Earlier this week, we explored the signs of good backlinking resources online. There, we identified some of the quality elements you should be looking for when you link to another website from your web content. This information is important to know when formulating a link building campaign for your website, but there are just as many negative qualities to look for as there are positive ones. That is why we wanted to explore the signs of bad online resources for backlinking so you know which site to avoid.
Wikipedia
Even though Wikipedia has a lot of information about a lot of different topics, it is not always considered a valuable resource because it is peer edited. There are not experts writing the content on that website. Rather, it is people like you and me who provide the information for each Wikipedia article. If you want, you can look at the resource links on the bottom of the Wikipedia page you’re reading to get an idea for resources you may want to link to. Just know that even those may not be high quality in the end.
Excessive Advertisement
If a website you are referencing has advertisements on both side bars and in the footer, chances are it’s not a very good quality website. Having a few advertisements here and there is perfectly fine, but you need to think about how that site is going to look for someone who was referred to that site from your content. If the other site has a “spam” feeling to it, people may not trust the information on your site as much.
Limited Content
Typically, it is best to back link to website that has a lot of pages. The only exception to this would be something like a search engine or a personal website for an author or reference you are trying to link to. Websites with hundreds of web pages typically have higher page rankings and a better sense of authority than those with limited information. It’s the difference between looking at a dictionary and looking at an encyclopedia. You want to use the encyclopedia in the end so your content has the best support possible.
When you look for backlinking resources, ask yourself how much you trust the sign that you are looking at. If you feel that it has high quality content worthy of your target audience, feel free to link to it on your website.
