7. Other points of attention
What else is important when setting up a successful link building strategy? The place where the backlink is placed (with the right anchor texts of course) is also important. In 2016, Search Engine Round Table published Google's official answer, describing the negative effect of 'hiding' links (such as in the footer). John Mueller from Google states that links in a wide header or in the footer are valued lower than links that are placed in the middle of the relevant content.
Other external linking aspects that Google is less enthusiastic about and which can negatively affect findability in search results:
Buying or selling links. This also includes paying for links in cash or in kind, but also delivering a product or service in return for a positive link. The latter is a somewhat debatable point, because it is contrary to influencer marketing, which stands or falls with content about your own product or service posted by influencers. As far as I'm concerned, the following also applies here: it's better to sell your links sparingly than not at all.
Excessive exchange of links and the creation of partner pages that are only intended to share links from each other. In practice, these partner pages work fine. The tip is therefore to ensure that these pages also contain relevant content. Think of a substantive piece about cooperation in which your own product or service is also presented and that is not just filled with links.
Using the keyword excessively in anchor texts and guest blogs. Google also looks at relevance here, so that the use of the keyword in both the anchor text and the content from which it is us phone number list linked remains natural and readable. So paying someone for a guest blog in which the desired keyword is used unnaturally can work against you.
Finally, using automated link building tools to gain more links to the site is also strongly discouraged.
Backlinks
Backlinking or external linking is important for your findability in the search engines, if you do it the right way. The expectation is that, given the emphasis that Google places on relevance, having the right backlinks will also be an important success factor for the findability of your website in the future.
It must be emphasized again that Google values the naturally occurring backlinks and punishes manipulation. The approach and insights described above are therefore based on my daily experience and are therefore not stimulated as such by Google.
In my opinion, link building should be part of the total online marketing strategy, in which valuable content with a clear message, targeted interaction with selected target groups, a conscious choice for online channels and a more structured approach lead to success.