- Sep 8, 2015
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Why Are My Backlinks Not Working?
A Quick Guide
Have you ever experienced this situation?
No matter how many backlinks you get, rankings just don't move and so doesn't organic traffic.
Happens quite often actually.
“To put it simply, your website is in a situation where backlinks are not the answer.”
Let's see potential causes and solutions to this.
Links Are Not A Cure
This is more of a mindset issue than an SEO one. I am putting it number #1 because it is very common.
People assume backlinks will fix any bad situation with their website.
They will not.
They are not a cure.
If the website lacks authority and PageRank, yes, quality links will increase it and it will help.
They will not fix on-page issues.
They will not fix content.
They will not remove penalty.
Solution: Take serious time and effort to audit your website and figure out what is actually going on before taking any further action.
Unreal Expectations
This one is related to mindset again and also SEO skill level.
In many cases, backlinks are actually working, just not the way you think or expect.
I get this all the time.
Client gets an idea how backlinks should work because they built a few in the past or listen to some guru.
Not all links work the same. Some need more time while others are not meant to increase rankings at all.
Solution: Level up your SEO skill and know what to expect.
Algorithm Updates
Search engine released an update and your website is going down.
It is pointless to keep throwing more wood into the fire by building new backlinks.
Effect is similar to penalties and filters mentioned below, however, in case of an update your website is usually not punished.
It's just that other websites are rewarded instead of yours. Naturally pushing your website down.
Solution: Identify the time frame when rankings and traffic started to go down and correlate it with algorithm updates at the time. Research what people did to recover. It is usually related to content or backlinks but it can be tough to pinpoint. Good strategy is to improve everything, some of it will do the trick. You will probably have to wait for another update for fixes to fully take effect. Especially if downfall happened during Core updates.
Penalties & Filters
When your website gets hit by a penalty or a filter, it usually stays that way until the issue is fixed and penalty lifted.
No point in building more backlinks in hopes it will do something. They might have been the reason for the penalty in the first place!
The penalty/filter must be addressed!
There are manual and algorithmic ones.
Penalty is a straight punishment while filter ignores (filers out) certain aspects of the website. For example, backlinks with too aggressive anchor text might start to get filtered after a certain threshold.
Solution: Manual penalties are easy, just login to GSC and follow the instructions. Algo ones are the problem. Solution can be cleaning up link profile, severely changing content, moving to a new host or even switching to a completely new website and doing 301 redirect.
Historical Data
Search engines are profiling and collecting data about everything they can. This is why you can see new websites get away with insane SEO tactics but being hit after Core update.
Initial ranking and re-ranking are two very different states for the website.
Common reasons why history of the website is blocking effect of the backlinks:
- aged domain with irrelevant new content
- swap of topic (or multiple) on existing website
- toxic backlinks in the past
- bad neighborhood (IP, host)
Sandbox
Sandbox is simply a time period when your website is artificially blocked from ranking.
It is a trust issue and most links don't carry the trust needed to get you out of it.
So their effect is slim to none.
Solution: Often waiting it out is all that is needed. Increasing website's trust with authority links and other means helps reduce it.
Low Quality
- toxic source
- flagged IP or bad IP neighbors
- penalized website
- taboo/illegal/edgy topic
- high OBL
- very high OBL can leave very little juice to work with, any page above 30 has very little juice left
- irrelevant content
- relevancy is not as important for juice to flow but at the same time, being totally irrelevant doesn't do much good either. Ideally, topic of the backlink source should be closely related to your target page.
Lack of Strength/Authority
Most backlink sources available are weak.
If you keep building backlinks from sources like this, it is no wonder you have no results.
Mind you, weak does not mean low quality like described above. Healthy, clean backlink source can still be weak.
These days, you need to add some heavy hitters to the link profile like PBN links for example.
Web 2.0, blog comments, directories etc will not cut it for more competitive keywords.
Solution: Simply start adding more powerful backlinks to your backlink profile.
Competition
If there are strong players in the game, you must do something really significant to stand out.
Building few links here and there does not do the trick. That's why it can look like they are not working at all.
En effective link-building strategy is needed and constant action.
There are also certain websites search engines favor and prefer to rank. If the first page is filled with these, I suggest you pick a different keyword.
Solution: You need to keep the link-building consistent, for a long time and get quality links over and over again.
First Page Is Set
Search results are quite dynamic so this is rare.
But sometimes, first page or even 2nd or 3rd are picked and search engines are happy with their choice. (it can even be manual pick)
In such case you will have a really hard time convincing them otherwise.
No matter how many links you build.
Solution: Wait for a major update, things might change. Your website must also prove it's authority status.
Over-optimized Anchor Text
Using keyword rich anchor text heavily for your links is very outdated strategy.
Especially in the new era of semantic search and AI where robots can understand content much better.
You can pass relevancy and juice using all kinds of anchor text which are safe and effective.
If you overdo aggressive anchor text, rankings will start to stagnate or going down. Making link-building ineffective.
Solution: Use keyword rich anchor texts to a minimum. Rather focus on semantically relevant phrases. What you can also do is link indirectly. Point backlinks at pages on your website that link to your primary page internally, no need to go direct with 100% of backlinks.
You Are Being Played
Search engines have many algorithms in place to prevent spam.
Some of them are designed purely to mess with SEOs heads like for example Random Documents algorithm.
You build backlinks and nothing happens or rankings even go down.
You scratch your head thinking that links are low quality, weak or maybe your content is not good.
Reality is it's none of that. You're just being played.
Solution: Wait it out or simply keep doing what you are doing like nothing is happening. Over time the real results start to show.
You might be thinking: "OK, but how do I know what I'm doing works?" You don't. You need experience. You have to burn yourself a couple of times before you become master chef.
More Time Is Needed
Backlinks need time to truly kick in.
Search results are very dynamic and ranking state of your website and backlink sources are constantly changing.
You can see threads from people freaking about rankings and it's only been a few days.
If the backlink source is good but there is no effect, it usually just needs more time.
Solution: Be patient. On average backlinks take at least 3-4 weeks to start showing impact.
Not Enough of Them
Search engines act entitled.
You usually need to make a significant change to your website for them to even notice and reward you.
If you website has 200 links, building 5 more will not do much. But 30+ is something they will notice and can make a difference in rankings.
This is why you see brand new websites with thousands of AI pages and links ranking almost overnight. Search engines love significant change! In case of churn and burn they punish it afterwards but same principle can be utilized for long-term projects.
Solution: Make a significant change. Plan your link-building in advance in terms of %. Make a goal to increase link profile by 30+% in X number of months. The 30% change seems to be magic threshold by which they really notice. Both backlinks and content by the way.
Wrong Link Spread
It is possible to spread your backlinks wrong.
95% of the time, homepage (root) is the page with most links.
For example, if you focus all your links to one inner page you want to rank, it will look unnatural and is highly ineffective.
Making it look like that backlinks don't work, while they are just being used wrong.
Solution: Focus on homepage first and then later start building links to inner pages. At the same time, build links to homepage indefinitely. If you have already created unbalanced link profile, stop with link-building to inner page for a while and focus on the homepage.
Not the Right Type
Yes, you read it right. We all wish they would but they just don't.
This is similar to weak "Lack of Strength/Authority" mentioned before. The different is that these sources can actually be strong. It's just that type of link you get from them is not as valuable.
Typical example of this is a block comment from high authority website. It makes a world of difference to get backlink from a blog post or a comment below it.
Other examples could be press releases, local citations or web 2.0s that are great for diversity but using them often don't result in rank increase. Unless search term is super easy.
Solution: Use the right type of backlink for the right job. If you want rank increase, use backlink source with potential to achieve it.
I hope you find this guide useful.
Let me know if I missed any other reasons backlinks don't work.
