Link building
One of the most controversial topics of SEO is the topic of link building. While Google says it uses over 200 factors in its ranking algorithm, the one that receives the highest amount of attention by far is links.
The reason for this harkens back to the origin of Google, where two plucky Stanford students named Larry Page and Sergei Brin decided to create their own search engine, Google. They used links as the primary ranking factor, the same way citations are used in academic papers. The logic here was that, if an academic paper or peer-reviewed journal was cited often, it was an authority on the subject and therefore relevant and important. Thus, more links meant a more authoritative website, which meant higher rankings. They also created a metric to value the authority of the website, called PageRank.
Enter the spammers
The problem with this was that people working in SEO quickly came up with ways to artificially increase the amount of links pointing towards their websites.
Free online directories and article websites that received no actual human traffic (bar people working in SEO) popped up around the web and inflated Google’s search index with millions of links. Sites like EzineArticles.com had articles on everything from how to pick a gym membership to how to turn your toothbrush into a sex toy. Eventually Google had enough of these, and made them null and void by rendering links from these sites useless.
The next trick in the book came in the way of blog links. A slew of bloggers around the world, many of them so-called ‘mummy bloggers’ created blogs where they wrote on various inconsistent topics, with paid-for links to business websites. One day they would talk about double glazing, the next about finding cheap flights to India, with links to businesses in each one. As always, Google caught on to this and eventually Matt Cutts, then head of Google’s webspam team, declared this practice dead. Sadly, it is a practice that still goes on, with many agencies relying on this type of strategy to gain links for clients.
Then came the infographic. Seemingly out of nowhere, infographics appeared on the widest variety of topics, from credit card balances to how to manicure your pets. Some of these were legitimately good ways of presenting information, but by and large, they were simply created for the purpose of getting more links, linkbait, if you will. Many corporations had terrible knee-jerk attempts at turning their business area into something interesting. It was a bit like watching your uncle trying to look cool dancing to “Gangnam Style” at a wedding. Not a good look.
As usual, Google came along and declared links from infographics useless, and by and large, they disappeared. Some agencies still use them, however, but I think it’s a high risk strategy. For example, a very visible car leasing company in the UK uses infographics on things that are very tenuously linked to leasing for the majority of its link building campaign. Infographics have been on topics like the Women of Fast and the Furious or the evolution of Mario Kart. How is this contextually relevant to leasing? This seems to have worked for them, but I do wonder for how long. I would definitely advise against pursuing this line of link building if you were to come to me as a client.
The state of links today
Today, links are very much a factor in Google’s search results, but rather than think of ways to get a high number of links quickly, website owners are better off thinking of ways to get quality links over a period of time. This is often frustrating for people with new websites, as they want high Google search ranking, and they want them now. The bad news is that this is unlikely to happen very quickly unless you happen to be in a very uncompetitive niche. The good news is that you are likely the best source of information on where to get the best links for your business yourself.