With Google’s algorithm updating on a near-constant basis, keeping up with the new rules of link building is a difficult task for anyone. With each update the game changes, and many tried and true methods become harmful myths.

In light of recent updates, here are some of the top offenders.

It’s a numbers game

It’s easy to make the mistake of thinking that the key to link building is to attract as many links as possible at any cost.

The fact is that not all links are created equal. Delve deep enough into the dark side (‘black hat’) of SEO and you’ll find outfits of questionable reputation offering thousands of links for very little money.

However, these links will almost certainly be on spammy sites with little to no content on them that will either only make a small difference to your rankings or get you penalised.

The key to a good link building campaign is recognising quality sites and knowing how to get links from them.

The content doesn’t matter

Veterans of the SEO industry will remember a time when the content surrounding a link didn’t really factor in to how valuable the link was. Times have certainly changed since then.

Although you can get away with a certain number of irrelevant links (after all, you can’t control who links to you), you are far better off with links coming from well written content related to your niche. Not only does this reduce the risk of being penalised, it also helps establish the relevancy of your site to your chosen keyword.

Google’s algorithm gets more sophisticated with each update, progressively becoming more adept at identifying both relevancy and quality. This development is only going to continue, so best get into good habits now.

You should always link with your keyword

Keyword rich anchor text links (links using the words you’re optimising for) are vital to any SEO campaign. Although the likelihood of penalisation for only linking with a particular keyword is often overstated, not only is the risk a real one, but many major brands rank for highly competitive keywords with only 25% or fewer keyword rich links (of their total backlinks).

To a certain extent, SEO is a cat and mouse game; with Google the cat to our mouse. Sites with natural link profiles (a variation of keyword links, URL links and ‘click here’ type links from wildly varying sources) aren’t considered part of the game.

Act natural and you won’t get caught.

Being good

Yes, you can ‘game the system’, but that takes constant attention to ever-changing rules. Be a good web citizen and you won’t go far wrong.

Do you have any questions or thoughts on these link building myths? Please leave any comments below.

Image Credit: Graphican

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 16th, 2011 at 8:00 am and is filed under Link Building. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.