)
Have you gotten tired of link exchanges yet? Well Google certainly has!
How many times have you come across websites with a “Links” page that is choc-a-block with hundreds of links to all sorts of websites? Too many to remember right?
How much value can a backlink from a website that has NOTHING to do with your niche add to your link building strategy you think? Zero.
But still webmasters keep doing this. Do it more frequently and you’ll be doing more harm than good to your website. This is actually clearly outlined in Google’s Webmaster Guidelines. Excessive reciprocal linking is not recommended!
If you’re going to engage in any link exchanges (or reciprocal links) at all, make sure that you get a backlink from a high quality webpage, not some “Links” section buried deep into the website. Of course, you should reciprocate by providing a backlink to that particular website from one of your high quality pages too!
The topic discussed on the page that you’re getting the backlink from, should be related to your niche as much as possible, and vice versa with your link too.
DIRECTORIES
A few years back, directories were literally the kings of the castle. All you had to do back then, was submit your website to as many directories as you could and within a few weeks you’d see your website making its way up in search results.
That is no longer the case today. This is more so after the appearance of the much feared Google Panda in 2011. Free directories have no value today.
Even paid directories are not what they used to be. In fact, some established and well respected directories such as Business.com were also negatively impacted with Google’s Panda!
So what to do?
If your website is new or fairly new, I suggest that you submit your site to a few paid directories. Choose only the best. Go for directories that actually take the time to review a site before it’s accepted! This will at least, show Google that you’re serious about your website.
If your site is more than a year old and you've already acquired some backlinks, then you’d be better off concentrating your link building efforts on other more effective methods.
This is Part 2 of a FREE 7-Part Article Series on Post Penguin Link Building.
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