How can I prevent link penalties?

Stick to gaining backlinks in a natural and relevant way. Buying links or using Blackhat SEO practices like private blogger networks will only land you in trouble. The best approach to link building is to gain relevant and high authority links. Don’t go for poor quality or unrelated links. Avoid swapping links with other websites, especially if they’re not a related industry to you. Reciprocal links are frowned upon by Google.