Link building remains an important ranking factor in Google and other search engines. It is not as important as it once were. Links have become less important as Google has become better at understanding what a site is about and if it is a good source of information on a certain topic. There are now other ranking factors that are just as important as links are. With this said. Links remain one of the most important ranking factors. Other important ranking factors include:

• A mobile-friendly design
• Good UX design
• Good, long content
• Pictures and other media
• Good basic on-page SEO
• Page speed

(click the links above to read more about each topic.)

Links

A good website will earn links organically. This is, however seldom enough to get a website started. You can offer the best content in the world, but no one is going to link to you if no one sees your content. You will, therefore, several always have to build links and promote the website to get it started. Natural organic link building can be a good option for an established website. It might be enough to allow the website to continue to grow. A new website is going to need help, and you are going to have to build links to get it to rank well in Google.

Giving a website a good start with good links is a crucial step towards long term success for a website.

How many links should I build?

There is no fixed answer to the question “ how many links should I build”. The answer depends on a number of different factors such as how many links the competitors have, what keyword you want to rank for, and how competitive the industry you want to enter is. As little as five links might be enough to rank one website. Another website in another niche might need more than a thousand links to rank.

A very common mistake that you should try to avoid is to build links to fast. Building a lot of links quickly is a good way to make sure that no one sees your website. Building links too fast might keep your website from ranking for a few months and in extreme cases, it can make it very hard ever to rank the site.

Make sure to build links very slowly. A new website should not get more than one new links week. A skilled link builder can build links a little faster by pointing the links towards different subpages. If you are new to link building then it is better to build too few links than too many.

Once the website has a more robust link profile than you can start building links faster. A well established websites such as daytrading.com can recieve relevant finance links a lot faster then a new website. New pages on established sites such as daytrading.com should not recieve too many links too fast unless the links are from very reputable sources such as Forbes.com or the wall street journal.   You can read more about link building speed in my article here.

Should I get all the links I can get?

No, you should not get any link you can get. The days that worked are long gone. Today you should strive to get the right links. Not any link. Getting the right links can be hard but it is well worth taking the time to do it. One good link is worth a 1000 poor links. Building 10 goos links can be enough to get to the top of Google even if your competitors have hundreds of low-quality links. You can read more about how to evaluate links here.

Are there links I should avoid?

Yes, there are many links that you should avoid. Links that will do little good or that might even hurt your site. Wasting resources getting links that will not help you is a waste of time that should be avoided. They might not hurt your website but you are still wasting time and resources that could be used to find good links. Links that actually help you. Wasting resources getting bad links will prevent you from reaching the full potential of a site that you could otherwise reach.

You can read more about links you should avoid here.

How to build links?

Building links should always be done according to the Google guidelines and in accordance with white hat principles. Using black hat techniques will provide faster results but will not give you the same long term results. If you want to see quick profits than go ahead and use black hat methods but be aware that success is unlikely to last more than a few months. Use white hat techniques to build a business that can earn you an income year after year.

There are a large number of different methods that you can use to build links.

• You can create link baits.
• You can submit your site to directories.
• You can write guest blog posts.
• You can leave comments on blogs and forums.
• You can create something that regular media wants to write about.
• You contact webmasters and ask them if they want to link to you.
• You can use a myriad of other methods.

Not all mentioned above are good ways to build links. I think you should avoid using several of these methods. You should only use manual methods to build links, and you should only use methods that provide you with good links. You can read more about how to find and build links on this page.