Advice on SEO link building strategies.

[Richard Walton]

Here's my quick two-cents - I'd love to hear your ideas and tips below.

The external SEO practice of link building has some best practice common trends - most notably 1) anchor text variation and 2) backlink destination. Obviously links MUST be do-follow.

So keywords and brand name are great variants and some internal pages of your site are great landing pages for links, not just your home page.

Also, the authority of the site linking to you is a major factor - the general rule being don't take a link from someone with lower DA than you.

Guest blogs / featured articles have their own audience you are reaching out to and forums and directories are useful too.

Disagreements? More practical insights?

 

[fisicx]

DA can be ignored - it's a made up moz thing.

Guest blogs and featured articles are frowned on by google (in general) as they are just slf promotion.

The links and anchor text should add value. The destination page should add value. The source and target sites (not just the pages) should relate to each other and add value to the reader.

The general rule is: the easier a link is to obtain, the lower the value of that link. So anything you do yourself will have less value than a link added by the owner of the source website. Google is looking for citations and endorsements. What it doesn't want is a bit of puffery with a link only added to boost your ranking.

 

[Richard Walton]

The general rule is: the easier a link is to obtain, the lower the value of that link. So anything you do yourself will have less value than a link added by the owner of the source website. Google is looking for citations and endorsements. What it doesn't want is a bit of puffery with a link only added to boost your ranking.

Doesn't this unfairly limit small businesses / sole-traders, who simply don't have the resources larger businesses have access to?

I have found guest blogging is incredibly beneficial (even if sometimes, not often, they request a budget for publication). Because I get a do-follow link, I reach out to an already established audience and I position myself as a though leader and industry influencer within the content of the piece.

 

[UKSBD]

Doesn't this unfairly limit small businesses / sole-traders, who simply don't have the resources larger businesses have access to?

That's a bit like saying;
Larger business have an advantage because they can afford the best shop fronts on the high street.

Larger business have an advantage because they can afford to employ more (and better) staff.

Larger business have an advantage because they can afford to advertise more.

Larger business have an advantage because they can afford better marketing divisions.

Google may have been a leveller in the early days, but those days are well gone.
It's all about big business, big budgets and digital agencies nowadays.

 

[fisicx]

Doesn't this unfairly limit small businesses / sole-traders, who simply don't have the resources larger businesses have access to?

Yes.

I have found guest blogging is incredibly beneficial (even if sometimes, not often, they request a budget for publication).

It can be - but not for SEO.

If you are guest blogging for SEO or linking building to boost your ranking then you are wasting your time (unless you have deep pockets or really know what you are doing).

What you need to do is this this course: http://freshbananas.co.uk/

If this guest blog posts are bringing in lots of quality leads then keep going. If they aren't, publish the content on your own site and get all the benefits of being a trusted source.

 

[Clinton]

...some best practice common trends - most notably

- 1) anchor text variation and
- 2) backlink destination.

- Obviously links MUST be do-follow.

- keywords and brand name are great variants

- the authority of the site linking to you is a major factor

- don't take a link from someone with lower DA than you.

AFAIAC, all of the above is unadulterated BS. I don't know where you got it from but like 99% of SEO related BS it probably originally came from a chap called Matt (except the DA stuff, of course, Matt don't do no DA. He had something called PR which was great for fooling the masses till they cottoned on that PR was fake. When they started calling it "toolbar PR" ol' Matt realised the game was up and discontinued PR, but that's a different story).

 

[Richard Walton]

AFAIAC, all of the above is unadulterated BS. I don't know where you got it from but like 99% of SEO related BS it probably originally came from a chap called Matt (except the DA stuff, of course, Matt don't do no DA. He had something called PR which was great for fooling the masses till they cottoned on that PR was fake. When they started calling it "toolbar PR" ol' Matt realised the game was up and discontinued PR, but that's a different story).

I have no idea what to make of all this.

 

[fisicx]

I have no idea what to make of all this.

Which is why it's dangerous to dabble in SEO.

Matt = Matt Cutts. PR = PageRank (part of the Google algorithmn).

 

[Clinton]

I mean, don't follow any run of the mill SEO advice. Everybody's doing that. Be different. Do not what Google tells you will work .... but what actually works.

If you want SEO traffic, blackhat the crap out of the Gorg.

 

[Richard Walton]

Which is why it's dangerous to dabble in SEO.

AVirtual has gone from 0% visibility on Google and increased by an average of 400% in the past 6 months (organic keywords on SEMrush, now often ranking 1st page for) - admittedly we have the benefit of being a fresh faced start-up coming from 0%, but SEO seems to be a highly profitable dabble. I think doing nothing for SEO is far more dangerous.

If you want SEO traffic, blackhat the crap out of the Gorg.

Please explain further?

 

[Clinton]

Please explain further?

No offence, but if you need that explained you shouldn't be doing SEO. I would suggest spending a few weeks reading all you can about the subject ... and remembering that most of it is rubbish / nonsense / out-of-date / downright dangerous. But I hear good things about something bananas from a tinman and @Tin even has an offer on at present.

Or you could hire someone like @fisicx or @webgeek or someone.

At present what you know about SEO is just enough to cause your site some serious long term damage in the SERPs. I've seen people like you boast about 400% increase in traffic and then come back a little later pleading for advice because their site has hit an algo penalty (or failed to ride Florida / Penguin / whatever)

Sorry, I don't have time to explain SERPs and Penguin and algo and stuff. Go look them up.

 

[UKSBD]

https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2017/05/a-reminder-about-links-in-large-scale.html

 

[Richard Walton]

No offence, but if you need that explained you shouldn't be doing SEO.

Sorry, I don't have time to explain SERPs and Penguin and algo and stuff. Go look them up.

Thank you for your insightful and informative comments. I'm off to go google what a penguin is

 

[Richard Walton]

webmasters link

This is incredibly pertinent and a very useful read.

What do you reckon constitutes as a large-scale campaign? Will it vary with every site?

Cheers for this!

 

[UKSBD]

Google could make their message much clearer by simply stating something along the lines of;

"We do not provide any benefits to links from article or blog sections from within popular publications like huff post, telegraph, guardian, etc."

 

[fisicx]

What do you reckon constitutes as a large-scale campaign? Will it vary with every site?

This is what I meant by my dabbling in SEO post.

If you start reading and researching SEO material you will begin to build a picture of what works and what should be avoided. Get it wrong and your ranking can come tumbling down in an instant.

A large scale campaign can be whatever Google decide. It will vary from site to site. If you spend all your time writing guest blogs and featured article Google may keep an eye on things and then suddenly decide you have tipped the balance and wipe you out the index.

 

[Clinton]

I'm off to go google what a penguin is

The penguin is a deceptive creature. It gives the impression of being a maître d', but I've never had one serve me a decent drink.

 

[Richard Walton]

Here at AVirtual we love conversations with real experts of their industry! Thanks everyone for the input.

 

[Rachel Kieran]

Seo is getting more and more advanced which requires brand to be fully active, most of the big brands have their whole SEO department which takes care of all the related activities but smaller brands struggle in having a robust growth for their business by increasing its digital presence. I have seen many businesses outsource these activities from specialized brands for keeping their cost in control.

 

[fisicx]

Seo is getting more and more advanced....

No it's not. The basics of SEO haven't changed for years. What has changed is the way the search engines try to combat the iffy techniques most of the bottom feeder SEO companies use to try and boost client's ranking.

 

[justinaldridge]

The basics are the same but the big change is in the impact of AI (machine learning) on the search results. Google internally calls it RankBrain. We have been seeing and adapting to this over the past year and the effects of machine learning on the SERPS are much clearer now.

The AI signals will only get stronger exponentially and it is opening up a wealth of opportunities in search that I haven't seen in years.

 

[fisicx]

Indeed, but what you do hasn't changed. It's still all about content and relevance supported by citations (usually inbound links).

 

[justinaldridge]

Yes, although the dependency on links is reducing and will gradually be a much less important ranking factor.

 

[fisicx]

Dependency on external links yes, but internal linking remains a strong ranking signal - if done properly.

 

[Richard Walton]

Yes, although the dependency on links is reducing and will gradually be a much less important ranking factor.

Where do you think the importance factor is moving to? Obviously a well built, with strong content, site is the ultimate key - but if you're saying it's decreasing, is something else increasing?

 

[fisicx]

It's moving back to content (as it was right at the beginning) and citations. This means testimonials, reviews, referrals and so on.

The focus is on providing the best service and products to potential clients. If Google thinks you are the best you will be rewarded with great ranking. However, if there a 1000 people all competing for the top spot you have to work a lot harder to earn the right to be on page one. Which is why people use all sort of dodgy techniques to get there.

 

[justinaldridge]

Where do you think the importance factor is moving to? Obviously a well built, with strong content, site is the ultimate key - but if you're saying it's decreasing, is something else increasing?

What is changing is Google's understanding of what makes a great page, useful, relevant content. This can be in the form of text, images, videos, podcasts, interactive elements, etc.

AI (artificial intelligence) is playing a major part in this and allowing Google to understand the quality and value of the contents of web pages. Google's AI, for example, is reading 3000 romance novels to understand conversational speech. AI is having a serious impact on results now and it will only get stronger.

As SEO's we have have spent years manipulating search results but the game has changed and hopefully is now leading to a better search experience as a result.

The basics of SEO are still important but the way to reach and stay at the top has definitely changed.

 

[Josette]

Yes, although the dependency on links is reducing and will gradually be a much less important ranking factor.

If Google uses links to move around the web to index, surely they will always be of great importance?
Is it contextual links that will gain importance, as an indicator of relevance? Rather than other links losing relevance?

 

[justinaldridge]

There are many ways that Google can discover sites and pages. If you want a page indexed just go to it using Chrome for example. Links for now are still an important ranking factor but we are already seeing their values drop unless they are highly thematic.

Browsing data, social sharing, GMB, Search Console, analytics, videos, etc., all build up the profile of the internet. Considering we are more connected than ever, the web has actually never been more disconnected. Webmasters are often scared to link and these days we just prefer to share socially anyway.

The only links worth getting these days are those that are on theme and relevant. The rest is down to content and page value.

 

[Colin Forrest]

Whilst Do Follow is obviously a good thing to focus on, do not try and work an SEO strategy that only uses Do follow links. It may appear that whilst no-follow, in theory, are not tracked by Google, they may in fact have an effect on ranking. Moz did a great article about this that is worth reading.

 

[fisicx]

No-follow links have no direct ranking benefit. There are lots of good things that can come from a no-follow link in the right place but the link on its own won't help your ranking.