In the previous post I spoke about:
2. Tips for Link Building
As a general rule avoid buying links.
Even if the links come from reliable sources, no one can guarantee that sooner or later that website will not be reported for selling links investigated by a Google operator.
If this happens, it is possible that your positioning will be damaged when links to your website are detected and that they follow an evident pattern of link sales. Buying links will cause you problems.
Forget the exchange of links with other websites, “I link your page and you link mine”. This no longer works, it’s an obsolete technique that goes against Google’s guidelines and is not worth the investment of time you are going to make.
Note, this does not mean that if a website links to one of your articles you can no longer link to any article on that website.
It’s not about that, in that case the internet would be greatly limited.
The idea is to avoid using an unnatural pattern of link exchange, where the link is barely related to the context, usually placing it in the footer or blog-roll.
Avoid spamming forums and comments on blogs
This technique has gone down in history and is no longer effective.
The links should add value to the content of the page and be in an appropriate context.
It’s no longer about how many links we need to position our website, but how to get high quality links from authoritative websites. Spamming is as ineffective as buying links.
Beware of PBN – Private blog network.
There are many companies that offer positioning services through a private blog network, ensuring that it is undetectable to Google and will improve your positioning in no time.
A PBN can improve the positioning of your website, the problem is that this practice is being so exploited in recent years that it has been placed in the spotlight of Google and many websites have received manual penalties for belonging to a PBN.
Perhaps the PBN you’re using is undetectable to Google at the moment, but will it still be undetectable in a year’s time?
3. The anchor text in SEO
The anchor text is the text that appears over a link and is one of the most important factors in the SEO On Page for your pages to get a good positioning.
Years ago to position a keyword in your website just needed many backlinks and that the keyword to position was found in the anchor text of those external links.
This SEO technique worked until Google Penguin came on the scene, the update of Google in April 2014, and that put an end to this practice and others related to link manipulation.
Currently, using the exact keyword to position on external links pointing to your website is the most effective way to eliminate your visibility for that keyword.
So what keyword should we use in the anchor text of the links?
Again, naturalness. It is advisable to use synonyms and related keywords, avoiding repeating too much the keyword we are trying to position.
Variety in anchor text is an important feature in a Link Building technique.
Example.
If we want to position the keyword “Running Shoes”, we should use terms such as:
Buy running shoes
Men’s running shoes
Running shoes for women
Runner shoes
Running shoes
Online running shoes
….
There are SEO tools with which you can discover the links used by your competitors and the anchor text that appears in each link.
This way you can get new ideas and terms to use in your anchor text, as well as see how good or bad your competition is doing.
Keep in mind that not any keyword is worth, as some that may seem very good at first sight may receive very little traffic or on the contrary receive a lot of traffic but their competition is so high that they are impossible to position in the medium term.
It is recommended that you carry out a Keyword Research
Some totally free tools to discover the backlinks of your competitors.
https://semrush.com
https://moz.com/researchtools/ose/
4. Simple Link Building Techniques
Let’s look at some link building techniques and strategies that you can use to get links pointing to your website and give your pages a boost in the search results.
Link Directories
The use of link directory is another of the usual SEO practices in the past and that in recent years have been punished by Google.
However not all directories are full of spam and not all directories are penalized by Google.
There are many web directories, useful and with a good domain authority, in which you can register your website in a few minutes to get a link back.
Before creating a link in a directory, ask yourself: Does this directory look like a reliable site? Is it a website that adds value to the community? If the answer isn’t a resounding yes, it’s best not to create the link.
You can continue reading at: Advanced Link Building Guide (Part III)
Thanks for this mammoth link building guide. Most webmasters are stuck in SEO practices that used to work in the past but they don’t work now. No SEO strategies are long-term when it comes to ranking on Google but, if done right, it still can generate traffic at least. Now, I always say before anyone starts going crazy with SEO or any other traffic strategies they must focus on optimizing their sites for higher opt-in and sales conversions. That is something most webmasters overlook and then, they get stuck wondering why are they getting so much traffic but no conversions. Conversions is a by-product of a strategic process and traffic is the last thing in that process. Unfortunately, most webmasters focus on the wrong things for a long time, which is why most are struggling.