Does Link Building Really Hurt SEO?
A few people have asked me if link building hurts SEO.
I’ve heard other SEOs have told people that link building is “bad”. I’ve seen bloggers saying that you shouldn’t be link building—saying if you simply produce great content, people will show up. You know, build it and they will come?
Yesterday, I saw a very popular YouTube channel that had a video all about how you should not be link building links.
I’ve got a few unfortunate truths for the people spreading this misinformation.
Links aren’t going anywhere as an important ranking factor.
Sure, Google is building out the Knowledge Graph, aka the Entity Graph, which is an information grid which connects people, corporations, businesses, ideas, concepts, and other entities in a logical frame of reference. Schema markup may play a role in that as well (don’t fool yourself, that isn’t telling Google anything it can’t figure out on it’s own).
Links will always be a part of ranking websites. Anyone who preaches otherwise is either not telling you something, doesn’t know what they are talking about, or is not doing SEO at a very high level at all.
How Search Engines Use Links for SEO Rankings
When a website links to your website, that is a vote of confidence for the page receiving the link. Of course Google knows that this signal has been gamed by everything from Private Blog Networks (PBNs), to article spinning, to paid links on prominent websites. That does not diminish the value of links.
Google themselves said in March of 2016 that the three main factors in determining your rankings are: on-page content, links, and machine learning (RankBrain).
Why are SEOs on the periphery of the community teaching people that building links is dangerous?
I still can’t figure this out. Because every SEO that I see teaching people this has actually put a lot of effort into link building (regardless of what they say publicly). Some have even done a lot of the things they are telling you not to do. (Word to the wise.)
What Types of Links Are “Bad”?
What kind of links should you avoid? What kind of links should you build?
You absolutely get links from sites that are topically related to your site, or are relevant to your industry. Links from prominent sites in your industry, that send traffic to your site are good to have.
Links that exist strictly to manipulate search rankings should be avoided. These would include paid articles on obscure blogs that are not related to your site, Private Blog Networks, spam comment links, or links that would look out of place in a normal context.
Google’s Spam Link Update of December 2022 has also diminished the effectiveness of manipulative links. You should focus on earning links from places where you would naturally promote your business, even if there was no SEO benefit to be gained.
A good rule of thumb: If search engines did not exist, would you still want that link from that website? Does that link make sense from a pure marketing strategy? Or would you not pursue that link if search engines never existed?
This should make it clear what types of links are “good” and which ones are “bad”.
At the end of the day, you are trying to build brand awareness, grow your customer base, and sell more services or products. Links from other sites are a way to do that, and are an essential part of SEO. Don’t let anyone tell you differently.
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