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I recently read an interesting blog entry in which the author basically said that you can’t build links too fast, therefore penalization from Google for aggressive link building isn’t an issue.

While he does make some valid points, I think there is a point where there is too much.

In this article I explore this issue more and try to help you decide how much is too much.

I like analogies so I’m going to use one here.  When you go get your oil changed you generally have to wait in line if it’s a busy day.  But what do you think would happen if Donald Trump got in line?  My feeling is that he’d probably be shuttled to the front of the line because he’d be considered “more important.”

Whether he is or not isn’t really the point.  The point is that he is percieved as being more important therefore he recieves preferential treatment.

Search engines work the same way.  They update the indexes based on which sites they feel are more important.  Those important sites are updated more frequently than those deemed less important.

What does this mean for link building?

That means if you are doing manual link building, the engines won’t find all your new links at the same time.

So, part of the answer to the question, “Can you build links too fast?” is no because of how the engines index.

Their update schedule is staggered which means if you requested 30 links this month it could take the engines three or four months to visit and index each of those sites.  As such, you will only show growth of about eight to ten links per month which should be a safe number.

There is also another thing to consider when trying to determine if a search engine considers it “too fast.”

Take this scenario:  I’ve just developed a new product.  One that is guaranteed to revolutionize the world.

I submit a press release that gets picked up by some major outlets.  Pretty soon my traffic goes up because of it, as does my total link count.

But then one of my customers, who loves the product so much, writes a glowing review that then gets picked up by Digg and Slashdot.  All of a sudden my visitors spike for a day or two as people check out what I have to offer.  Some will even write about it and link to my site.

Within a matter of days the number of links to my site has increased from a few dozen to many hundred.

Yet, I didn’t do any active link building.  All I did was syndicate a single press release.  Should I be penalized by Google for aggressive link building?

You see, this is the flaw with the whole “if you build links too fast you will get penalized” theory – sometimes things are just out of your control.

Granted, engines like Google are pretty sophisticated and are able to spot spikes caused by buzz, but that doesn’t discount the fact that now, all of a sudden, dozens of new sites want to link to me.

I’m sure Google will do some kind of filtering – perhaps not allowing all links at once, or staging it so that I do get credit for the links over time.

But, if you combine that with the first scenario I presented, you see that it is pretty hard to build links too fast (unless of course you are requesting and receiving tens of thousands of links per month).

While I do think there is some penalty or filter in place, I think the number of links you are “allowed” is quite high.  It’s more than a few or even a few dozen.

Because, like I said, it is out of your control to determine who links to you. If you do generate buzz, there’s no way to control the links pointing to you.  So why should you be penalized for that?

So, now that I’ve said I don’t think it will be a problem, let me end this article by adding a caveat.

I’m pretty sure Google has knowledge of who the sites are that readily give out links.  In other words, they know who the different directories are.  I’m pretty sure that if they wanted to run filters on how many of these types of links you capture that you would set off some red flags.

What I’m trying to say is the best approach to building links rapidly that should not set off warnings would be to attempt to request links from a variety of sources.

Don’t just do a “submit your site” query in Google and start banging requests out to them because that’s sure to cause problems for you down the road.

Instead, request a few of these links, but also approach bloggers and news sources in your industry.

Also, try and generate some of that buzz I mentioned above.  Create press releases, or even just noteworthy content, and submit it to places like Digg or Slashdot.

This type of blended approach to link building will likely allow you to build the maximum number of links with the least potential of any penalization.

Rob Sullivan is a SEO Consultant and Writer for Textlinkbrokers.com. Textlinkbrokers is the trusted leader in building long term rankings through safe and effective link building. Please provide a link directly to Textlinkbrokers when syndicating this article