Link building is part of SEO. And that makes every webmasters, marketers and web owners in craze in increasing their numbers.
But not all of those people know that not all link building methods work and worth the efforts. There are good backlinks and bad backlinks, and there are reasons why some link building efforts won't help websites rank well.
Since search engines continue to evolve so they can provide better experience for users, so should the strategy in building links. Here, there are rules to follow.
While it's no secret and links are one of the top priorities in ranking high on Google, there is a little confusion regarding what to do and not to do. Below is a list that highlights the most important criteria.
What To Do
Create original and compelling contents. This is the main ingredient in getting backlinks. When it comes to the web, great and unique contents tend to receive more backlinks, because people just love originality.
Determine the value of links. But attempting to get a backlink from a site, you should know the site's ranking and how it can benefit you. What value can that site give you when it links back to your site? Is it potential traffic? Relevancy? Or authority? Choose the best that suits your goal.
Local listings. Search engines like to show businesses that are located near their users. So here, you need to have a consistent business information - the name, address, phone number, and others. Local SEO has been benefiting numerous businesses, and links from local listings can help Google in getting your site shown to those near you.
Unlinked brand mentions. Who has mentioned your website, but didn't link back? Those websites can be one of the easiest to get links from.
Reclaiming broken links. The web is a growing network, but that growing network has so many broken links. If a website has contents that you can provide more value, but has links that are broken, you can ask the site owner to replace those broken links with yours.
Help a Reporter Out. Reporters hunger for information. If you can help them out, they can give a link back to you. Helping a reporter is also good for PR.
Be helpful and friendly. The internet is famous for its bad influence, fake news, misinformation, conspiracy theories and more. But not everything is bad. If you can be one of the people who want to be plain helpful and awesome, people on the internet will love you. You can sponsor things, or help people out in forums, chats and so forth. Helping people in needs always have benefits in one way or another.
Ask. Most people are strangers when they are on the web. But that shouldn't stop you from asking. There is nothing wrong in reaching people first, and ask them if they want to link your site to their post. If your website can give value and has the resources needed by their audience, chances are, they will give a link to your with no problem.
What Not To Do
Asking for anchor text. Your website is your property, and others' website is none of your concern. Never ask for specific anchor text in backlinks, as this practice is unnatural, not organic and related to spam that Google dislikes. People that want to link back to you, should link however they see fit.
Paid links that pass PageRank. You can buy and sell links. Google acknowledges this and doesn't hate this practice, as it is part of the web economy. However, you should never buy or sell links that are dofollow (links that have no nofollow attribute). Paid links are like advertisements, and they shouldn't pass PageRank.
Hidden links. They are links that are hidden. For example, your link uses a white color as its font, and located in a white background. Users won't see your link, but search engines will. Google doesn't like this practice, and considers it a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.
Low-quality directories. Search engines are already good in determining what your site is all about. But still, web directories play some role in helping search engines. What you need to avoid, is getting backlinks from low-quality directories.
Site-wide links. Not a bad backlink but looks spammy.
Links in comments with over-optimized anchor link text. Putting links in comments has become a common practice in link building. What you need to avoid, is spamming someone's post.
Abusing guest posts. Guest posting can be a great way to build quality backlinks. But never guest post if your sole aim is for backlinks. Again, this can make your post look spammy and won't give much value to the site and its audience. And again, search engines dislike spam.
Using automated tools. This strategy can create a ton of backlinks with ease. However, these backlinks are unnatural.
Link schemes and link exchange. Again these links look unnatural. Google and other search engines see this practice as a way to manipulate their algorithms.
Conclusion
There are many ways to get backlinks to increase the visibility of your site on search engines' results pages, as well as for users. But out of that many strategies, there are some you need to avoid. Mainly, you need to avoid getting backlinks that are not natural.
If you ever find your site getting backlinks from websites that violate search engines' guidelines, you can try asking the website in question to remove those links that point to your site. If you can't, you need to disavow those links so your site doesn’t get penalized.
Remember, long-lasting quality backlinks are, and should only be earned from your hard work without doing any manipulation.