Google has been vocal about their stance against link building as a practice in SEO. They believe it is an outdated and risky approach to SEO, as it can lead to an increased risk of being penalized or sandboxed. As a result, Google has implemented several tactics designed to discourage or outright penalize sites that utilize link building.
For many webmasters, this could mean the end of link building as a viable SEO strategy. However, the truth is that successful link building still exists, it is just more complex than ever. For those willing to embrace this complexity, establishing a successful link building strategy is still possible.
First, it’s important to understand why Google is cracking down on link building. Specifically, they are concerned about websites gaming the system by buying backlinks, spaming comments, and using link farms. All of these tactics, and a host of others, are considered black hat tactics that are unethical and can have a very negative impact on your search engine rankings. Google wants to discourage these tactics by making sure they are not rewarded by the search engine algorithms.
So what is the right way to do link building? To start, it’s important to focus on link building strategies that are not only in line with Google’s guidelines, but that are also in the interest of your target audience. This means focusing on helpful, authoritative links from sources that are relevant to your website’s content and user base. For example, if you are in the travel industry, you might look for travel and tourism websites to link to yours. On the other hand, if you are in the tech industry, you may want to link to popular industry blogs.
Furthermore, it is important to remember that link building requires time and effort to be effective. Sites that participate in link building don’t realize results overnight, and must constantly create content and find opportunities to link attractively. The key to successful link building is patience. Results won’t be immediate, but if you persist and build a quality portfolio of links, you should eventually establish a successful link building strategy that Google will recognize.
Ultimately, link building can still be an effective SEO strategy – if it is done the right way. Although Google has made it harder to do, it is still possible to build a portfolio of links and establish a successful link building strategy that is ethical and will result in higher search engine rankings.