By: Seomul Evans
Submitted: 2010-02-20 11:10:09 | Word Count: 670
SEO experts know that the most important way to get to the top of the search engines, particularly Google, is to build high quality, relevant links. While good links can get you noticed by Google, bad links can work against you and can even result in Google banning your site. So it’s important that you use legitimate, quality strategies for building your links. Here are two temptations to avoid in the process of link building.
. Link Farms
Links farms are websites containing tons of links. Their sole purpose is to get spiders to index pages, and they are of absolutely no use at all.
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If you think you’ve come across a link farm, note whether it contains more links than a typical website. See if there’s an explanation of the site’s purpose. Link farm URLs are often very long and contain lots of hyphens. Of course, there are plenty of legitimate sites with URLs that have lots of hyphens, but make sure you research them thoroughly before adding a link. Also note if the extension is .info or .biz. Many link farms use these extensions.
Next, determine whether the potential link farm looks like other links farms, meaning that it looks like a generic template without any alterations or personalization. Does the website look like someone takes care of it and updates it frequently? Is there a way to contact the site owner via e mail? Beware of any site that doesn’t provide contact information.
Last of all, are there more links crammed on the page than really makes sense?
A good rule of thumb is to avoid at all costs any site that gives the appearance of being a link farm. You’re better off missing a good link that linking to a link farm and risking adverse consequences for your search engine rankings.
. Irrelevant Links
Every site that you link to should have something to do with your product or service. Online business owners who link to pages that are not relevant to their own market niche do so to either increase page rank or to get a website indexed. Even if another site is a legitimate one, don’t link to it unless has something to do with your product or service. The same is true for asking another person to link to you. A link to your site from one that is completely unrelated to your field does no good either for you or for the person who is linking to you.
Thoroughly research any site to which you link or links to you. Make sure it’s relevant. Furthermore, if you choose to submit your site to directories, or if you’re submitting articles you’ve written to article directories, send your information to the most pertinent sections and topic headings.
Remember that you can be identified as a link spammer even if you had no intention of collecting links in a shady way. Listen to your gut as you’re trying to decide who to link to and who to ask to link to you. If you have any doubts, stay away. It’s hard work, but the only way you’re going to get high quality, relevant links is to do lots of work.
Many online business owners choose to do the hard work of obtaining inbound links on their own. If you feel that you have the time and energy to do this without neglecting other crucial aspects of your business then you’ll find that it’s interesting and rewarding work. If you don’t have the time to put into collecting inbound links for your site, or if you’re just not interested in doing it yourself, you may want to consider contacting an internet marketing company or SEO expert. These professionals have years of experience getting good inbound links for their customers. They have more strategies than you can ever imagine, and they can get the job done for you at a reasonable price.
