Build Backlinks Online has posted a new item, '33 Link Building Questions
Answered'
Posted by Rhea Drysdale
This post was originally in YouMoz, and was promoted to the main blog because it
provides great value and interest to our community. The author's views are
entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of SEOmoz, Inc.
This is a follow-up post to my Link Smarter, Not Harder Mozinar from last week.
There was a great turnout and more than fifty questions asked. Thank you for
joining!
During my Mozinar, we walked through a sample link building idea generation
process. The point was to demonstrate that link development is only limited by
our creativity and resources. While building a backlink to a credit card site
may seem impossible, we must remember that we put a man on the moon, which means
coming up with new link building methods for the credit card industry is
achievable.
When reading through the audience Q&A questions from the Mozinar, I noticed a
lot of folks who were still looking for a silver bullet for link building and
SEO. This is when my brain got clogged with what I can only describe as an
overwhelming pit of sadness. I recognize that SEOmoz is arguably the most
recognizable publisher/tool provider in the SEO industry, which means the
majority of PRO users range from beginners to seasoned experts. However, being
new to the industry (or simply wanting to not listen to it) is no excuse for
misinformation, the spread of spammy practices, and poor quality SEO services.
So, I hemmed and hawed about what to do. Should I take this opportunity to
hammer the point of my Mozinar into everyones consciousness? Ultimately, I
decided that it wasnt fair to the majority of readers, so I took a different
approach. This post is an opportunity to expound on some areas of the Mozinar,
but more often than not, just general best practices and my philosophical
approach to link building. I hope theres value in here for everyone reading, and
feel free to debate my points in the comments or hit me up on Twitter.
Link building and SEO tools
Tools mentioned during the presentation and Q&A:
Search Metrics
STAT Search Analytics
Fresh Web Explorer
Majestic SEO
Open Site Explorer
MozCast
Screaming Frog (I may not have mentioned this, but should have. It rounds out
our list of a few, highly used tools, which was another point of the Mozinar:
you dont need a huge toolset to accomplish big things with link building!)
Sponsored blogs
Image above taken from the Mozinar. Missing the context? Go watch it! I worked
hard on that thing.
1. How does Google know if one blog is a sponsored blog vs guest blog? We only
do guest blogs, because we don't want to buy links, but many blogs these days
ask for money.
Sponsored blogs are like advertorials in magazines and should be labeled as
such. If someone received compensation for their review/content, this should be
disclosed and, according to Google, all outbound links to the purchasing domain
should be nofollowed. By comparison, a guest post doesnt include compensation;
it should be based on the merits and relevance of the content, a relationship
with the guest poster, or some other qualitative (versus monetary) factor. In
other words, I think its important that you fully understand FTC and Google
Webmaster Guidelines when submitting content through sponsored or guest posts.
2. What do you think about sponsored blogs (sponsored links) vs guest blogs
(unpaid links)? Does Google punish you for "link buying"?
Yes. Google will punish sites that are caught selling links, buying links, or
paid links agencies/service providers. Manual action usually occurs when it's
done on a substantial scale. Of course, Matt Cutts posted the following today,
which might help clear up some confusion about punishment by association (hat
tip to Barry over at SERoundtable for sharing this):
3. Why is a mom's blog post about a product a threat to get you penalized,
etc., if there is no mention of a sponsorship?
If there isnt a sponsored post, the blogger wasnt paid for the product review,
and they werent compensated in another form then there shouldnt be a risk. We
often cite mom blogs simply because of the large quantity of them that exist
purely for giveaways and sponsored posts. This is also a community thats heavily
solicited by companies and link builders, so theyre more likely to knowingly or
not link to questionable sources.
Guest posts
4. How does Google see backlinks from guest posts?
5. Do you think guest blogs will be ignored by Google in the future as they are
often fairly thin content-wise?
I'll answer both questions here. No, I dont see guest posts as a whole being
devalued by Google. The Whitehouse.gov accepts guest posts and so does every
craptastic exact-match Blogspot. Google isnt going to devalue content from the
Whitehouse, just like they wont devalue Blogspot, which also hosts incredibly
authoritative communities and blogs like Googles own Google Webmaster Central
blog. Basically, we create spam websites, but that doesnt mean Google devalues
websites. The responsibility lies with search engines to develop an algorithm
that determines qualitative sites vs spam. The same is now true of individual
content on those sites and if my blog is hosting guest posts from payday loan,
online college degree, and shoe retailer sites, its probably not a great blog.
If the blog hosts guest posts only from wedding planners, bridal stores, and
party favor sites, its probably still very valuable to that industry.
Agency life
6. What's been your biggest hurdle getting things done from an agency side? Any
examples from an in-house's perspective?
Biggest agency hurdle: Lets actually go with my top two:
Technical restrictions (often an internal dev team thats overloaded, poor CMS,
or the site is in a code freeze)
Approval process (difficult to get content or methods past strict legal
teams/brand guidelines)
Biggest in-house hurdle:
Politics! Its tough to get your work prioritized, especially when another
department has the ear of so-and-so. At least, that how I felt when I was
in-house. There were a lot more political moves than data-driven. That doesnt
mean all organizations function this way; the best companies lose the drama/egos
and focus on the data. Thats how everything should be.
7. How long is your typical link building campaign? When can clients start
seeing results? Do you ask clients to make a quarterly or annual commitment or
other time frame?
We typically need 6-12 months to demonstrate strong results for our clients. We
start to see results in 2-3 months, but structure monthly link building
retainers for long-term investment in brand development. With that said, no one
is trapped in a contract. We have fairly generous cancellation policies, because
if it isnt working or something drastic changes within your organization, its
important that you/we do whats right.
8. I work with a client that does not create dynamic content (blog, articles,
etc.). Each page of their site is about a product or technology behind a
product. How else can I help build links without the ability to create
fresh/unique content on a regular basis?
How are these products being used? By who? Like we discussed in the Mozinar,
look at those audiences to identify potential partnerships, testimonials, case
studies, product reviews, etc. If the company is purely promotional, you could
arrange interviews for the founder(s), have them speak locally/nationally, or
invest in an online customer service platform for the products that builds up
product-specific content and long-tail queries. Those are just a few ideas off
of the top of my head, but look to how theyre marketing the business and where
and you will find ideas even if youre unable to place content on the domain
itself.
9. What would you advise an SEO do when they are working in a really
competitive and traditionally heavily-spammed niche, and they see all of their
client's competitors are ranking consistently by using black hat tactics? Take
the squeaky clean path and keep your fingers crossed that Google will smack
them?
Yes. It isnt worth your energy to focus on the competition to the detriment of
your own marketing. Trust me, Ive been there, done that. Just keep moving
forward with your business and your approach. While the competitors are busy
filing for reconsideration requests, youll be ahead of the game. If youre
focused on your mission and make a mistake, youll already be so far ahead of
everyone else that you can recover from it. Its part of the theory of OODA
loops, which is probably loosely related, but I love to talk about OODA loops.
It's also important to manage expectations. We work with clients every day who
are champions in their business. They're having to continually and tirelessly
communicate the message that low-risk, high-quality link building will protect
their brand and build the business. It's important to reset the expectation that
link quantity and anchor text isn't the metric to measure, but link quality and
your own internal performance metrics like conversions and qualified traffic are
what truly matter.
10. What is best practice for linking to your own website from a client's site?
(Footer links)
Linking to your client's sites isn't something I do, but I know other reputable
SEOs who will do this. It's tough; in any other industry, it makes sense to list
your clients. In SEO, I feel like Google looks closer at client sites when
they're affiliated with known SEOs, and more importantly, so do your
competitors. I don't want to make it that easy. If you want to know what our
clients are doing, do your homework - we did!
Broken link building
11. Is broken link building still effective? Is broken link building with other
relevant websites in your industry still effective?
Yes. However, I think this is a practice that is relied on too heavily. When
done as a primary form of link development, I think the bigger issue is why
youve hit a creative wall and dont have other methods in rotation. Is this
because of a lack of resources, internal/client approval, new ideas, etc.? Do
broken link building, but dont put all your eggs in this basket, because you
arent investing the development of your brand at all.
Outreach
12. Do you think outreach is the future of link building? Should SEOs spend
more time in this area?
Yes. Its also the past and present of link building just like content is king,
has been, and always will be. This is almost like saying, Will communicating a
message to someone be the best way to market your brand? YES! Outreach is
fundamentally about establishing a relationship with someone. The method and
tools you take to achieve that may be different from season to season, but this
will never go away.
13. How do you contact bloggers with no contact information?
If youve already looked up their domain information and still cant locate a
contact, then I would turn to social media. Do they have a Twitter profile? Are
they active on LinkedIn? Do they accept comments? Keep in mind that theyve
limited their contact information for a reason. Youll have to work hard to build
up a relationship. Question whether you have the time and budget to invest in
tracking them down, especially if they dont want to be found.
14. Do you put time into considering the negative possibilities you want to
avoid? E.g. how to be careful not to "earn" links from bad places
Yep! We have a lot of internal training and gut checking with our team on sites
that dont meet our quality standards. Those standards sometimes change for
different clients and industries, but we have a lot of red flags that we avoid.
I would develop your own internal list based on past experiences and
industry-specific knowledge.
Link targeting
15. Should the links go to the home page or interior pages? If interior, how
many words of text should the interior pages have on average?
16. For a business with a few very specific products, is it a good idea to
build links to each product's subpage, or should links always go to the main
domain?
I'll answer both questions here. I'm all for link diversity when it comes to
backlinks to the domain. You should have links to the homepage, the product
pages, the categories, your about us page, etc. Think of it from the perspective
of a consumer. If they're mentioning a product online, they might link to the
homepage, but they're more likely to link to the product page if they have
direct experience with it; it's much more natural. When doing outreach for our
clients we try not to dictate the location of the backlink, because it's more
natural that they select what makes the most sense for their community.
Also worth noting: do the products expire? If the products arent going
anywhere, then invest in building links to them. If its a product that expires
or gets discontinued seasonally, then youll have a lot of redirects to deal with
and lost value, so building links to the homepage and categories makes more
sense. This doesnt sound like your specific situation, though.
17. Do links to specific product subpages on a site have as much power as links
to the main domain?
Where the link points don't drive "power," it's the link pointing to the site
that drives that power and the content of the page it's pointing to, as well as
its history and other backlinks. You'll often find that certain pages of a site
that are internal can quickly overpower a homepage if there hasn't been much
link building or brand promotion to the homepage, but a product or article gets
really popular. So, the links are what determines the power of a page, not the
location of the page itself. However, the majority of backlinks to a site do
point to the homepage, which is why 99% of the time the homepage is the most
powerful page. But, this truly is a "correlation isn't causation" lesson.
18. What are your thoughts on the link disavow tool?
The link disavow tool is a last resort. It's a tool that helps you communicate
with the search engines after all of your other efforts to remove a backlink
have failed. In the past, when working on a site that had a history of paid
links, we'd have to try to do the cleanup and then tell Google what percent we
were able to get fixed. That meant a number of the links never got removed, but
Google would hopefully devalue those if they hadn't already.
Now, Google is making it clear that this responsibility rests with the
webmaster to fully clear the offending backlinks through their manual efforts
and then as a last resort, through the disavow tool. The tool shouldn't be used
to just "get rid of" any backlink that looks questionable. It should really be
used only when you have a clear problem that has been communicated to you by the
search engines and you need to address a particular domain or page of that
domain.
19. How important is the ratio between followed and nofollowed links?
Honestly, I don't believe there's a threshold here, but too much of one or the
other probably looks unnatural. Regardless, I don't believe that the search
engines use this as an algorithm factor. Simply think of it in terms of
diversity and brand factors. If you only have followed links, this means you've
never posted a blog comment, been featured on a news site or more established
directories, received a link from Wikipedia or other high-quality article sites,
etc. That wouldn't be very natural and I'd see it as a sign that the site is
overly optimized. I very rarely look at this ratio myself.
20. What would you recommend as the best strategy for a licensee of a brand
with multiple licensees targeting the same keywords/keyphrases and sources for
backlinks?
This sounds like a situation affiliates and resellers run into all the time.
It's a tough because you're competing against yourselves. Without knowing more
detail, I would look for a unique perspective with the licensees. There has to
be something unique if this business model even exists. Is it location,
industry, customer service - find what makes you unique from the rest and
emphasize that. Sometimes you'll have to invent the point of difference (POD),
but inventing great customer service is the perfect way to do this! Want
inspiration? Its going to sound crazy, but watch Bar Rescue on Spike. I love how
Jon Taffer takes an overly saturated market (bars) and always finds something
special for each owner that will bring in customers. It just takes creativity
and research, it doesnt matter that the product is the same!
Algorithm updates and penalties
*Picture credit: Search Metrics
21. How can you tell if your site has been hit in a negative way by some of the
changes Google has made?
Check out the SMX West 2013 Google Dance recap over at Virante. Marcus Tober
and Mitul Gandhi both went into great tactics on finding and assessing whether
you might have been affected by an algorithm update.
Internal link building
22. You talked a lot about inbound link building, but is there a good formula
for how many internal links you use and the placement of the links?
23. What about internal links? Are keyword-targeted links ok, or do you still
need to be concerned about anchor text diversity there?
24. I am wondering how Google sees internal linking of the content? Does it
make any difference if it is over optimized?
These three questions could be their own blog post, but my hands are thankful
that John Doherty already did a great write-up that addresses many of these
internal linking questions on the SEOmoz blog.
Press releases
25. In your opinion, are press releases a great way to build SEO? How does your
company charge?
No. I hate press releases for SEO. Theyre over-saturated, and its rare that a
press release attracts any press attention. Let me clarify: Im speaking to press
release distribution services (not the press release itself). I think that press
releases as a public relations tool are incredibly important, but you should
have a list of media outlets that youre personally sending these to. Many of the
distribution and wire services have been gamed so heavily that theyre virtually
worthless and the press release will get buried after a few days of freshness in
the SERPs.
On the second question, from my philosophy on press releases, you can probably
tell that we dont charge for this specific service, but we will work with
clients to optimize strategic press releases and PR campaigns. We love
coordinating with qualified PR teams! What you won't find is Outspoken Media
listed on a directory of SEO companies by a press release distribution site in
their footer. That's probably a good sign that you should run far, far away.
Social bookmarking and directories
26. Are traditional link building methods such as social bookmarks and
directories no longer effective? What is your take on this?
27. Besides themed guest posting, does social bookmarking still help vary your
link profile?
I'll answer both questions here. There are still a lot of active social
bookmarking sites that range from generic to special interests. Many have
nofollowed backlinks at this point, but some remain followed. My recommendation
isnt to find those followed social bookmarking sites and spam them, but to
recognize that if the community is active, youre spreading your visibility and
reach and thats a good thing. This will often result in the discovery of your
content that may lead to a backlink.
Personally, I dont encourage my team to go after social bookmarks as a backlink
for client work because were being held to a higher standard for link quality.
Unless we know that link has the potential to get picked up by the community,
seeding it through social channels doesnt make a lot of sense.
When it comes to directories, these are still effective, but yes, theyre
over-saturated. This means that your competitors will probably be able to easily
acquire the same backlinks and the directory may have been devalued for linking
out to an unusually high number of questionable domains. There are still many
great directories out there though, especially industry-specific directories, so
dont throw the baby out with the bathwater. When I talk to my team I look at
directories in this way:
Get good web directories.
Get good social media and blog directories.
Get good local directories.
Directories are still a great way to find reputable websites, social profiles,
blogs, and local business listings. Not being included in them is just silly and
a bad business practice. You should determine your own metrics for assigning
value and authority to the directories. Im probably more picky than most would
be!
Redirects
28. Scenario: site A has loads of backlinks and is 301 redirected to site B. If
site A has been penalized by Google's updates, does the penalty get carried
over? What solutions can we consider to implement?
Does the penalty get carried over honestly, there isnt a straight answer for
this. Ive seen and read accounts of both situations: a penalty gets passed and
it doesnt. It often appears to be a matter of severity. Id also be worried about
the quantity of redirects (e.g. redirecting a network of several dozen penalized
domains wouldnt be a good idea). Doing a test with one would be less of an
issue. Test it, but try to test with a domain that isnt your bread and butter.
What Id personally try to do: get site A unpenalized and then redirect it. Or
reclaim the backlinks from site A and have those instead point to site B through
outreach efforts.
29. Is it ok to buy lots of domains and do a 301 redirect to your main one?
See above! Be careful about what you purchase. Ive seen companies invest
millions into a domain just to have it turn out penalized from the prior
webmasters questionable practices. You dont want to wind up in that situation
and have the penalty get passed. Also, simply buying up domains and redirecting
them can be effective, but quantity can become a concern. Id focus the budget on
building up your brand and I know that sounds terribly nave, but its worth more
than the time, budget, and risk associated with just buying up domains.
Other questions
30. How do we do a backlink audit? Is it by using Fresh Web Explorer, or
something else?
The backlink audit is something I first mentioned in this post on, Does Your
Board of Directors Get SEO?, but I didnt go into the actual process. We usually
start Google Webmaster Tools, the clients analytics solution, Majestic SEO/Open
Site Explorer, and a crawler like Screaming Frog. Most important: Excel. You
dont need a whole lot more than that!
31. Any resources for link building noobs that are a must read?
Check out:
Chapter 7 of the SEOmoz Beginners Guide to SEO
Link building archives on sites like the SEOmoz blog
Link Building Strategies by Point Blank SEO
32. I live a couple of blocks from the Brownes & Co. and passed Tabatha when
they were filming that show. Brown's finally closed. That woman was awful wasn't
she?
I referenced the Online Reputation Management Case Study post during the
Mozinar, and yes, it's "reality TV" but it's difficult to make some appear that
clueless about their business without plenty of material to work with!
33. Recently we had a duplicate content because someone create a fake website
and he paste some of our information. I didn't saw anything until that one of my
friend tell me this. Except Google Webmaster Tool Which tools or websites can I
use for find this duplicate content?
My favorite tools:
http://www.copyscape.com/,
http://www.plagium.com/, Google
itself, and now Fresh Web Explorer from SEOmoz.
There were a number of questions I didnt tackle from the Mozinar that were too
off-topic, but Ill try to reach out personally to you with an answer if we
havent already emailed back and forth. Thank you again for everyone who listened
in and I hope the Q&A provides some insight as well as healthy debate!
Sign up for The Moz Top 10, a semimonthly mailer updating you on the top ten
hottest pieces of SEO news, tips, and rad links uncovered by the Moz team. Think
of it as your exclusive digest of stuff you don't have time to hunt down but
want to read!
You may view the latest post at
http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/seomoz/~3/6z6UM8O_XVc/33-link-building-questions-answered
You received this e-mail because you asked to be notified when new updates are
posted.
Best regards,
Build Backlinks Online
peter.clarke@designed-for-success.com
