WHAT ARE BACKLINKS?
A backlink, in simple terms, is a link to another website. In digital marketing it is also referred to as inbound links or incoming links. They are simply links to an external website.
Backlinks are valuable as they help build the authority of your brand. High-quality links on popular sites would also drive traffic to your website. Links on good quality content are visible to customers and they immediately associate it with the brand.
What are Broken Links?
Broken links are simply the links that no longer work. When you see a 404-page error on your screen, that’s when you have clicked on a broken link. SEO, when done right, cleans all the broken links of your website, to deliver a better user experience.
ARE ALL BACKLINKS DESIRABLE?
A bad backlink may come from unrelated or untrusted sources, or from sites that have been penalized, and may create a negative response to your SEO campaign or even cause a Google penalty.
Bad backlink also come from sites,
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That have thin and irrelevant content
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That have low-quality directories
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That automatically generate backlinks
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That have major duplicate content
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That have been hacked or have malware
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That are adult, gambling sites, etc
A back-link is not good when it violates a Google Webmaster guideline. Any link intended to manipulate site rankings in Google search results may be considered a part of the link scheme and a violation to webmaster’s guidelines which would result in your domain getting affected negatively in search engine result positions of digital marketing.
HOW TO DISAVOW BACK-LINKS?
One can use the Google’s disavow tool to get rid of undesirable backlinks. It is a tool that helps you to ask Google not to mention certain links that lead to your website. The process may be simple but needs to be done correctly.
In simpler terms, the process starts with downloading the backlinks from all available sources (Google/webmaster / SEO tools), combining the links into one spreadsheet and deciding whether or not you should keep links from this domain or disavow them based upon relevance and other factors. You can test whether the back link websites are toxic/contain malware etc. using various online tools.
Next, you must make your disavow file in a text format (.txt), and the file you're disavowing through the disavow tool. As soon as you upload your disavow file, Google will begin applying the disavow directives to each of your links. This process might be complicated for some users who have never done it before. There are possibilities of errors arising during the disavow procedure, and one may not be aware of how to solve every error.
It is hence advisable that you get the task of disavowing back-links by an SEO expert, who would perform it with expertise and solve any errors. If the disavow process is not performed correctly, it might sometimes have a negative effect. A professional would avoid any negative results and make your work easy.
CAN I OPTIMIZE MY WEBSITE ON MY OWN?
One can surely perform search engine optimization on their own by using digital marketing. It may be an easy process if the company is a small scale industry and has limited reach and operations. But, when it comes to expertise and guaranteed results, an entrepreneur may not be able to achieve the desired outcome. This is why companies hire professionals to perform SEO for their website, as this process can be confusing and frustrating for the entrepreneur and he or she might not be aware of the best way to approach it. Doing it on your own can also result in unnecessary costs and delayed or failed responses.