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The Good and The Bad Link Building: How To Differentiate

by Innov8tiv.com

Links are an important ranking factor for content in SERPs. So much so, that a good backlink can boost a website’s organic rankings in search results, several positions to the top. Whereas, on the other hand, there are harmful links as well, the bad ones, which can not only affect the organic rankings but also lead to penalties from Google.

Well, that seems quite easy to understand. But the real question is how do you differentiate a good link from a bad one? Or more importantly, how do you decide if the link building strategy that you’re using is good enough to improve your rankings?

To begin with, let’s understand what Google has to say about link building.

This may come to you as a surprise, but Google does not adore link building, or more precisely link building. However, backlinks still remain one of the most important signals for SERP rankings. So how does Google decide if the link is worthy of rewards or penalties?

Niche Relevancy

Of course, it had to be the niche. Marketers have been saying it, experts from the leading link building company have been repeatedly mentioning it, and Google says it too. The relationship between two linking websites is more than just the link itself. There has to be a common ground for the content on the two websites. For example, if two linking domains are about SEO then the link would also be considered a good one. On the contrary, if the two domains operate in entirely opposite industries, they may be considered as the bad ones and be penalized.

Type of Anchor

Besides, the type of anchor chosen for link building also has a significant impact on the results. Consider carefully how you choose your anchor texts for optimizing your backlinks. It has been noted that naked URL anchors bring in better results. But you can also choose branded anchors or generic anchors, as long as you can maintain the integrity of the link being built, and the content on the two linking pages.

Age Of The Link

As absurd as it may sound, but the age of the link also affects the quality of the link building strategy. Usually, the older links are regarded as good ones, while the new ones are still to gain popularity in the digital world. Experts at link building agency like outreach monks explain that the older links, given that they are still active and in good health can bring in better results as compared to the newer ones. This is because the older links already have gained a certain authority online and receive good referral traffic, as opposed to the new links.

Linking Domain

Apart from all this, the most important factor is the domain that links to your website. A link, no matter how exclusive or carefully integrated into content is of no use if the linking domain turns out to be a link farm or a PBN. Google strictly warns webmasters and bloggers to stay away from link farming and public blogging networks. Notably, they can only do harm and there’s very little good which usually doesn’t last very long.

To sum it up, a good backlink is the one that is in compliance with Google’s guidelines and does not oppose to the search algorithm’s framework. So, make sure you only practice the good link building strategies for improving your website’s rankings in search results.

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