subject: 10 Common Law Firm Search Marketing Mistakes [print this page] Link building is definitely one of the best important Seo activities but this certainly doesn't mean that you should develop hyperlinks at any price. Acquiring backlinks could be very expensive in terms of time and money. There are a lot of costly getting backlinks mistakes and here are some of the most common:
Assess if backlinks have a "nofollow" attribute
Hyperlink exchanges are still one of the ways to acquire links pointing to your site but unfortunately, you can find a lot of unscrupulous site owners, who will defraud you. One of the scams is when you pay somebody for a in-pointing link, it suddenly disappears or has the "nofollow" attribute. That is why you really should assess from time to time if the website link is still there and if it doesn't have the "nofollow" attribute.
Obtaining good quality links but with useless anchor texts
It is terrific when PR of the site you are obtaining links from is high but when the anchor text is "Check this!" or something like which, such a website link is barely useful. Key phrases in the anchor-text are vital, so if the inbound link doesn't have them, it isn't a worthwhile one. Analyzing the anchor texts of website links takes time but the In-pointing link Anchor-text Analyzer tool can do the hard job for you.
Getting an image hyperlink (when a text website link with search phrase is possible)
Sometimes when web masters hurry to get inbound links, they skip minor details, such as anchor text. Yes, an image hyperlink is great and it could even bring you more visitors than a text link (if the image is attractive, of course and users click it) but for Law firm seo purposes nothing beats a key phrase in the anchor text.
Not using ALT text if image link is the only possibility
Image hyperlinks might be the worse option than text hyperlinks but if an image hyperlink is the only possibility to get a in-pointing link, don't reject it. However, make sure which the ALT text of the image link has your keywords and phrases - this is more than nothing.
Obtaining backlinks from irrelevant websites
Now, this mistake is really a popular one! When hunting for backlinks, you should concentrate on relevant internet sites only. If you have a law firm site, getting links from a food one is not helpful. It is true that it is not easy to find relevant websites to get links from but unless your webpage is in a very narrow niche, chances are that there are actually hundreds or even thousands of relevant internet sites you may get a backlink from.
Getting in-pointing links from sites/pages with tons of hyperlinks
A inbound link is more valuable, if it comes from a page, which is not cluttered with tons of other backlinks. Numerous pages have 300, or more website links and if your hyperlink is one of them, this isn't a great achievement. On the other hand, numerous directories put the "nofollow" attribute on nonpaid hyperlinks, so actually even if you will find 300 links on page and most of them are "nofollow" (but yours isn't), this still counts.
Hyperlinks from pages spiders can't crawl
A link might look perfectly respectable (i.e. keywords and phrases in the anchor text and no "nofollow" attribute) and still it might not be a link. This is especially an issue with website link exchanges because you put a link to the other webpage but the other site doesn't do the same for you. Hyperlinks Search engines can't index may be placed on dynamic pages or simply on pages, which are not indexed by Search engines because robots.txt bans it. That is why it doesn't hurt to check from time if the pages your hyperlinks are placed on are accessible to spiders.
Explicitly selling website links
There is hardly a webmaster who hasn't heard which paid website links may hurt your rankings but still many internet marketers don't miss the opportunity to make a few bucks. If you really want to sell website links, you'd better use the specialized link selling services, such as Backlinks to your site.com because they are more discreet. However, have in mind that while some of the paid website links networks try to hide the fact which the links are paid, the rest are not which discreet. Also, maybe the worst gaffe you could make is to include phrases in website like "Buy 5 PR links for $10"or any other hint that you are selling links. You can include "Advertisements!" or similar messages and still sell paid hyperlinks but this is not as explicit as listing your prices for hyperlinks.
Linking to web sites with weak reputation
Linking to internet sites with poor status, also known as "bad neighbors" is one of the worst errors you could make. When you website link to such websites, for Yahoo this means which you endorse them and this results in penalties for you. Which is why you must definitely always assess the internet sites (and their standing) first before you website link to them. Even if you are offered a lot of money to hyperlink to a webpage with bad reputation, you'd better decline the offer because otherwise your rating with search engines will suffer and this will cause you a lot of problems.
Linking to good web sites gone bad
Even if you verify carefully the sites you link to, sometimes it happens which a website, which used to be more or less decent all of a sudden starts publishing objectionable content. That is why it doesn't hurt if you verify not only that the outbound hyperlinks you have are not broken but also where they lead to.
