mat t hewwo o dward.co .uk http://www.matthewwoodward.co.uk/tips/seo-link-building-2014/

Matthew Woodward

Evolve Or Die – Why SEO & Tiered Link Building Has Changed In2014

Around 14 months ago I shared my own tiered link building strategy with the world.

But since then we have had at least 12 major updates to the algorithm. One of which specif ically targets t ieredlink building.

A lot has changed which has started to make the method much less ef f ective than it used to be.

As Google evolves we must evolve and with it so must our link building practices.

So I wanted to share my thoughts on the past 12 months with you and address the much wider problems athand.

Long Live Tiered Link Building

The great thing about t iered link building is it takes advantage of how Google f undamentally spiders andstructures the web.

The tiered link building theory will always be ef f ective unless Google makes some serious changes.

But what needs to change is how we apply that theory.

Common Tiered Link Building Mistakes

I have reviewed a lot of peoples tiered link building campaigns over the past year and I always see the samemistakes/problems popping up.

Poor Content

The f irst one is poorly spun content. I know that spinning content properly takes time and is tedious, but it isessential f or success.

If you take short cuts here you are going to waste all of your t ime.

Poor Target Site List

I stress the importance of this in the series and I’m going to do it again. It is crit ical that you spend timescraping your own target list of sites.

Once you have done that you need to continually maintain that list, adding new sites, removing lowquality/deindexed ones and so f orth.

It ’s amazing how many people don’t bother with this but it is essential.

Focusing Purely On Tiered Link Building

Tiered link building is much more ef f ective when used in conjunction with other link building tactics.

A lot of people seem to be doing just t iered stuf f and nothing else. I don’t think I’ve seen a single reader go tothe ef f ort of a handmade web 2.0 or buying/repurposing an aged domain.

In my tiered link building theory video I highlight that the f uture is owning your f irst t ier/your own site networkand I still believe that to be true.

You need to mix things up and keep everything random.

Not Evolving

Regardless of whether you f ollow a tutorial f or keyword research or f or link building, you need to think f oryourself .

As your knowledge/experience develops you need to evolve your practices and try new things.

If you are copying what everyone else is doing step by step you will have a tough time.

The people that benef it the most f rom any type of tutorial on any topic are those combine new learning withexisting knowledge to improve/develop.

Poor Sites

I’m going to touch on this in more detail later in the post.

But can you honestly say your site deserves to rank? Even if it had the best backlink prof ile in the world, is itactually providing value?

The Future Of Tiered Link Building

Jacob King has highlighted the f laws of the current t iered link building model in his post and how to f ix them.

I agree with a lot of what he says and it is great to see how he has evolved his process to move with the times.

But I do not think that is the right solution and the average SEO needs to do much more than simply evolvingtheir link building process.

You really need to take a step back and look at the bigger picture to understand just how much SEO & linkbuilding has changed in the past 12 months.

We have much bigger problems to address.

Google Have Raised The Bar

Over the past year or so Google has really started to step their game up with spam detection.

Now this is nothing new, Google are always f ine tuning the algorithm. But what is new, is they are actuallygetting good at it.

Over the past 12 months alone we have had-

4 Panda updates

2 Penguin updates

2 unknown phantom updates

Pay day loan update

Knowledge graph update

Hummingbird

And they are just the updates we know about! Which doesn’t even consider the impact of authorship in thef uture.

In f act just yesterday we saw one of the biggest updates of the year since Penguin 2.0 was released in Mayaccording to SERPMetrics.

This is also ref lected by Algoroo-

Google has denied this update happened but what it seems to have done is reduce the number of resultsdisplaying authorship.

Secondly it seems they have reduced the total number of pages in their index-

‘Buy SEO’ 12 months ago returned 210,000 results, which has dropped 27% by 153,000

‘Kontent Machine Review’ used to return 220,000 results, now just 56,300 – 75% drop of f

‘Matthew Woodward’ used to return 16,900,000 results, now 11,800,000 – 30% drop

This seems to be the opposite of the Caf f eine update in 2010 which increased its index by huge amounts.

The Caf f eine update sort of backf ired by introducing a huge amount of spam and low quality results into theSERPS.

So whether you like it or not, SEO is changing.

The SERPS Have Changed

Not only are Google getting better at detecting spam f rom an onsite and of f site perspective, they have alsochanged how they deliver search results.

Way back when we just had 10 organic search results with a f ew Adwords ads based on the keyword yousearch f or and the country you are in.

Now we have to compete with all of this-

Then you also have to consider personalization- based on previous search history, websites the user hasvisited bef ore, people they f ollow on social media and their local location etc.

Now you might not think many people bother to sign in when searching Google but the rise of the not providedkeyword shows how many people are actually signed in when searching.

Oh and lets not f orget-

76.7% of results f eature top Adwords ads

51.9% of results f eature side Adwords ads

26.7% of results f eature knowledge graph results

20.8% of results f eature paid shopping ads

18.7% of results f eature a news box

13.1% of results f eature bottom Adwords ads

To put it simply, ranking #1 just doesn’t deliver the same value as it used to.

Why Are People Obsessed With Ranking #1?

So that leads to an important question. Why are people so obsessed with ranking #1 f or a specif ic term?

It’s nearly impossible to say what ‘ranking #1′ actually means now with all of the SERP changes &personalisation going on.

Sure you can enter private browsing/incognito mode and see your #1 – but that isn’t what is actually happeningin the real world.

That’s not to say that having a strong organic web presence has no value. Organic search traf f ic is some ofthe most targeted and engaged traf f ic you can get.

But by purely f ocusing on trying to rank #1 f or a specif ic keyword you are holding yourself back.

Ranking Factors Have Changed

One of the bigger changes that has happened over the past 18 months is the f undamental way in whichGoogle ranks websites.

Since the introduction of backlinks in 1998, every Google algorithm has relied on backlinks heavily to rankwebsites.

The simple idea that when one website links to another, that casts a posit ive vote.

But as the web has grown we have seen the introduction of social networks. Which allow real people to easilycast a posit ive vote f or a website (Google +1/Facebook Like/Tweet etc)

In essence a social signal is an everyday web user ‘building a link’ by liking your content.

This is much harder to f ake then getting other websites to cast ‘votes’ which were previously limited to a selectpool of people that knew how to make a website and a backlink (vote) in the f irst place.

Google has made a huge shif t towards social signals as a ranking f actor.

Ranking power has been taken out of the hands of webmasters and put it into the hands of the everyday webuser.

Pause f or a second and think about the real world impact of that shif t.

That is serious stuf f right there!

Backlinks Are Not The #1 Ranking Factor

SearchMetrics monitored 10,000 keywords, tracked 5,300,000,000 backlinks & 19,044,500,000 social signalsacross 2013.

Using the Spearman Correlation model they were able to determine the top rankings f actors in 2013 were-

1. Google +1′s

2. Facebook shares

3. Backlinks

4. Facebook total

5. Facebook comments

6. Facebook likes

7. Pinterest

8. Tweets

That is not to say that link building isn’t important now – it always will be. But it is a lot less important than itused to be.

Obsessive Compulsive Backlink Disorder

Along with the obsession to be #1 f or a specif ic keyword comes an unhealthy obsession with backlinks.

I see the same thing time and time again and if this sounds like a personal gripe, it is.

People build a site and immediately want to start link building to chase down that #1 spot.

They are so obsessed and f ocused with backlinks & ranking they can’t see the woods f or the trees.

Forgetting about every other one of the 200+ ranking f actors Google uses to rank websites, f ocusing all oftheir ef f orts on just 1.

Then scratch their heads when that didn’t work.

Even when a site gets penalised the backlinks get the blame with no evidence to back that up.

Every person that has contacted me f or help with penalty analysis has blamed the backlinks.

Not a single one of them didn’t have huge onsite issues – the most common of which was duplicate/thincontent.

The irony is even when I have told clients the site is at f ault and the duplicate content must be addressed, theystill just want to clean up link prof ile & build more backlinks.

I don’t know how we have developed this unhealthy obsession with backlinks, but it needs to stop.

Your Site Doesn’t Deserve To Rank

I have also received a lot of emails f rom readers asking me f or link building advice to improve their rankings.

Hundreds and hundreds of people have done that and I can count on 1 hand how many of them had actuallybuilt a site that deserved to rank in the f irst place.

There is more to building a site than keyword research and keyword targeted articles at 3% density with theaim to getting people on and of f your site as quickly as possible through an af f iliate link or adsense block.

I think this is a symptom of obsessive compulsive backlink disorder – when people are so f ocused on gettingrankings as quickly as possible, they want to spend as litt le t ime and money as possible on the site itself .

Amazon af f iliates are one of the worst of f enders of this. Find a niche, throw up some product reviews, bang ina f ew Amazon af f iliate links, voila!

I always have the same question f or people that f ollow this kind of strategy-

What value does your site provide over and above the reviews by real buyers on Amazon directly?

No one has come back with a good answer f or that yet.

And well if you can’t answer that, all things being equal why would Google send the traf f ic via your site ratherthan directly to Amazon?

Now if you were supporting unique content by pulling in data f eeds f rom a range of merchants with geotargeted product price comparisons you would be on your way to adding value. Maybe I’ll teach you how I dothat one day.

But the bottom line is this, the onsite quality bar has been raised signif icantly.

My Favourite Aff iliate Sites

I can’t give you any live examples of bad af f iliate sites but I can share with you some shining examples of greataf f iliate sites.

I know these are established sites and you might be just starting out, but sites like this are built over t ime –they are not born overnight.

MoneySavingExpert .com

MoneySavingExpert.com is by f ar the leading consumer f inance advice site in the UK. Built in 2003 by MartinLewis f or £100, in 2013 he sold it f or £87 million/$140 million.

It gets over 13 million unique users a month recommending some of the highest paying af f iliate programsincluding banks, credit cards, mortgages, loans, utilit ies & more.

If you spend some time browsing around the site you will quickly see why it has been so successf ul. Theyprovide the very best consumer f inance content in the UK period.

Not only that but they have put a lot of t ime and ef f ort into the user experience. Everything is easy to f ind andneatly organised.

In f act af ter spending some time reading the site you quickly f orget its an af f iliate site at all!

CompareTheMarket .com

CompareTheMarket.com have done a cracking job at taking data f rom af f iliate f eeds and API’s and combining itto create huge amounts of value f or its visitors.

If you want to get the best price f or car insurance, home insurance, lif e insurance, energy, credit cards or travelinsurance this is the place f or you.

Again these are some of the most lucrative niches and af f iliate commissions in the world.

So when sites like this exist, why are people still trying to build and rank micro niche sites f or ‘cheap carinsurance’ that are nothing more than 1,000 word article with an af f iliate link or two?

HotUKDeals.com

HotUKDeals.com is my f avourite af f iliate site in the world period. The idea is simple but the prof its are huge.

Imagine a Digg like system where people could submit deals they f ind online, then the rest of the communitycould vote them either hot or cold. The hotter a deal is the more likely it is to hit the f rontpage.

That is exactly what HotUKDeals is. A community of people f ighting to f ind & submit the best deals and votingf or them/discussing them.

In my corporate lif e I used to game the system and having just 1 deal hit the f ront page would drive a healthy£50,000 of revenue without f ail.

Now imagine if every time someone submitted a deal they f ound, the link was automatically turned into anaf f iliate link on the backend.

The community f inds the deals, the community votes the deals, the community promotes the deals, thecommunity discusses the deals and you just spin on your chair.

Now that is what I call an af f iliate site!

Level Up Your Site!

What I want you to take out of those examples is to think out of the box a litt le bit. You can do so much morethan just write an article with the hope someone clicks on an af f iliate link.

Spend some time on those sites with your internet marketing hat on and get a f eel f or how they do things tof ind inspiration.

I’m not saying you have to invest huge amounts of t ime and money developing massive authority sites withcustom developed f eatures.

This blog alone was started with nothing more than a plan, domain, hosting and a headset.

But I am saying you need to build a site that actually engages people and provides value in some way.

Getting people on and of f a page via an af f iliate link just isn’t going to cut it long term.

What Happens When You Forget About SEO?

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you f orgot about SEO/link building entirely and purely f ocusedon creating great content like Matt Cutt’s keeps telling us to?

Well I did.

My regular readers will know this blog was born out of a zero link building experiment.

I f ocused entirely on creating content and driving social signals. I was not allowed to use tradit ional SEO or linkbuilding to rank the blog.

This is what search traf f ic f or 2013 looked like against all of the algo updates this year-

The proof really is in the pudding, by f ocusing on content and social signals the site has grown at a rapid pacethroughout 2013.

If you want to learn more about exactly what I did and how I did it then have a read of this very detailed post.

Where Do We Go From Here?

Reading through all of that might seem daunting but I hope it helps to address some of the wider problems athand with SEO & link building.

Usually there are no guarantees with SEO but one thing I can guarantee is Google are going to get better atdetecting spam.

If you are f ully f ocused on link building and that elusive #1 ranking you are going to have a rough ride.

SEO Is Just Risk Management

SEO is nothing more than risk management and the risks you take depend on the goals of the campaign.

For example if you wanted to rank something quickly, you would adopt a very aggressive link building strategyencompassing blog networks.

But that obviously sits on the higher end of the risk scale.

If you want long term sustainable rankings you need to play things much saf er and mirror the GoogleWebmaster Guidelines as closely as possible.

Regardless of what type of link you build or how you build it, you breach Webmaster Guidelines – so it ’s allblack hat SEO if you ask me.

Really there is no right way or wrong way to build links, but the links you build and how you build them needs toalign with the goals of your campaign.

It is still possible to throw a site together and link it to the top, but that model is dying.

So you really need to ask yourself – what type of site do I want to build?

SEO Is Not SEO

SEO is no longer all about the links. In f act SEO has changed so much it ’s hard to call it SEO anymore.

What we are seeing is a convergence of content, social, analytics, user experience & marketing.

It seems over the past 5 years obsessive compulsive backlink disorder has seen internet marketing becomeGoogle marketing.

We have f orgotten about all of the other f aces of internet marketing in our quest f or rankings.

You really need to start thinking about a more complete & comprehensive online marketing strategy.

SEO is not SEO anymore. SEO is internet marketing.

Link Building Is St ill Important

Please don’t get me wrong, link building is still important and it certainly isn’t dead.

However link building on its own just isn’t going to be enough to compete in the coming times.

It will always need to be a part of our wider SEO strategy.

You Have A Great Opportunity

I see the changes of the past 12 months as a f antastic opportunity.

What Google has actually done by leaning towards social signals more is hit a big ‘reset’ button in the SERPS.

This means that sites with litt le to no authority in terms of links can easily compete against established siteswith strong backlink prof iles.

Luckily so many people suf f er f rom obsessive compulsive backlink disorder they have f ailed to notice this shif t.

Secondary to that humans hate change, it pushes them out of their comf ort zone and in general we avoiddoing that.

I don’t think SEO’s have been handed an opportunity on a plate like this bef ore in the history of search.Ecommerce sites especially!

You just need to plan things properly. If you ask me, every niche is f or the taking right now!

I am In A Tricky Position

All of this puts me in a very tricky posit ion.

Most of my audience just wants to know the quickest and easiest way to rank a site.

It is clear looking at my analytical data that no one really cares about site speed, conversion, user journey,social signals etc. The vast majority just care about link building and nothing else.

What they actually need though is their perceptions of SEO challenging and evolving. Breaking old habits thathave been engrained in them f or years.

That is no small task and is much easier said than done! Not everyone is going to like it & people naturally f ightchange.

I want to arm my readers with everything they need to be able to build a long term & sustainable stream ofincome online.

I have put some thought into how I can do that with your help through 2 case studies.

#1 – How To Build A Business Online With $100

I have mentioned this series bef ore but just to recap you I’m going to build a successf ul business online stepby step with a $100 start-up budget.

You will be able to f ollow along week by week as I share exactly what I have done and how I have done it.

This series is going to encompass everything I know about internet marketing & not just SEO/Google.

I have spent the last couple of weeks looking at dif f erent e- learning platf orms to deliver the lessons and havef inally settled on one.

This series is my top priority in the new year – it won’t be f or the f aint hearted.

#2 Live SEO Ranking Case Study

To cater f or those currently suf f ering f rom obsessive compulsive backlink disorder I’m going to create atradit ional SEO ranking case study.

What I plan to do is take you through the entire process of setting up SEO ranking experiments/case studiesso you can roll your own easily in the f uture.

I haven’t worked out the f ull details yet but it will be something like building 3 sites targeting the same niche/setof keywords each with a unique link building strategy.

Then we can measure and report on the successes & f ailures of each strategy.

I have a f ew things to consider though, when other people have ran live experiments like this people haveruined it with negative SEO. But if you don’t reveal the sites everyone says its f ake.

So not entirely sure how I’m going to solve that one just yet!

I’m still in the early planning phases of this but if you have any suggestions/ideas please let me know and I’lltake them on board.

Wrapping It Up

I hope this post has helped you to take a step back and look at the bigger picture of search.

SEO is no longer just about backlinks and we have much bigger problems to address over and above changingsome settings in link building sof tware.

We need to adapt & embrace the change to evolve with the times.

SEO is internet marketing.