Link Building is an incredibly effective tactic to improve search engine rankings. It helps search engine crawlers discover new web pages, gain organic referral traffic, and improve the website’s visibility. When combined with a technical SEO foundation, valuable content, and user experience, businesses can elevate their chances of ranking higher on SERPs.

Despite the numerous benefits of link-building, it is not an easy strategy to implement. Nearly 65% of SEO Practitioners affirm that link-building is one of the most challenging strategies. Additionally, 36% of the businesses said they have to hire a Link Building Agency to get the desired results.

Yet, some businesses receive zero to no results. It’s because, in link-building, even the slightest mistake can lead to the loss of golden opportunities. That’s why it is essential that SEO practitioners, especially in-house SEO pros, get acquainted with the following Link Building Mistakes and avoid them at all costs.

12 Link Building Mistakes to Avoid in 2023

Link building is a critical aspect of SEO, and avoiding these 12 common mistakes can help you improve your website’s search engine ranking and online visibility in 2023.

1) Neglecting Your Content

Link building is an important strategy to improve the ranking of a website on search engine result pages. However, many website owners make the mistake of focusing solely on link building, neglecting the quality of their content. This can negatively affect their SEO efforts in the long run.

Why Neglecting Your Content is a Link-Building Mistake:

• Attracting Low-Quality Links: When you focus solely on building links, you may attract low-quality links that can harm your website’s search engine ranking.
• High Bounce Rate: If your website visitors don’t find your content engaging and informative, they may leave your site quickly, resulting in a higher bounce rate, which can lower your website’s ranking.

What’s The Solution?

1. Prioritize Content Creation: Creating high-quality content should be your top priority. Ensure that your content is engaging, informative, and technically sound.
2. Conduct Keyword Research: Conducting thorough keyword research can help you create content that aligns with your target audience’s needs and interests.
3. Update Your Content Regularly: Regularly updating your content ensures that it is relevant and up-to-date, keeping your website visitors engaged.
4. Focus on Creating Link-Worthy Content: Creating link-worthy content that naturally attracts high authority backlinks is crucial. Such content should be informative, original, and engaging.
5. Use Different Types of Content: Use a variety of content types, such as videos, infographics, and podcasts, to keep your website visitors engaged and interested.

2) Ignoring Mobile Optimization

In today’s world, mobile optimization is crucial for any website to succeed. However, many website owners make the mistake of ignoring mobile optimization when it comes to link building. This can negatively impact their website’s SEO efforts and user experience.

Why Ignoring Mobile Optimization is a Link Building Mistake

• Decreased Mobile Traffic: With more than 50% of internet traffic coming from mobile devices, ignoring mobile optimization can result in decreased mobile traffic.
• Negative User Experience: Websites that are not optimized for mobile devices can result in a poor user experience, resulting in a higher bounce rate, which can harm your website’s search engine ranking.

What’s The Solution?

1. Use Responsive Design: Using responsive design ensures that your website adapts to different screen sizes, making it easier for mobile users to access your website.
2. Improve Website Speed: Mobile users expect fast loading times. Optimizing your website’s speed can improve the user experience and decrease bounce rates.
3. Optimize Content for Mobile: Ensuring that your website’s content is optimized for mobile devices, such as using shorter paragraphs and larger font sizes, can improve the user experience.
4. Use Mobile-Friendly Plugins: Using mobile-friendly plugins, such as a mobile-friendly contact form, can improve the user experience and keep mobile users engaged.
5. Test Your Website: Regularly testing your website on different mobile devices and browsers can ensure that it is optimized for all mobile users.

3) Focusing On Quantity Than Quality

Quality content is the key ingredient of link building success. Quality content is not merely limited to formatting, readability, or correct use of grammar. Instead, long-form content that provides valuable and new information to the readers will help make SEO planning thrive.

However, it is noteworthy that writers need not add just any piece of information to increase the content length. Instead, they must pay attention to the most useful or necessary data that the reader must not miss out on. It will also make it easier to infuse links in the articles in an editorial way.

What’s The Solution?

Always audit the content and remove irrelevant or unappealing information. Focus on niche-relevant, authentic, and engaging content to elevate the quality of articles. Adding infographics or alt text will also help improve the content.

4) Not Paying Attention To The Search Intent

Search intent or user intent is a user’s query or thought on Google or any other search engine. For instance, a person interested in digital marketing may want to know “How to rank higher on SERPs?” or “What is link-building?” These questions are actually the search intent of the user. The websites that do not consider search intent or repair their on-page SEO do not necessarily get quality backlinks for the long term.

Bear in mind that the primary objective of Google is to satisfy the search intent. So, it should also be one of the primary goals of SEO professionals.

What’s The Solution?

Consult competitor and industry analysis before formulating the link-building strategy. It will help understand the target audience’s tastes and preferences. Thus, businesses can modify their content strategy accordingly.

Also, focus on improving the on-page SEO along with the link-building strategies to get effective results. Try to establish expertise in the industry or subject matter using a powerful content strategy. It will help Google learn about the company’s services.

5) Not Diversifying Your Anchor Text

Anchor text is the text that appears as a hyperlink on a webpage. Many website owners make the mistake of not diversifying their anchor text when it comes to link building. This can negatively impact their website’s search engine ranking and SEO efforts.

Why Not Diversifying Your Anchor Text is a Link Building Mistake

• Over-Optimization: When you use the same anchor text repeatedly, it can appear over-optimized, which can harm your website’s search engine ranking.
• A penalty from Google: Google’s algorithms are designed to detect and penalize websites that engage in manipulative link-building practices, including using the same anchor text repeatedly.

What’s The Solution?

1. Use Natural Anchor Text: Use natural anchor text that aligns with the content on the linked page. This can improve the user experience and avoid penalties from Google.
2. Diversify Your Anchor Text: Use a variety of anchor text, including branded and generic anchor text, to avoid over-optimization and improve your website’s search engine ranking.
3. Use Co-Occurrence: Co-occurrence refers to using a word or phrase that is closely related to the target keyword as anchor text. This can improve the relevancy of the linked page and avoid over-optimization.
4. Avoid Exact Match Anchor Text: Avoid using exact match anchor text, which is identical to the target keyword. Instead, use variations of the target keyword and related phrases.
5. Monitor Your Anchor Text: Regularly monitoring your anchor text can help you identify any over-optimization issues and take corrective action.

6) Obsessing Over Third-Party Link Metric

Indeed, third-party tools and software can help professionals learn and understand the SEO value of backlinks, keyword ranking, traffic value, and more. However, depending solely on such tools may lead to the following:

• Insufficient subjective evaluation.
• Limited opportunities.
• Development of lopsided link profile.

What’s The Solution?

SEO practitioners need to understand that it is impossible to convert link prospects at 100 percent. Third-party link metrics change or update over time. Thus, obsessing over them might not offer favorable results all the time.

For instance, it might not always be feasible if an agency wants to connect with high-DA (Domain Authority) websites for backlinks. The site with high DA today might have low DA tomorrow and vice versa. That’s why it is essential to connect with sites that focus on quality and help plant seeds of growth.

7) Neglecting Creating Topical Content

The topic content is a term that has been coined with SEO in the last few years. It means the timely delivery of relevant content related to the current business, industry, or marketing scenario. This type of content is “Of-the-moment” and highly searchable information. Thus, it helps drive organic traffic and improve the site’s ranking.

For instance, posting about Gift and proposal ideas during Valentine’s week is topical content. However, posting topical and relevant content is not enough. There are already thousands of blogs that provide similar information, thus, not succeeding in earning links. SEO practitioners need to provide out-of-the-box and surprising content to get the desired results. Continuing the above example, for valentine’s week, you can provide information about “How Couples Can Practice Their Love Language?” It will be something that couples might be interested in learning to improve their relationship.

What’s The Solution? 

Know that the internet is filled with countless informative guides. So, SEO pros need to pay attention to the topics that are important but not covered widely. Present the information in a form that is easy to understand and holds its value. The use of pictures or infographics can also help make the content engaging.

Furthermore, topical and informative content will give an instant push to become a hit and provide quality backlinks. Learn what’s happening around the world and infuse useful information into the content.

8) Poor Blogger Outreach

Last but not least, blogger outreach is a crucial pillar of every link-building campaign to help improve brand awareness. Using standard or one-liner, personalization is expected by every blogger. It will not necessarily encourage them to connect with the brand. Thus, there is the likelihood of intentional avoidance. Not performing well at outreach means not getting quality backlinks, impacting the long-term planning of the campaign.

What’s The Solution?  

Learning how to grab the attention of bloggers through hundreds of emails is crucial. Here’s how to do it:

• Create an impressive subject line:
  • Keep the subject line short, simple, and clear.
  • Include correct information.
  • Include the desired results.
  • Use proper grammar, punctuation, and spelling.

• Create specified email body:
  • Be straightforward with the information or request.
  • Show the performance instead of merely telling.
  • Avoid using sales or ambiguous language.
  • Explain how your content will help them and their target audience.

• During follow-ups:
  • Send no more than three emails.
  • Call back to the previous emails.
  • Understand bloggers are busy and get hundreds of emails, so be patient.

9) Not Focusing on Niche-Specific Websites

Many website owners make the mistake of not focusing on niche-specific websites when it comes to link building. This can lead to a lack of relevance and authority, resulting in lower search engine rankings and fewer targeted visitors.

Why Not Focusing on Niche-Specific Websites is a Link-Building Mistake

• Lack of Relevance: Links from irrelevant websites can harm your website’s search engine ranking and authority.
• Lack of Authority: Websites that are not authoritative in your niche may not be trusted by search engines, resulting in lower search engine rankings.

What’s The Solution? 

1. Identify Relevant Websites: Identify websites that are relevant to your niche and target audience, and focus on building links from those websites.
2. Build Relationships: Build relationships with niche-specific websites by engaging with their content, offering guest posts, and participating in their communities.
3. Create Quality Content: Creating quality content that is relevant to your niche can attract links from niche-specific websites.
4. Monitor Your Backlinks: Regularly monitoring your backlinks can help you identify any links from irrelevant websites and take corrective action.

10) Failing to Build Relationships

One of the common link-building mistakes is failing to build relationships with other websites and content creators. Without building relationships, website owners may miss out on valuable link-building opportunities and struggle to improve their search engine ranking and authority.

Why Failing to Build Relationships is a Link-Building Mistake

• Missed Opportunities: Failing to build relationships with other websites and content creators can result in missed opportunities for link-building and collaboration.
• Lack of Trust and Credibility: Websites that lack relationships with other websites and content creators may not be trusted or perceived as credible by search engines.

What’s The Solution? 

1. Engage with Other Websites and Content Creators: Engage with other websites and content creators by commenting on their content, sharing their content, and reaching out to them via email or social media.
2. Collaborate on Content: Collaborate on content creation with other websites and content creators to build mutually beneficial relationships and gain valuable backlinks.
3. Offer Guest Posts: Offer to write guest posts for other websites in your niche to build relationships and gain backlinks. Or you can also hire the best guest posting services to elevate your brand, like OutreachMonk. 
4. Attend Industry Events: Attend industry events and conferences to network with other website owners and content creators.
5. Monitor Your Backlinks: Regularly monitor your backlinks to identify new opportunities for relationship building and collaboration.

11) Not Monitoring Your Backlinks

Another common link-building mistake is not monitoring your backlinks. Without monitoring your backlinks, you may not be aware of any changes in the quality of your backlinks or if any new links have been added to your site.

Why Not Monitoring Your Backlinks is a Link Building Mistake

• Quality Control: Not monitoring your backlinks can lead to low-quality links, which can harm your website’s search engine ranking and authority.
• Missed Opportunities: Without monitoring your backlinks, you may miss out on valuable link-building opportunities.

What’s The Solution? 

1. Use Backlink Monitoring Tools: Use backlink monitoring tools such as Ahrefs, Moz, or SEMrush to monitor your backlinks regularly.
2. Monitor for Broken Links: Monitor for broken links on your website and correct them to avoid losing valuable backlinks.
3. Monitor for Low-Quality Links: Regularly check for low-quality links and take corrective action to avoid harming your website’s search engine ranking and authority.
4. Disavow Bad Links: Disavow any bad links that cannot be removed to avoid negative impacts on your website’s search engine ranking and authority.

12) Ignoring Social Media

One of the link-building mistakes that businesses and website owners make is ignoring social media as a link-building platform. Social media platforms offer a variety of opportunities for building links and increasing website traffic. Ignoring social media can limit the reach and visibility of a website, leading to missed opportunities for link-building and engagement.

Why Ignoring Social Media is a Link-Building Mistake

• Missed Opportunities: Ignoring social media as a link-building platform can result in missed opportunities for building relationships, gaining backlinks, and increasing website traffic.
• Low Visibility: Without a presence on social media, a website may have limited visibility and may not reach its target audience.

What’s The Solution? 

1. Create and Optimize Social Media Profiles: Create social media profiles for your business and optimize them with relevant keywords, descriptions, and links to your website.
2. Share Content: Share relevant and engaging content on social media platforms to drive traffic back to your website and build relationships with your audience.
3. Engage with Your Audience: Engage with your audience on social media by responding to comments, liking and sharing their posts, and participating in relevant conversations.
4. Build Relationships: Build relationships with other businesses and content creators on social media by following them, commenting on their posts, and sharing their content.
5. Run Promotions and Contests: Run promotions and contests on social media to increase engagement and drive traffic back to your website.

Summing Up!

Link building is a vital component of effective SEO strategy, and avoiding common mistakes can make all the difference. The solutions outlined in this article can help website owners avoid the top 12 link-building mistakes and attain their desired SEO outcomes in 2023. 

By demonstrating persistence, determination, and consistency, businesses can achieve their link-building objectives and remain ahead of the competition.

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