Backlinks are creating panic on the SEO landscape. They are top SEO ranking factors right? Yes! they continue to be one of the most important SEO metrics. They are considered votes in favor of the linked page.
They used to be a huge source of income for SEO agents but today, everything seems to be in chaos. That’s simply because these (links) are rather generating and sharing penalties to webmasters and bloggers around the globe.
Generally, the more backlinks you have pointing to your blog, the better the ranking position on search engine result pages.
But these backlinks aka inbound links can be the very source of your down fall. Before we examine how this can kill your seo efforts, let’s look into some interesting details;
Not all backlinks have the same link juice power. Backlinks from high page rank domains have more important impact on your blog than those from low page rank domains.
But Backlinks can kill your blog
There are generally 2 types of backlinks out there. Let’s examine them and see which is the danger standing right there and staring at your blog;
1 – Nofollow backlinks: This to my opinion is the safer type of backlink you need. These are links with the rel=”nofollow” html tag. The nofollow tag is a stop sign, simply telling search engines to mind their business and forget about the link.
That doesn’t mean you get no SEO benefits from this category of backlinks. Whether you are getting them from PR0 or PR8 sites, you simply don’t get a link juice transfer. But it helps in balancing up your SEO profile.
Yes.
Having all your backlinks dofollow (which isn’t possible by any means) could pull you to Google radar and call for some more investigations.
2 – Dofollow Backlinks: This is the inbound link type I sometimes call the necessary evil. If not well controlled, this can pull down your blog from any height to naught. Though with very lucrative SEO benefits, dofollow backlinks can also be the source of dangerous ranking penalties.
As a matter of fact, these links are like instructions to search spiders to follow the linked url and transfer page rank to it. In some cases, this has turned out to be a bitter experience for some bloggers and website owners. How therefore are dofollow backlinks dangerous?
If you get a dofollow link from a site, that means that site is recommending you with a positive vote but the danger here lies in the status of the domain you are linking from.
Generally, it is said “show me your friend and I’ll tell you the kind of person you are” So if your friend is the bad guy, you are surely going to inherit some bad qualities from him.
If you get a dofollow incoming link from a penalized site, the danger is that the penalty may be transferred over to you.
There are some sites Google has marked as dangerous or suspicious. These are the bad sites to get links from. Generally, when these sites are penalized, other sites that get dofollow incoming links from these penalized sites may inherit the penalties.
When does Google consider a site dangerous or suspicious?
There are some reasons Google may tag a site dangerous. Such dangerous sites you have to disavow any dofollow inward links from because you stand a high chance of getting slapped along with them.
When does a site appear suspicious to the almighty Google?
I have written a post on how to increase search engine traffic without backlinks. In this post, I shared some conditions Google may raise attention on some sites.
You have to stay away from such sites or ask the site owners to nofollow your links if you really have to hang around. I recommend using seo tools like this one to find out which sites linking to yours are suspicious or dangerous. After creating a list of these suspicious sites, go ahead and disavow the links from them.
Beware of Dofollow Outbound links!
The danger is not only with dofollow links pointing to your blog. As a matter of fact, one of the things Google will kick you for is when you dofollow your external links. Well, that doesn’t mean a few dofollow external links will attract penalties but if Google thinks that you are selling (or getting some reward for) those links, be ready for a hard knock on your cranium.
It’s recommended to strictly regulate the links you give out. Don’t just dish out dofollow as this is like preparing a hot seat for you.
Many ‘struggling’ bloggers will prefer the $50 from a client for a sponsored post with a dofollow outbound link not knowing it’s danger for both you and the client. Once Google fetches you out, you and the linked site may be going in for.
The feature of links in SEO
The way things are going, links as an important ranking factor may gradually fade out. There is ongoing discussion on co-citation and co-occurrences as emerging ranking factors. Neil Patel mentioned it in this post.
With Rankbrain, Google may be giving more relevance to Onpage and user behavior.
Roundup!
- Nofollow backlinks does not mean ZERO SEO advantage. They can bring you direct traffic and keep you safe from Google’s ranking penalties though.
- Dofollow backlinks have huge SEO and direct traffic benefits but are a potential source of ranking penalties
Now you see how dofollow backlinks (aka inlinks) can destroy your SEO efforts. What are you going to do about this? will you keep creating links blindly?
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