When it comes to writing websites, everybody knows that the search engines must be appealed to. And there is nothing that the search engines hate more than black hat methods of climbing the rankings. There are many ways that people can temporarily get themselves up to the top of the rankings, but as soon as the search engines smell a rat you’ll be batted back down, or even completely blacklisted. Genuine links and back links are a great way of boosting your rankings, but link schemes are a big no no. This is when a search links your website even when you are not relevant to what has been searched for. Your links should always be relevant to your business, and you should only send your visitors to other pages which they will find useful. If your links are not relevant, then you are creating a link scheme, and this can only be bad for business.
Why Are My Links So Important?
When you put links up on your site, you are telling the search engines, as well as your customers, who you are affiliated with. If this link has no relevance to your business then it won’t be long before the search engines clock this and you will suddenly look very dubious to them. Only ever put up links which will be genuinely useful to your visitors. Creating a genuine link ‘neighborhood’ is a great idea, and will only serve to make you and your connections look authentic. However, the minute you link to sites with no relevance to you and your business, you will start to look ‘black hat’.
How Do I Know If I Am Involved In A Link Scheme?
The best way is to put this into your search engine: ‘related:www.yourwebsite.com’. Google will present you with a list of other websites that it feels you are related to. So, if your website subject is ‘furniture’, you should see a list of loads of other furniture sellers, repairers, restorers etc. If what comes up is just a whole load of spam then you have found your way into a bad link neighborhood. The search engines are very clever and even if there is no link from your site to a dodgy one, it will still pick up on a relationship if the links elsewhere on the web work the right way. The best way to avoid being associated with a link scheme is to always make sure your links are relevant, and never engage in a ‘reciprocal links’ deal unless there are genuine reasons for it. Even if you build other websites and pages just to link back to yours, this is classed as a link scheme.
How Should I Avoid Link Schemes?
Link schemes are really easy to avoid – just refrain from overusing keywords and irrelevant links. It really is that simple. When you create a link, ask yourself ‘am I doing this for the benefit of my visitors, or am I just trying to appeal to the search engines?’ If it’s the latter, then think again.