Ever since Google was the first search engine to start using links as a method of ranking websites, link building has been a vital part of Internet marketing. SEO companies and marketing departments have spent countless hours seeking out websites with which to build links to their own sites, and the more unscrupulous would go down the ‘paid links’ path – something which has always been against Google’s Terms of Service and, thanks to the recent Penguin updates, has even begun to have a detrimental impact on websites.

One problem is ‘link building’ takes a long time, and isn’t natural. Also, the quality of links you tend to get from seeking links is often lower than the quality of links great websites naturally acquire – so a far better method is to attract links, rather than build them. By attracting links you’ll end up with (more…)

Ever since Google won the search wars with its algorithm based on links and link strength, SEO has been a constant quest for links – with SEO companies promising ‘quality’ links to improve your rankings within the search giant’s pages. Google has always maintained the act of ‘buying’ or ‘renting’ links was against its terms and conditions, even though it still rewarded websites with the best link profiles. Its actions seemed at odds with its beliefs, and this is why so many Internet marketing companies ploughed on regardless with their paid links, secure in the knowledge they would get the results their clients demanded.

This has all changed now thanks to Google finally practising what it preaches, and taking swift action against websites with unnatural link profiles. Even some SEO companies themselves have found their (more…)