A lot of changes have taken place just a few short days ago concerning Google which could spell doom for some webmasters with all the new algorithm updates. Many top SEO agencies have been building links a certain way for years, but now with a few changes by the recent Google Penguin update, link building is about to get very technical and only those webmasters who are going to be adapting to these changes will make it through these potentially devastating upcoming months. The thing about these updates done recently by Google is that the skills needed to stay ahead of the game while building links have been with us all along, webmasters will just have to initiate the process.
- Check what other websites link out to from the site you plan on linking with
- Use tools to check if the website ranks for anything with Google
- Check to make sure the site is cached in Google
- Check how outgoing links with that website rank
- Look for quality content on the website itself
- Look for signs of sites that sell links as these are a no-no with Google
- Think about link location within the articles onsite
You want to make sure the website you plan on building your links through is not linking out with too many domains. If all possible, try to link with a website that is relative to the specific niche in which your client deals with. This site should offers links to high quality websites. If they are not on the same topic, you may want to look elsewhere for a quality link building site that won’t throw up some red flags.
Always check to see how the website you are going to use to build links ranks. There is no particular number you should be looking for, but if the site doesn’t show any ranking on Google then it is probably not going to be able to help your ranking either. Keyword ranking is also essential when it comes to quality link building with a website. The more keywords rank for a website, the better quality you can expect from link building with them. Simple things like checking if a site is cached with Google will give you update information of the last crawl.
Nothing is set in stone when it comes to link building, but you will also want to make sure that you are going to be using a site that is dedicated to high quality content that is beneficial for the readers. Check for content that has been copied using Copyscape or some other software to make sure there is no duplicate content onsite. Also, you can look for dropped domains which are simply sites that are looking for a paid link building service contract. The last point made would be the location of the link on the page. The closer to the top of the page that you can fill in the link the better off you will be getting your link building technique across.
Nirra is a writer for a top seo agency; in the UK. She blogs on Mystery Shopping Teacher in her spare time.
Featured image courtesy of Maria Reyes-McDavis.