Link building white hat: what does Google say?

During this year 2016, in the blog we have published some articles in which I have explained the ways to develop a good framed in a comprehensive SEO project, as well as some that work, concrete, that we use in the agency with our clients.

I hope it has served you, but… was it necessary to specify so much? Doesn’t Google already give us all the necessary information to be able to optimize our websiteb both onpage and offpage?

Well… yes and no.

In this post, I am going to do a short “text commentary”, so to speak, of the optimization information that it gives us directly and officially Google.

Why? Because I think (really!) that it is very necessary to learn what the internet giant says if we want to use its services properly… and, furthermore, I think it is necessary to carefully explain some of its instructions.

Let’s start!

Link Building white hat, according to Google

You already know that the thing about hats (white hat, black hat…) is a funny invention; at Google they are very serious and do not use this terminology.

What the search engine tells us about the links can be found on their home page. .

I summarize it and copy-paste it below:

About external link building (pages linking to ours)

Make sure other sites contain links to yours.

(…)

Please note that our algorithms can distinguish between natural and unnatural links. The natural links to your site are developed as part of the dynamic nature of the Web when other sites find your site valuable and useful to their users. Artificial links to your site are placed specifically to make your site more popular with search engines. In the information is provided on some of these types of links (such as link schemes and doorway pages).

Only natural links are useful for indexing and ranking of your site.

About internal links (links on our own page)

Create the site with a logical link structure. All pages must be accessible from at least one static text link.

Okay.

They are very clear but… not very explicit, right?

The first thing is impenetrable: we have to make sure that there are people linking to us from their web pages. Received.

If we continue reading, we find that the way to get those links is, for Google, unimportant or, at least, they don’t think it requires much explanation. I refer to the paragraph that says that “the natural links they develop as part of the dynamic nature of the Web when other sites find your site valuable and useful to their users. I don’t know about you, but it sounds like “this goes by itself” (and you already know, if you have some experience in this, that nothing “goes by itself”).

For me, the key is in the words «natural links» and in another sentence that appears on their webmaster guidelines page:

Do not resort to tricks so that the search engine improves the ranking of the site. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself if you’d feel comfortable explaining what you’ve done to a competing website or a Google employee.

Good. Let’s stop here for a moment and play the game that Google proposes:

Would you tell a Google employee or your competition that you have sent a press release and that, thanks to it, they have mentioned you in 50 media outlets, of which 35 have linked to you?

Okay, OK: maybe you wouldn’t tell your competition… but not because you felt bad, but so that they don’t copy your idea. I get it.

But yes you could tell the google employee, No? How is it going to seem bad to him that you use an ancient tactic (almost) in the world of communication and marketing such as the press release?

In other words: if all the web pages that have achieved links with press releases were penalized… big companies would not rank. And they do, boy do they.

My first conclusion is that:

Although we have in mind that we are going to get links, if the actions we carry out are natural and part of a general marketing strategy, we are not going to have any problem with it.

But are there techniques explicitly prohibited by Google? That is, what Google would consider link building black hat.

Well, let’s read what they tell us about it.

Link building techniques that can penalize us

In the same way that Google is somewhat cryptic when it comes to explaining to us what we should do, it is much more rigorous when it explains to us what we should not do, although it is always true to its style:

Here are some examples of link schemes that can negatively affect a site’s ranking in search results:

• Buying or selling links to manipulate ranking. This includes exchanging money for links or posts containing links, exchanging goods or services for links, or sending “free” products to users in exchange for writing about them and including a link.

• Excessive link exchange (“link to my site and I’ll link to yours”) or partner pages for the sake of exchanging links.

• Large-scale article marketing or guest posting campaigns with anchor text links and lots of keywords.

• The use of automated programs or services to create links to your site.

Again, let’s take a closer look: “some examples of link schemes that they can affect negatively”.

Exactly, there it says “can”. Maybe yes, or maybe not.

That is to say: exchanging links with a partner is not going to make 100% sure that both pages (yours and the partner’s) go down.

Nor does it mean that sending a sample of your product to a consumer is going to destroy our rankings: imagine that, without you knowing it, one of your customers appreciates that you send him a Christmas basket on his blog and gives you a link.

How is Google going to penalize that?

But let’s pay attention to some of the other phrases: automated services, “bulk goods” or “buying and selling to manipulate”. Google does not prohibit link building actions, what he totally disapproves of is their abuse.

So, as a second conclusion, the rule to do white hat link building how Google likes it It is basically, be honest.

To Caesar what is Caesar’s

What I want to make clear with this post is that Starting from the information that Google offers us is essential to develop a good SEO strategy, both onpage and offpage. Yes, there are many industry experts with their own blogs who have already read Google and extracted the most important, right? Well, forget about it. A philosophy student who wants to know the work of Plato will be able to read many manuals, but at some point he will have to go to the original, to the texts of Plato, in order to have an idea of ​​the original.

I don’t want to compare Google to the Greek philosopher but hey, I’ll do it: go to the original source. Consult Google. Before you get into the flour, review what they have established as original information. This will help you structure your SEO strategy and understand the gurus telling war stories in forums and blogs. Although later you laugh with us at how unclear Google is on its website, we have to trust them.

And then, yes, go a little deeper and read all our . 🙂