Backlinks Done Right For Your Small Business

How to get Quality Backlinks and Implement Proper SEO

Content Writing | Social Media Marketing | Approved Link Building | SEO Done Right

   There is still a debate about backlinks, and what is a quality backlink, and what are proper SEO methods. Even after all the warnings from legitimate SEO experts about how Google and other search engines will be cracking down on spam filled blogs, paid backlinks, link exchanges, and automated programs with the intention of scheming page rank, there are still companies, and unfortunately clients, who buy into this strategy. Because customers are impatient to see results with their new or revised websites on a search engine, and with the knowledge of how powerful a front page ranking is, companies that promise the moon in SEO still survive in the post-Penguin world.

   What is Penguin you ask? This was the recent update by Google to its algorithm done a couple years back, that was again recently updated to what is termed ‘Penguin 2.0’. To best explain what you can expect, I would recommend watching the above 7 minute YouTube video from Google’s own Matt Cutts. He explains very clearly what you should be doing for good SEO, and what to avoid.

   Here is what you should do: Build a good responsive website that has quality content, that is relevant to your business, that does not overemphasizing your keywords with too much anchor text, and you will be golden. When you have a good site, backlinks will naturally flow. Whether you ‘like’ Social Media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.) or not, you MUST, you MUST be active there. That is one of the best ways to generate traffic and interest in your brand and website. You should also be involved with national, regional, and local industry organizations that support your type of work. Pretty much every type of job has some kind of trade organization, or groups that share ideas. Chamber of Commerce, Rotary Club, and other professional networking groups will often provide a directory for local businesses that will link to your website. This is a good thing, and completely legitimate. Bottom line is that websites that are well done will be referenced in others blogs, or mentioned in news articles because they are truly informative.

Don’t Get Burned with Blackhat SEO Promises!

   What you want to avoid are the following practices. To have your backlinks done right use common sense, especially when it comes to your small business website and marketing campaign, and remember that if you see “Free” or “Paid” attached to a backlinks service, then it probably is not legitimate or ‘white hat’: (Information from both Google and Maine Hosting Solutions was used in this post. BTW, this is an example of a good backlink. I found MHS’s information while researching best SEO practices, and am giving them credit for it in this blog!)

•    Purchasing or Selling links that pass on ‘PageRank’. This is a common practice among “Black Hat/GreyHat” SEO” types. Basically, you are promised a link to your website/s on another website that is ‘ranked’ high on Google. The higher the page rank, the better the backlink will help you promote your website the theory is. If a website that is ranked as a PR 7 (PageRank 7) has a link to your new website which is probably either a PR0 or PR1, then you will benefit, because the higher ranked website will ‘pass on their juice’ to you. So goes the theory. Unfortunately, this is short sited, because nearly all of these websites that sell links are irrelevant, and have developed a higher PageRank due to manipulating the system. It is a matter of time before Google discovers them, and then penalizes all sites that are linked from them. This is why some website owners will go from rejoicing in their page one ranking in search results, to being on page 10, or worse, have their website banned. **Disclaimer: there is a legitimate benefit to having your site backlinked from a real, relevant, and quality website. If you are a pool contractor, and “Pool News” writes an article about the business in your area with a link to your website as credit for your contribution to the article, that is good, very good. Conversely, if your pool construction website is linked from a blog about “Tuna Fishing” there is no relevance, and most likely it will be the type of backlink penalized or not credited by Google.

•    Excessive link exchanges (“Link to me and I’ll link to you”) or Partner Pages: This may be a tricky area here for some small businesses, as we all love to network and promote each others business. That is fine to do, and for example we have a “Clients and Partners” page. However, this would look natural for a human visitor, as they may desire to see some of our previous work. There is a debate on whether or not those links should be of the ‘no-follow’ type, which means the search engine ‘bots’ will not see them as a link to attribute PageRank to. However, there are some who overdo it, with dozens of links to ‘partners’ and who exchange links by the hundreds on their various sites. If you have a business relationship with someone and want to give them credit, do it the right way and mention them in a blog about their service if it is relevant to yours, or just do a ‘no-follow’ to avoid any potential penalty.

•    Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links: Writing excellent content, and doing it for others on their website or blog is a good thing. What is discouraged is doing it in mass, or overdoing the backlinks/anchor text back to your website, or to someone else. Just like many things we like to do in life, moderation is key! If you have truly authoritative content to contribute on another website or blog, then do it. Avoid doing guest writing for industries unrelated, or for questionable websites that may have to many outgoing links already. Look at previous guest posts on their site, and use common sense about whether or not they are just engaging in blogging for PageRank, or for truly providing quality  information to their visitors.

•    Using automated programs or services to create links to your site: This is simple. Just do not do it. As we have discussed before, if it is to good to be true, then it probably is.  Please take the time and research any solicitation. Just because a company has a high PageRank themselves does not mean they employ ‘White-hat’ SEO strategies. Again, ask for examples of work, and what specific work they will do for you. If they say it is a trade secret, they most likely are full of BS. Let us be honest, basic SEO that most small businesses would need to engage in is not rocket science. You are trying to contract the services of a professional because either you do not have time, or just want to employ an agency you can trust to do the job right. Most of us could, if we had the tools, still change our own oil. However, because newer cars are a bit more complicated, and our time is seemingly more valuable than ever, we take it to a professional. Same thing with SEO, and most other Internet Marketing services. You can try to do it, but because you have not been educated in the skills, or have the time to dedicate to it, most likely your efforts will not generate the results you would like.

   So, what should you do if your website has a substantial amount of ‘bad’ backlinks pointing to it? First make sure that you remove as many as you can manually, by asking the webmaster of the websites where you are linked from to remove them. If that does not work, you can also “Disavow” them through the following tool with Google, and you should be OK: https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487?hl=en

**Warning from Google about Disavow tool: “This is an advanced feature and should only be used with caution. If used incorrectly, this feature can potentially harm your site’s performance in Google’s search results. We recommend that you disavow backlinks only if you believe you have a considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-quality links pointing to your site, and if you are confident that the links are causing issues for you. In most cases, Google can assess which links to trust without additional guidance, so most normal or typical sites will not need to use this tool.”

At Tayloe Marketing and Consulting, we will promise you one thing: That we will use reliable and ethical SEO strategies to get you the results you desire.  There is a lot more information out there about best practices for SEO and Internet Marketing. If you have further questions, do your research, and then give us a call at (941) 483-6187 or email us for a free consultation.

Thank you for reading,

Bradley Tayloe MBA

President and Founder

Tayloe Marketing and Consulting