Link Building is one of the popular SEO techniques used by billions of businesses to increase the likelihood of the website ranking highly in the search results. Google loves websites with good natural links. So, the performance of your site depends on the hyperlinks you gained. Unfortunately, many rumours have set in on Link Building to harm your rankings. In this article, we will debunk the 9 worst Link Building myths. Please read further.
1. Do Not Get Links From Sites With Lower Domain Authority
Domain authority is a machine learning system that notes and looks after the metrics. It calculates the probability or relevance of a website domain to rank in the search engine results. Domain authority is a search engine ranking score developed by Moz.
The estimation is based on raw link authority and the potential of the performance of the site against other sites for a random keyword for search engine rankings. This calculation does not determine the quality of a website such as a website with good editorial links that help to gain a good ranking ability so that you get a high inflow of traffic. Yes! None of these are considered with domain authority.
So, Domain Authority is just a sorting factor in link building and does not determine the worth of the website. Generally speaking, websites with domain authority greater than 80 or 90 tend to be very good as they have a lot of authority because of the quality backlinks. Websites with domain authority lower than 10 or 20 may not have that much value and may fail to have a high spam score.
However, this scenario does not apply to newly launched websites that have few links or local links. What matters the most is the quality of the sites, and they link to other good websites. There is no need to worry even if they have low domain authority as it does not affect the value of your site.
2. Guest Posting Is No Longer Useful To Build Links
Guest posting is providing articles to a website by content writers, bloggers, etc. The piece of content has a backlink to a website or a sales page. This is a great opportunity to reach a larger set of audience, create brand awareness, and gain natural links from high domain authority sites. But is it working even today? The origin of this myth took birth through the statement made by Google’s Matt Cutt in 2014.
He stated “Okay, I’m calling it: if you’re using guest blogging to gain links in 2014, you should probably stop. Why? Because, over time it’s become a more and more spammy practice, and if you’re doing a lot of guest blogging then you’re hanging out with really bad company. So, stick a fork in it: guest blogging is done; it’s just gotten too spammy.”
This statement made by him caused a lot of confusion and disbelief in guest posting. Later he clarified and agreed that guest posting is still a very useful and workable link-building technique. This implies that the guest blogs must be interesting and must be written on the current topics that engage more audience to the website.
3. You Get Penalized If You Ask For Links
Asking for a link or exchange of links in between is incorrect is another link-building myth. There is no danger or harm to your website that it may get penalized. If your brand or services or content is mentioned on their site, then you must reach out to the author or website owner to provide a link. You may be given a no-follow link but still, it drives a considerable amount of traffic to the site. There are many tools available that locate your brand mentions across the web. So, there is no penalty if you contact the most suitable and ask for a link to link back.
4. Google Considers Backlinking As The Top-Ranking Factor
Assuming that Google prioritises websites with a greater number of backlinks is another myth. It is an undeniable fact that backlinking is a very important factor but at the same time, there are 200 more ranking factors that Google considers.
Other ranking factors like user experience, mobile usability, content quality, keyword, content’s length, website’s DA, page load speed, and many more are equally crucial to rank high in the SERPs. So, it is important to focus on other factors too, and not load your site with lots of backlinks by neglecting others. If you do so your site may get penalized by Google and it affects your rankings.
5. Link Building Is All About Gaining A Huge Number Of Links
Link building is not just about gaining more links or increasing the volume of links. It is building your brand in many aspects by building relationships with other websites for gaining opportunities rather than simply acquiring a link.
Link building not only offers high ranking but also many other useful results behind the curtain. Link building helps you to gain more traffic to your website. It improves the brand’s visibility across the web. It also reveals your band’s authority and value.
6. Link Building Is Not Essential If You Have Already Ranked Higher
Many marketers have this false belief that link building is not required when your website is highly ranked. The truth is there are many other advantages of link building other than ranking higher in the SERPs.
The advantages other than ranking higher are, link building increases your Google Rank Trust which means the opinion of Google on your website about the authenticity and relevance. It is also used to get content marketing. Link building through external links like social media, guest posting help to draw potential customers to the website.
Also Read: 7 Link Building Strategies That Work For Agencies
7. It Doesn’t Matter Whether You Get Relevant Or Irrelevant Links
This myth is debunked by John Mueller of Google who said, gaining one good link from a relevant site is worth thousands of low-quality, irrelevant links. It is important to ensure that the websites from which you are gaining links are relevant to the content on your website. Google will reward your website for relevance thus increasing your domain authority and site’s visibility.
This idea will help you to request a third-party website to accept your link and it profoundly reaches the target audience.
Nowadays many blogging sites cover a wide range of niches like technology, business, sports, fashion, lifestyle, etc. So, it would be helpful if you create content that is apt to the target sites.
8. Links Gained From Wikipedia Pages Help To Gain More Domain Authority
Many believe that links gained from the highest domain authority sites like Wikipedia or wiki pages with 98 DA rapidly improve their rankings on SERPs. However, this statement was concluded as a myth as per the tweet made by Gary Illes of Google that Wikipedia is also ranked by Google like any other website. This means that there is no confirmation that you will rank higher by gaining a Wikipedia link.
9. Internal Links Are Not Helpful To Rank Higher
Internal links are important as external links to gain good ranking and visibility. The concept of internal link building is to link one page on the site to another on the same site. Internal link building helps the search engine crawlers to navigate your website and also the visitors.
When enough internal links are created then ‘topic clusters’ are formed. They become noteworthy when a search query is made for a particular topic. When a search query is made the search engine finds the relevant topic clusters. Your site is regarded as an authority in this field and your website ranks higher comparatively.
Conclusion
There are many more link-building myths that are circulating in the digital marketing world. We have tried to debunk the most common myths in this article so that you will gain good link-building opportunities for your website. Thus, your website gains good domain authority and witnesses a high inflow of traffic.
