All of the Google changes have sent the Internet marketing world into a complete frenzy. One of the major concerns is past and present link building activities. The question arising from many of these changes seems obvious, “Is link building dead?” The answer is, simply, no.
It would be foolish to think that link-building strategies have not been altered, because they have been, dramatically in fact. There was a time when Internet marketing professionals would flood article directories with thousands of links per day hitting every keyword imaginable in an effort to increase a sites SEO. While this practice was once considered “white hat,” now it is simply foolish.
Quality Links Over Quantity
Instead of quantity, the search engines are now looking for quality. Article marketing still has its place, but the overall saturation needs to be tamed down. Instead, site owners need to publish links coming from high quality content and use more common words as well as keywords, terms such as “click here,” and “read more.”
While paid links were also once common practice, they are absolutely taboo now. Google treats these types of links like poison and penalizes any site using them. Because the programming is not human, it basis its evaluation of the link by its placement. Typically, the sidebar is used for link trading, so have any links currently located on sidebars removed. It would also be advised to run an actual link audit on the website to see exactly what sites are linking to your website. Sites that have malware issues, sites that do not have a PR, and spammy sites are all dangerous linking sites that will hurt your websites ranking.
Link Building Has Changed
Today, social media plays a huge part in establishing links. Build your followers and encourage them to share your page on their social media pages. Create relevant and fresh content on your website for the spiders. If there are local events relevant to your website, attend them and conduct an interview that will be published on your website. Create a YouTube Channel and link videos.
Link building is definitely not dead, it has just changed. What worked three years ago for the most part is completely irrelevant today. Whereas Google was once very easy to manipulate, that is no longer the case. Because we know it is very difficult to run a business and remain appraised of the changes in search engine marketing, we are here to help you keep your skin care website relevant and atop the Google rankings. Feel free to give us a call anytime to discuss your project. If you would like to contact Illumination Consulting through our contact form, click here.
*Photo Courtesy of Mahalie Stackpole via Creative Commons License
