Hey, welcome to our blog, but how have you reached here? By clicking on a link!
Have you realized how important a link is? With just a single click, you can reach anywhere on the world wide web. Links act as a backbone of SEO and play a big role in your ranking. But Google keeps a close eye on your every step and says a big “NO” to any sort of unnatural links. You can even experience a Google backlink penalty if you create bad backlinks.
Here in this blog, we will discuss different types of links that Google hates and can let you lose your credibility as well as reputation.
Dig into it to learn about the links that you should avoid.
What are bad links?
Unnatural, spammy, and toxic links are considered bad, or low-quality links, and Google considers them as the worst links and lowers its opinion towards your website.
Usually, it is said that the more links a website has, the more trustworthy it is. But, while ranking, Google uses advanced algorithms to see whether the link is good or not. You can check the authenticity of the link with the help of a number of paid and free tools.
You can go with the Google Search Console to get a lot of valuable information, like your internal links and who is linking to your website. All this information is available via the links report feature of Google Search Console. You can also see from where you are getting traffic with the help of Google Analytics Acquisition reports.
It does not matter which tool you are using to check the links; you need to make efforts to ensure the links are not ruining your website’s reputation.
What type of links should you ignore?
You have got an idea about what bad links are; now let us move on to learn about bad or dodgy website links to avoid any type of unnatural link penalty.
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Low-quality sites links
Getting backlinks is good in SEO. But if the links are from low-quality sites, it causes more harm than good for your website’s ranking. The links are considered bad as, most of the time, these contain only spun or rubbish content and do not add up any value to the readers. So, if you have such links, the chances of getting penalized also increase.
You need to ensure you get only high-quality links. So, it is better to analyze the linked website quality to save your ranking.
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Backlinks with comment spam
Users often add links to other websites in the articles or blog posts’ comment sections. It can be done entirely in a natural way. But, multiple websites started receiving keyword-stuffed links. This is the time when search engines start screening comments to curb spammy ones. The same holds true for discussion forums too. They don’t add any value to the organic ranking.
So, it is better to save your website ranking by only adding links in a natural way that makes some sense and saves your website from getting penalized.
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Wrong anchor text
Users click on the anchor text, thinking the link will give the related information. Here, upon clicking on the link, if the user feels the information is misleading, then also a link is not considered. The website and the respective links are for the readers or users. Then how can you think of misleading them and not getting penalized? Google will surely penalize you and will lower your ranking.
The best practice is to use the relevant anchor text where users can get valuable information and consider your website a credible source of information.
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Getting links from countries where you don’t do business
Your business is in Canada only, and you are getting links from other countries too? Do you think it is good for your business? If yes, then think over. Getting links from countries where you are not delivering any of your services will also be considered bad links.
In the past, such links left a positive impact, but the scenario has changed now. But now, in the present time, such links are not considered valuable anymore. Moreover, if you are getting links from different language websites, it will also impact your ranking.
Google search engine is more user-friendly now. But upon clicking on the link, if the user lands on some other language website, it will be considered a complete mismatch and thus flagged as a bad link.
So, it is advised to get links only from the areas where you are targeting your services. Only then you can keep your ranking protected and keep yourself safe from getting penalized.
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Spun article links
Black Hat SEOs use bad links, or we can say bad tactics, to get instant ranking. They spin the articles using spinning tools that, most of the time, won’t make any sense too. Still, they post these spun articles on different spam article directories and blogs. Later they backlink them to their website.
But if you are also thinking of going this way, it will for sure kill your webpage or website. So we can say Black Hat SEO is the practice that Google doesn’t prefer at all.
Importance of natural links
Natural links are considered the same as external links. When other websites link to your website, then Google considers your content as an authoritative and good-quality link. Such links are considered good links and help you in getting a high score in google search engine rankings.
But when websites go with self-created links, they are intended to dodge search engines by showing that their links are vital and relevant. But you cannot fool Google’s ranking system.
Closing Words
Web links matter a lot for your website ranking. Now you know some types of links that will lower your ranking system by Google. So, we advise going only with the natural links to let your website or web page rank higher in the SERP. Follow the best web link practices to make your website reputable and let Google rank you higher.