Why you should regularly check your websites backlink profile
Introduction
It’s all well and good having a website the you believe looks simply brilliant, that’s to say, it may well be well designed and you know your customers will be totally impressed by it. Yet, here’s the thing, sometimes businesses simply make the mistake of hiring the wrong SEO company, or by doing some of the work themselves incorrectly.
Let’s give you a brief example of just that, the business might build low-quality links, and these are like adding lead weights to a hot air balloon! This can drag things down and rather fast!
This is exactly what can happen to your companies’ rankings, if you have low quality backlinks, that’s to say worst-case scenario some businesses can even be deindexed!
So, what exactly are we saying in a nutshell? Well low-quality links, sometimes called “spam backlinks” can mean a website drops in terms of where it ranks on Google. Also, Google can impose “Manual Penalties” and “Algorithmic Penalties” which means that the business could be totally removed from Google’s organic rankings.
What exactly is a backlink profile?
So, you might be scratching your head right now, thinking why are backlinks so important?
But here’s the thing, kind of got to imagine your website’s SEO as if its being powered by electrical wires, obviously we’re just giving this is an example, but we think this illustrates the notion quite well, that is wires sending power to a website.
Now, the more “high-powered” wires (backlinks) and by wires will obviously mean backlinks, the more powerful the website can be. By powerful we simply mean can rank higher, that’s if all of the other SEO ranking factors, are good quality too!
However, if you have the wrong wires, by that we mean “low-quality backlinks”, then this can completely damage your businesses SEO.
Obviously, backlinks are not wires, but it illustrates the point well, that is you need good quality links leading to your companies website, that’s in order to improve its organic SEO. If you get lazy, cut corners, or simply hire the wrong marketing company, then what can happen is the business could incur a “Backlink Penalty”.
Why should I follow the rules when it comes to building backlinks?
So many businesses, and even SEO agencies get impatient, and sometimes decide to cut corners, yet trust us this method does not work! If the SEO rules are not followed, then the business could incur a penalty.
If you flout the rules, and one example of this is building substandard links, then your businesses SEO is going to become damaged.
You must follow white hat SEO rules (Google’s WebMaster Guidelines)
What is a “manual action”?
A lot of businesses have received manual actions from Google, one reason for this is they may have built backlinks incorrectly. A manual action has then been placed on the website by Google, and this might mean the business is fully removed from Google’s organic rankings, which some SEO agencies call the “Organic SERP’s” or if the website is not removed, the company might see their rankings nose dive.
So for example, lets say you run a solicitors practice, and in your city, you ranked 3rd for an important term, lets say “divorce solicitors” which is all well and good. However, after hiring say a freelancer or a local agency, lets say they build low-quality links, well, you may see your website, because of these spam links, see for that same keyword “divorce solicitors” that you move to page 10 on Google!
And recovery, well can be slow, so a word to the wise, only hire a respected, white hat digital marketing agency which follows “Google’s WebMaster Guidelines”.
A word or two on Google’s Algorithmic Penalties (Namely the Google Penguin Update)
Google’s algorithm is extremely clever indeed, it knows when a business has low-quality backlinks, and again the business could be removed or the rankings could drop sharply because the links are low quality. If you want to find out a bit more on the Google update, that means that businesses with low-quality backlinks will drop, we would urge you to read about the “Google Penguin Update”.
The backlinks must be relevant
The backlinks must be relevant, there is absolutely no point at all in being a car dealer, and getting your backlinks from say a company which sells aluminium and wooden ladders, the two businesses are not relevant at all.
Whoever is appointed to manage your SEO
Whether you may have appointed a large SEO agency, or a freelancer to manage your backlinks, one of their tasks should be to check that the backlinks are quality, this is an important task, and should happen on a routine basis.
If you want things done the right way, why not hire our digital marketing agency? Why not give us a ring today?
