We all know that a backlink is clickable text on a website that links back to your website. Even laymen with little SEO knowledge now know that backlinks are the key to ranking in Search Engines. More and more number of people are seeking audits for their website for removing the bad backlinks and enhancing the credibility of their website. Backlinks are basically “votes” from one website to another. In other words, if your website gets a backlink from a related website, the search engines consider that a “vote” for your website as a quality place to visit. Because Google uses robots to gather information and decipher the good from the bad, a backlink is a logical way to evaluate the value of a particular website for a particular keyword or phrase.
While it’s not a comprehensive all-inclusive set, it goes a long way toward improving the SEO considerations of a site’s overall inbound link profile.
- Have backlinks? Trust all of them? But not all of them can be good, right?
So, not all backlinks are good! Many SEO companies still regard backlinks to be good.That is because for a long time, google did not do anything for spammy backlinks but now this is no longer true. Companies which are still continuing to do so are losing big time because of this. Most SEO companies have never questioned the status quo of backlinks.
In fact, Google has found a way to catch spammy link builders and it is punishing those sites using spammy tactics. Backlinks have been treated as a positive ranking signal for so long that relatively few companies have evaluated how Google has changed its ranking scheme.
- Too many of them will be problematic
Too many backlinks are a problem. Google is no longer concerned about how many backlinks you have. It’s difficult to explain this to some SEOs because they cannot fathom that Google would make such a drastic change. However, through our research we have discovered that Google wants to see quality over quantity and if there are too many links built in an unnatural way Google will catch you and penalize your site.
Some tips as of how is a backlink considered most likely to be problematic:
- The site where the link comes from, is there purely to provide SEO links
- If a site even looks somewhat low quality
- If if the content is not well written
- If if the site is not relevant to your market
- If the link(s) is/are not directly within the main content of an individual page
- If the site name includes “SEO” or “LINK”
- If the page Title is irrelevant to your market topical focus
- If the page Title includes “SEO’ or “LINK”
- If the domain name looks odd (is made up of letter/number combinations for example)
- If the domain country is in a country outside of your target market
- If the link is on a “forum profile” page and was put there by your SEO vendor
- If it’s a “directory” that has lots of links on that page to sites not relevant to your market
- If it’s a “directory” that has entries where the name of the sites listed is mostly keyword stuffed nonsense
- Why is Anchor Text Important?
SEO-friendly anchor text is succinct and relevant to the target page (i.e., the page it’s linking to). The anchor text for your backlinks is also extremely important. It is the hyperlink display which links back to your website.
- Site Quality & Content is Supreme
Google wants to see links coming from high quality sites that are associated with the outbound link given. It is important for you to have links from the websites which are relative in nature. For example, if you are a Software Development Company and you are getting links from a movie website, then something would seem fishy to the search engines. There doesn’t seem to be a connection b/w the companies, so for what reason will it have your backlink.
- Spammy Backlink are harmful
Spammy Backlinks do the real harm to your website. The longer you allow the spammy techniques to continue, the more work you will have to get those spammy links removed. If you notice that your current SEO service is building spammy backlinks, you should notify them immediately and discontinue service. These spammy backlinks tactics will harm your rankings and will be costly enough to get removed. If you want to identify the bad backlinks, then
there is a simple tip that will help you identify those bad backlinks, “If I as a user were to visit this page, would I click on this link?”. If it’s a no, then get rid of them. This is how google differentiates b/w good and bad backlinks. So, be honest and identify those links which are not credible for your website. The more people that click and stay the better quality the link is.
