How to Avoid Backlink Penalties
Backlink Building Techniques That Work
I think we have all feared the IRS at one point in our lives or the other. Receiving a letter from the IRS is bound to raise your blood pressure unless you are expecting a refund. If you are a business owner with employees the check in the mail from the IRS is typically not a refund check.
Google can implement the same type of fear if you suddenly see the traffic to your website drop only to find out that it is due to some backlinks to your site that have been deemed unsavory by team Google.
Because the spotlight has swung in the direction of the quality of the backlinks to your site you must be diligent to analyze how these have been managed. How do you even begin to comb through the mess of information networking their way back to your site in the form of a link buried in an article somewhere?
Here are three tips to get you started:
#1 Pull a quality backlink report.
Ask your web person, web team or web marketing agency to perform a backlink report. This report will gather all links leading to your site, their source and will typically include a quality assessment. This is similar to a Profit & Loss report. It will show you where the weak links are and what quality links to keep.
#2 Review your backlink strategy.
Ask your web marketing team what their strategy is for building your companies backlinks. Are they blasting out your web address through every free link building tool they can find, not really knowing what the results will be? Or do they have a quality content building and exchange plan in place to build quality, relevant links over time? Speed is not the best policy in the link building world. You will most likely get a ticket from the Google police.
#3 Remember, Content is King and Quality Content is Queen.
If you have a company of quality, integrity and intend to constantly improve and refine your business and market positioning, then the best link building strategy is to provide quality content. There are many ways this quality content can be levereged to build quality links over time. If your in business for the long haul and care more about quality then a quick fix that may blow up then this is the best link building approach. Think of ways your company can build unique, quality content to share within your industry to help build new relationships, share your expert knowledge and you will also enjoy the rewards of traffic derived from backlinks.