Link Building Mistakes That Could Harm Your SEO Strategy

There is really only one reason to invest effort and time in a link-building strategy. And that is, to give your SEO profile a boost. Links of value have the potential to drive important traffic directly to your website, while helping you climb those important SEO rankings.

But does this mean all backlink building efforts have the same positive effect on SEO performance?

Simply put…no.

One of the strongest arguments in favour of delegating SEP to third parties is to avoid the rookie errors that could do more harm than good. When it comes to link building, there is every chance your marketing efforts can be steering things in an entirely unfortunate direction.
The following errors have proved surprisingly common among small and large businesses.

1. Creating links to your homepage
Firstly, attracting as much traffic as possible to your home page might seem like something of a no-brainer. In fact, it is actually one of the very worst things you could do. You need to assume that when someone clicks through to your site, they already have some interest in something about whatever it is you offer. So, instead of welcoming them at the front door, bring them directly to a subpage that holds greater interest and value.

2. Concentrating on quantity over quality
Have no doubt about it – there is no room for low-quality backlinks. In years gone by, the consequences of low-quality links used to be limited to little or no SEO value. Nowadays, a single poor-quality link could lead to penalties that can wreak havoc with your SEO ranking. Consider carefully if you want to deal with the kind of low-hanging fruit that can do your website more harm than good.

3. Not enough no-follow links
There is much confusion and debate about whether you should pursue no-follow links when you implement your link-building strategy. But here is the thing – Google and the other major search engines now expect quality businesses and brands to use no-follow links in the their ads. In fact, studies have shown that around 30% of links pointing to top-positioned websites are no-follow links.

4. Not enough content of quality
If you would like respectable third parties to build links to your pages, you will need to give them every reason to do so. You should not have to beg or twist their arm to recommend you. Instead, it needs to be a case of demonstrating them what you are capable of and inspiring them to build links to your site of their own free will. If this is not happening, it is probably a sign of low-quality content on your part.

5. Aiming too high
Approaching the wrong sources means setting yourself up for a failure. Unpleasant as it might be, research suggests that the majority of link requests and guest posts are rejected. The more ambitious you are with the ones you target, the more difficult it will be to be to create quality links. Naturally, this should not mean you need to set your sights too low and accept low-quality links. It means doing your homework and approaching the sources that are right for your business.

6. No link-building strategy in place
Last but not least, you can’t and won’t succeed by just making things up as you go along. If you indeed want to succeed with your link-building strategy, you will need to create and follow a structured plan from day one. Modifications and tweaks could be made along the way, but you cannot realistically expect to hit your goals without a detailed map.