There are several activities which are fundamental to effective SEO. These include content provision, keyword research and link acquisition. While SEO is always changing, these three activities remain very important. Without high grade content being supplied to a site on a regular basis, it is the case that neither SEO nor SMM will make the impact which it should. If long tail keywords are not utilised at an appropriate density in the content on a site, another trick will be missed. However, without the right kinds of links being attracted to a site there can be other problems of an equivalent magnitude. Until recently, there has been a degree of controversy about how best to attract high quality links.
At Searchengineoptimisation.co.uk we are very clear about how links should be obtained. This means that our SEO campaigns are always in accordance with the ethical guidelines set out by Google. There is little to be gained short term and nothing to be gained long term by breaching the relevant ethical framework.
The best types of links are those which are said to be dripping with link juice. For those new to SEO, this means that the links are from high quality relevant sites in appropriate sectors. There is no point being linked to from sites which are concerning themselves with completely different topics. In addition, sites which are considered to be ‘spammy’ are viewed with suspicion by the search engines. If a site is linked to from a disreputable site which shows signs of unethical behaviour, there is such a thing as guilt by association.
These considerations mean that links have to be obtained in a natural manner if they are to be of assistance in the move up the search engine results pages. Buying links is frowned upon by Google and is detectable. Several sites have incurred search engine penalties for this type of activity. A search engine penalty can involve being banished from the index for a meaningful time period. The commercial consequences of this can be catastrophic.
Until recently, some SEO firms have been a bit reluctant to admit that link purchasing is wrong. This means that they have been burying their heads in the sand. Black hat firms who do not follow any of the ethical frameworks set out by Google and the other major search engines were joined in link buying by firms which should have known better. They defended mass link purchasing with a diversity of excuses.
Firstly, it was suggested that buying links was acceptable because some quite large enterprises did just that. Secondly, it was argued that acquiring links with money was fine because certain sectors were so competitive that it made sense to proceed in this way. Thirdly, it was contended that link purchasing used to be acceptable so it was unfair for Google to alter the rules. These spurious arguments now look very threadbare.
It must be remembered that the aim of SEO is to please users and to satisfy the search engines. The vast majority of users do not want the rankings distorted by excessive manipulation. The days of justifying link purchasing are simply in the past.
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Posted by Phil.
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