Why Bad Links Can Spell Disaster for Your Website

Link-building has been a hallmark of SEO since the beginning. For a search engine like Google, links between sites offer clues to the relevancy and popularity of every website. Attracting quality links from well-respected sites has traditionally been one of the best ways to improve a site's placement. Today, most well-optimized sites enjoy a variety of quality links from across the Internet.

Unfortunately, link-building has been abused over the years by certain Black Hat SEO specialists. In fact, if not for link-building abuse, Google might not have ever created its Penguin algorithm. At the time, Google clarified its definition of a "bad" or "artificial" link:

“Any links intended to manipulate a site’s ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme.”

Many SEO specialists lamented this change. Some even wondered, "is link-building dead?" However, we here at SEO Sparta rejoiced! After all, the purpose of the algorithm, to punish those websites and SEO specialists that built bad or artificial links, could only advance the work of the legitimate SEO specialists who had played by the rules and built links based on relationships, integrity, and quality content.

In our opinion, a true SEO specialist would never, ever build a "fake" link.

Understanding Fake Links

"What is a fake link?" You might ask. "And how can a link be fake if it works?"

Well, it's partially related to a link's traffic flow. To Google and all other search engines, a "real" link is a one-way link—a link that points directly from one site to another. In the past, Black Hat SEO specialists had created links to a site in exchange for a return link. Google delegitimized this sort of link-building, but many crafty website developers knew about this limitation and tried to bypass Google with SEO tricks.

One especially destructive trick populated the Internet with loads of bad sites. Black Hat SEO specialists created multiple websites, sometimes up to ten or more, all with the same owner. These websites were built for the explicit purpose of creating links back to the primary website. With all the incoming links, the primary website leaped in its rankings.

Of course, this trick did not work for long. Google launched an algorithm update to punish this sort of link scheme. With Penguin, it appeared that this type of Black Hat practice had become "old hat."

As we noted above, the Penguin algorithm only helped the first-rate SEO specialists who had worked hard to create quality websites that attracted quality links. The only links that have ever truly mattered are those that arrive from relevant and high-quality sites. Links from sites that aren't relevant to your own simply confuse browsers, and can now potentially hurt your site's ranking.

Has your SEO specialist removed your site’s bad links? If not, you're in trouble. Now's the time to contact a skilled SEO specialist, like SEO Sparta of Bucks County, PA. We'll not only remove the bad links, but also provide a free website audit that pinpoints all the areas where you site has room to improve.

If you are interested in transforming your website into a money-making tool or are interested in exploring opportunities to outperform your competition, we encourage you to contact SEO SPARTA.

We combine traditional marketing methods and organic SEO--emphasizing natural website optimization--to design thoughtful, inspiring, and effective marketing campaigns.

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