When it comes to SEO and boosting visibility and rankings, backlinks often play an important role in pushing a website up the search engine result pages (SERPs). However, not every link is equal and some aren’t worth your time and effort.
The following are five types of bad backlinks you don’t want to have linked to your website:
- Spammy Links
Spammy links are one of the worst types of backlinks, as they can do more harm than good. These links are either irrelevant or not related to your website in any way. They are usually created for the sole purpose of artificially increasing a website’s rankings. Search engines are becoming better at identifying and classifying these links and can even penalize websites for having them pointing to their sites.
- Low-quality Links
Low-quality links are usually from websites that have little to no authority or from a website that is not related to your business at all. Often times, these links are created for the purpose of low-quality link building practices, which can also get you penalized by search engines if they are identified.
- Paid Links
It can be tempting to pay for backlinks, however, paid links should be avoided at all costs. Search engines frown upon these types of links and will penalize any website that is found to have them.
- Link Farms
Link farms consist of a large collection of websites that all link to each other, often in exchange for money. Each website in the link farm has a web page filled with unrelated and low-quality links, which not only looks spammy, but also can get your website penalized.
- Link Exchanges
Many SEO experts will offer link exchanges, in which websites of similar topics exchange links in an effort to boost their rankings. But this type of link building carries its own risks, as both websites are likely to get penalized by search engines if they are found out.
These five types of bad backlinks should be avoided in order to keep your website safe from any search engine penalties. Focus your SEO efforts on true link building strategies such as guest posting, conducting interviews and sharing high-quality content. Doing this will help you create strong and relevant backlinks that will help boost your rankings in a secure and organic way.