Updated February 28, 2025
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Number 3 of a multi-part series about link building. Just tuning in? Then check out Part 1 to learn how link building is part of SEO ranking and Part 2 for tips in managing your website’s links. Now, let’s talk about common mistakes that will lose valuable SEO equity.
Buying & Exchanging Links Are a No-No
It may be tempting to go out and buy a link. Beware of sites where links are “buyable” as they will most likely provide low-quality traffic, if any at all. What you want are links from sites that are related to your industry and can actually send prospects to you. Links from high quality sites will drive sales, and the by-product is SEO. That’s good for business. Another no-no is exchanging links on a large scale basis. That’s a Grey Hat technique and it could get you on the naughty list from all three search engines.
Unnatural Anchor Text Links
The name of the SEO game is organic. Why? Well… because it’s natural. Having too many anchor text links that match exactly to your content is a bit suspicious. It looks like it’s designed for bots rather than for human consumption. Don’t believe me? Then check out this article where Matt Cutts, head of Google webspam, confirmed how JC Penney got nailed using this practice.
No Brand Mentions
Mentioning and linking to your company’s name (brand) makes more sense from internal pages, not from your home page. It’s also valuable to get outside sites to link with your brand name in the anchor text. So, don’t forget to include your brand name in your link building quest. Add links that contain keyword-rich anchor text.
We’re almost done. Next time we’ll finish up with two more common link building mistakes, and one live example of what not to do.
Link Building: An SEO Power Tool Part 2