Over the years, the benefit of links as part of an SEO campaign is something that has always been highly debated. There are a plethora of link options available, ranging from free and paid links, through to links in blogs and link exchanges with other sites.
Some of these have been viewed as better options than others, but new information is suggesting that some types of links are now definitely on the way out, and will do more harm than good for your site.
That said, most of the search engines use links to determine the ranking and value of a site. Links are used to determine where a site should appear in the search results, which is where quality links can play an important part. This leads to the downside of the links market, where you have to carefully consider what links are utilised for your site, and where your site is listed.
What is considered a ‘bad’ link strategy?
Many link submission plans consist of SEOs and site owners buying links for their site, in a bid to increase their page rank and their site’s popularity. This network of links is said to help increase visibility for your site in Google, and once indexed is said to help boost rankings.
However, this is now steadily being frowned upon by most search engines, with a lot of search engines treating this as a violation of the guidelines they have set out when it comes to including sites in their index.
Can buying links still be good for my campaign?
That depends entirely on the link, and the reason behind the purchase of the link. If a link is purchased for the sole purpose of advertising or promoting your site, then this is a ‘natural’ purpose of a link.
However, if links are purchased that clearly demonstrate to the search engines that the idea of the purchase is to increase rankings, which can potentially lead to an adverse effect on the search results, and will bring no positive rankings or traffic increase across your keywords or to your site.
Search engines are increasingly becoming a lot more intelligent, and part of the algorithm changes means that they are better able to determine if a site is using strategies where links are bought for the sole purpose of manipulating search engine rankings.
Article by Vishal
Meet Vishal Gaikar, the tech wizard hailing from Pune, India, who's on a mission to decode the digital universe one blog post at a time. When he's not tinkering with gadgets or diving deep into the digital realm, you can find him concocting the perfect cup of chai or plotting his next adventure. Follow his tech escapades on Twitter and buckle up for a wild ride through the world of innovation and geekery!
