Link building techniques can be classified into two categories : white-hat and black-hat. Here we have shared some link building techniques which you should follow or which should be avoided.
Link Building has both good things and bad things to offer
Often you would have heard the terms like “black-hat SEO” and “white-hat SEO” from Internet marketers frequently, when dealing with link building arena. However, still most of you might not be still aware of these terms. For those aware, they still seem confused regarding the pros and cons associated with both. Herein, as an experienced digital marketing agency, we will see why link building is good in some respects while bad at other respects.
White-hat strategies
These are those SEO strategies strictly adhering to the guidelines laid out by Google and Bing. Following these techniques will not only give you nice credibility in front of search engines but also save you from running into problems ultimately leading to losing trust as well as traffic on search engines. You are also avoiding from being penalized by Google. Let us list down a few techniques below:
• Creating content that is qualitative, insightful, and unique
• Building a community of people who interacts with your website and gets engaged while reading your content
• Promoting website only to niche people in your industry, in a genuinely natural way, through personalized messages looking more communicative and appearing less promotional
The biggest advantage associated with White Hat Strategies is you are actually getting 100% organic traffic, inclined to hear more from you and what you have to offer. This increases the chances of conversion to a great extent, actually leading to sales and revenue.
The biggest disadvantage associated with White Hat Strategies is since they are less aggressive and more defensive; you tend to see actual quality traffic over time. Patience is the key here. If you are aiming for long term consistent goals rather than short term inconsistent goals, then only this is effective.
Black-hat strategies
They are those hidden illegitimate techniques by which hackers exploit the loopholes within the search engines, and finding out ways to violate them, for increasing search engine traffic instantly. Such techniques help poor websites to rank well on search engines. If caught by search engines, you are surely going to get penalized and blacklisted. Let us list down a few techniques below:
• Cloaking is the most common strategy used here wherein the content show to users differ from what is presented to the search engines
• Inserting your confidential links on to other websites, by exploiting a security flaw
• Stuffing hidden page text with keywords, so that users are shown interactive content, while search engines perceive keyword based content
The biggest advantage associated with Black Hat Strategies is for startup websites such techniques can actually get some real quick quantitative traffic, increasing the overall website rankings on search engines.
The biggest disadvantage associated with Black Hat Strategies is they turn out to be a flop show in long run; since sooner or later search engines get to know about what fishy is going on.
Does link exchange really help?
Buying and selling links is a part of Black Hat SEO, which means you are strictly going against the flow. Do not even attempt to trade links with money, since you are going to get caught, and this will have a major negative impact on the SEO of your website.
What penalties you should take care of?
When found violating Google Webmaster guidelines, you are likely to be penalized, or legal actions taken against you. Theses penalties could last from a few days, to several months, depending on how serious the offense is. Let us look at some examples to understand the seriousness of being penalized:
• JC Penney, one of the leading US retailers, bought tremendous amount of links based on a range of keywords, in 2011. The website was penalized, and it took several months, after which they finally started seeing the recovery.
• Overstock, another ecommerce store in US, provided discounts to universities in exchange for links from students. Again, it took several months to recover, after being penalized.
• Interflora, a famous florist in UK, had again gone through the penalty in 2013, but luckily it lasted for just 11 days in this case.
Why trading links is not a good idea?
Reciprocal links and link exchanges are preferred by many websites for getting some quick traffic to your website. You might get some quality links while doing this, but suffer from too much of quality traffic in long run. Remember, excessive linking is also very harmful, especially when lacking quality traffic coming to your site.
