Backlinks, we all need them for traffic and search engine rankings. But is it true that a link is a link? Well yes and no. You see, you get links for only a few reasons. And two of those goals are traffic and search rank.
But just how good are the links pointing back to your website? If you care about your site and care about sustaining your website in the search engine for a long time, then you will care about the links you get.
Crappy websites!
First, let’s cover crappy websites. Sure, a lot of people have them. In fact, many people have a whole multitude of websites in many different niches. Some create sites mainly for Google Adsense. And many do make a lot of money off of these websites.
So, yes these websites do work for some people. But will they sustain search engine traffic?
Well, Google is getting smarter every day. Every day they are looking at how to make their search results better and more relevant for its users. And for a good reason. So, it all depends on how well you prepare a crappy website. Our advice and preference are to make better sites.
Sure, you can have tons of websites in tons of niches. But, when you make crappy sites, you are only adding to the spam problem on the web. Plus search engines like Blekko are taking a stance and trying to weed out crappy websites. They care about their users. For example. Affiliates are high in the health category.
But what Blekko has realized is some of this information should be coming from highly valuable sources like being written by doctors or health experts. So, we ask you. If you have a health problem, do you want to read an article from an affiliate or a doctor?
It’s just something to ponder and consider. Plus, the FTC is starting to take notice of things like this also. And yes Google is on the bandwagon too. So we recommend making high-quality websites. Not only will they last in the search engines but you won’t have to worry about other things. Ok, enough about that.
Your backlink profile.
So, let’s say you have a good website and you care about your site. Well, then start caring about your back-links. I am sure many of you exchange links to other websites.
And that’s fine. In fact, Eric Ward in a recent video mentioned link exchanges where he says; many people think exchanging links with other websites can hurt a site.
He goes on to say “that’s just silly.” And it is. Exchanging links will only hurt your website if you do excessive trading and exchange with dangerous sites.
The point is, many websites exchange links every day and are still doing fine in Google. Just be careful who you exchange links with and make sure they are relevant exchanges.
The bottom line when link building.
When building backlinks, care about where you get the backlink. Many people just wing it and try and get the link. As Eric Ward says. The easier a link is to obtain the less it will do for you. Realize that building links is a process and it doesn’t happen overnight.
It takes time. After all, Rome wasn’t built in a day!
When you start building backlinks, put all of your potential backlink partners in a spreadsheet. This way you can go over them later. And, when you do go over them, use a tool like open site explorer, Majestic SEO or SEO spyglass to take a quick look at that link prospects backlink portfolio.
Just take a quick glance and see where they are getting their backlinks. Ask yourself questions. Do they get most of their backlinks from bad neighborhoods or spammy websites? Or all of their backlinks from good reputable sources of trust. You want to look for trust signals. For instance.
Let’s say you have a website about fixing cars. Do you think a low-quality directory is the best place to get a link? Well maybe if the directory is only about fixing cars.
But wouldn’t you think a better backlink would be from education websites for a mechanic school which teaches about car repair?
You see, when you look for better links, you have to build less of them, and you get the extra added benefit of sustaining your search engine traffic. Plus you get the right, high-quality, relevant traffic. Care about your link partners and where you get links, and you will see long-lasting benefits.
