“The more links you have to your website, the better the chance of getting on the first page of Google search” – a common misconception debunked in a blog post by Ahrefs. The SEO service’s professional forum highlights the dangers of harmful links! But which links boost your website’s ranking, and which can harm it? The expert article provides the answers.
We’ve already shared advice on the most important steps in link building in a series of articles, so now we’ll focus specifically on explaining the difference between good and bad links.
Good Links
1. News Sites
One of the most effective tools in online PR is getting popular news sites to write about your brand and link to your website. While this can be achieved through paid advertising, it is even better to provide valuable content to the media that they publish and link to for free.
2. Guest Author
These links are not only highly valuable but also create a true win-win situation: the sponsor is pleased to offer authoritative content to their audience, the guest writer gains prestige from the publication, and from an SEO perspective, both parties benefit.
3. Contact Links
This category could also fall under “News Sites,” as these links often appear on news sites and popular blogs. However, unlike paid or negotiated links, organic contact links arise naturally. In this case, journalists or bloggers discover your content on their own and find it interesting or useful enough to link to it in their articles without any prior agreement.
4. Business Listing Pages
While business listing pages have a stronger tradition in Anglo-Saxon regions, they are valuable everywhere. If your business is listed on such directories, make sure they include a link to your website.
5. Public Speaking Engagements
Have you been a guest on a podcast or delivered a presentation at a conference? In such cases, always ask the organizers to link to your website in the descriptions of the recordings. This not only boosts your credibility but also strengthens your website’s SEO.
Bad Links
1. Spam Links
These include:
- Purchased links;
- Spammy links;
- Links placed in privacy policies and terms and conditions;
- Links placed in bulk at the bottom of a website;
- Keyword-stuffed content (e.g., blogs, expert articles, comments).
2. Irrelevant Links
Only include a link if the linked page aligns with the message of the content. For example, linking to a blog post about cryptocurrencies in an article about fashion would be considered a negative by Google’s algorithm.
3. Comment Links
A classic SEO strategy involves flooding blog posts and forums with linked comments. However, if these links are posted in bulk and/or are irrelevant to the topic, this tactic can do more harm than good.
4. Links Without News Value
News sites should only send press releases with links if the article has genuine news value. If the article lacks substance but is still shared, perhaps due to a slow news day, it is unlikely to generate clicks. In Google’s eyes, such links are considered worthless.