Links Are Like Votes. Should I Get As Many As I Can?
More is sometimes better, but better is worth more.
When Google rolled out the Penguin algorithm update which filtered out sites that were benefiting from a high number of manipulative, spammy backlinks, it really called attention to the fact that the “more is better” myth is still strong in SEO link building. Sure, you can still bring a website much closer to the top of the search results by posting hundreds of “nice post” blog comments, buying a bunch of spam blog guest posts or a variety of other ways of getting links that really don’t benefit users at all – but the site will not rank well for very long. As soon as the algorithm catches up with how bogus the links are, you’ll be back where you started – or worse.
Instead of spending a lot of time and money trying to get a high number of links to maintain an imaginary ranking factor like “link velocity”, work on making connections with popular, influential websites or authorities within your field; and put your efforts into making the content of your site, or even the things you do in offline, link worthy.
Too Many Links?
I wouldn’t want anyone to read this and think “well I will just start a brand new site and go right to the top without link building”. “Build it and they will come” does not work on its own and a site does need proper promotion. In recent months, however, I have seen many brand new sites with very few incoming links rank very well with some better than average content and a few good links.
The links you earn by having good quality content and promoting your website properly are typically going to be worth much more than the easy links you can get in huge numbers.
Related articles
- The difference between Penguin and an Unnatural links penalty (moz.com)
- When To Consider A Backlink Cleanup (searchengineland.com)
