what are the common mistakes people make during link building?

Please tell me about the most possible mistakes during link building.

They use directory submissions to build links.

hmmmm  that soo true..

Getting links from sites that have no relevant content to your site

Directories can and still do have value. There are good ones and bad ones, just like with any kind of site. Even Matt Cutts talks about getting links from quality directories.

As to the original question on mistakes people make in link building, the two biggest in my mind are only using the site name as the linked text and only building links to the homepage.

OH yeah absolutely.  I agree w/ YMC that a lot of places directory submit their homepage and ignoring all of the inside pages altogether.  In order to garner more traffic to one's site, I think it's more viable to promote every page within it in accordance to group.  Just going 1-2 pages deep in a site would bring a world of new visitors; some of them stay within that rhelm or may go even deeper.  That to me is a successful placement of one's site for the masses to discover or stumble on.

I don't submit my sites to directories, except for a few niche directories that may help. But submitting to multiple directories can harm a site because of the unrelevant content and the fast growth in link popularity (which ends after the directory submissions)

link Popularity too low
link growth too fast
spam link have too big percentage in your all links

That works for me... Links for links sake it generally a waste of time unless they send you traffic that wants your products or services... This is often unlikely because these sites are not relevant to yours. A link from a dry dresser isn't going to my SEO site much good.

IT's important to build quality back links within your niche. It makes all of the difference in the world. If engines see you building suspicious links, then they will compensate for that. Maybe not at first, but eventually, and at that point all of your hard seo work has gone out the window. You don't have to avoid directories, just ones that are irrelevant!

I choose to avoid directories because they are not listed in the Google webmaster guidelines.  They have even dropped DMOZ!

Generally they are doing these mistakes -

a. Putting links on those places which are not at all relevant to their websites

b Selecting poor keyword or anchor keyword while building links

c. Using software to submit their website instead of manual directory submission

d. Using short cuts instead of long term play

I think these are the basic mistakes which I have learned so far. But I am looking for more answer as this forum is full of genius.

I do not think that proper way of directory submission will harm your website. You just have to hire a professional who know directory submission and importance of SEO as well. But the problem is many directory submission people work like a blind.

I know few people and I always hire them.

Building backlinks by yourself is a very time consuming so hire those people who knows about it and most importantly know the drawback of poor link building.

d. Using short cuts instead of long term play... This may be the biggest mistake of them all.

Is this not helpful?  I mean, i do directory submission to get one way link and for link popularity

Depends on what directory are you using.

I think the biggest mistakes someone could do it in link building are
- getting links from link farms or banned sites
- getting links with wrong keywords in anchor text

They also acquire no follow links... Ouch!

wow i am suprised that no one mentioned doing link exchanges with low pr sites

Doing link exchanges with any one would be a mistake in my book no matter what the PR is, but especially if it is lower.

Getting links with nofollow is not one of the biggest mistakes, yahoo still counts them. But bad directories and pages without PR or banned, this would be a huge mistake.

Most make mistake in choosing static and dynamic link pages.

I would say the same thing.

Also, along the same lines, not getting enough link backs. Never have enough. Could apply the best SEO to a site, but without links, not going to get anywhere.

don't do blog comments not related to your site...

well, I guess directory submission still has worth... I think the common mistake is that they submit to directories not submitting it to the correct category... some are just spamming... and one more thing... when doing link exchange... go on with the relevant sites...

Directory submission in relevant directory and don't submitted in link farm directory.

Getting backlinks from poor quality sites with no relevant from your site..

no way..every link counts

the links are placed or submitted in wrong category.

asking for a link exchange while blog commenting

Why do you think it is a mistake? Exchanging link is a old school method which still work(In my opinion).

I'm surprised that some people still try to do link exchanges.

And I completely disagree about directories. The key is to find the ones that are free or provide listing for a one time fee. And build them over time. Don't do 100 directories in a week then never touch them again. Add a few each week. We certainly see backlinks from these directories in google's webmaster tools. And while they often have a ton of links on a page (decreasing the value of the link), often you get control over anchor text (which is good) and there's relevant copy on page (also good).

Avoid any directory that wants a reciprocal link.

on YMC: "As to the original question on mistakes people make in link building, the two biggest in my mind are only using the site name as the linked text and only building links to the homepage."

totally agree... some forget that the internal pages are as important as the homepage...

peopel tend to so link exchange when link building
Link exchanges (reciprocal links) are supposed to be very easy, but I think it doesn?t have that much value when it comes to Google. Reciprocal is a much less return on time spent. It?s only good if the sites you're trading links with are top quality and do not have a lot of outbound links.

Link errors in the process of building small, but take a very long time response

Not checking for links that may be broken or pointing in the wrong place. Building too many too fast without knowing if there site can handle the amount created in the amount of time.

1. Directory Submission may vanish in upcoming years, it is just a way to spam.

2. Wrong Keywords Analysis

3. Submission to other unrelated websites

4. Duplicate Content on same website

5. URL Complications

6. Internal Linking

7. Submission on websites which has less than 1 PR