Is building links just to risky to do nowadays?

[followuk]

Hi,

How risky is link building nowadays? I have a site which has been left on its own and over time has generated links which is great, its a resource type of site so works well in that department. The reason it picks up links by itself is because I have spent time on it and in the past I could just leave and the links it would pick up would maintain its rankings.

Over the last 6 months a lot of marketers have noticed this large traffic, and have produced 1 page sites going directly for my main term - then putting adsense all over it.

So problem is, my site can't build links by itself as fast as these marketers are doing manually. Don't get me wrong I can do what they are doing but they don't care about their 1 pager as much as I do about my site - a lot of work has gone into it.

Can I link build without running a 'big' risk of having my site hit by Google? how does one build links the way Google is ok with?

Thanks.

[EGOL]

Most of the content that I write is "evergreen".

However, I often find new information on a topic and update the pertaining pages on my site.   Then I promote those pages on my site, through my RSS feed and to my email subscribers.  I use Feedburner to collect subscribers and distribute the RSS feed and email updates.

Feedburner gives you links that deliver interested subscribers to a subscription form.  You can use that link on small banners on your site, text links, however, you want to promote.

When Feedburner distributes the information about updated articles, I usually get a lot of traffic from subscribers, and places where subscribers have shared.  I don't do much to promote my content.  I let visitors and subscribers do it for me.  I think that is what you have successfully done in the past.

[followuk]

Agree totally, im going to stick it out for a bit longer - make my site better and see if that helps. If in 3/4 months nothing changes ill have to start looking at ways of gaining SE exposure again because every position I lose to a one pager or brand with a blog post going for the traffic is affecting my rev stream.

I suppose the only positive is I know how to do SEO, I just don't like having to do it.

[DonnaDuncan]

You're welcome Followuk,

And just so you know, the links above speak to link earning as well as the best ways to go about finding and requesting links that will hold up over time and not put you at risk of a Google penalty.

[followuk]

Thanks for the kind words.

Well my pages are better than the one pagers problem is its Q&A type of content.

So 1+1 is always 2 - once they got the answer from either me or a competitor its done and there gone. I just provide the answer better - more indepth with a better design like an actual resource so the sharing on my site is far greater than say the one pagers.

Well I got an even better design coming, responsive, faster load times, more pages so hopefully this helps.

I do have one Question for you though EGOL - how important is freshness? Can content go stale?

[followuk]

Thanks Donna for advice and the resource links - much appreciated.

[Travis_Bailey]

I would be inclined to agree with EGOL, though Donna dropped some pretty good resources. The problem with 'link building' is that it will eventually look unnatural, even if one is quite artful. One person's 'good link' is another person's 'spam'.

I've dealt with people that build links for the sake of building links 'Because Link Building LOL!!!'. It never ends well and they're generally left saying; "But we paid a lot for those links!" The irony of that statement never gets old. Actually it does, but it sounds better if I say it never gets old.

It sounds like you ascribe to the concept of Link Earning, which is safer and the recommended course.

It's true enough that absolute crap/lack of content can be propped up by many absolute crap links. That is not a viable long term strategy, however. Pre-Penguin, I somewhat ruined some guy's six figure payday pointing out the same. Within a few months, without reporting the site, I was correct. He had propped up a thin site with a ton of exact match anchors. It didn't end well. (I, and my agency at the time, got called every name in the book over that one. )

So, if you must 'build links' do so in a way that would drive real traffic to your site. Avoid a preponderance of exact match anchors and try to bring some sort of value wherever you go. But it appears your core competency is adding value to your pages. Maybe you should stick with that.

There's nothing wrong with passive 'link building'.

[EGOL]

The reason it picks up links by itself is because I have spent time on it and in the past I could just leave and the links it would pick up would maintain its rankings.

Nice work!   Very few people are able to do this.  Many could do it but they don't have the courage.

If you start putting resources into linkbuilding you will have to take resources away from what you are currently doing so then did you really gain that much??   And if you were going to put resources into linkbuilding above and beyond your current work then why don't you just invest that spend into what you are already doing that is working?

I would not put a lot of faith in the staying power of these one-page sites.  I bet their content is crap and people go into those sites and then visit yours.  So, I would only give those one page sites serious consideration if that one page is kickass content for what the searchers are looking for or if your traffic is really down only because those one-page sites are taking it from you.

You gotta make up your mind on what you should do.... if it was me, and I might be a fool, but, I am not going to let these one-page site people move me off of my successful course.  I'll just work harder on the plan until I know that the plan isn't workin'.

[DonnaDuncan]

Hi Followuk,

Good question. Things have certainly changed making link building much harder than it was not too long ago, but that doesn't mean you should stop altogether. You DO need to follow best practices though.

Where to find best practices?

I have suggestions on where to start:

• The Moz Beginners Guide - Chapter 7 - Growing Popularity and Links;
• the Link Building Category of YouMoz has lots of good and detailed information;
• I also like Point Blank SEO's Link Building Strategies; and
• Digital Current 2014 Link Building Best Practices.

You might also want to think about being alerted to new publications on the topic. Rand did a whiteboard Friday recently that explains how to setup alerts and identifies free and paid tools you can use. I found it tremendously helpful from a variety of perspectives.

Hope that helps.

D