The reality of link building is not a fun nor necessarily inspiring way to spend time improving a website. As this art became more difficult over the years, more and more people began stating that link building was a thing of the past and no longer mattered. Frankly, they could not be further from the truth. While link building cannot be used to reap the same immediate benefits that it once did, those who dedicate themselves to the task at hand can achieve spectacular results in the long-term. Link building these days (in an effective fashion) takes much more time and resources than it once did, which makes many feel as if it is no longer effective. While you will need to spend more time this year building links than in past years, it can still be a great way to boost traffic, authority and exposure. We will discuss tips for your new link building strategy in the following article.

Link Building Fears

Many people are worried about their link building strategies and whether or not they will be penalized for their efforts by pinging links on various websites. While overt steps to build links through irrelevant websites and spam tactics will certainly have a negative effect, most link building exercises still provide a net benefit. Even these days, one of the best ways you can improve your rankings in select SERPs is to build links in relevant categories and on websites that share your site’s interests. Google has confirmed recently that link building is still the most effective way that its search engine algorithms can determine relevance and authority on the web, so do not be afraid to build links – it still works.

Focus on Relevance

One thing is clear – the days of building links on any and all sites are over. It is now very much a game of building links on credible, relevant sites that share similar content and interest among their audiences. Google and other search engines will look to draw conclusions based on how traffic flows between various websites and use this to determine where your site will rank in SERPs. At first, you may only be able to build a few links this way, but persistence and continued efforts are at the foundation of link building in 2014. Those who only build links through authoritative, relevant sources will be rewarded immensely for their procured links.

Eliminate the Shenanigans

For some time, strategies, businesses and other tactics have been developed in an attempt to continue pinging links while circumventing changes to search engine algorithms. We are now at the point where search engines are intuitive enough to recognize the difference between legitimate link building and everything else. If you have been buying links, using software to generate links on other websites or using anchor text loopholes to gain an advantage, it is time to stop. Even if your website is not immediately penalized for these acts, the ongoing advances in search engine algorithms will catch up to you sooner or later – leaving you with a lot more repair work and catch-up to do once that happens.