Building A Defensible Link Profile

Julie JoyceOwner of Link Fish Media

Co-founder of SEO-Chicks.com@juliejoyce

Always think like a paid link buyer who doesn’t want to get caught even if you’re not buying links.

Houston, We Have A Problem. Actually, we have several.

More Links!

The site with the most links or highest % of money anchors does

not always win.

Free Stuff

• Not all free links are good links.

Copycats

• Mimicking a competitor’s link profile is a surefire way to fail the second they fail.

Networks

• Many were knocked out in early 2012.

• The rest could soon be hit.

Name Dropping

• Comment and forum link drops are one of the most-requested link removals.

Can This Link Hurt Me?

• Paid links aren’t the only dangerous links.

• Links that exist with no purpose other than to manipulate rankings can be a problem whether they’re paid or free.

• Any link that invites closer inspection can be bad for your site.

• Link profiles that are low quality can be as worthless as having no links.

Run Away If:

• The site is not indexed in Google.

Run Away If:

• Site is full of content that doesn’t match its URL or tag line (like all recipes on a finance site.)

Penalized By Free Links?? Yes.

• Out of the last ~10 link audits I’ve conducted for people who are trying to get back into Google after cleaning up paid links, 8 profiles are still full of crappy free links.

• Most leftover links are from irrelevant low-level directories or sitewide blogrolls. Some will blow your computer up.

Lots of “could” language here.

Free link.List of nothing but unrelated sites.

None have TBPR.Most inbound links are equally irrelevant and spammy.

Site sells antique toys.

• Article written about maid service in Texas.

• Keyword linked is Old Maid.

• This used to work.

• Free link.

Spammy Blogrolls, Partner Links, Recommendations

If You Are Actually Deindexed

• If you’ve been deindexed for bad links, you need to clean up those links before you start building new ones. Don’t submit a reinclusion request if you have not cleaned up your links.

• Don’t think that falling in the rankings automatically means you’re penalized.

• How can you tell which ones to clean up? If they don’t look like editorially given links, either nofollow them or have them removed.

Creating a defensible profile is easier than you

think.

First, Toss Out Toxins

• Analyze what you currently have. Link Research Tools and Majestic are great for identifying your potentially toxic links. If they aren’t sending you traffic, you may want to get rid of them.

Recognize that any site can accidentally suffer from an update.

Stop focusing on scale and start questioning

value.

Grab Your Handles

• Use Knowem.com to check availability and snag desired social media usernames on up to 300 sites. (Yes it costs but it’s MUCH easier than trying to buy your handles later.)

Monitor EVERYTHING.

• Google alerts set up for brand, URL, important usernames/email addresses, blogger names, bloggers you watch to pitch to, competitors, titles of content pieces, etc.

• Monitoring chunks of content is a good free alternative to Copyscape so you can keep an eye on scrapers and dupe content.

Stop only focusing on what works in Google.

Do More Than Seasonal Pushes

• $12196.34 spent on paid links for a seasonal push. 85 links built, only 20% of which were live 13 months later. Many links were converted to competitors within 3 months of going live. Total cost including labor was $25k.

Stop trying to automate everything.

Rely on common sense above metrics.

TBPR 6

Remember that algorithms change in response to

patterns, so don’t create them.

Create and maintain a Do Not Contact db. Add to it regularly.

If a blogger or webmaster doesn’t want to work with you, do them the honor of leaving them alone. (Unless

you enjoy reading blog posts about how you’ve spammed them.)

If a link looks sketchy, ask to have it

nofollowed or removed.**If you dropped links in comments over the years, don’t expect those webmasters to happily do the extra work of removing your links though. Also remember that plenty of webmasters WILL ask for payment to nofollow or remove a link so be prepared.

If you can’t get away from metrics, look at social signals and not just TBPR or linking

domains.

They can be a much better indicator of value. It’s harder to fake social love.

Create a kick-ass link team who can do their jobs without relying on tools.

Negative Mentions • Negative mentions can be great defensible

links since most people won’t actively seek those.

• Just make sure you respond to whatever the complaint is.

Julie is nuts.

OMG I know.

Sorry. I had a bad day.

Conference bios, webinar bios, and author listings on industry sites build some great links.

Second-Tier Links

Build Defensible Content

• Evergreen content attracts links and attention.

• Write about topics that don’t change (much) or create documentation and add to it regularly.

• Yearly updates can be written and crosslinked.

2423 backlinks on 497 unique domains.Updates keep content fresh.

Ever-increasing links.

Controversy generates social interaction.

Rolling Stone: 8585 links from 1428 linking domains. 5163 comments. Controversial topic.

Interviews and crowdsourced pieces make for good content that generates links and interaction from the participants and those in their social circles.

105 links, good social.

Just Remember:

• Make sure you 301 any content when its URL changes. Otherwise it’s ripe for broken link building for someone else.

• If no one else is commenting, start the conversation yourself.

Turn Any One-Off Into A Series

• Series on a few sites may look more legitimate than guest posts on 50 sites.

• Check your analytics...if a guest post sends you great traffic, ask webmaster if you can write there more frequently.

• Series cut down on discovery for new placements.

Don’t limit yourself to online SEO sources like

keyword and social media tools for content

inspiration.

Listen To NPR.Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me sums up the weekly news in a funny quiz

show that’s a lot more entertaining than the actual

news.

Read Satire.The Onion’s “American Voices” and Latest News sections are quick skims of what’s popular

enough to get parodied.

Watch Late Night TV.

If Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart are talking about it, it’s

controversial.

Let Your Link Team Build Something Fun

• A year ago we launched AvantGreensboro.com to give our team the full website experience.

• Site now has ~20 writers, most volunteering time. Many are not my employees and asked to contribute.

• Free reign on creativity has made them better at writing work-related content and promoting it. Employee buy-in on anything makes everyone happier.

Ensure Continued Visibility In Case You Get Hit

• Do this BEFORE something bad happens.

• Remember that you could easily be collateral damage in the next Google update.

Pursue Traffic From Outside Google’s SERPs• Other engines.

• Social media sites.

• Referrals from guest posts...both one-offs and series.

• Interviews.

• Direct hits.

• Reviews

• Local listings

Th

The Web > Google.

Always Prepare For The Worst.

What Makes a Great Link Team?

Our two best link builders: one is in his early 20s and works from home 40 hours a week in addition to taking a full load of online college classes.

The other one is a laid-off textile worker in his mid-50s who was unemployed for years before we snagged him.

Don’t compose a team full of people who are all just alike. Brainstorming is much better when people have

different ideas and experiences.

Hire people who were bartenders, waitresses, teachers, college kids, retired workers, writers, artists, and/or

scientists. SEOs sometimes make horrible link builders.

Don’t outsource your link building to people you haven’t vetted thoroughly.

Reward your link

team.

Set up a bonus plan.

Run internal contests.

Individual and Team Targets

If You’re Going To Buy Links• Do so only after warning the client of the risks involved.

• If someone says she sunk her life savings into a site, don’t buy links for it.

• If someone sends you a list of all the sites he owns, dump it into a db and stay away.

• Make sure you report every detail of the links you buy and send it to the client every month.

• Don’t approach a site owner by immediately trying to buy a link for a named client. Get a feel for whether they’re open to the potential before “outing” the client.

• Don’t monitor them in anyone else’s tool. Build your own so you can keep an eye on the links.

• If the site where you’ve bought links suddenly starts filling up with paid links, ask to have yours nofollowed or removed.

• If you buy links for any client and it’s public knowledge, don’t put your other clients at risk by naming them either.

• Be prepared to get thrown under a bus if the client gets caught. They’ll blame you and say they had no idea what you were doing so deal with the fallout and move on.

Image Credits

• All images used were either my property or were licensed under Creative Commons

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