If you have done some research on SEO, you have probably noticed that everyone is talking about link building as an essential part of every effective SEO campaign. But what makes it so important?

The number of links to your website has a huge influence on its search engine results pages (SERP) ranking. This is due to the fact that search engines see a large number of backlinks to your website as evidence of its value and popularity. But there is a catch. A large number of backlinks doesn’t automatically ensure high SERP ranking. On the contrary, it can even worsen your current ranking or get your website even banned by major search engines.

Until recently, a large number of backlinks did the trick. But new algorithms can recognise “spammy” links that are intended only to trick them into “thinking” that the website is hugely popular among web users. As a result, websites with SERP ranking based on quantity rather than quality links disappeared from the first pages of search results virtually overnight, while some were even removed. If you want to prevent this from happening to your website, you should abstain from unethical link building techniques and hire a SEO provider who uses exclusively ethical link building techniques.

Obviously, you need to know what are ethical link building techniques if you want to avoid penalties from search engines in the future. Ideally, link building campaign should focus on making other website owners and visitors of your website wanting to link to it because these backlinks will win you most points at search engines and provide lasting results. But since natural link building takes time, most SEO providers also utilise other tools such as buying or exchanging links with authority websites with a relevant content.

For example, a backlink from a website with PageRank 5 will increase the value of your website more than a backlink from a website with PageRank 3. But only under condition, that both contain relevant content. If that is not the case, it is better to have a backlink from a website that has PageRank 3 and relevant content than from an insurance website with PageRank 5 if you are selling sports equipment. Other commonly used link building techniques that won’t negatively affect your website’s SERP ranking during future search engine algorithm changes include utilisation of social networks, article writing and posting on forums including a link to your website.

Less is More

Link building campaign should be carried out with great care as search engines can be very unpredictable. It is recommended to avoid building tens or hundreds of links to your website in a short period of time as a sudden increase of backlinks “looks” suspicious to search engines.