We explain

The real story

Before the arrival of a formidable penguin, many link-building techniques were used to optimize website rankings. Learn more about link building and the Google Penguin penalty !

Link building: a true pillar of SEO

What is link building ?

Link building, also known as netlinking, is an SEO technique aimed at demonstrating a website’s popularity to search engines through the number of external links pointing to it. To boost a site’s visibility, it is essential to acquire more high-quality external links. This strategy is crucial for improving a site’s ranking in search engine results.

Backlinks : a critical ranking factor 

SEOs have always sought to understand the secrets of Google’s algorithm. Regarding backlinks or external links, Lawrence Page and Sergey Brin had already provided a major clue by revealing the fundamental importance of link structures and anchor texts in Google’s ranking system.

The document ”The anatomy of a large-scale hypertextual Web search engine”, written by the two founders in 1998, details how external links are one of the components that allow Google to display the most relevant search results for users. This technology is called “PageRank.” If that name sounds familiar, it’s because it was a data point available in the Google toolbar until 2016.

PageRank : a crucial component of Google’s algorithm  

While it is no longer possible to access this data, it was widely used by SEOs. This aspect of Google’s algorithm analyzes the structure of external links and their anchor text to determine the popularity of the page they point to. Thanks to this function, the search engine can rank the most relevant pages at the top of the results. It was a groundbreaking technology, as other search engines paid little attention to backlinks, often resulting in lower-quality search results.

In summary, the more a page receives links from websites with high PageRank scores, the more relevant it is considered and, therefore, ranked higher. This was valuable information for SEO experts, as it allowed them to quickly identify strategic sites based on their score.

Various link building methods

Over the years, different link-building techniques have emerged. To acquire external links, one can follow Google’s recommendations, which is to create attractive, high-value content likely to be naturally shared via a link—this is known as “linkbaiting.” Another method involves purchasing external links directly from a link-building platform through various sources to improve a site’s SEO.

A major problem for Google: external link spam

However, Google’s algorithms frown upon “artificial” links. The reason is that link-building strategies have seen significant misuse: over-optimized anchor texts, private blog networks (PNB), mass spam in forum comments, directories, or through press releases were exploited for years to boost website popularity.

The PageRank system is thus put to the test: how can Google rank the most relevant pages in the SERP despite abusive link-building techniques ?