There’s no question that the process of link-building is quite a noisy environment. There is a lot of “free advice” out there that has no real foundation, leaving you floundering trying to grasp at the tiniest hope of success.
While that may seem dismal, don’t worry – when you take the time to learn about the most common link building myths, you will be well on your way to building a successful strategy that’s built on a foundation of proven and effective methods you can use now and in the future. Keep reading to learn more about the most common link building myths, the truth about these, and more. You can also check out this great article if you are looking for some helpful and effective link building strategies.
Myth: All the Links on a Web Page Pass an Equal Ranking Value
One of the most common myths relates to the distributed value of links on a web page. There are many who claim that all the links on a page pass the same value, no matter if they are positioned lower or higher in the article. While you may believe this too, try to consider the differences between body links and footer links.
There are several factors that will impact the value of a link. When these factors are carefully considered, you will see why body links usually have more ranking value than footer links. The factors include:
- Anchor text and font size of text related to the link
- Position of the link
- If the link is included in a list; the position in the list
- Attributes or font color of the link
- Link type
- Content of the words before or after the link
A ranking factor that is still highly debated is the position of the link and if links positioned higher will weigh more. Regardless of these ongoing debates, it is clear – links on the same web page will have different ranking values.
Myth: Image Links Aren’t Good for SEO
Another common myth related to link building is related to SEO. If this is abused, all the aspects of your SEO efforts could be bad. For example – image SEO. This is where many spammers try to clutter keywords in the alt descriptions to achieve a higher ranking and essentially “cheat” Google. While this period is in the past, there are some people who still believe that image links are a bad thing.
Another issue that is encouraging this myth is the possibility of crawlers reading images. A few years ago, the bots were unable to read the included alt attribute for images to parse it and it was easier for them to read the HTML text. However, this has also changed thanks to the use of AI. Now, Google bots can easily read images and understand the elements that are in it.
As Google continues to take steps to enable better image understanding, it is certain that there is no way that image links are bad for your SEO. Just make sure to use them in context and use the proper alt text description.
Myth: Links Coming from Wikipedia Provide a Guarantee for a Top Ranking
Many believe that links from Wikipedia and similar sites with higher authority will guarantee a top ranking. This is something that has been a misconception for a while.
According to a Google representative, Wikipedia is ranked just as any other website. This means that links from sites like Wikipedia and other influencing websites don’t receive special treatment from Google.
As you can see, there are several myths you need to make sure you don’t believe when you are creating a link building website. Knowing what these are can ensure you focus your efforts on tactics that will provide the desired results.