Maile Ohye, Google said recently on the Google Webmaster blog:
“Inbound links are links from pages on external sites linking back to your site. Inbound links can bring new users to your site, and when the links are merit-based and freely-volunteered as an editorial choice, they’re also one of the positive signals to Google about your site’s importance. Other signals include things like our analysis of your site’s content, its relevance to a geographic location, etc. As many of you know, relevant, quality inbound links can affect your PageRank. And quality links often come naturally to sites with compelling content or offering a unique service.”
Notice that nowhere in this note, does it say anything about buying links or link exchanging, it talks about obtaining links editorially or via link bait.
If you are struggling to drive more traffic to your website, then one thing that you can implement is a link building strategy.
One thing I tell my clients is to create inbound links for a multiple of sources. So use article marketing, classified ads, forum posts, blogs, and a whole other range of inbound linking strategies.
By doing this, you are creating a diverse linking profile to spread the load and not to put all your eggs in one basket. I recently had a new client come onboard who had been penalised for buying links.
Buying links was an easy (and still is) way to build lots of links to your site. However, if you read Google’s terms of service, link buying is seen as an illegal activity and frowned upon. Sadly, Google doesn’t seem to penalise many link buying sites just yet, but the time will come.
If you are looking for a low risk, high reward way to build links then look at a multitude of different techniques to make your linking strategy a long term basis for your SEO efforts.
About Jason Hulott
