Link building: Which zoo animal is SEO’s favorite? A lynx that has come in. Though that clever joke could make you cringe, inbound links are important for search engine optimization success. 

And since content creators are using AI techniques to increase resources online more quickly than ever, the amount of web material is rising exponentially every day, and backlink acquisition is a top concern for many website owners. 

Even if you understand the basics, such as choosing the right keywords, if you’re new to producing content for search engines, the task of constructing links could seem overwhelming. After all, research from Backlinko indicates that backlinks are absent from 94% of site content. Getting connections from reputable websites is a challenging endeavor, but the following are the main benefits:

Higher positioning in search engine result pages is frequently awarded to content that has a large number of links from reputable websites (SERPs).

Link building vs. backlinks

It’s possible that you’ve noticed that “backlinks” and “link building” are frequently used synonymously. Even I make mistakes like this! Nevertheless, the following is a condensed explanation of how they differ in terms of SEO:

Link building

The process of actively obtaining backlinks is known as link building. Outreach, content marketing, and guest blogging are a few popular strategies.

Backlinks

These are specific hyperlinks that lead from one page on another website to another page on your website. Search engines view these as endorsements of the caliber or applicability of the destination content.

Let’s now examine seven typical blunders that people make when constructing links for SEO.

7 link building for SEO mistakes

All men are created equal,” according to the Declaration of Independence. Regretfully, Thomas Jefferson would be unable to write a clever sentence regarding links if he were still alive and employed in SEO rankings. This is due to the fact that it is obvious that poor connections can bring more harm than help in this particular situation.

Over-Optimized anchor text

An anchor text hyperlink’s clickable text. Hyperlinks are sometimes highlighted and frequently stylized in a different color (such as blue) in web design. Additionally, they might alter upon hover or click. To determine the topic of the linked page, Google and other search engines examine the anchor text.

When constructing links for SEO purposes, you can avoid this possible issue by employing anchor text variations in addition to the target term, even if you have no control over what other people use as anchor text (backlinks).

A partial match For example, you could write “Learn about best practices for link building to improve search rankings” or just a version of the keyword phrase.

generic language (such as non-descriptive phrases like “learn more”)

Images (for example, as a link on an image, with the alt text of the graphic serving as the anchor text)

Headline (e.g., employing the article’s entire title, or H1, as the anchor text for relevant links at the end of the piece; these links frequently contain the keyword’s precise match in addition to other terms—occasionally even secondary keywords—from the H1)

Buying low-quality backlinks

The process of building high-quality backlinks cannot be rushed.

Occasionally, people purchase backlinks in an attempt to boost their organic search engine rankings. Other times, they choose not to pay for a link building service that provides backlinks because they lack a team member with the necessary time and experience to develop links organically.

There are many companies out there with teams that will gladly charge good money to people interested in buying (or renting) backlinks, even though often the links they have the ability to deliver are low-quality. If you don’t do your homework and vet your vendor, you may end up disappointed if going this route.

Relying on a single source

Do social media posts or other similar sources consistently send you backlinks? A variety of link sources should be providing backlinks to your website, according to Google and other search engines.

Diversification improves your site’s appearance of having a more natural-looking backlink profile. It may also help you reach a wider audience and build authority more successfully, which makes your site more resilient to algorithm changes than if you relied just on one source.

Ignoring internal interlinks

You’re off to a great start, sharing information on social media, guest blogging, and essentially doing everything else the proper way to get your content seen and taken seriously. However, have you also taken the time to implement a robust internal linking strategy for your most crucial pages?

As internal linking contributes to link equity distribution throughout your website, user experience, and search engine crawl efficiency, make sure it is a priority on your radar.

This is effective because it makes it easier for bots to find and comprehend hierarchy and structure when interlinks are grouped around a hub. This facilitates the indexation of your most significant content.

Acquiring backlinks too swiftly

In order to give link building time to catch up with SEO, slow down.

Fast backlink acquisition raises red flags for search engines since it may be an indication of link purchasing and spamming (e.g., hundreds of new links to your site’s content within a week from low-quality directories and blog comments).

These abrupt increases in backlinks may be an indication of dishonest link-building for search engine optimization, and any indications of unnatural growth could get your site penalized (which could mean a decline in ranks or possibly de-indexing).

Not remembering to the importance of relevance

Relevance is important, as this piece has already indicated. Links originating from websites featuring content contextually irrelevant to your specialty will not seem to be a sincere recommendation of the content on your website.

Therefore, keep in mind that obtaining backlinks from websites such as pet stores or fashion blogs won’t provide value, may hurt your site’s SEO, and may lower user engagement if you’re working on link building for SEO to increase the ranking of a healthcare organization’s website.

Jumpstart your linking building for SEO with the help of Digi Dervish

Digi Dervish Creative’s staff has been using a strategic approach to website content creation and optimization to help clients nationwide enhance their search engine results for more than 2 years. Speak with us about your objectives and see how our professionals can assist you in obtaining more backlinks.

Forgetting about no-follow links

A hyperlink with the rel= “nofollow” property is known as a no-follow link. They are used by people to stop external sources from receiving SEO value or page rank. Some websites, such as the following, use no-follow links by default on all outbound connections:

• • Social media sites (like Pinterest, X, Facebook, and so on)

• • Internet forums, such as Quora and Reddit

• • websites for publishers and business news sources with comment sections

Even while no-follow links in your content won’t directly benefit SEO, you should still include them in your link-building campaigns because they can convey trust and occasionally can increase website traffic.