Top 5 link-building mistakes

Publication Date
19.06.23
Category
Link building
Reading Time
4 Min
Author Name
Svitlana Velychko
Like 280

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

Should You Rewrite Old Content for Google’s New Muvera Algorithm
Google has announced the rollout of a new algorithm — Muvera (Multi-Vector Retrieval). Unlike previous systems that relied on a single intent vector, Muvera processes search queries through multiple vectors at once. What does that mean in practice? Google now looks not just for pages with matching keywords, but for content that responds to all […]
Tania Voronchuk
4 min to read
Where to Find Donors and What Frameworks to Use
Finding link building donors has moved beyond simply checking DR or backlink counts. In 2025, the landscape is smarter, competition is tougher, and risks are costlier. That’s why link builders must balance domain quality, natural link profiles, and budget constraints. Frameworks, in turn, help structure the process, accelerate decision-making, and allow you to scale results […]
Tania Voronchuk
7 min to read
How different LLM crawlers scan websites, what access they require, and which links they prefer
GPTBot, ClaudeBot, PerplexityBot — each of them has its own crawling logic, scan frequency, and content requirements. So it’s better to consider all these nuances to stay visible to the models that power ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other LLMs.How does crawling work for different LLMs, what User-Agents do these models use, how often do they […]
Tania Voronchuk
5 min to read
How many backlinks do you need to rank in the TOP
Spoiler: the number is often much lower than you’d imagine. That’s because it’s not just about quantity — the strategy is what truly matters. Here’s how to accurately determine how many links your content needs to rank where it’s seen and clicked (this approach is used by experts like Robbie Richards). Plus, how to prioritize […]
Tania Voronchuk
5 min to read
PBN-friendly countries for foreign promotion: specifics and opportunities
In some regions of Eastern Europe and Asia, the Balkans, and parts of Africa, the number of local websites is 5–7 times lower than in developed EU or US markets. Search competition is minimal, and most sites lack even basic SEO. Yet there are millions of internet users. This creates a vacuum that PBNs can […]
Tania Voronchuk
5 min to read
How to promote a website in the era of AI search and zero-click?
You invest time and money into links, but Google just takes your content and shows it in AI Overviews — without a single click. No traffic. No leads. Panic. You can’t escape the trends. Search is becoming generative, SERPs are fragmented, and clicks are rare. But before canceling your link building efforts, consider changing your […]
Tania Voronchuk
4 min to read
AI Link Profile: How to Make ChatGPT Link to Your Website
In 2025, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other large language models (LLMs) are increasingly becoming the primary source of information for millions of users. For example, ChatGPT already has over 500 million active weekly users, and the share of users starting their search not on Google, but from AI-generated results, keeps growing. In this new information […]
Tania Voronchuk
7 min to read
When It Makes Sense to Buy PBNs and Whether It’s Economically Worth It
“Don’t use PBNs, it’s risky!” — if you’ve ever Googled link building tools, you’ve probably come across this warning. But while some fear them, others quietly reap the rewards in search rankings. And yes, Google hunts PBNs — but they haven’t disappeared. That’s because certain business niches have their own goals and characteristics where traditional […]
Tania Voronchuk
6 min to read
AI Content -Trend or Threat to Link Building: How to Harness AI’s Potential Without Damaging Your Website’s Reputation
Neural networks like ChatGPT have long become part of daily workflows, and the volume of machine-generated content is growing exponentially. Pretty soon, you’ll be able to just scroll through memes while the content writes itself. But for SEO specialists and link builders, this shift brings both exciting opportunities and serious risks. Can AI truly help […]
Tania Voronchuk
9 min to read
How often do search bots crawl your site — and why does it matter? A Screaming Frog log analysis
“I updated all meta tags and content on key pages three weeks ago, but Google still shows the old version — it’s like shooting in the dark!” wrote one Reddit user. Such questions about why Google is ignoring a site despite SEO efforts are common on forums and often lead to people jokingly rewriting their […]
Tania Voronchuk
5 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