In a recent Search Engine Roundtable interview, Google’s John Mueller advised against link building … GASP! (In general). That is to say, Mueller reinforced Google’s well-published stance on (ill-advised) Link Schemes.
Here is part of the interview:
In general, I’d try to avoid that.
So that you are really sure that your content kind of stands on its own and make it possible for other people of course to link to your content. Make it easy, maybe, put a little widget on your page, if you like this, this is how you can link to it. Make sure that the URLs on your web site are easy to copy and paste. All of those things make it a little bit easier.
We do use links as part of our algorithm but we use lots and lots of other factors as well. So only focusing on links is probably going to cause more problems for your web site that actually helps.
But… Obviously this statement is not all-encompassing. Because, you guessed it, backlinks are one major component to any site’s ranking (including Google’s). That said, WebProNews published this response from well-known online marketer Ken McGaffin:
That all depends on the type of link building you’re doing. Let’s say I’ve just conducted a great piece of research for a client and my prime objective is to get them media coverage. The research and the accompanying press release was so good that it got coverage in the NYTimes, BBC and many others – good job done!
But my secondary objective is to get links – so AS WELL as conducting the research, and writing the press release, I make sure that the journalist has something to link to, something that his readers will appreciate. That could be:
– an in-depth blog post giving much more detail than the Journalist could give space to
– a presentation or infographic of the results
– a copy of the original research so that readers can check it out.In this case, I’m doing my client a service in getting PR coverage. But I’m also doing my best to ensure that editorial links and others links will follow. I can only see Google looking positively on my efforts – because of the value it offers. But if all I did was the ‘link building’ part then I’d be doing my client a disservice – and missing some major opportunities. This means that any online marketing/PR initiative is multi-layered – and one of those layers must be link building.
So, legitimate link-building strategies and campaigns are absolutely worth it.