If petrol is what can fuel a fire, then for many SEO experts it is backlinks that fuel rankings. It is not difficult to understand why this is the case because for Google to determine the relevancy and more importantly, the authority of a website, it is backlinks that give it the best indications of these.
For relevancy, it will be the anchor text included in the backlink, and as for authority, the more established and authoritative the website being linked from, the more beneficial the backlink. This is because some of that authority from the first website is being passed by association via the backlink to the second website.
The ability of backlinks to heavily influence where Google ranks a website page for a particular keyword has meant there is a huge emphasis on website owners to find and obtain backlinks. Many take the sensible route and employ a professional SEO agency to create a backlinking strategy for them. Unfortunately, others are not so sensible and decide to obtain backlinks in any way possible.
The danger they face is that many of the blackhat tactics used to gain those links are identified relatively quickly by Google. The result is at best Google reducing rankings until the links are removed. In the worst case, they will simply delist the website from search results completely. To ensure these do not happen to you, here are seven backlinking tactics you must avoid.
#1 Automatic Backlinks Generators: These paid services offer to create lots of links for a fee with ridiculous offers like ten thousand backlinks within a week for fifty dollars. Created by software, these backlinks are easily identified by Google and a website that obtains that many backlinks so quickly will also raise a red flag.