The backlinks that point to your website are still the most important factor that determine the position of your website on Google. Unfortunately, it's not easy to get good backlinks. Link building can be compared to getting in shape after the holidays.

Also in the news: Google announces Megasitelinks, depending on your target group, Bing might be more important than Google, Bing removes the backlink search operator and more.

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The backlinks that point to your website are still the most important factor that determine the position of your website on Google. Unfortunately, it's not easy to get good backlinks. Link building can be compared to getting in shape after the holidays:

1. It takes hard work and there are no shortcuts

It does not matter if you want to lose weight after the holidays or if you want to get high quality links: you have to invest time and effort.

You cannot lose 30 pounds in a month and you also cannot get your website on Google's first result page for a very competitive keyword in that time.

If you want to get lasting results, you have to work continually on your links and your web page content.

2. You have to be consistent

SEO isn't a one-shot solution. It doesn't help your rankings much if you get many links at once and then stop building links. Search engines also consider how many websites link to your site over time.

It's the same if you want to get in shape: doing a 12 hour workout on a single day and then doing nothing won't help you to lose weight. It will be bad for your health.

It's the same with link building: if you get many links at once and then no links at all, search engines might think that you try to cheat them with a linking system.

If you want to get in shape, you have to be consistent. You might not see immediate results but there is a constant change and some day, you'll find that you're much thinner.

Link building works exactly like that. Do not try to game search engines by joining link systems or buying links. Get one link at a time, optimize your pages and the rankings of your website will improve steadily.

3. There are a lot of scammers

The SEO industry is full of scammers that promise easy and quick solutions. You should be very careful. If something sounds too good to be true then it's probably not true. There are no easy and quick solutions and there are no secret tricks that nobody else knows about.

The same applies to weight loss and fitness. There are lots of diet pills and miracle machines that promise easy and quick results. These methods don't work.

4. It's possible to trick the system but you won't get lasting results

There are a lot of diets and diet products that help you to quickly lose weight. Unfortunately, you only lose water weight with these diets and you'll get your old weight back soon.

Link building is similar. Every now and then, some webmasters find a loophole in Google's algorithm. These loopholes allow people to get on Google's first result page without doing the hard work.

This usually works for some weeks but then Google finds out and websites that exploited the loophole are penalized and removed from the index. It's very risky to use these methods to get high rankings because Google doesn't like spammers.

5. The result is worth it

People who lose weight usually feel more healthy and happier. Being number one on Google's result page for the right keyword can mean many more sales for your business.

You have the choice: Don't fall for rip-off products that promise easy and quick results without much work. These products don't deliver long term results and they often put your website at risk.

If you really want to succeed, start now: optimize your web pages and get good backlinks. If you're interested in a detailed backlink analysis tool, try SEOprofiler.

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