4 Important Backlink Rules to Remember
- 100% of backlinks can't be to one domain. You must show a diversity of sources. For every 1 link to your brand blog, you should have at least 2-3 links to other reputable sites.
- For Brands: You can only add 1 link to your brand's website per 500 words. (IF your article is 2000 words, you can add 4 links to your brand blog)
- You must include links to other HackerNoon articles and reputable sources within your article so that the article is unbiased and doesn't look like an ad.
- Changing or adding promotional backlinks after publication is grounds for a permanent ban and the removal of all your articles. If you're unsure if a link change is ok, send your editor a note in the story settings.
For Individuals growing their personal blogs: You can only add 1 link to your personal blog per 500 words. (IF your article is 2000 words, you can add 4 links to your brand blog)
Do’s
Do link various concepts in your story to relevant HackerNoon articles.
Internal linking helps with on-page SEO for both your article and the articles you link to. You are encouraged to link to your own past HackerNoon articles that are relevant to your current piece.
Do link the legitimate sources you got quotes from.
Another important point is linking to legitimate sources. This is both for user experience and for SEO. Showing search engines that you're linking to reputable, well-known websites can help your rankings and bring more views to your piece. On the other hand, linking to spammy unknown promotional websites will hurt your piece and we will remove such links.
Do link the research studies, and papers that you are getting your analysis from.
Research papers and studies from reputable companies are great places to link to!
Do credit the person who took the Unsplash photo (or any image you use).
Even if it isn't required by some platforms (such as Unsplash), it's nice to give credit to the person whose image you're using for free.
Do credit where your article was published first at the very bottom of the page, not in the Canonical Link ('first seen at' section).
At HackerNoon, we allow users to add canonical links to help strengthen the domain of their personal blogs ex: dansmith.com, mytechthoughts.com . We 100% support helping the little blogs grow!
However, we do not allow canonical linking to social media platforms, forums, or blogging platforms (dev.to, medium, Dzone, medium, tumblr, medium, etc.)
Heavily limit the number of Medium links you use.
Don'ts
Don’t sell promotional backlinks, we will find you, and we will ban you.
Don’t link random, out of place words, to a site you’re trying to promote. We will find you and we will ban you.
Don’t submit poor-quality content just so you can advertise a business link. We have human editors, who will catch you and ban you.
Don’t include links to Amazon.
HackerNoon is running multiple projects to try to get more revenue and create a better user experience for everyone. One of those projects is an Amazon affiliate program. Unfortunately, Amazon discourages websites from running affiliate links from multiple accounts. Our ecommerce advisors have told us that doing so could lead to the banning of our affiliate account.
While Amazon isn't one of them, we are currently working on a list of approved affiliate programs that you can use to start monetizing your HackerNoon content.
Don’t link and submit spam.
No one cares about the furniture you want to sell.
Don’t link to sketchy sites.
Make the internet a better place; let's clean it up together.
Don’t submit a brand story without making a brand account.
Brands are encouraged to publish on HackerNoon. In fact, we promote our brands: hackernoon.com/tagged/good-company
There is no need to rely on sketchy journalists or the scam listing about getting paid HackerNoon links. You can promote yourself on HackerNoon for free (the first credit is free for all new brand accounts). Learn more here: [Link]
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