Updated January 13, 2023
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In our continuing series on link building, we’re wrapping up common mistakes and sharing a recent live example. Need to catch up? No worries, Part 1 explains how it’s part of SEO ranking, Part 2 talks about managing links, Part 3 began our conversation on common mistakes.
Good Quality Links But Worthless Anchor Texts
You got a great quality inbound link from a reputable and quality website. But alas the anchor text says “click here.” What a waste of your link building efforts. Having keywords or your brand name in the anchor text gives your link valuable SEO juice. Use a link managing tool, like Raven Tools, to make analyzing your backlink anchor text easier. Without the proper tool, it can be an intense and arduous task.
On the flip side, you may get an inbound image link. While it’s nice to get a link from a quality website, especially from one that can refer potential clients, an image link has less SEO value than keyword-rich anchor text. At the very least, make sure your image is attractive so folks will click on it. Lastly, be sure to use ALT text if an image link is the only possibility because it can contain your keywords.
Smoke Signals Not Social Signals
Search engines like Google are relying less on inbound links to determine the SEO ranking of a site. They’re focusing on social signals — where your content has been shared across social media — because it’s harder to manipulate and game the system. Wondered why Google launched Google Plus? Cuz search is getting social, so buckle up and get on board. Don’t forget to create original and engaging content to build your audience. These are the ones who will spread the word via SoMe.
Multiple Sites Doesn’t Multiply SEO Equity
Maintaining multiple sites can dilute your SEO efforts. But before you decide to pull the plug on one and consolidate into another, take care of your SEO equity. Here’s a live example to illustrate what we mean. Recently Jill Konrath, best-selling author of Snap Selling, decided to shut down her Selling To Big Companies website and consolidate it into jillkonrath.com. Over the ten years Selling To Big Companies was up, she had amassed over 1900 linking domains (including a link from this blog about online sales). When her Web master made the switch, these links were broken because redirects (pointing old pages to new ones) weren’t properly put into place. Our link broke, so we removed it rather than hunting around for the new one.
What if a major site — one that actually referred business to Jill — was amongst the link rubble? As a result, valuable SEO equity was irretrievably lost. Jill’s site now has only 201 linking domains, a fraction of what she had organically built. Before shutting any website down, be sure to evaluate its SEO value. While losing some value may be inevitable, there’s no reason to lose it all.
Have a link building boo-boo to share? We’d love to hear about it.
Link Building: An SEO Power Tool Part 3