Search engines use hundreds of different “signals” to determine where and how to rank websites in their respective index. If a website has high-quality content about aftermarket car parts, it’s more likely to rank high for keywords associated with aftermarket car parts. But content is just one of the many ranking signals used by search engines. One of the most influential ranking signals is backlinks. However, not all backlinks are created equal, as some may actually lower your site’s search rankings.
Link Schemes: the Basics
When optimizing your website for higher search rankings, you’ll want to avoid participating in any link schemes. So, what exactly is a link scheme and why should you avoid it? Google defines it as being any link intended to manipulate a site’s search ranking. The Mountain View company further adds that links schemes are a violation of its Webmaster Guidelines, and offending websites could be penalized.
You can learn more about what’s a link scheme and what’s not by visiting Google’s help article at https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/35769. Generally speaking, though, link schemes are defined by their intent. If a link is created for the purpose of manipulating a website’s search ranking artificially, not naturally, then it’s a probably a link scheme.
Some common examples of link schemes include the following:
- Buying links
- Selling links
- Using automated software to create links
- Adding hidden links to content that only search engines can see.
- Low-quality bookmarking links
- Low-quality directory links
- Excessive link exchange
- Site-wide footer links with over-optimized anchor text
- Excessive forum comment links
Best Practices for Building Links
If you can’t build links using the techniques listed above, how are you supposed to create them? This is the million-dollar question, but thankfully there’s an easy answer: you let other webmasters and users create them for you. Instead of going out of your way to build links, focus your efforts on creating high-quality content that people want to share. If you publish high-quality content to your website on a regular basis, other websites and users will link to it; thus, offering boat loads of safe, Google-friendly links pointing to your website.
Of course, backlinks are only one component of a successful SEO strategy. You should also focus on user behavior, as this will affect your site’s search rankings as well. If your website suffers from a high bounce rate, for instance, you may have trouble rising in the search rankings for your target keywords, in which case you should encourage visitors to check out multiple pages on your site.
