Link building is a turbulent territory. Lots of free advice and opinions on link building are choking the Internet but they all have no foundation. When you look at the link building myths, you will discover an unsettled ground with scary ideas and messy directions that can hurt your SEO campaign.
A good link building strategy must focus on following Google’s quality guidelines and taking into consideration the white hat SEO practices so as to earn links naturally.
It is important to make a difference between myths and facts and this can only be possible if you take your time to verify any information that you get from the Internet. Is your SEO campaign faltering? You may have fallen prey to some unfortunate link building myths. Allow us to clear the air about this area of SEO.
Guest Posting for Link Building Is Dead
It is only spammy guest posting that is dead but not guest posting in general. Why would Google or another search engine punish you for publishing your link building articles on an authoritative platform? Guest posting is not only about building links but it is also about building your brand and making it more visible. This is something you can’t be punished for. Check out https://seojet.net/blog/link-building-myths/ to understand link building better.
The Position of Links on the Page Doesn’t Matter
In essence, what many believe that all links on a page have equal ranking value. However, it is a fact that in-body links have higher chances of being clicked compared to footer links.
Even Google’s patent on ranking documents states that the position of a link on a page influences the link value. The other factors listed in the patent include the text content surrounding the link, the type of link (whether image or text), font attributes and color, the position of the link on a list, and the font size of the link anchor text, among others.
Avoid Image Links, They Are Bad for SEO
Every aspect of SEO can be bad if abused, and that also applies to images. For example, if you stuff image alt tags with keywords to manipulate rankings, you will be going against Google guidelines.
But if used well, image links can do wonders to your SEO because the evolution of Artificial Intelligence has made Google’s understanding of images to be better. But remember that when you link an image ensure you include a relevant alt text and captions.
All Links Should Be Nofollow
This is a myth that many people believe in but they forget that many links are actually dofollow links. Even when the whole world wide web is considered, nofollow links are found to be very few compared to dofollow links.
Nofollow links usually do not pass any value, they have no influence and no authority and if they are given a priority then even domains will have no value because their authority wouldn’t make any sense.
This would be a bad SEO practice since we know that domain authority are very important metrics when it comes to ranking. In short, it is damaging and irrelevant to have only links with the no-follow tag.
Links from High Ranking Sites Guarantee High Rankings
Many people believe that getting links from high authority sites will boost their ranking. This is not true. A site that ranks well can help your site rank but there is no guarantee that it will give you high rankings.
Analyze the PageRank of the link to see how helpful it will be but not expect a guarantee. Though Google’s PageRank is closed to the public, you can use the SEO PowerSuite as an alternative. The access to this metric is not closed and it is great in reflecting the ranking power of any page.
External Links Matter Much More Than Internal Ones
This is also one of the link building myths that’s not true. Both internal links and external links have their own importance. While it is true that external links are among the most important factors in ranking, internal links also play their own important roles.
For example, when you link from high to lower ranking pages, you give these lower ranking pages a boost. Secondly, by interlinking your content, you will create topic clusters which are good for ranking because Google will consider you as an expert in that particular field.
Links Are the Most Important Ranking Factor
Even though links are important in the ranking, there are two other factors that are also important; these are RankBrain and content. So, it is safe to say that there are three most important ranking factors.
It is also worth noting that there are about 200 ranking factors related to query intent, technical performance, mobile usability, UX, and many more. Google cannot ignore all these other factors and prioritize sites with awesome backlink profiles.
Your Site Rank Won’t Get Help by Links Not Relevant to Your Niche
Some link building articles claim that links that are irrelevant to your niche are basically low-quality links. This is also untrue because some backlinks come from very authoritative websites and Google won’t frown upon such links especially if they are editorially given, if they come from a local source, or if they come from a niche indirectly relevant to your business.
Ignore These Link Building Myths to Grow Your Campaign
People keep on coming up with link building myths on a daily basis and the best way to keep safe is to always try to verify every information you get on the Internet. For example, some have claimed that links are case-sensitive, which is also not true. Don’t believe everything that’s written on the web but take them a lot of caution.
All of the misinterpreted pieces of information and misconceptions discussed above, if believed, will do a lot of harm to a website. If you need more tips on marketing strategies, read on.
