SEO Myth #15: Google Will Never Know if I Have Bad Sites Linking to Me

SEO has changed a lot over the years. Many marketers these days aren’t sure what’s outdated, what’s important, what will actually move the needle and what’s simply wasted effort. Part of that is due to several SEO myths out there. Fortunately, we’ve been debunking several of them with a series of blog posts. This one will cover Myth #15: Google will never know if I have bad sites linking to me. Once we’ve debunked that, we’ll show you how we embrace reality.

(For the first 10 myths, be sure to download our e-guide, “Debunked: 10 SEO Myths to Avoid in 2016.”)

Myth: Google Will Never Know if I Have Bad Sites Linking to Me

Reality: Google Will Know if I Have Bad Sites Linking to Me 

Yes, Google will know.

Just like Santa Claus knows if you’ve been good or bad. Just like the Tooth Fairy knows when you’ve lost a tooth. Just like your parents can sense when you’ve missed your curfew.

The point is Google knows (everything). Don’t try to fool them — especially post-Panda, -Penguin and -Hummingbird, or you will be sent to your room (well, in this case, penalized).

How Mojo Embraces Reality

This myth was pretty obvious, but it can easily trip up marketers with an old school link-building mindset. Links are definitely important and a big part of SEO, but quality content is more important than the quantity of links — especially bad ones. By tailoring your content to what your target audience actually wants, it will lead to better sites linking to you and ultimately improve your SEO.

At Mojo Media Labs, that means tailoring our content — and the content of our clients — to speak to humans, not search engine robots. We accomplish this by following several of the methods mentioned in this HubSpot blog post: Inbound Link Building 101: 33 White Hat Ways to Build Backlinks for SEO. You can read through the whole list, but here are a few of the easier ones we follow:

• Maintain a steady blog with great content: One of our goals is to post on our blog at least twice a week. Why? It's feasible, consistent and gives us a better ability to focus on quality instead of quantity. 
• Create compelling infographics: Our talented designer Bree has a knack for creating high-quality, compelling infographics, which we use on our blog. Click here for a great example of her work.
• Install social sharing widgets: Each of our blog posts has widgets at the top for people to share on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+.

Put simply, Google will know if you have bad sites linking to you — so consider this myth debunked. Be sure to stay tuned to our blog for the next myth we tackle, Myth #16: SEO is not a usability issue.