I've been saying on the forums for a long time that link building is a bad idea, especially after Penguin; artificial links obviously are contrived. I'm always surprised that people are still using link building and advising others to do it. At any rate, I stumbled on something about it from John Mueller from Google, pretty much confirming my suspicion that link building might lead to a penalty on your site. Here it is: http://searchengineland.com/google-try- … ood-214861
That article dates from 2015 so it's been known for some time. However it should be taken with a big pinch of salt.
Originally, Google placed great emphasis on the number of links pointing TO an article. It was a major factor in determining your ranking. The idea was that if lots of readers were sharing the article with their friends, that must mean the article is useful and valuable.
Then, of course, authors realised they could create their own links instead of waiting for readers to do so. Clearly, those links have no value in determining the worth of an article. So it made a nonsense of Google's algorithm because it couldn't tell the difference between real links and author links. It still can't, a lot of the time. What Google does is look at the overall link profile, i.e. the pattern of links connecting to a website or webpage. If the pattern looks "natural", the links do still count and they are still worth having.
Bottom line, for me, is that if a link is easy to get, then it's probably not worth having. Things like getting on a links page on a website, or a listing in a directory, or in an article on a content farm - all worthless because they're likely to be viewed as suspicious by Google. Ditto if you create a blog and link to all your Hubs from it - Google can work that one out easily!
However, if there is a link in a well-written article on a reputable website, Google still can't tell whether it's genuine or provided by the author. I think that's why Mueller is downplaying their importance - he knows they still work, but he wants writers to think there's no point in doing it. The other bonus of a link from an article on another site - real readers will read it and follow the link. That's often worth far more.
Why taken with a pinch of salt and who cares if it's already known; evidently people don't get it because I see people on the forums still talking about building links and I'm the only person pointing out it's a bad idea. I mean this came from one of the top guys at Google. A pinch of salt. Really? You have more authority on this than John Mueller and Barry Swartz? Mueller says link building causes more problems for your site than they're worth. Clear indication that it can be bad for a site, he says it specifically, no need to interpret and double interpret. What's with the dismissive tone? Weird.
A lot of the old-style link building is bad and shouldn't be done. I'm not disputing that. I'm just saying, don't rush to dismiss all link building.
You'll notice he says "ONLY focusing on links is probably going to cause more problems for your web site that actually helps.". Which I would agree with. He doesn't say, don't do it.
In fact, read this article where Matt Cutts says it's OK.
https://ivetriedthat.com/2017/02/15/is- … -strategy/
If you have no talent for writing, cheating the search engines might still be a way to make a living. But it is a high risk business.
Of course, for some, it is the cheating that is the fun.
Google just wants you to think that link building is dead. I agree with what Marisa says and I've seen some clients rankings shoot up to the first page once they built links. Of course, quality links and not spam. But they were built by them and not readers.
by Kate Swanson 7 years ago
I am always surprised that guest blogging is never discussed on HubPages. We all know it's important to have backlinks pointing to our Hubs and websites. We also know that Google is working hard to detect and devalue links which are artificially created - things like directory...
by bloggerdollar 15 years ago
Hello, I want to build links for some of my hubs and I usually do this by putting the referral code in my linkhttp://www.hubpages.com/_directin/....Do those link will count as a link to my Hub by search engines or will they be sensed as a different URL and the will be irrelavant of search engine...
by Bill Yovino 12 years ago
Is there a way to include a hyperlink to another website without transfering the user away from Hubpages? In other words, is there a way to force a new window so that the original page is still present?
by Jack Lee 6 years ago
From your own article...I have a unique case. In one of my articles, I recommemd a natural supplement that is good for joints.This product works for me. It is something I use myself. In this article, I have an Amazon link to this product.When I ran out, and time to reorder, is it allowed for me to...
by Nadya_1 13 years ago
1. Use a set of anchor texts instead of using Same single oneWhat happens when you start using single anchor text in each link building technique:Search engines algorithms are much sensitive nowadays. They will capture the unnatural manipulation for improving search engine ranking. So use a...
by Aficionada 13 years ago
This is actually three questions.1) Is the average of all of the individual HubScores significant in any way? Does that number affect or change anything?2) In discussions of the Suggested Links Tool and HubKarma, I have seen some Hubbers mention that they would like to know if another Hubber...
Copyright © 2024 The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers on this website. HubPages® is a registered trademark of The Arena Platform, Inc. Other product and company names shown may be trademarks of their respective owners. The Arena Media Brands, LLC and respective content providers to this website may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website.
Copyright © 2024 Maven Media Brands, LLC and respective owners.
As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.
For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy
Show DetailsNecessary | |
---|---|
HubPages Device ID | This is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons. |
Login | This is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service. |
Google Recaptcha | This is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy) |
Akismet | This is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Google Analytics | This is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy) |
HubPages Traffic Pixel | This is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized. |
Amazon Web Services | This is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy) |
Cloudflare | This is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Hosted Libraries | Javascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy) |
Features | |
---|---|
Google Custom Search | This is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Maps | Some articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Google Charts | This is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy) |
Google AdSense Host API | This service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Google YouTube | Some articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Vimeo | Some articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy) |
Paypal | This is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Login | You can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy) |
Maven | This supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy) |
Marketing | |
---|---|
Google AdSense | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Google DoubleClick | Google provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Index Exchange | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Sovrn | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Facebook Ads | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Unified Ad Marketplace | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
AppNexus | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Openx | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Rubicon Project | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
TripleLift | This is an ad network. (Privacy Policy) |
Say Media | We partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy) |
Remarketing Pixels | We may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites. |
Conversion Tracking Pixels | We may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service. |
Statistics | |
---|---|
Author Google Analytics | This is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy) |
Comscore | ComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy) |
Amazon Tracking Pixel | Some articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy) |
Clicksco | This is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy) |