7 Link Building Myths That Are Probably Costing You Money!

March 26, 2009 by Affiliate Profit Center
Filed under: search-engine-optimization 

One of the hottest topics in the online marketing world is always link building. There are so many would-be gurus, know-it-alls and just plain old silly people out there, spouting off nonsense ideas and unproven link building theories that it’s hard to really to sift through what will work and what is just some self-serving nugget of stupidity.

Do I sound bitter about this? Sorry if I do. ;-)

Anyway, here’s a list of 7 myths I’ve heard and seen over the last few years related to link building.

1. Never link to a site with a Lower Google PR then yours (WTF?). The idiots who say this are the same ones who voted for George W. Bush (Twice)! First off, even if this were a valid argument (and it’s not), the simple fact is, only Google knows the actual Page Rank of a site. The Page Rank we see in the Google Tool bar is several month old, even immediately after a PR update. So that PR 2 site you’re looking at right now, may actually already be a pr 5.

The Truth: Link out to content you like, regardless of the sites Page Rank.

2. Never link to a site that doesn’t link back to you – this will rob your site of pr! More nonsense! Linking to good content, that you think your visitors will like is just good business. Your job as a blogger is to give your readers valid information, if sometimes that information comes from another site, so be it!

The Truth: (once again) Link out to content you like, even if you’re not getting a backlink for it.

3. Set up a Link page or “Link Directory” on your site and do all of your outbound linking from that section. Ok, in the very early days of the Internet (circa 1995 maybe) link pages were worthwhile places to get links from. Back then there were a relatively small number of web sites and search engines hadn’t been invented yet so we usually found new sites by cruising through these directories. Hey, we’re in the new millennium now – no one looks at link pages any more – why do you think Google will?

The Truth: Be proud of the sites and pages you link to, don’t bury them on a “links page” somewhere with hundreds of other sites. If you don’t want people to know you are linking to another site – you probability shouldn’t be linking to it. Period.

4. Three Way Linking is good – it fools Google into thinking you’re both getting one-way backlinks. Are You Kidding Me? Make No Mistake – Google hires the smartest people on the planet, your little three way linking scheme ain’t going to fool them – even for a second!

The Truth – a good link is a good link! It doesn’t matter if it is a reciprocal link or a one way link. Dreaming up these little covert linking plans is just a waste of time.

5. Links from sites that use the “No-Follow” tag are worthless! The No-Follow tag is an optional entry on the html code that creates hyperlinks. It was invented a few years ago to give web site owners the ability to link out to other sites without giving away “link juice”. It’s really a stupid tag that just causes grief and confusion. What people lose site of is that even though you may not be getting any “link juice” people can still see and follow these links.

The Truth: A good link is a Good link (Are you seeing a trend here?). If a site links to me with the no-follow tag I may not be getting any search engine benefit but you know what – I can get actual visitors to my site from that link. You heard right – not all linking needs to be about getting page rank. Isn’t it better to have a live person visiting your site then to get some minute amount of page rank added to it from a hidden link that no one will ever click on? Remember the goal here is to get traffic!

6. Always link out to the sites that are in the top five in Google for your keyphrase. This is a great one! A few years back people started posting in forums that Google would “reward” your site if you always linked out to the sites that were currently at the top of Google for your keyphrase. So people started doing this – but guess what, it didn’t help them. It did however help out the people who were in the top five of Google. Btw, guess who was responsible for starting and keeping this rumor alive …people that were already in the top five of Google for their keyphrases. :-)

The Truth: Link out to content you like – it doesn’t matter where it is in the search engines!

7. Participate in “Automated Link Building” schemes – you’ll get thousands of links in no time! Yeah – that will work. That’s exactly what Google loves to see, sites that pay money to get automated links.

The Truth: The reason links help you with search engine rankings is because a link is supposed to be a sign that someone likes your content. Google uses that as an endorsement of your site and rewards you for it. Automated linking schemes take the “endorsement” part out of the equation. Google doesn’t like them and will punish you as soon as they figure it out!

Ok that’s all of the link building myths I can think of right now. Hey, if you liked this post or found a benefit out of it ….Link To Me!!!

Good Luck!

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    40 Comments on 7 Link Building Myths That Are Probably Costing You Money!

    1. Internet Marketing Email » Blog Archive » 7 Linking Building Myths That Are Probably Costing You Money! on Thu, 26th Mar 2009 2:04 pm

      2. [...] Affiliate Profit Center placed an observative post today on 7 Linking Building Myths That Are Probably Costing You Money!Here’s a quick excerptAnyway, here’s a list of 7 myths I’ve heard and seen over the last few years related to link building. 1. Never link to a site with a Lower Google PR then yours (WTF?). The idiots who say this are the same ones who voted for George W. … [...]

    2. Review 2 Bonus on Fri, 27th Mar 2009 12:16 am

      3. Very interesting post.

      Most of these things we take for granted.

      You’re also right when you say Google hires the smartest people lol

      Tricks don’t work anymore

      Rob

    3. web designer mom on Fri, 27th Mar 2009 3:53 am

      4. wow i learned a lot from this single article. kudos!

    4. Ravi Verma on Fri, 27th Mar 2009 5:56 am

      5. this post is clearly about how to earn money. the writer tells about the easy methods to earn money and he also clears the problems which are not completed yet. this is a great post to read for the beginners in earning money. but one thing each method is very easy and applicable for everyone i think.
      Regards,
      Ravi Verma
      __________
      Silk Ties

    5. Julia at Blog Finder on Fri, 27th Mar 2009 7:00 am

      6. Thank you for a great article. I agree with the conceptions you described. Link building process should be well thought. Not all the sites are worth to get links from. And it often happens that webmasters forget about their sites and just focus at obtaining as much inbound links as possible. As you wrote website content does matter much. Informative, regularly updated website has more chances to be linked to than a low quality site.

    6. making money internet on Fri, 27th Mar 2009 3:41 pm

      7. Nice post! Thumbs up.

      Another method to make some extra money online is to offer your best digital photos so-called image banks with stockphotos. Companies can draw from the images to be used for example in advertisements, magazines, leaflets or on websites, in short in their campaigns. You get paid when your image is downloaded.

    7. Marble Host on Wed, 1st Apr 2009 6:58 am

      8. This is an excellent article.I see evidence of these very beliefs in many of the people.I encounter w3ith theperfectr Biz finder.The truth is period of economic crisis are the absolute Best times to start a business.
      Thanks for your clarity.

    8. Atlanta Video Production on Fri, 3rd Apr 2009 11:24 pm

      9. Great seo advice, thanks for the tips!

    9. Bullion on Mon, 6th Apr 2009 5:34 pm

      10. Nice simple list, and to the point. Regarding point No.6: Yeah, I remember when people were doing that and linking to the sites that were top for their keyword phrases?? Somehow they thought it would make their site relevant; I never understood that one as there was no proof. Whatever the traffic, if you can spark interest, you’re onto a winner.

    10. Hectic Capiznon Bloggers 2009 on Thu, 9th Apr 2009 7:10 am

      11. thank you for sharing an idea through this post is very helpful to me I am a new blogger that’s why I am searching some tips and post that can give me some knowledge in Search Engine Optimization and I Appreciate this one.

    11. Gadgets on Mon, 13th Apr 2009 7:35 am

      12. I’m building link for my site as your said, but I don’t know why you think: Never link to a site that doesn’t link back to you – this will rob your site of pr.

      If you want to public a new post that you read from other blog, you must insert source ( is mean you backlink to other blog that its do not backlink to you)

      Anyway thanks for your basic tips for build link for website (blog)

    12. Affiliate Profit Center on Mon, 13th Apr 2009 1:45 pm

      13. Gadget,

      Re-read the post. That is a myth that many people believe. I’m disputing that in the post!

    13. banner towing on Mon, 13th Apr 2009 1:56 pm

      14. You really know what you are talking about. In all the hype to “get more business” many marketers have forgotten that giving the consumer what they want is always the best business in the long run. Good content is good for business no matter who put it up or who is linked to whom.- Nate

    14. Florida Real estate on Tue, 14th Apr 2009 4:50 am

      15. Agree with that Never link to a site that doesn’t link back to you and link at nofollow attribute (QUESTION) but is it true that nofollow back link COUNTS in backlink we just not get its PR Juice effect ?

    15. Jared Stenzel on Wed, 15th Apr 2009 8:52 pm

      16. Some of these I still don’t know how much I agree with. I think you are really wasting your time on blogs that are nofollow. More so in the comment area as very minimal clicks will be made on comment links versus a sidebar.

    16. auto insurance on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 1:18 am

      17. thanks to share this information. it helpful for me. :)

    17. Catherina on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 4:37 am

      18. Thanks for the heads up! Some of those I actually followed because I thought they were true. I still reply in no-follow blogs even if the link back doesn’t count – some readers from that blog may think what you have to say may be good enough to warrant a visit, so that’s some added traffic.

    18. Total return on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 5:55 am

      19. Hello,

      nice post I like your site very well and continue to do so. I have brokemark your site.

    19. Steel Buildings on Thu, 16th Apr 2009 7:35 am

      20. I think keywordluv is good tool for optimization purpose.

    20. team leadership training on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 6:24 am

      21. Hi there!

      Point 4 about 3 way linking being worthless.

      I don’t know, how about 3 way linking that doesn’t go full circle (or rather triangle).

      Site A -> Site B -> Site C

      But site C doesn’t link back to site A.

      I find this works a charm, of course you need a site A that doesn’t care about not getting a link.

    21. Affiliate Profit Center on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 11:03 am

      22. I didn’t mean that the links were worthless, the links are fine. I just don’t think it’s fooling Google or that Google rewards one-way links any more then they do reciprocal links.

      Pagerank is pagerank. With all else being equal, your site will get the same amount Pagerank from a link that you reciprocate as it will from one that you don’t reciprocate.

    22. merchant cash advance on Fri, 17th Apr 2009 4:19 pm

      23. Those are all good tips, a good link is a good link, no matter what!

    23. tnomeralc web design toys on Mon, 20th Apr 2009 1:26 am

      24. thank you for sharing an idea through this post is very helpful to me I am a new blogger that’s why I am searching some tips and post that can give me some knowledge in Search Engine Optimization and I Appreciate this one.

    24. Grigorij on Fri, 24th Apr 2009 3:24 pm

      25. What is three way linking?

    25. Melayu Boleh on Sat, 25th Apr 2009 5:28 am

      26. omg! never knew that I also have made some mistake in link build.
      Thanks for this tips. It really help me :)
      Hoho, I should recheck first before believing some link building myth.

    26. Guillaume on Tue, 28th Apr 2009 10:39 am

      27. Thanks for this great post.

      I am starting to realize all the things I was taking for granted and that are wrong.
      Anyway, it is better late than never, isn’t it?

    27. bostonmaattorneys on Wed, 29th Apr 2009 5:33 am

      28. Wow !
      Thanks for sharing the interesting tips, keep up posting the good work : )

    28. Jordans on Sun, 3rd May 2009 11:52 pm

      29. This is to answer guys question about “What is three way linking?”

      Think of it this way you are site A, and you link to site B, than site B links to site C… finally site C will link back to your site… Site A.

    29. MRZPerformance on Sun, 10th May 2009 3:45 pm

      30. Thanks for that interesting tips ! But I have a question, is it possible for google to detect or penalize 3 way linking ?

    30. Affiliate Profit Center on Sun, 10th May 2009 5:37 pm

      31. There is nothing to penalize. Google doesn’t care about three way linking.

    31. Web Design on Mon, 1st Jun 2009 5:57 am

      32. Really Nice and Informative Post. Thanks For sharing the useful Tips.

    32. Reviewer Kings on Mon, 1st Jun 2009 9:48 pm

      33. That helps a lot.. just go for good quality links is the way to go

      thanks

    33. cPanel Hosting on Tue, 2nd Jun 2009 1:14 pm

      34. I’m just getting started with blogging and have learned some nice techniques from your site. Thanks!

    34. DTs Flash Drive Blog on Thu, 18th Jun 2009 1:18 pm

      35. Great list. I agree with you on no 5 but it’s still sad that nofollow was invented in the first place. It always saddens me to see it in action. But what I find even worse is when blogs only allow commenting for subscribers, which gives links to their profiles and not their websites.

      While I agree that every link is probably a good link ,PR and SERP rank does look at what environment those links come from. If it’s totally unrelated to your niche it won’t do you much good, IMO.

      LOL regarding no 6. That’s classic.

    35. train horn on Thu, 25th Jun 2009 1:04 pm

      36. Great info… good your share this one it helps a lot..
      I like the way you make your post its interesting one.. good job.. ;)

    36. Affiliate MArketing Tips on Tue, 7th Jul 2009 1:21 pm

      37. Thanks. Nicely written
      You must agree though that the most valuable links are one way links, preferably with anchor text

    37. deadale on Sat, 7th Nov 2009 7:32 am

      38. informative and very interesting post!!!

    38. lewis on Sun, 6th Dec 2009 1:25 am

      39. Great insight.
      Thanx for sharing the information. I will surely going to use this.

    39. Nepal Treks on Tue, 12th Jan 2010 12:50 am

      40. i was searching how to get free one way backlink but i was not able to get but after reading your post i m so happy with you and your post. now i m getting some idea about getting one way backlink. Thank you very much for sharing

      Best regard
      Nepal Treks

    40. Lars Tong Strömberg on Sat, 30th Jan 2010 3:09 pm

      41. About number 2, isn´t the opposite true here? I.e. reciprocal linking is bad for the PR?

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