What is Profile Linking in SEO?
If you’ve been an SEO for some time, you must’ve heard about profile linking or profile creation.
This topic separates the whole SEO community in half. Some say it’s not relevant today whereas some emphasize building these links.
But is it worth it to do right now? Or was that a thing of the past?
We will discover this and more in this post.
Table of Contents
Too Long; Didn’t Read
Profile linking is the process of building links by making profiles on websites. Google has confirmed that they ignore links like these and you shouldn’t waste your time or efforts on these.
What is Profile Linking?
Profile linking is an off-page technique where you build links by making profiles on different websites.
Many SEOs claim that these links help build your backlink profile and boost your rankings and traffic.
To know more about these links, I asked the SEO community on Reddit about what they think, and you can read the entire thread:
In summary, you create your business profile on social media, forms, and other websites, and add your homepage URL to them.
The main reason why people perform profile link building is to build links.
Now you might say, everyone makes their profiles on social media like Twitter, Instagram, Linkedin, and more. So Does this considered profile linking?
I would say both yes and no.
Because if you’re only making profiles on these social media just to build links and not post content, then it would be considered profile linking.
But if you are providing helpful content and value to your users, then it will not be considered profile creation.
For example, I have created Packted’s profile on social media like Twitter, Quora, Pinterest, Linkedin, and Reddit.
Now, I post answers through my Quora profile, and I share my post links on other profiles. So I wouldn’t consider that profile linking.
Also, another factor is relevance. If the website you made your profile on has anything to do with your site, then it’s fine to make profiles there. (As long as you are posting content and proving value)
Why do we need profile creation?
Some SEOs argue that profile creation can help in increasing rankings, traffic, and Domain Authority (DA).
But do you really think that’s the case?
Here’s what Malte has to say on the creation of profile backlinks:
I am not gonna lie but I created close to 50 profile links in a DAY for a single website back when I was an intern in one of the digital marketing agencies. And I had to do this for 3-5 websites.
So imagine creating 100+ backlinks in a day.
But I can tell you that they never ranked higher. Their goal was to maintain the rankings and for that, we had to create 100+ backlinks for a single website in a day.
And that included (but was not limited to) profile submission, social bookmarking, classifieds, article submission, image submission, directory submission, and more.
What are the benefits of Profile Submission?
Profile submission has the following benefits:
- Easy to make: I mean why not? Building links through email outreach and HARO is hard, but they are quality backlinks. But these are relatively easy to make as you only have to create profiles on different websites.
- Increase in traffic: The claim is that when you add your homepage link to these websites, people will eventually click on them to come to your website. (That only happens when you provide some value through your content.) Have you seen yourself clicking random links on the internet? No, right. You judge their security and you only open recognizable names, not random websites.
- Increase in Awareness: If you create your profiles on enough websites, you essentially are “getting your name out there”. But what’s the point of awareness when your website is about kids’ toys but you are building profiles on casino websites?
- Affordable: I mean it’s more affordable than buying links or doing paid guest posts, right? But it’s certainly not affordable because you still have to pay salaries to people who build them for you. Also, what will happen when your rankings start to go down instead of up because of these “spammy” links?
- Increase in DA and backlinks: Domain authority is basically a metric that is calculated based on “backlink profiles”. It doesn’t show how “authoritative” your domain is. Domain authority is a myth.
How effective are these links?
I have asked John Mueller on Twitter about Profile linking, and here’s what he says:
And needless to say, this post BLEW up. I posted the same on my LinkedIn and people were going nuts! Social media was really talking about this one tweet. And it was fascinating to see how tactics from 20 years ago are still being implemented today.
So, Clearly, Google ignores these links and they don’t contribute to rankings.
But you may ask, what if we post content on these profiles?
See, the thing is, if your website has any relevance to that website, then it’s fine to make your profile. Also, be sure to engage the audience and provide them with helpful content.
For example, if you are a graphic design agency, then it’s great to showcase your work on Behance.
But if you are a real estate website, then does it makes sense to build a profile on Behance?
No, right?
What are the things to consider while doing profile SEO?
When doing profile creation, you should consider the relevance of the website and whether or not you will post.
Let us simplify that, shall we?
Notice I said two words, relevance, and posting.
Relevance (in the context of profile creation) means how closely the profile creation website matches with your website.
To check if that website is relevant, ask yourself these questions:
- Does this website have anything to do with my website?
- Do my users visit here?
- Does the theme of their website align with mine?
Next is content posting.
Now, this has different meanings for everyone.
If you are finding that a certain website is relevant to your website and brand, then you should post content there. Just don’t leave your profile alone.
For example, on Reddit and Twitter, I only do post about my new articles. I don’t post any other content on these socials. But I have a community of people on Discord and Linkedin. But I have not made these profiles purely for building backlinks, because there’s more to SEO than just backlinks.
That being said, I am not saying that doing so will increase your backlinks or traffic, but at least you will build an audience there.
And be honest, who’s gonna pay for your services? Profiles or people?
Moving on…
How do you do profile creation?
To do profile creation, you find sites that have a high DA and then create profiles on them. And also include your website link.
At least that’s how they do it and teach it.
Let’s see how it works, step by step.
- To start with profile creation, you have to find a list of sites. So start by entering keywords like “profile creation sites” on Google. Now you can see a bunch of results in the SERP.
- Click on the one you find interesting. This should present you with a list like this:
- Whichever sites have high DA and you like, open them. (for this tutorial, I am opening dribble)
- You should see something like “Sign in” on the website. Click on that and fill in the details. If you are making a personal account, then fill in personal details, or if you’re making a business profile, then fill in business details.
- Some sites ask you for double verification. Complete this step.
- Now, you are in your profile. You should see an “edit profile” option somewhere
- Now you can edit your profile. But we are aiming for the “Bio” and “URL” sections. Here’s how that might look:
- Here, you will fill in your company or personal bio and enter your website’s URL.
- That’s pretty much it.
And that’s how you do this. Rinse and repeat this process until you complete your daily target. (I didn’t complete all the steps because this was just for educational purposes)
Are Profile links good for SEO?
In simple words, profile links are not good for SEO if you are only making them for the purpose of link building.
However, if you are posting content and providing value, then you might build a loyal audience.
So, it doesn’t matter if you build five hundred or five million profile links if you aren’t providing users with helpful content.
One high-quality link can help your rankings more than thousands of low-quality and spammy links.
How many links are required for increasing DA?
Moz, who created metrics like Domain authority and page authority says, “DA is not used by Google and will have no direct impact on your rankings. Increasing your DA solely to increase your DA is pointless vanity.”
That being said, if you really want to increase DA, Moz suggests:
- Build high authoritative and relevant links
- Try to build less spammy links
- Build links that drive real traffic
Final Thoughts
Some of you may see this post as me ranting on profile submission. But I am not. And here’s why:
I am only pointing out people and agencies who fool their clients by telling them that these links work.
People who build hundreds and thousands of spammy links will eventually get ignored by Google.
Why waste your time and energy on building spammy links when you can direct the time and resources to build high-quality and authoritative links?
I will leave you with this thought.
P.S. Want to contact me? You can either Email me or connect with me on LinkedIn. Also, I would love to welcome you to Packted’s server!
