Why link building is still important
When you read various blog posts, about link building, some say that link building won’t even have an effect on your business’s seo. However, we don’t believe that is true, some backlinks, really good quality links, that are built using 100% white hat SEO, well will these can still have a dramatic and positive affect on businesses’ seo.
However, as we will explain more of later on in this article, what is apparent, is good quality links can take your website to new heights.
However low-quality backlinks, they can do huge amounts of damage your business’s seo. Low-quality backlinks, that have been bought all built incorrectly, (using black hat methods) can massively damage your business’s seo. So you have to use the right link-building techniques, you have to avoid purchasing backlinks full stop.
Link Building, Off-Page SEO
Building backlinks, is something that a lot of companies find extremely confusing and it’s something that they don’t know how to do. Sometimes the company might think that they need a specialist link-building company, and this might be true sometimes be true. However, most white-hat marketing agencies understand how to build good-quality backlinks. And it would be best to avoid the seo agencies that build low-quality links. Otherwise, your business can get a link penalty.
Ever since Google was founded, they have used backlinks as a way of deciphering where businesses should ranked by in Google’s SERP’s. And ever since PageRank we don’t think that’s changed until the present day in 2024. We still believe backlinks are still essential.
A brief history of why backlinks are important
To fully comprehend why backlinks are still important, you have to go back to recent history to understand why backlinks are such a crucial part of Google’s algorithm.
In 1998, Larry Page and Sergey Brin started Google, and they named their original algorithm, which was simply brilliant at the time, “Page Rank”. This algorithm has improved a lot since then; it’s a lot more complex and intricate than back then.
However, you have to understand this concept, that is the backlinks are like a vote of confidence in your website; if another brand or company links to your business, and they are good quality companies which are relevant to your business, these links can positively affect your business rankings.
So, although there are thought to be over 200 various different ranking factors that Google now uses as part of their algorithm, backlinks are still a ranking factor, just like when Larry Page and Sergey Brin first developed their algorithm- however Googles algorithm was a lot simpler back then.
In 2009, Google removed PageRank
Back in 2009, and Google got rid of the Page Rank metric, which are shown in “Google’s Webmaster Tools”.
this was an indication that they would start to move away from backlinks as one of the main ranking factors; and now there are many other ranking factors which are used by the search engine to decipher where a business should rank in Google’s serps.
The more votes, the better
Here’s where things get a little bit complicated for some businesses to grasp; sometimes, they think more backlinks the better. When it comes to backlinks, however, the more quality links you have, sure, the better.
When you start to have a mix of low-quality and spam links, , this can damage your business’s seo, so more of these links is not better; it can result in a penalty.
Don’t overly focus on just backlinks
Some businesses think that the only way to improve their seo, is to solely concentrate on building backlinks. However, this is a flawed seo strategy right from the outset. The main reason is simple: many other ranking factors must be enhanced at the sametime. A good agency, or a seo consultant today, must keep many plates spinning simultaneously. What we mean by that is, therefore, to optimise as many ranking factors as possible. If your business focuses solely on just building backlinks, then often wont improve the company’s seo.
Link Penalty (Google Penguin)
Whether your playing a game of Monopoly or trying to improve your business search engine optimisation, there will always be people and companies that will always try to cut corners. Therefore they will try to cheat.
However, when it comes to SEO, well, there are no shortcuts; it is hard work, and it takes tremendous effort to get any business onto page one of Google. Therefore, you must take a long-term view and only use white hat methods.
Does my business still need no-follow-backlinks?
Yes, a business most certainly does; for backlinks to be built correctly in a 100% white hat way, you need a combination of both no-follow and do-follow backlinks. If, for example, you have 10,000 backlinks, and all of these are do-follow, it looks like the links have been bought. And you don’t want the links to look as if you purchased them.
You shouldn’t purchase backlinks at all; you should have bloggers and business owners who want to link to your work voluntarily. By doing so, they are likely to use a mixture of do-follow and no-follow backlinks.
Create very high-quality and also helpful content marketing
If you want your business needs search engine optimisation to be a roaring success. Your business needs high-quality and well-written content marketing.
Make sure that you fix any low-quality backlinks. You may have a website that has many low-quality backlinks.
If your website has low quality / spam links, this needs to be resolved; you need to hire a link-building specialist or an agency specialising in penalty recovery. For example, having a website with many low-quality backlinks is like trying to put a car into a race; while the car’s boot is filled with lead, you are at a massive disadvantage from the outset.
So, just like any good race car driver, would shed weight from their car. To ensure they are more competitive and therefore can win the race, you should eliminate your low-quality backlinks.
For example, you may need to hire a link-building specialist, and there are many marketing agencies within the United Kingdom that specialise in fixing link penalties.
Disavow any toxic links
There are many ways to fix the problem of having low-quality links pointing at your website. One way is to contact the website directly and explain you want the links removed: their links are causing a problem with your business seo, and you want them removed.
If they don’t remove the links after you have contacted them, or you can’t contact them, then you should proceed to disavow the links. However, disavowing links should only be undertaken by an expert because if you don’t know the difference between good-quality links and low-quality links, you could end up disavowing and cutting out the wrong links! This could end up damaging your seo.
This is why you need to hire an agency, which is really good at building links and disavowing low-quality links.