Link building is one of the most effective and proven ways to optimize a website for better search engine rankings. Links can help drive traffic to your website and also plays an important part in the algorithms of major search engines such as Google, Yahoo! and Bing.

In order to guide website owners with their backlinking strategies, the following are ten of the most common mistakes they should avoid when building links.

Tip 1: Bad and ineffective anchor texts

Anchor text refers to the hyperlinked words that if click will direct to a particular webpage. Bad and ineffective anchor texts such as “click here” or “read more” are often ignored by Internet readers – hence, it’s imperative that your link’s anchor text is relevant to the site being directed to.

Tip 2: Links from low quality, irrelevant websites

Links from websites with bad reputations is a common mistake committed by website owners. More often than not, links from websites with a bad reputation can do more harm than good. Such links can even negatively impact your website’s rankings.

Tip 3: Falling prey to paid link programs

Falling prey to paid link programs is another common mistake when building links for your website. Paid link programs usually employ black hat SEO tactics that can easily be detected by search engines.

Tip 4: Getting no-follow links

There are two main categories of links – the no-follow and the do-follow links. Website owners should build do-follow links and not no-follow links. Needless to say, no-follow links do not influence the search engine algorithms.

Tip 5: Spamming comment threads with your links

Spamming comment threads with your links is unethical and might get your accounts banned. As much as possible, you should post comments only if you have something relevant to share or add with the discussion.

Tip 6: Getting links from link farms

Getting links from link farms is also a black hat SEO technique that can get your website banned from search engine results. Getting links should be done naturally and not virally through link farms.

Tip 7: Directing links only to your homepage

Directing links only to your homepage is another common mistake committed by website owners. Links should be spread all over the targeted website and not just in the website’s main homepage.

Tip 8: Submitting links to free website directories

Links built in free website directories are often ignored by search engines. For that reason, building links in such places are inefficient and does not yield the expected results.

Tip 9: Links from pages search engine spiders don’t crawl

When you’re building links to your website, it’s imperative to make sure that you’re links are created in pages where search engine spiders can crawl.

Tip 10: Not checking your links

After you’ve set-up your links, it’s now time to check if you’re links are working properly. You should visit your links from time to time as there are reputable websites that can simply turn to bad ones in just a snap of a finger.