Now it is not the case that your website will immediately receive a penalty if a number of backlinks meet one or more of these characteristics. It is not the case that you get a penalty for a number of backlinks with a commercial anchor text. But if a lot of backlinks are added in a short time with a commercial anchor text that may be the case. The algorithm is mathematics and will lead to a penalty for certain input of variables.
Why is this important in link building?
Now you may be wondering why you should know how Google detects purchased backlinks when you don’t plan on buying backlinks? The problem with the Penguin algorithm is that you can be penalized for not buying backlinks.
This in case your backlink profile has the characteristics of bought links. If we want to do link building in a good way, we will have to make sure that the backlink profile does not have these characteristics. We will have to provide a ‘natural’ looking backlink profile. You can buy backlinks and come up with the best solutions you can think of.
A natural backlink profile
A natural backlink profile also has certain characteristics. To prevent us from (wrongly) getting a penalty, we will have to ensure that the backlink profile meets these characteristics when obtaining backlinks.
Before we get started with the tips for getting backlinks, we want to make one more comment. Google itself says you should ensure a natural backlink profile and not a backlink profile that looks natural.
If it is up to Google, you do not do anything about your backlink profile, all links you will get will automatically be 100% natural. That all sounds very nice of course. However, this will not work for most sites in practice. If you want to wait for a natural backlink profile, you can wait a long time unless you have something really, really special.
Most websites are commercial and people don’t just link to a (commercial) website. You have a website and it has to generate revenue at the end of the day and we cannot wait too long for that. To obtain a natural backlink profile, we will therefore have to take action in practice if we want to earn money with our website.
Natural growth of the backlink profile
A natural backlink profile will also need to be considered over the dimension of time. A natural backlink profile grows over time, it is not there overnight. This is something to keep in mind when getting started with getting links. Therefore, spread your link building activities over time so that your backlink profile can grow slowly but steadily.
Look at your competitors
If you are getting started with link building, you want to be the first to look at ‘the low hanging fruit’ so that you quickly have your first backlinks. Where can you get a link without too much effort? There is an online tool that can answer the question. For this you can use the Link Intersect Tool from ahrefs.