The dangers of cheap local SEO link building
In this section, we’ll discuss local SEO link building and how we can use links effectively. Backlinks are essentially links from other websites back to your own website. They are an important part of SEO because they show search engines that your website is relevant and popular. Backlinks essentially act as a vote of confidence to Google and other search engines for your site. In addition to increasing traffic to your website, local SEO link building can also help you gain credibility within your niche by driving visitors (ie potential customers) to your pages.
In order for your website to build backlinks organically, other websites need to link to it out of choice. You can do this by either seeking out opportunities to get other websites to link to your website. There are many options and sometimes you can get creative but the ultimate goal is simply to get your website linked from another! We will cover a few examples below.
Local SEO link-building examples
It is best to create a high-quality piece of content that other websites will want to link to in order to build organic backlinks. It is also possible to participate in link-building campaigns with other websites, or you can offer to write a guest blog on other websites in order to get a link back to your own.
When it comes to building links to your website, it could be tempting to take shortcuts and buy cheap backlinks from low-quality websites. After all, the process of link building for local SEO can be very time-consuming and expensive, so why not save a little money by taking a shortcut?
Just to give some additional context, here is a backlink from our website that we gained by contributing to an article that was written in our niche on startupblogpost.com.
Buying cheap backlinks can actually do more harm than good to your website. Here’s why:
1. Low-Quality Links Can Get Your Site Penalized
You’ll probably find that one of the biggest dangers of buying cheap backlinks is that they can cause Google to penalize your site in the long run. If Google detects that you’re buying links, they could penalize your site by removing it from their search results altogether or penalize specific website pages. Neither of these is good, so it’s vital to make sure the link-building strategy you are using is sound!
2. Cheap Links Can Hurt Your Site’s Reputation
In addition, if you’re buying low-quality backlinks, then it can negatively affect the reputation of your site. It may make it appear as if your website is low-quality and this can reflect poorly on your own website, as well as make it appear suspicious. If people see that you’re buying links, they may have a lower trust level in your website.
3. You Might Not Get What You Pay For
Often, when you purchase cheap backlinks, you don’t get what you paid for. Many of these services use automated software to create links, which means that the links are often of poor quality and do not work. A great deal of these services do not provide you with any guarantee that the links will even be live, so you might as well waste your money.
4. It’s Better to Build High-Quality Links
Finally, it’s essential that you focus on building high-quality links from reputable websites rather than building low-quality ones. These links will have a more significant impact on your website and are less likely to get you penalized by Google. Despite the fact that building these links is more time-consuming and labor-intensive, it will be worthwhile in the long run in the end.
It will also give you an opportunity to flex your creative skills to identify new opportunities to build links. At Catalyst RVA we have a multi-step backlink development process to help you identify only the most important links for your campaign and research new opportunities to develop relationships in your niche.
Now let’s talk benefits of quality link building for a moment!
Your SEO campaign isn’t complete without link building, and I’m pretty sure no good SEO will disagree with me. Link building is one of the most important ranking factors for SEO. You need to make sure that you don’t neglect link building or developing a quality strategy to maintain and develop quality links if you want to increase your website’s visibility and authority, which can lead to more traffic and better search engine rankings.
Don’t underestimate the importance of your link-building!
So while using many of the different strategies available to build backlinks can be very tedious it is well worth the effort invested! If you struggle with ideas for link building follow allow with our social media channels linked in the footer and if you’d like some personal help please feel free to reach out and check out some of our local SEO link-building service offerings.
And now the age-old Link-building question…
Right about now you’re most likely asking yourself should I use an agency for help with my local SEO link-building strategy? As an agency owner, we are a bit biased but our answer has some nuance! We DO recommend you work with someone skilled to help you with developing the STRATEGY of your link-building campaign. We also DO recommend you build the links yourself because those relationships can be vital for you and your business in the future
