5 Link Building Myths Hurting Your Online Campaign

Link building has gotten a bad rep thanks to the link spamming practices of certain marketing agencies. However, it’s important to look past those and understand that link-building remains one of the top SEO strategies for online campaigns.

But this often means that link building feels like walking in a minefield. Here are the mines you’d want to avoid stepping on:

Myth No. 1: Link Building Isn’t as Critical as It Used to Be

Fact: Spammy linking practices may have taken a backseat, but links are still one of the best ways to reflect a web page's quality and are, therefore, relevant to SEO strategy. Some studies show a clear correlation between rankings and backlink quantities.

Search results that rank first on Google have around 3.8 times more backlinks than those below it. Naturally, these pages that rank better get more traffic.

Myth No. 2: It’s Quantity Over Quality When It Comes to Links

Fact: While statistics show the number of links is incredibly important for better rankings, it goes without saying that the quality of these links is just as important.

According to Google itself, links from important pages count. The word important in this context refers to “authority.” A website’s authority is indicated by several factors, including domain authority and subject authority. So, a greater quantity of high-quality and relevant links is the way to go.

Myth No. 3: Great Content Will Naturally Get Links

Fact: In a fairer virtual world, this may have been true, but right now, it’s just wishful thinking. Great content doesn’t necessarily get links all the time—people need to see the content before linking to it.

If you write something, it needs to be actively promoted, and you may get links. Alternatively—since we’ve already established the virtual world isn’t that fair—you could create guest posts and link back to your website’s own content to experience the SEO magic.

Myth No. 4: Social Media Links Are Pointless

Fact: This is probably the one myth hurting your SEO campaign the most. Social media links aren’t something to be discounted—they serve as mentions and can promote your content as authoritative.

However, we do see where this myth has come from. Google mentioned earlier that social media doesn’t count as a direct factor in rankings. However, many SEO experts argue that while there may not be a direct link, there is a definite correlation between search engine rankings and social media links, which can’t be ignored.

Myth No. 5: Exact Match Anchors Are Bad

Fact: About a decade ago, there was an algorithm update introduced by Google for anchor text profiles. The update negatively impacted any website with too many key phrases used in anchors.

As a result, exact match anchors became something of a taboo in the SEO community. But we’ve got to say; this has been an overreaction. As long as you have enough brand authority, about 5-20% of exact match anchors for backlinks aren’t going to hurt your website.

If you’d like to learn more about link building or SEO as a whole and would like help with your online campaign, reach out to our experts at Bluepig. We offer SEO services and other marketing solutions to help your brand rank better.