Link building used to be the main service of any “SEO” company, however, since Google caught onto people buying links from obscure websites, they started to devalue those and heavily punished websites with links from poor websites rather than bumping them up the search engine results pages.
Expedia
Just before Christmas, it happened to Expedia! Somebody outed them and Google found out, within a few days, they had lost around 25% visibility in search engine results.
Why would Expedia buy links?
It’s simple, they thought it was the best way to battle against their competition who have better websites, and it worked for a while, until Google found out.
Was it really worth it? Definitely not.
Link building companies
Many ‘Link building’ companies or ‘SEO’ companies will give you a load of jargon to explain how buying “good links” will benefit your website, however, a “good link” is a real link, placed on another website by a person who has genuine interest in your website or a reason to link to you.
Can I ask other websites to link to my site?
Of course, just do some research first. Find out their Page Rank and/or their domain authority. These are used as indicators as to whether the website is worth having a link from. The higher the better, it’s quite simple.
Can I get links removed?
Ask them! If they don’t reply, or say no, take a read of Google’s How to disavow links.
How do I improve my website’s ranking then?
Without link building strategies, search engine optimisation is a very different game.
- Fresh, frequent and quality content on your website is a great way to increase your organic ranking.
- The use of social media is becoming more and more effective, especially with Bing ranking.
- Pay per click advertising is a surefire way to direct people to your website.
- email marketing is a fantastic way of bringing old customers back to your website and if you are a shop, giving the people who signed up but didn’t purchase, a reason to return.
If you need help with any of the above, don’t hesitate to call AsOne on 0161 368 9100.
