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The Biggest Link-Building Mistakes For Small Business Owners

Jones , 

If you are new to the world of SEO and you are in the process of coming up with a strategy to improve your online presence, you’ve likely come across a lot of information detailing the importance of link-building.

link building

Link-building is indeed a critical aspect of SEO, however, if you don’t get it right, links have the potential to do far more damage to your rankings and reputation than they do good.

Fortunately, in this article we’re going to share some of the biggest link-building mistakes that small business owners can make. Keep an eye out for the following.

1. Failing To Create ‘Share-Worthy’ Content

The most organic way to attract backlinks to your website is to produce awesome content that people simply cannot resist sharing and linking to.

There are two parts to this point:

  • Creating content your audience will want to share.
  • Including the appropriate on-page elements to facilitate that action.

First, you need to create high-value content. Remember, Google is all about rewarding brands and businesses who create ‘people-first’ content. This means that you should not be creating and publishing content purely and simply because you want to improve your rankings. Instead you should be doing so to provide value for your audience.

If you commit to creating top-quality content that appeals to your audience, solves problems, and improves lives, you will invariably increase the likelihood of that content being shared and referenced to.

In addition to the quality of the content, you also need to include the appropriate on page elements to encourage and facilitate sharing.

  • Include a CTA.
  • Add a share button.
  • Don’t forget your social icons!

2. Buying “Cheap Links” From Blackhat Link Farms

Buying links is a no-no. Make no mistake, there is no “cheap and easy” way to develop a strong backlink profile.

If a marketer approaches you and offers you tens of thousands of high-quality links for a seemingly impossibly low price, then it is a scam.

These links are typically very low-value from fake websites with garbage content associated with them.

Sure, you may experience fast rankings – but Google will catch you out, your rankings will drop, and you will receive a Manual Action.

3. Guest Blogging With Low-Value Websites

Besides attracting organic backlinks from high-value content published on your website, guest blogging is your next best option for developing a strong backlink profile.

But, that’s not to say that all guest blogging websites are created equal.

You need to develop a guest blogging strategy and perfect your outreach approach. You want to find a healthy mix of the following:

  • Websites with high PR (page rank).
  • Low PR, but, up-and-coming websites.
  • Industry relevant websites.
  • Websites with some industry-overlap.

If you are guest blogging on websites that are stagnant or irrelevant, you’ll be wasting your time. However, if you take the time to build a portfolio of high PR websites (or low PR websites that are up-and-coming), with industry relevance (or some industry-overlap at the very least), you’ll experience much more success.

4. Making The Assumption That “More” Links = Greater Success

‘More’ does not necessarily mean better in link-building. Yes, Google will invariably reward websites that have a lot of high-quality links pointing to their website with greater visibility. However, going after as many links as possible without any thought to quality is not the right approach.

Above all, quality is important. The fact is, one high-value link is worth infinitely more than one thousand low-quality links.

5. Going it Alone

Finally, one of the biggest mistakes you can make in link-building (and digital marketing in general) is going it alone and trying to DIY everything.

It is no coincidence that when you hire digital marketing services, there will be multiple specialists working on your campaign at once. This is because it is not a one-man job.

So, if you want the very best results, we highly recommend outsourcing your link-building and broader SEO strategies to the professionals.

Final Recap

  • Create ‘share-worthy’ content to attract organic backlinks.
  • Do not buy “cheap links” from would-be marketers.
  • Don’t guest blog on low-value or irrelevant websites.
  • Don’t make the assumption that more links = greater value. Quality above all.
  • Don’t assume that link-building and SEO is a one-man job.