Link building too quickly

[smartcow]

Hi all,

I have recently started trialing to outsource some SEO to a 3rd party, who obviously promissed white hat techniques and manual links etc.. All has gone well for the first month. But on speeking to another expert they point out that the search engines will spot inconcistencies in link building and penalise me.

I know there will not be a know ammount but as we stand at the moment, what is the current feeling of too fast.

Links built for me in one month were

100 directory submissions

80 bookmarks

16 search engine submissions

15 Article submissions

46 forum links

10 local classified searches

Is this too fast? , If to do I stop and create more inconsistency or continue at a similar rate.

Of course quality of link will be an issue, but how much.

Many thanks from SEO jnr

[David-Kley]

I was doing a search for a similar topic for a site we manage that has gained 50k links in the past 4 months, and I came across this article. I was a bit shocked at the answers I saw, and some of the ones that were voted as good. It's an old article, but I felt compelled to answer since this is still a relevant topic.

The link structure you showed is completely normal, and I would highly doubt you would see any negative impact from a strategy such as this. New sites and updated sites over time always receive new links. It's not about "how many" but more about "from where". I will address them one by one:

100 directory submissions
Great, as long as you have tested the directories that you are being submitted to. If they have high spam scores and low domain authority, could be a risk. You should ask what directories you were submitted to and research them to see if they have a blacklist history or are penalized. If not, I see no issue here at all. When we launch a site, we submit it to up to 450+ trusted directories, depending on the SEO plan level selected. All directories have been tested via Moz tools and other providers, to ensure the link health.

80 bookmarks
Not sure when you mean by this, but as long as the places you are being added are trustworthy and somewhat related to what you provide, I wouldn't worry. Even non-related links can be beneficial, coming from the right source. Granted, everyone wants the perfect anchor text link such as "awesome product in CITY", but a "visit website" followed anchor link will not do you any harm coming from the right source.

16 search engine submissions
If this is a page or URL submission through Bing or Google webmaster tools, it's a total non-issue. People submit hundreds of URLs per day, or even thousands for larger sites.

15 Article submissions
"Submitted to where?" would be a better question than how many is good or bad. If these are legitimate articles through a legitimate source such as PrWeb or the like, you should have no issues. Just depends on where they are placing your articles, the article quality, and the linking domain.

46 forum links
Could be good, could be bad, depends on how you were linked to, and the trust factor of the linking site. See above. You may also want to see if the linked is followed because if not, it holds little value unless it was posted on a relevant forum as helpful advice, that has good visibility.

10 local classified searches
Not sure what this is indicating, but again, it depends on how the linking was done, and where the links are coming from.

As to the people stating that having a lot of new, varied links is a great way to get banned/penalized, just NO. That is not true. You want link diversity and many places linking to you, and in the business world, you can't always keep posting great blogs/posts/pages/articles hoping and waiting for the links to come to you.

I have also never seen a link campaign that got someone penalized unless it was just blatant disregard for link quality or lack of knowledge.

Hope this helps...years later lol. Or at best, it will help someone that comes across this article in the future.

[smartcow]

many thanks for your assistance. really appreciate it.

[RyanKent]

"Off site should i really remove ALL the previous links and then just work on Quality. Surely that level mentioned is not too excessive for any business trying to promote itself? or is it"

If you "built" the links, they should be removed. I would do such without hesitation.

To be clear, the overwhelming majority of "built" links are manipulative. There are some limited methods where you can create a link which offers value, but the ones you shared and the manner in which you shared them are the type you should pay (if necessary) to remove.

"I guess its the regular quality blog and off site I may struggle with getting the right level. Blogging is "OK", social media is "low to OK" and will work on these."

"OK" is not enough. Neither is "good" nor "great". You need to be exceptional.

When you perform a search for <insert keyword="">how many results are there? Let's say Google offers 1 million result pages. Where do you think an "OK" page ranks? </insert>

Strive to be nothing less then exceptional. Search engine rankings is a pure competition. If you do not have the "eye of the tiger" mentality, then you should consider hiring a quality SEO to promote the site. To be clear, any "link package" site should be avoided.

[smartcow]

Ryan, Thanks.

My site ticks all the boxes with regards to design and quality build. All on site SEO, site map, meta tags, alt etc are spot on and not manipulative at all.

I guess its the regular quality blog and off site I may struggle with getting the right level. Blogging is "OK", social media is "low to OK" and will work on these.

Off site should i really remove ALL the previous links and then just work on Quality. Surely that level mentioned is not too excessive for any business trying to promote itself? or is it

[RyanKent]

"Ryan If SEO is not to manipulate or try to rank your site than what it is?"

There are some people who would agree with you Christopher. I am not one of them. SEO is working with clients to help them understand and provide the maximum value to their site's visitors. Of course, that sounds nice but I will three of an almost infinite amount of examples of how this goal can be achieved:

• Some clients have very poor quality content when they come on board. We work with them to engage a professional, quality writer who can significantly improve the site's content. A few qualities of the resulting page are:

• easier to read and understand
• more likely to covert a visitor into a customer
• more likely to be +1'd, tweeted, liked, etc
• earns a better AdWords quality score
• ranks higher in search engines

• Some clients have low quality websites. A few issues we commonly find:

• broken links
• poor navigation
• server error pages
• poor design

Correcting these issues tend to improve the user experience and search rankings.

• Some sites do not embrace social media. By leveraging the power of sites such as facebook, pinterest and others, site traffic can dramatically increase leading to more social interaction, links and positive signals which can benefit SEO.

"Not all link profiles are as natural as SEOMOZ/SEL."

You are right. Most sites are no where near as spammy as the SEOmoz back link profile.

[RyanKent]

"I see (using  open site explorer) my competitors have 10's of thousands of external links, so even if I kept at this rate it would be many years before I caught up. That is based on my current understanding, so how do I get to those levels, even if it is over a year or two?"

Hi Simon,

Your situation is very common Simon. At a very high level, here are the steps:

1. Build the best quality site possible. There are literally hundreds of pieces to this puzzle but a few are:

• hire a great graphic design to provide your site a high quality look and feel

• engage a professional web developer to develop the best possible website

• provide a mobile website which appears correctly in smartphones, ipads, etc

• ensure your site works as intended i.e. no broken links, forms work correctly, etc

• ensure the site appears correctly in various browsers (IE, FF, Chrome, Safari, Opera)

• provide an intuitive layout along with solid navigation

2. **Provide the best content possible. **

• Create "best on the web" type of content

• Create content for users, not search engines

• Ensure your content is engaging and relevant

• Strive to provide content related to current events

• Ensure any images are sharp and clear

• The site's content should ideally encourage users to like / tweet / +1 / share / link

3. Promote the site.

• Once you have a solid website platform with fantastic content, tell the world about it!

• Use social media to connect with others who have an interest in your product / service

• Read industry blogs to find current information and influencers

• Ask your audience what content they want to read about

• Take every opportunity to tell everyone about the site

[smartcow]

Do you agree that I should get the links removed? should I remove some or all? any Thoughts?

[irvingw]

All profiles are natural until you intentionally do link building. That is a good question you ask, everything we do is to help our site rank better in Google. The problem is the Google has a monopoly and runs the show, so they are the ones who make the rules (which change constantly as they refine and as SEO's attempt to exploit I.E. pagerank sculpting) and war has been declared against link buying and selling. You have the right to do whatever you want on the web, but Google owns Google and has the right to show what they want on the web. Since everyone uses Google you have no choice but to play by their rules and their rule now is if you get caught link building we will take action. Link build if you like, but you better know what you're doing or you will harm your business or worse your client businesses.

[smartcow]

Thanks for the feedback and (probably well deserved) slap in the face. Tp you this may be a bleeding obvious question to some others, who are still learning then feedback is great.

I'm getting that there is the Quantity vs Quality issue here. Having had little experience of building an SEO link strategy, I am plainly not aware of how fast to go or the techniques of getting good links.

I see (using  open site explorer) my competitors have 10's of thousands of external links, so even if I kept at this rate it would be many years before I caught up. That is based on my current understanding, so how do I get to those levels, even if it is over a year or two?

[irvingw]

It all has to do with quality, nothing to do with speed.

Google won't punish a site for going viral, but they will punish a site for manipulative link building in an effort to manipulate ranking positions.

[csfarnsworth]

Ryan If SEO is not to manipulate or try to rank your site than what it is?Not all link profiles are as natural as SEOMOZ/SEL.

[William.Lau]

^ The Expert ^

Not too fast but too reckless.

[RyanKent]

Hi Simon,

I find it amazing that in 2013 questions like this are still asked.

The link plan you shared above is great.....if you are intentionally attempting to get your site penalized. This plan is a perfect outline of what some site owners look for in an effort to build links to a competitor's site and try to get them penalized.

You are absolutely free to earn as many links as you want to your site. Neither Google nor Bing would have any problem with it.

What you are talking about is building manipulative links in an effort to manipulate search rankings. It is a very bad idea. Those links are highly likely to damage your site. My recommendation would be to remove every one.