Link Building in 2014: What Kind of Links Should You Build for Your Website?

Link building is done for the sake of Google, since if you are doing it for the Bing/Yahoo alliance then they may as well join the rebel alliance and await a daring rescue by Ewoks. The tips you are about to read on this article are also for Google.

 

Google wants something to be useful

The buzzword for the decade is “useful” and Google are still on that useful trip. First your website had to be useful, then its content did, then your exterior content did, then your URLs did, then your anchor text, and now your backlinks have to be useful.

Google don’t seem to realize that we create websites because they are supposed to be useful for us. Still, Google now wants your backlinks to be useful. They are well aware that you create backlinks in order to improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimization), but now they are saying they are sick of people just putting backlinks anywhere and they want them in places where they are useful.

 

Create a long-term benefit from your backlinks

This is the cheesy carrot way for Google to say they want you to pander to your target audience instead of just anybody. The notion is fair enough, but they sound pretentious when they say it. They want you to create a backlink profile and they want you to have long term goals in mind. The long term goal should be to attract your target audience and yours alone.

 

The theme of the website linking to you does not matter as much

This is the snippet of information that had to be checked twice. Now Google are saying that the theme of the website you link from is of no consequence. No doubt some time in the future one of the engineers will post something clarifying the process.

One assumes that what they meant was that if you run a pork lovers website aimed at people who actually have souls, then it is okay if you link from a website about shoes, if that website happens to have a sub section on how bacon is simply delicious and how it makes you live longer despite Jewish propaganda that it does not.

So, do not take it as a swipe saying that the theme of the page you link from is not important. Take it as a sign that the overall theme does not matter but the pages you link from do.

 

Get links from authority sites

This is not a new thing. We all know it is better to get a link from a site that is established and well attended instead of from a new website that is scarcely attended at all.

 

Get links from websites in your niche

This is older school advice that is still relevant in the year 2014. It is better to get links from websites that have your niche audience in mind. It is more a matter of common sense in the same way you know that picking your teeth with a live parrot’s beak is not a great idea. If you can get links from websites that attract the same type of viewer as your website, then you are in a better position to attract said target audience. This also plays into the long-term backlink profile stuff too.

 

Use social media to gain attention

They don’t want you to do it for social media links because Google says they are not worth anything, but Google are friendly but vague so don’t trust that little snippet. They say you should use social media in order to draw attention to your content so that other people will willingly link to it. That way you get your links but you get them from people who are interested in your website (organically).

This concept has never really reconciled with real life. For example, if a fan of your gardening website decides to link from his website about matchboxes, then how does that help your SEO in any way? The most unpredictable backlinks are the ones that come from complete strangers and yet for years Google has said the organic links are the best ones.

 

Get backlinks from “real” sites

Yes, somebody in the Google stratosphere won 100 points in the game called “Google vague” by saying we should get links from real websites. Vagueness aside, the mind boggling way that the tip may be interpreted is enough to give a nun a nose bleed.

One can only assume that they meant get links from websites that have long term goals and are maintained instead of from websites that were content management system built in a day and that are soon to be forgotten until their domains expire.

 

Author’s bio – My name is Sonia Jackson. I write for http://www.royal-essay.com that provides well-written and quality essays and research papers for college and university students.