Mistakes are part of every process, and marketing is no exception.
This is especially true for SEO and link-building as it’s the branch of marketing that nooriously tries to push the envelope.
We’ve learned a lot from the mistakes of others. Of course, that didn’t prevent us from adding our own, just that personal touch.
With no further ado, here’s a collection of the most common link-building mistakes and how to avoid them.
Mistake #1: Building Low-Quality Backlinks
Let’s start with the basics. Acquiring links from spammy, irrelevant, or low-authority sites can harm your SEO rather than help it. These low-quality backlinks dilute your site’s credibility and may even trigger penalties from search engines, undermining your overall ranking strategy.
Instead, focus on earning high-quality white links that are relevant and come from reputable sources. Prioritize strategies like guest posting on authoritative blogs, securing editorial mentions, and creating compelling content that naturally attracts quality backlinks.
This is what our standards look like so we can distinguish between a high and low quality link:
Mistake #2: Buying Cheap Backlinks From Gig Platforms
Buying backlinks from gig platforms like Fiverr or other low-cost marketplaces might seem like an easy shortcut to boost your SEO. However, it’s one of the fastest ways to damage your site’s rankings. The reason? The links they provide usually come from irrelevant, low-authority websites, usually in the form of PBNs (Private Blog Networks), automated link farms, and unrelated directories.
As with most aspects in life, and especially in SEO and link building, anything that is easily acquired, mass-produced, or requires little effort usually holds little to no value. In this case, it also comes with certain risks.
Mistake #3: Building Links Only for Product/ Services Pages
Understandably, most domains ideally want to build links for their products and services pages. Because 99% of the time, these are their money pages of the website. While these pages are (the most) important, neglecting other pages, usually your content is not a good strategy.
Link-building is about building a robust SEO presence. Targeting multiple pages not only distributes link equity more evenly but also signals to search engines that your whole site offers valuable and comprehensive information, thereby strengthening your online authority. Whichs brings us to the next point.
Mistake #4: Excessive Reciprocal Linking
Reciprocal linking is a grey hat link building tactic. But excessive reciprocal linking is most certainly a link building mistake. Exchanging links with other sites can be a useful tactic, but overdoing it may trigger the search engines negatively.
Use these exchanges sparingly and, as always, ensure they come from reputable, relevant sites. And don’t forget to only engage in reciprocal linking when it genuinely benefits your users.
Mistake #5: Over-Optimizing Anchor Text
Anchor text is crucial for guiding search engines about the context of a link, but overdoing it is like relentlessly repeating the same message until it sounds forced. Using overly exact-match keywords across your links can appear manipulative and may trigger’ the Google alarms’.
Instead of saturating your anchor text with keywords, focus on a natural, varied mix that blends organically within your content. This approach not only avoids the risks of over-optimization but also signals authenticity to both users and search engines.
Mistake #6: Neglecting Brand Mentions
Link-building towards your brand name, usually linking to your homepage, should be part of any long-term link-building campaign. When Google sees your brand mentioned across reputable sites, they create a “brand profile” for you -a digital entity– linking your name to trust and authority in your field.
If your brand has been around for a while, consider running an unlinked brand mentions campaign. An unlinked brand mentions campaign involves scanning for instances where your brand is mentioned without a hyperlink, and then reaching out to request that a link be added.
If your brand is new, focus on proactive white hat link-building tactics. The most common tactics for building new brand mentions include guest blogging, participating in podcasts, being featured in industry interviews, and writing guest reviews.
Mistake #7: Neglecting Internal Linking
Link building is usually synonymous with building external links. So much so that we often forget to put the emphasis we should on internal linking. Although looked down upon, internal link building can have a big impact on your rankings with only a fraction of the time an off-site link-building campaign.
You can start by conducting an audit of your website, in two stages:
- First, identify orphan pages – pages that aren’t linked to from anywhere else on your site, and make them a priority.
- Second, review your content and add relevant internal links using clear, descriptive anchor text.
Mistake #8: Building Without a Plan
The mother of all link building mistakes. No marketing tactic is going to go far without a plan and link building is no exception. Without defined goals, target pages, and a systematic outreach plan, you risk acquiring low-quality links that do little to boost your SEO or strengthen your online presence.
Instead of blindly pursuing backlinks, start with a well-thought-out plan:
- Set clear objectives: Define what you want to achieve. Are you looking to improve your domain authority, increase organic traffic, or strengthen specific pages?
- Identify your target pages: Your money pages (product/service pages) are your number one priority. However, you have to diversify your approach to also include blog posts, resource pages, and brand mentions (homepage) in your strategy.
- Link-building: Link insertions, guest posting, editorial mentions… the nitty gritty. Most plans include researching high-quality sources and reaching out to them.
- Track and optimize: How does link building impact your SEO efforts? Does organic traffic increase in your target pages and your domain – and how much? Thankfully, you can answer all these questions by using SEO platforms and monitoring link performance.
If you need a helping hand with creating a link building plan or the execution of the plan, don’t shy away from consulting with an SEO or dedicated link-building agency.
Conclusion
You now have a better picture of the most common link building mistakes businesses and even SEO professionals make.
Although some of your links can miss the mark, the problem arises when these mistakes pile up, as you may end up with a Google penalty. But even if this is the case, it’s not the end of the world as you always have a good chance of recovering from a penalty.
If you need help ensuring you aren’t making any mistakes in your campaign or you need someone to do your link building entirely let us know!
