In a previous blog post, we talked about the importance of getting incoming links, or back links.
A somewhat spammy comment to that post got me to thinking beyond my reply. I decided we should talk more about “true” link building which I am saying is one of the few things your really need to concern yourself with for SEO purposes.
If you don’t think this is critically important to getting a flood of free traffic I really don’t know what to say; the evidence shows otherwise. It truly is a “must do” for getting free traffic particularly from Google.
But links ARE NOT created equal.
Some links are gold and many are basically worthless, as in, don’t even bother.
Google has become too sophisticated to fall for all the old tricks and the rules have changed.
Here are 5 myths about link building that are, well, myths. Don’t fall for them.
Myth 1: Links Raise Your Search Results Position
Actually, this isn’t a myth but many people make it seem like quantity is all important and that is most definitely a myth; it hasn’t been true for quite a while.
You’d think by now that nobody would believe this anymore but it persists more due to marketing skills than true value.
There are even ads, you’ve seen them, about buying lots of one-way links for some ridiculously low price; this is a case on not even getting what you pay for.
Yes, one-way links are great and the more the better but this is only true if the quality of the link is good.
Google looks at the source of the link and weights it accordingly so lots of low value links doesn’t buy you very much in terms of search engine positioning but a few well placed links can make all the difference.
I’ve seen just a few links on places like YouTube, Squidoo and Hub Pages bring a Google page one listing in hours, for a long tail keyword.
Think of this as deciding if you’d rather have 1,000 pennies or just one $100 bill.
Myth 2: Reciprocal Linking is Bad
This isn’t a myth either, yet it is.
What isn’t a myth is reciprocal links that are obviously spam links. Mostly these are links on pages that have a lot of links, particularly advertising links.
What you want are links within the body of articles, blog posts or other Web content and have the reciprocal link be the same.
This type of two-way linking is considered more “natural” and, if not abused, won’t be penalized.
Do avoid though sites that may be considered questionable like gambling, adult, hate and link farms.
Myth 3: Three-Way Linking is Good
Like the previous myths this both true and untrue.
Three-way linking, that is, page A links to page B that links to page C that links back to page A, is a way that marketers try to fool Google.
It worked for about a New York minute and then Google basically said “do you think we’re stupid” and devalued those links.
Now, if you have some sophisticated multi-linking strategy where the links are within the Web content then this can be an excellent strategy, assuming the links are high value, but otherwise mostly they aren’t worth the effort.
Myth 4: Get Links to Every Page or Only Get Links to Your Home Page
These two myths are both untrue.
In fact, they can be harmful.
Remember the ultimate purpose of these links is to make more money.
So links to pages that aren’t selling don’t really provide much value. Is there a slight chance that someone may buy something from you after going to your earnings disclaimer page? It is possible but the time and effort spent would be better used elsewhere; and how many people would even click on the link in the first place?
The same is true of your home page. Sending every one to it isn’t going to optimize sales.
The best tactic is to have some links go to your home page and other deeper into your site, to those pages that make money for you.
Myth5 : Links Are All You Need
I think you can see by now that this is a big myth.
I’m not talking about just the need for great content I am talking about your need links for high converting keywords and you need to optimize those.
Come on, does being number 1 in Google for “dog training” help you if you sell “weight loss” products.
Of course not (although if you got that ranking you probably should be selling “dog training” products too!)
You need to make sure you do the research and optimize for those keywords that can send you buying traffic and aren’t too competitive.
Doing some pay-per-click advertising, like Google AdWords, can help you do this relatively quickly.
Also doing some competitive analysis will help; that is, find out what keywords your main competitors are using and “steal” them by getting quality links for them.
Finally, do not discount the value of having your keywords in the “anchor text” of the links. This is the text of the link, that is, the text that is usually blue and underlined.
Find your best keywords for that page, the ones converting the best, and use them as anchor text, although don’t use the same text for every link, put some variety in so Google doesn’t think you’re trying to trick them.
Conclusion
Don’t fall for the link building myths that are prevalent. Mostly these are based on old or bad information and while they may have some truth to them beware:
- Links Raise Your Search Results Position: they can but lots of worthless links will do little for you, focus of getting high quality links
- Reciprocal Linking is Bad: it is unless you do it right and then it can be a valuable tool
- Three-Way Linking is Good: in general, this is not really true any more although more sophisticated multi-way linking is still very good
- Get Links to Every Page or Only Get Links to Your Home Page: don’t do either, link to your home page and to your pages that earn you money
- Links Are All You Need: links are just the first step, get the right links and optimize them; even “steal” your competitors links and be sure to use your keywords in the anchor text
Link building is tremendously valuable but unless you do it right it can be wasted effort and can hurt you.
Do you have any link building tips or myths to bust? Leave a comment about it and about what you think of these myths.
Talk soon,
The Shameless (Ethical) Marketer
http://www.8-8-8Sale.com
http://www.MusicForInternetMarketers.com
http://www.SecretsOfGoogleAdWords.com
http://www.MadMondaySale.com
http://www.2ForTuesdaySale.com
O.Y. I mentioned using Google AdWords as a way to quickly research and optimize your keywords. I recently found that Google provides some decent basic training on AdWords, go to http://www.google.com/adwords/learningcenter/index.html
O.O.Y. If you are looking for more on really using AdWords to get massive amounts of traffic then one of my favorites is Adwords List Building
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