Backlinks – Reasons that make them Toxic

Backlinks as known to all of us are links from one website to a page from another website. Most of the top search engines like Google consider backlinks as the vote bank for respective website pages. In the past few years, it is observed that backlinks tend to have high organic search rankings but is it true to say completely that they bring a difference to the overall performance of any website or boost its visibility?

The role of backlinks is to intimate the search engines that content posted on these links is authentic and that it will gain the websites more visibility. Initially, it was because of the backlinks that Google’s original algorithm (PageRank) was formed. However, over the period, these backlinks started proving toxic to the websites due to which, the organic traffic that was earned by the businesses started getting affected.

Points to consider:

Why backlinks get Toxic?

There are several reasons why backlinks can get toxic and make things miserable for businesses. The important factors that help us to understand why backlinks get toxic include:

• Low domain trust score:despite backlinks coming in from the trusted domains, the websites show low domain scores. When such a scenario occurs it means the score may be artificially inflated.
• Page Layout: your page link will show poor quality results if the ratio of visible text to HTML is low.
• Cyber Security at Flaw: The backlinks coming in from hacked sites pose a real problem for the ones that are authentic. In such cases, Chrome and other browsers would display warning messages to let the users know that the content may be flawed on this website.
• Check the Spam Score: If the website’s Spam score is 8 and above, it clearly indicates that the site is not authentic and hence generates backlinks.

How are Backlinks Created?

Do it the ‘Broken-link building’ Way

The broken-link building method works just as anyone would’ve expected it to be. It does not just enable one to create one-way backlinks but reports about the broken links on websites by contacting a webmaster. You can also replace broken backlinks and recommend other websites to increase your chances of creating backlinks for your website. There are times when the webmasters wouldn’t agree to send you backlinks, which shouldn’t bother you. Instead, try to help them by intimating them about the broken links and chances are they may send you backlinks for your websites.

Moreover, the broken-link method is always a great way to search for reliable websites on Google. The three most important ways to achieve the desired results include keyword +links, your keywords +resources, and keywords in URL: links. To ease the process, one can download and install the Google Chrome plugin called Check my Links that picks up all the broken links to overcome the problem and increase the visibility of your site to a great extent.

Creating Backlinks through Infographics

Knowing the fact that visual content is preferred more over text, infographics prove to be one of the most popular and efficient methods to gain traffic on the website while earning valuable backlinks. The use of infographics is mainly done as they are easy to understand and creates demand for the backlinks efficiently. This is one reason why the demand for infographics has increased by the day. Several brands are thus seen publishing infographics in larger numbers to gain sound visibility online.

In all of the above information, you need to choose the infographic smartly to avoid the backlinks being toxic and spoil your brand’s rapport in the market. To make it more promising, submit the infographics on various reputed portals and gain visibility.

What more you can do to Avoid Backlinks on your Websites?

If you’re new to identifying toxic links, be cautious and stay focused using the right approach. The foremost danger of toxic backlinks comes from websites with major technical problems, security flaws, and aggressive monetization. Ever since Google introduced its Penguin algorithm it started refining the good links from the poor and penalized sites having toxic links.

Search for the Contact Information

Knowing the fact that several websites have contact forms or about us pages, you can always reach out to the person in charge of the site. Nevertheless, using email over a webform is easier to monitor and follow up. However, if you don’t find any contact information on the website itself, there are specified tools to search for the contact details of a particular website.

Reviewing Backlinks is Important

Any link that can cause harm to your rankings on Google or any other search engines due to malware or viruses are said to be toxic backlinks. Therefore, reviewing each link is important to get rid of the toxicity of backlinks. Audits in such cases are the best options to avoid backlinks from cluttering on your websites. So, before you create any backlink, check for the fact whether it is authentic and that it does not affect the rankings on important search engines like Google.