Why Your Link Building Fails

Link building for SEO will always be important for content marketers, digital marketers, SEOs, business owners, and entrepreneurs.

While the history of link building is a bit complicated and delicate, there’s now a clearer path forward for those who take the time to reflect on past experiences and learn from them, even the mistakes.

Link Building: Trial and (Lots of) Error

At a digital marketing conference, it’s best to start conversations with safe, fun topics like social media or video SEO content. But if you really want to spark a lively discussion, bring up link building.

This topic can stir up strong opinions. Some people see it as a crucial tool for SEO success, while others think it’s shady or even spammy.

The truth is, link building has evolved a lot over the years. To understand it better, let’s look at its history.

After Google was founded in 1998, webmasters quickly realized that getting backlinks could boost their search rankings. This led to link swaps where people traded links with each other.

By 2001, SEO directories were popular, allowing website owners to submit their sites in exchange for links. In 2003, blogging became a key way to build backlinks, leading to both positive and negative practices, like spammy comments.

By 2005, shady blog rolls and low-quality content sites were common. Google soon cracked down on these tactics, updating its algorithm to penalize poor-quality links and introducing the “nofollow” attribute to combat reciprocal and paid links.

In 2008, the term “linkbait” emerged, and people started posting questionable content just to get links. This led to penalties for major companies like JC Penney and Overstock.com in 2011. Google’s Penguin update in 2012 further cracked down on manipulative link-building and poor optimization techniques.

With the rise of organic content marketing in 2013, link building shifted towards creating value for readers, which is what Google wants. By 2016, algorithm updates began to devalue broken links rather than penalizing them.

Comparing the SEO landscape now to the early 2000s, the differences are huge. Black hat tactics that once worked are now ineffective. Today, the focus is on quality over quantity, and the industry has learned a lot through trial and error.

So, let’s talk about failure and what we’ve learned from it!

9 Lessons From Failed Link Building Campaigns

Failure isn’t exactly a fun topic to talk about.

Failure isn’t a comfortable topic. Most of us would rather focus on our successes and brush over our mistakes. But real growth happens when we dive into what went wrong and use those lessons to improve and evolve.

Now that we’ve set the stage, let’s get into the main topic. Let’s explore some of the biggest lessons learned from failed link building campaigns in the past and see what they mean for us moving forward.

1. Don’t Create Content for a Specific Publisher

We’ve all had that moment when an idea suddenly hits you, like when you’re daydreaming and realize that an editor at a big industry website would love your piece of content.

So, you and your content team spend days crafting the perfect article just for that publisher. You send it off and wait—first a few hours, then a few days. When you finally hear back, the editor tells you she’s not interested.

It’s a gut punch, especially since you tailored the content specifically for that publisher. Now, it’s not something you can easily pitch elsewhere; you’ll need to start over.

Here’s a simple lesson: Don’t create content with just one publisher in mind. You can’t control their decisions, and if they reject it, all your hard work might go to waste.

Instead, aim to get full approval before you write, and try to create content that can be used on multiple sites or blogs.

2. Building Links With Video is Hard

Video is definitely one of the most powerful content formats out there. It’s shareable, eye-catching, and easy to understand.

But there’s a downside: it’s tough to track who gets credit for a video once it starts spreading. Videos can go viral quickly, but often the original creator gets lost in the shuffle. On social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, publishers might just use the first YouTube link they find and forget to give proper credit.

Even though videos are great for boosting your brand’s visibility, they’re not the most reliable way to build links. While things might change in the future, don’t let that stop you from creating videos—just be aware of the limitations.

Also Read: Overcoming Outreach Email Rejections

3. Newsjacking Must Happen FAST

Over the past seven or eight years, newsjacking has become really popular. It’s easy to think that jumping on a trending topic is the quickest way to success, especially when you hear about all those big success stories.

Most brands, though, have a hard time moving fast enough.

It can take up to a week to process the news, come up with an idea, get approval, write, edit, and publish.

In the world of social media and viral content, a week-old article might as well be six months old.

For newsjacking to work, your content needs to go live within 24 to 48 hours. If you miss that window, it’s better to focus on something else.

4. You’re Wasting Your Time With Incorrect Anchor Text

Each backlink is added as a clickable anchor text hyperlink. Using the right anchor text is important for good search engine optimization.

Many failed link-building efforts show that using overly optimized anchor text is a big mistake.

Avoid using one-word anchors or calls-to-action like “click here,” “buy now,” or “visit this website.” Instead, aim for natural anchor text that includes your target keyword for the linked page.

Here are some examples of topics with useful anchor text:

• SEO = why you need SEO
• Entrepreneurship = how to start a business
• Local Restaurant = new restaurant in Charlotte
• Real Estate = buy my house in cash

These are just a few examples. It’s important to do thorough keyword research and analysis to find the best keywords for your anchors to add value to the linked URL.

5. Social Media Doesn’t Provide Link Juice

Social media is super important for any modern digital marketing plan.

To build a competitive brand today, you need to be really dedicated to social media marketing and engagement.

But there’s a common myth we need to clear up. Social media can help content go viral, but it doesn’t give “link juice.”

All the major social networking sites use “nofollow” links. This tells search engines that these links shouldn’t affect the ranking of the linked URL.

Nofollow restrictions help prevent spam. They cut down on pointless links on social media and encourage users and brands to share content that benefits their followers.

Does this mean social media has no value for link building and SEO?

Not exactly.

Even if sites like Facebook and Twitter don’t pass on link value, building nofollow backlinks can still be useful.

One reason is that a viral nofollow link can boost traffic, which positively impacts search rankings.

Also, search engines like Google can choose to ignore nofollow tags. This is a bit controversial, but many top SEO experts believe Google may ignore the nofollow tag if the link seems legitimate and trustworthy.

While this is more of a theory, it shows that social media still plays an important role in link building and SEO.

6. Stay Away From Blog Networks, Paid and Reciprocal Links

If you want to buy links, there are plenty of options out there.

You won’t have to look hard to find them.

Some sponsored links can work well, but they’ll cost a lot. Plus, there’s always a risk they won’t last.

Link building is expensive. A backlink from a high-authority site can cost $200, $500, or even $1,000. Sometimes, you might find a $20 link, but that’s rare.

Reciprocal links are also discouraged. These often come from Private Blog Networks (PBNs), where users trade links to boost SEO. They can also appear as link wheels.

While you should avoid reciprocal and bought links, paying for link procurement services from reputable companies is fine.

These services find natural linking opportunities for your webpages using their networks of publications. They might even get you featured on top sites like Forbes or Inc.com, depending on their quality.

The difference is subtle but important. In one case, you pay for a specific link in a specific place. In the other, you pay a service to find natural opportunities. The former is not recommended, but the latter can still be useful.

7. Guest Blog Posts Only Matter If…

Guest blogging is one of the best SEO and link-building techniques out there, but you need to do it right.

Many failed link-building efforts show that guest posts only help if the publishing site is reputable and the content is high quality.

Posting low-quality content on spammy sites will actually hurt your link-building efforts.

Execution is key.

Also, consider whether the guest post will give you dofollow or nofollow links. As mentioned earlier, nofollow links offer little to no link juice.

8. Create Multiple Types of Visual Content

These days, it’s almost impossible to publish an article without including some kind of visual content. You need something to catch readers’ eyes and break up the text, even if it’s just a few images or graphics.

The problem is, you never know what type of visuals a publication will accept.

Do they want videos? Graphs and charts? GIFs? Interactive visuals?

The best approach is to create different kinds of visual content and let the publisher choose what works best. Anything they don’t use, you can still use to promote the content yourself.

9. Link Building Can’t Exist in Isolation

We strongly support link building. It’s one of the best strategies for boosting SEO and increasing brand awareness. But it shouldn’t be the only focus.

Businesses that only concentrate on building links and ignore other content channels rarely succeed.

Link building is just one part of the bigger picture. It needs to be combined with paid advertising (especially using PPC data to inform link building and SEO), social media, technical SEO, content marketing, and strategic branding. That’s how you achieve long-lasting, sustainable results.

Sticking to the Basics

Have you taken any notes? Have the previously mentioned failed attempts helped you understand why your link-building efforts aren’t working?

The best link-building strategy usually combines dedicated outreach with a broken link building campaign.

Finding broken links can be time-consuming, and getting them fixed takes even more effort.

Lessons learned from failure have the greatest impact. They teach you more deeply than success ever could.

To succeed, you need to combine these small lessons into one cohesive strategy. The recipe has three main ingredients:

• A good dose of authenticity
• A few ounces of quality
• A dash of consistency

Mixing these three components will make link building a successful effort that boosts growth and increases your online presence.

Think about these insights and apply them to your own link-building efforts. If you need outside help, we’re the SEO company that can assist with your link building.