Are you wondering why your backlinks are not increasing your rankings? It’s a totally valid question because SEO is about a lot of things and one of them happens to be building links to your website.
After doing research, I learned that in the past, people would build links from websites that are totally irrelevant to their niche. However, times have changed, so we’ll just have to adapt to the ever-changing algorithms of search engines like Google.
In response to a readers email, here’s why your link building strategy has not produced the results that you desire. In this article, I will go over a few reasons why your link building strategy isn’t producing the results and what you can do to fix it! Without further ado, let’s get started!
What Is A BackLink?
First, it helps to understand what a backlink is. A backlink is a link coming from an external website to yours. In a nutshell, you’ll receive a backlink if another website links to a post or page on your website.
With that in mind, you’ll also have to understand that no backlinks are the same. The following are reasons why your backlinks are not increasing your rankings.
Reason #1. Backlinks From Low Authority Domains
This is easily overlooked by a beginner because the idea of getting backlinked is just to get a backlink. However, don’t forget that newer websites will need to be around longer in order to build domain authority.— I believe this is the reason why most people don’t see an increase in their rankings even though they are getting backlinks.
Don’t get discouraged by low authority domains though because as the years go by, their domain authority will also increase, so getting a link now will still help you in the long run (don’t expect instant support).
Besides getting backlinks from authority websites, you should also focus on relevance. Which I will cover next! Also, it helps to find authority domains by looking them up using tools like ahrefs.com.
Reason #2. Irrelevant Backlinks
As I mentioned previously, getting relevant backlinks plays a huge role in rankings. Over the years, search engines like Google have made tweaks on how they rank each website. This ensures that their visitors are always getting top results for their inquiries.
The changes are made because of the way people search for information, products, and services. Instead of searching for general terms like how to make money. People are using long-tail keywords to find precisely what they are looking for.
Tip: I use Jaaxy Keyword and Niche research tool to find long-tail keywords to rank for.
First, search engines paid more attention to long-tail keywords within your title tag and description. Next, they made changes to their algorithm to combat the way people build their backlinks.
To Google, if you’re a how to make money blog. A backlink from a website that talks about weight loss and fitness are not relevant at all. Therefore, if you have backlinks from authority blogs that are relevant to your niche, it will show Google what your blog or website is about and the search patterns of your type of readers.
Reason #3. Google Bots Cannot Access Your Website
If you’re running a blog or a website, you should set up for the Google Search Console. It will not only display errors on your website but also a way for you to tell Google that your website exists and to index it.
If you don’t allow Google bots to access your website then you’re not going to get indexed for your pages, posts, links, sitemap.xml, etc. If you’re still confused… Make sure you check out an article that I wrote on how to get Google to index your website.
Reason #4. Your Backlinks Are Spam
No, not the edible spam… real spam! This can happen if someone is trying to sabotage your business. A spam or bad backlink can happen when someone posts your website’s link on an irrelevant Facebook post, YouTube video, etc. Nobody likes spam especially not Google!
That’s why I always check my backlinks to see if any of them is considered spam. If you have lots of quality backlinks to your website, yet your rankings are not looking so bright. You might want to get rid of those bad backlinks. If you’re not sure how to remove backlinks, you can check out this article that goes over exactly how to improve your domain authority.
Reason #5. The Links You Received Are No-Follow
When it comes to backlinks, there are two types: do-follow and no-follow. Basically do-follow lets Google know that the website in the link is worth following. While no-follow does absolutely nothing!
No-follow links are much easier to get compared to do-follow links. However, do-follow links are the type of backlinks that you want for your website for SEO. You can get them through blogging on other websites through guest blogging, forums, and Social Media.— No-follow links are great for traffic, but not for SEO.
Note: You are not allowed to ask for do-follow links or pay for do-follow links. It is against the FTC rules and can get you penalized.— Just focus on creating quality content and build your backlinks naturally.
In Conclusion
Backlinks can be a blessing or a curse depending on how you’re getting them. If you want to improve your rankings through link building, you’ll want to keep an eye on where you are getting your links from. Even though no backlinks are equal, they can all affect your SEO.
It is up to you to decide whether the backlinks you receive are going to help you or hurt you. Use Google Search Console to find out where you’re backlinks are coming from and clean the bad ones if necessary.
Are you keeping track of your backlinks? If you’re getting bad backlinks, are you requesting the website owner to get rid of them? Please share your thoughts and secrets to increasing your rank through backlinks by leaving a comment below.
Kind Regards,
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