Due to the Google Penguin update and all of the subsequent updates to the update, we hear a lot from clients and potential clients that are nervous about the link building component of an SEO campaign. They have heard horror stories about what has happened to other websites that have lost a significant amount of organic traffic after the algorithm updates occurred. They know that it’s because of the link portfolio of these sites, link portfolios that in many cases are created by SEO providers, and don’t want the same thing to happen to them. They worry that generating too many links will cause the issue.
What we need to clarify is that the issue isn’t necessarily too many links, it’s too many of the wrong kinds of links. We’ve looked at the link portfolios of clients that have come to us after being affected by Penguin and what we’ve found isn’t pretty. There are so many terrible websites out there that are used for the sole purpose of building links by black hat SEO practitioners. It’s unbelievable to see the types of unrelated sites that black hat SEO providers have dropped their clients’ links on. This is why it’s so critical to find out ahead of time the type of SEO firm that you are working with. Make sure that they are transparent and only build links on quality sites that were previously approved.
Google certainly isn’t done with the algorithm updates either. They are constantly tweaking the algorithm to ensure that users have the best possible experience and find the best sites that match their search query. This is why it’s recommended to thoroughly conduct an inbound link audit on a regular basis. This will give you a good idea of how you are being viewed by the search engines. Every site is bound to have a handful of bad links. That won’t really hurt you. What will hurt you is if there is a huge chunk of bad links and the bad links outweigh the good links.
In terms of monthly link building activities it’s recommended to have a specific goal in mind each month, like building 20 relevant, high quality links, but it’s not a strict number. If you don’t find 20 high quality links in a month, you don’t want to get some questionable links just to fulfil this quota. And on the other hand, you shouldn’t worry if you end up getting more than 20 in a month, especially if the links are happening naturally. For example, what if you write a great blog post that gets lots of attention in the industry. People are sharing it in social media and linking to it as a reference within their own content. Depending on the industry, it could end up generating hundreds of links or more. Is that something to fear? Not at all! The search engines aren’t going to penalize you for writing great content that gets linked to across the web- that’s what you should be doing to market your business!
