Link building has a direct effect on your SEO, both positive and negative. Links that connect you to high-quality, reputable sites with a high page rank improve your SEO, while links from sketchy, low ranking websites can penalize you. 

While there are methods to follow to create good links to and from your site, you also have to focus on links within your content and removing bad links that point to your website. 

With the ever-growing amount of content on the internet today, link building can make a huge difference in where you show up on Google searches for your keyword or keyword phrase.

The Positive Effects of Link Building

When you build links within your content to websites that offer engaging, relevant content, and that have a Google page rank of five or more, this will help boost your credibility with Google even though page rank is no longer part of their direct ranking factor. 

You can check the page rank of websites through a page rank checker. If the rank is below five, it probably won’t lend any credibility to your site. 

Although, if your rank is quite low, it usually helps to link to sites that are at least one-page rank higher than yours. Solid links between your content and other websites help search engines see what your content is about, and if you provide the information searchers are looking for. 

When Link Building Hurts You

Not all links are created the same. If you are in the construction business and a website on parenting continually links to your website, this isn’t going to do either website any good.

While sites linking to you, called incoming links or backlinks, are the best type of links, they can also be the most hurtful. If the link comes from a site that doesn’t provide any useful information, or the rank is really low, this backlink will hurt you. 

Get rid of backlinks by disavowing the links through Google, or contacting the website owner and try to get them to remove the link. 

If the backlink still shows up, remove the content that the link goes to. 

Producing Quality Backlinks

Sites such as LinkedIn give you the ability to create a dynamic profile, and with their high page rank, this lends credibility to your website when you add links to your website in your profile. 

While you don’t want to overdo it, adding a link to your website from your business LinkedIn profile to your website will benefit your overall SEO. 

You can also get quality backlinks by offering to write a guest post for a blog in your industry or writing a free article for sites such as the Huffington Post. 

Interconnect the Content on Your Website

Time on site is another important Google ranking factor. In order to keep your visitors on your website longer, you can create links to other pieces of content within your site that adds value to one they are reading. 

Internal linking is a powerful way to funnel authority from one page to another.

This way, people will read one piece of content, and then hopefully go to another piece that is linked. The longer people stay on your site, the more your SEO will improve.

When your bounce rate goes down, your credibility with search engines goes up. 

Author Biography

Sophorn Chhay

Sophorn is the marketing guy at Trumpia, the most complete SMS software with mass SMS messaging, smart targeting and automation.