Top 5 link-building mistakes

Publication Date
19.06.23
Category
Link building
Reading Time
4 Min
Author Name
Svitlana Velychko
Like 716

A poorly chosen approach to attracting backlinks can do significant damage to your site, lowering its ranking  and leading to pessimization by search engines. 

In this article, we’ll look at the top 5 most common link building mistakes you should avoid to keep your site in position.

Mistake 1: Inadequate selection of competitive queries, and as a consequence, strategy and budget

Improper query selection can result in you competing with overly strong competitors, or alternatively, selecting low-competitive queries that won’t bring in significant traffic. As a result, your link building strategy could be ineffective and your budget wasted.

Our experiment confirmed the importance of a proper selection of competitive requests in link building strategy – the number of external links from other domains was growing, but it did not lead to an increase in traffic or improve positioning.

the number of external links from other domains was growing

The number of domains is growing

The number of domains is growing

But traffic and keys are not (TOP 3-10)

Mistake 2: Disturbing the dynamics (too much, too little, breaks)

One of the common flaws in link building is breaking the momentum of link building. This means that you may gather a lot of links in a short period and then not be active for a long time. This misallocation can make Google suspicious and cause positions to deteriorate. 

We did an experiment in which we put a large number of “easy” links for a short period of time. As a result, we found that this approach had no effect on traffic.

A large number of lightweight links are placed

A large number of lightweight links are placed

The impact on rankings is 0

The impact on rankings is 0. Traffic is growing by branded queries

Mistake 3: Improper selection of link types (most nofollow/dofollow, light/heavy links)

Selecting the right type of links is an important part of a successful link building strategy. For example, too many nofollow links can kill the positive effect of quality links. It’s important to strike a reasonable balance between dofollow- and nofollow-links, and to choose quality links that maintain the site’s authority.

Mistake 4: Spamming the anchor list

An anchor is the text part that is clicked on to follow a link. Using the same-type, spammy anchors is grounds for Google sanctions. We recommend putting natural anchors that match the context.

We’ve posted a lot of guest posts with the same anchor links, and as a result we got sanctions because of spam.

We've posted a lot of guest posts with the same anchor links

Aggressive linking strategy with a large number of anchor posts

Aggressive linking strategy with a large number of anchor posts

As expected, host sanctions for spam

Mistake 5: Getting links from low-quality sites

Instead of hunting for a large number of links, it’s better to focus on quality. Focus your efforts on getting links from reputable, well-known and related to your topic. 

Carefully check the sites you are getting links from and make sure they are of quality. To check the quality of the sites you get links from, pay attention to the following two aspects:

  1. The authority of the site.
The authority of the site

Check the Domain Rating with Ahrefs. The higher the rating, the better.


      2. Content Quality

Content Quality

Make sure the site has high-quality and relevant content related to your topic. It should be informative, relevant, and useful to users.

Avoiding basic mistakes will help you build an effective link building strategy that will have a positive impact on your site’s position in Google. Remember that the quality, relevance and naturalness of your links are the key factors for successful link building.

The material is taken from Svetlana Velichko speech at the Webpromoexperts conference, which you can view at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqzaLMWeolE

Our experience in words

How a Reddit Thread Took #2 on US Google for an AI Spam Filter Built for HubSpot
Anyone who runs sales or support out of a HubSpot shared inbox knows the routine: junk pitches and automated messages pile up next to real customer requests, and someone on the team has to sort through all of it by hand. When those teams go looking for a fix, they usually start with a plain […]
Svitlana Velychko
3 min to read
Reddit Thread in Google UK Top 5 for a Legacy Modernization Company | Links-Stream
A company’s website can say all the right things and still leave a buyer with one question unanswered: what do other people say about it? For a software firm focused on legacy modernization, the answer needed to sit right next to its own site in Google — inside a Reddit discussion where the brand comes […]
Svitlana Velychko
3 min to read
How One Reddit Post Took a Ukrainian Giveaway Randomizer to Google’s First Page
Reddit marketing is usually discussed as a play for English-speaking markets — the US, the UK, Canada. Ukraine rarely comes up. Reddit is still a niche platform there, and Ukrainian-language discussions on it are few and far between. So when a Ukrainian giveaway tool came to us aiming for Google’s Top 20 for a local […]
Svitlana Velychko
4 min to read
How Reddit Promotion Got a Defense UAV Manufacturer Into Google’s Top 3 in the US
Defense is one of the toughest niches to break into on Google. Search results for terms like “tactical UAV systems” are dominated by established manufacturers, defense publications, and authoritative educational sites — competition a single brand website can’t easily outrank. Reddit offered a different route: instead of taking those sites on head to head, we […]
Svitlana Velychko
3 min to read
How One Reddit Thread Pushed Two Negative Discussions Out of Google’s Top Results for a Software Company
For an established software development company, the first thing prospects saw when they searched for its reviews wasn’t client feedback — it was two negative Reddit threads. Neither could be deleted, and both ranked high enough to shape first impressions before any sales conversation began. Two months and $315 later, a single optimized thread had […]
Svitlana Velychko
3 min to read
How Reddit Promotion Took an Email-Finder Platform to Google’s #1 Spot — and Into AI Answers
Ask an AI assistant which email-finder tool to use, and the answer rarely leans on rankings — it leans on sources. A brand can hold a strong position in classic search and still be invisible to an AI assistant, simply because it never entered the discussions the assistant reads from. That was the exact gap […]
Svitlana Velychko
4 min to read
From Reddit Comment to Google’s First Page: A Fintech Case
Fraud-detection queries in fintech are some of the most competitive real estate in Google’s search results, typically dominated by established platforms and dedicated prevention agencies with far larger budgets. For one bank-statement verification brand, a single Reddit post and a handful of well-placed comments were enough to break onto that first page — in under […]
Svitlana Velychko
3 min to read
How a Global IT Outsourcing Firm Won Three B2B Keywords on Google via Reddit
Three commercial keywords. Three separate service lines. One channel. For a global software development company competing in a crowded B2B market, ranking on Google for high-intent terms like “software development companies in Europe” usually means months of conventional SEO or an ongoing paid search budget. Reddit got there faster — and it did it three […]
Svitlana Velychko
4 min to read
How a Legal Consulting Firm Landed on Google’s First Page and Got Cited by AI for Crypto Licensing
Crypto licensing is one of the most heavily regulated, jargon-dense corners of fintech — exactly the kind of niche where a single well-placed Reddit thread can outrank an entire industry of law firm landing pages. That’s what happened here: one post, one query, and a front-row seat inside the answers AI systems now give when […]
Svitlana Velychko
4 min to read
From a Negative Reddit Thread in Google TOP-1 to an AI-Cited Brand Asset: ORM for a Consumer Electronics Brand
A single Reddit thread was controlling the entire conversation around the brand. When users searched for “[Brand] reviews”, the first result in Google wasn’t the company’s website, Amazon listings, or professional reviews. It was a highly visible negative Reddit discussion. The thread had accumulated engagement, trust signals, and search visibility over time. As a result, […]
Elena
4 min to read
Links-Stream Digest: join our newsletter
Every week we send an email with news from the world of SEO and linkbuilding.
We are read by 1314 people.
Exclusive content
Useful collections
Tips and tricks
Google updates
SEO-hacks
Linkbuilding digest
SEO-influencers

Ready for Demo Day?

Tell us your date — we'll check how much time you have and propose a realistic plan.