The Three Golden Rules of Backlinking
To spot a “good” backlink, apply this simple three point test:
- The easier a backlink is to get, the less value it probably has.
- Never, ever buy backlinks.
- Never, ever get involved in link swaps, link shares, link rings, link directories, or putting your links in a bowl at a party and taking somebody else’s link out at the end of the night.
Places you don’t want links from:
1. Sites that are irrelevant to your site.
Shockingly, backlinks from irrelevant sources are… irrelevant. Focus on building links in your niche and vertical market.
2. Untrustworthy sites.
Backlinks from untrustworthy sites are… untrustworthy. If you wouldn't click a link on that site nobody else will either. Even search engines know to avoid a “sketchy neighbourhood”.
Diversify your backlinks. Different types of links from different types of sites builds more value.
3. Other sites that you also own.
Creating another site and then using that site to link to your own site is frowned upon by Google. People used to employ tricks like creating a “blog.domainx.com” site to link to “www.domainx.com” or even creating whole other websites to generate links to their main site.All of these are bad ideas and contravene one of our golden rules: never do anything just to trick a search engine.
