The backlink maniacs are on the prowl
Link building is, without a doubt, a big thing in Search Engine Optimization. In fact, if you have just come across the field, you will be excused for thinking that it is the only factor that is used by Search Engines when assigning a rank to a web page.
Ask any of the many wannabe SEO experts that are floating out there (some of them are actually actual experts) and you will be told that backlinks are at the top of the things that you need to do in order to give your site a boost on Search Engine Result Pages (SERPS).
In the murky world that is the World Wide Web, it is not surprising that Search Engines use backlinks as a major benchmark when determining a web page’s worth. Having the most backlinks is a sign that your site is well written and factual, right? Well, things are a bit more complicated than that;
There is a think line between black and white-hat link building methods
One of the things that you will discover once you have launched you own website is that the link building maniacs are on the prowl and there is no end to the things that they are willing to do for a backlink or two;
Purchased backlinks
This, you have to admit, is as black as they get as far as black-hat link building methods are concerned. You just have to carry out a search on Google to find out what we are talking about here. There are thousands of companies out there that claim to be able to give your website a boost as far as Search Engine Optimization is concerned. All that you need to do in order to start rolling in web traffic is purchase a few backlinks.
Of course, experts will tell you that black-hat link-building techniques only work for a few days, after which your site slumps back to normal. However, the fact that backlinks are being sold out there indicates that there is something to the whole venture. Backlinks are overrated, right?
The backlink maniacs
A few months after setting up this site, I began receiving messages from a troop of backlink hunters, all of whom were desperately trying to get me to link to their pages. I almost fell for it in a few instances. The guys write a couple of letters glowingly praising one of your articles. Then they tell you that they also have a similar article and would you mind linking to one of them?
I mean, I wouldn’t mind linking to any article, but I am not going to be cajoled into doing it. Some of the link maniacs are actually very persistent. I recently received five letters of demand from one individual asking me to link to their websites.
It then dawned on me that if these people were so desperate for links, they weren’t going to mind writing a few guest posts for my site. I mean, if someone is going to drain some link juice from my website, I may as well gain something in return, right?
They don’t want to do any real work!
When I told these guys to please produce articles for me, in which they could freely include one or two links, that turned out to be the end of the correspondence. I mean, how lazy can any individual be? I give you the chance to get the backlinks that you are so obsessed with, and you play the disappearing act on me. All that the backlink hunters actually want is to gain a few links from other people’s sites without doing any work in return!
The Story of Upwork
Some of you may be aware of the fact that I sometimes do freelancing work on Upwork. One of the things that I have recently been noticing on the site is the amazing number of people who are looking for supposedly whitehat backlink experts.
What people do in this regard is relatively whitehat. Clients pay people who have guest posting privileges on big sites to have their links included in the content. So, the content may actually be relevant. However, the fact remains that these links are purchased.
Search Engines Overate the Power of Links
Far from being the symbol of trustworthiness and good content that they are regarded to be by Google and other Search Engines, a lot is actually taking place in the world of backlinks. The truth of the matter is that people have found a number of ways through which they can manipulate the system.
Although it is possible for Google to catch and penalize overtly purchased links, links that are purchased in other ways are hard to detect. Backlinks are, it is safe to say, one page ranking parameter that is relatively overrated.
I hardly read the pages that I am linking to
How many bloggers actually ever bother to read the pages that they are linking to. As far as I am concerned, not that many. I do not have, during the course of writing this article, the luxury of taking time off to read up some other article. Ideas only come once in a lifetime, right?
All that I do is Google something relevant and I pick one of the articles that appear. I then open the page and, without even waiting to read the article, I copy and paste the URL onto my post. So much for backlinks being a sign that a web page is well written! So, are backlinks overrated? Clearly!
Guest Posting Opportunities
If you are looking for genuine guest posting opportunities, then here is a list of over 700 genuine guest posting sites. Guest your articles on as many of them as you can, and you will see a genuine improvement in your search engine rank.