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Backlinks

You've taken the proper steps to increase your website's visibility in search results.

You've written meta-tagged, keyword-rich material and ensured the site's structure is conducive to bot indexing.

There's no reason you shouldn't be at the top of Google's search results.

What's going on?

The links pointing back to your site may be hurting you.

You can do a backlink analysis to identify the spammy links that may hurt your website's rankings.

The following topics will be discussed further in this article:

The fundamentals of backlinks.

How backlinks may both assist and hinder your SEO rankings.

How to use WebCEO to find and eliminate harmful inbound connections.

Let's back up and take a more fundamental look at what backlinks are, how they function, and how they impact search engine results.

 

The Definition of Backlinks.

 

Links from one website to another are backlinks, inbound, or incoming links.

The links are like a stamp of approval from the referring site to search engines like Google and Bing.

In other words, search engines place more stock in a page's quality the more pages link to it. This has a significant impact on where your site appears in search results.

This is why off-site SEO techniques like building backlinks are so important.

Link building is so vital that a specialized SEO specialist is known as a link builder.

A link builder's day involves creating and managing backlinks to raise traffic and improve rankings.

All backlinks are unique.

You didn't believe every inbound link was equally valuable.

You're not stupid; you're an SEO expert.

In addition, you are aware that not all links are created equal and that the value of a backlink depends on more than simply the number of visitors it brings to your site.

It's time to go further into the factors that distinguish a good or "safe" connection from a poor or "toxic" one, given that link quality varies.

When Google finds a website has a large number of toxic or unnatural links, it can penalize the site in the search results and potentially remove the site entirely from its index.
A Penguin penalty may also be incurred if harmful inbound links are not eliminated.

How Can I Tell if My Site Has Harmful Backlinks?

There are several ways to find out:

A Google Webmasters warning has been issued due to the website's toxic backlinks profile.

If your site's organic traffic suddenly dropped, it's probable that you were hit by Penguin and that the drop was caused by bad backlinks.

In any of the cases, the very first thing to do is find the list of the website’s backlinks in Google Webmaster Tools.
Additional tools for gathering backlink information include Ahrefs, Majestic SEO, and SEOmoz.

Which Links Should You Avoid?

The best way is to follow the links back to their original sources.
Toxic links often originate from the following sources: • Spam sites and sites designed only for the purpose of link building • Sites which were not indexed by Google • Sites which include viruses or malware • Link networks

How to Remove Toxic Links?

Once you have managed to separate toxic backlinks from the good ones, you should take immediate action to clean them up.
Follow these steps:

Contacting the Site Owner

There may be some links, which you are unable to delete yourself.
The best would be to get in touch with the webmasters of these sites and file a request.

Break Ties

When there’s a huge log of toxic backlinks, you can ask Google not to take these links into consideration.
Make sure you've exhausted all other options for removing the harmful links before resorting to this tool.
Don't forget that Google's Penguin update made it so disavowing links didn't help you avoid the penalty or recover rankings you lost.
You will have to remove each and every bad link manually, if you have been penalized by Google.

After the Toxic Backlinks are Removed

When you have cleaned up your website’s backlinks, you can file a reconsideration request with Google.
This is a way of admitting your mistake, outlining the steps you have taken to rectify the problem, and promising that you will adhere to best SEO practices in future.

Keep in mind that Google's response time could be anywhere from two weeks to three weeks.
Performing a backlink audit is arduous & time consuming but worth the efforts.
Also, it is always a safe approach to hire a reputable SEO company, which adheres to ethical SEO and is updated about the best practices.

 

What Are Good Backlinks?

 

Backlinks, especially trustworthy ones, may greatly improve your site's position in search engine results.

Search engines keep the specific details of what constitutes great links under wraps. However, good backlinks tend to have the following traits:

When it comes to backlinks, the best ones come from reputable sources

 

Getting backlinks from reputable and well-known websites may do wonders for your search engine results.

Domain authority describes this idea, which describes how authoritative websites benefit your own.

Contrarily, negative backlinks from spammy, low-authority sites might have the opposite impact.

Think at it this way, which would you trust more, a link from the Wall Street Journal or one from a site offering off-brand Chinese prescription medications?

All search engines agree.

 

Good Backlinks Focus on a single keyword at a time and use relevant anchor text.

Anchor text is the word, or phrase visitors click on to reach a linked URL. (See the term "anchor text" in the preceding sentence.)

Linking to relevant pages with concise anchor text that includes your target keyword helps search engines better understand the context of the linked page, improving your rating.

Backlinks that come from relevant sources improve your rankings.

 

Because Google searches for relevant material that gives extra information, the search engine prefers links from related sites above those from unrelated sites.

This way, users can be certain that their questions will be addressed with relevant information rather than irrelevant links.

Although your One Direction fan page may be the go-to destination for all things Harry Styles-related, promoting your used car dealership by linking to it is a waste of time.

And in fact, it may raise red flags and damage your rating. But about it, I'll talk more in a while.

All of your backlinks should be dofollow

Dofollow links should be added to your site's relevant, high-quality inbound connections.

Search engine spiders trace "do follow" connections from one site to the next.

These are the usual links you're accustomed to.

On the other side, nofollow links (links containing instructions for search engine crawlers not to follow them) are ignored by search engines.

The following links, prevalent on press release sites and paid adverts, should be considered by search engines when calculating rankings.

However, this does not mean that no-follow links have no worth. A simple mention on a popular site may do wonders for your company's profile.

However, a no-follow link will not help your search engine rankings (SERPs).

You might think of Nofollow links as the equivalent of Kylie Jenner tweeting that she likes your pants.

However, they will only help you a little with search engine optimization.

Dofollow links should be prioritized.

Now that we have discussed the characteristics of excellent backlinks let's look at their opposite: poor backlinks.

 

Where Do Bad Backlinks Come From?

Toxic backlinks, as the name implies, are connections that harm your website's reputation in Google's eyes.

Many of these link networks originate from black hat SEO strategies, which are dishonest methods of manipulating search engine results.

Google uses black hat SEO techniques to punish websites that use them.