There is a lot of conflicting information about link building in the Post-Panda climate of Google's ranking algorithms. The fact is, no one truely knows exactly how Google is evaluating inbound links to any one website. This has always been the case as Google has worked hard to protect their algorithm metrics and the specific changes they constantly make to improve search result quality.
But, we have learned that many 'old school' and previous SEO techniques are no longer successful and can possibly bring harm to your websites ranking ability. This can lead to being sandboxed or just getting all your links devalued or even de-indexed. Basically, you wasted a little or a lot of time getting backlinks that are negative or useless toward your ranking results. To make sure you don't make any of these mistakes lets take a look at some of the "negative" SEO tactics currently.
Poor and Detrimental SEO Practices:
- Content duplicating, spinning, stealing
- Link cloaking
- Keyword spam, keyword stuffing
- Canonical tags for redirects, stick with 301's and limited use
- Hidden keywords, img tags, etc
- Non-relevant backlink building
What does Panda want to see?
- Quality, unique content
- Relevant and quality inbound links
- Participation with your community, forums, blogs, and more
- Media incorporation: videos, images, etc
- High PR backlinks from relevant sources
Please make sure to stop and remove any old "black hat" style SEO techniqus that are incorporated on your webpage, these will only harm your potential to rank on the search engines. Especially as the Panda algorithm keeps being pushed through the results, adding, deleting, and altering results for better user quality.
Focus on writing quality content for your site AND for your backlinks. Then you'll be able to distribute this content throughout the web, helping you gain strong contextual linking and anchor text that is integrated with unique content that speaks to your specific market and niche. If you do not have the time to put forth quality efforts, make sure to browse the web and find a quality SEO company.
About the Author:
Mason Stoller has been working in the internet marketing industry for over 8 years, starting with small business consulting and now working with major corporations across the United States with SEO Influence.com. Check out his personal SEO Tips blog at SEOBestTips.com.
