As most of you will know, the Panda and Penguin updates were implemented by Google as a means to reduce webspam – and it worked, mostly. While Panda targeted ‘thin’ webpage content, the dreaded Penguin targeted ‘linkspam’ and, due to also ensnaring some perfectly legitimate sites, caused panic within the SEO community. It was a clear word from Google that the days of high volume low quality link tactics were over, and that only natural links from good domains would cut the mustard here on in. The following points highlight how you should approach your link-building in 2013 to achieve that future proof link profile.
Easy On The Anchor
Since the introduction of Penguin in April of this year, and based on much analysis, the link building world came to the conclusion that anchor text as a ranking signal is slowly changing and becoming less important, and even problematic if overdone. With AuthorRank waiting in the wings it seems the ever increasing power of social influence and authorship spell bleak times ahead for anchor text influence with some even debating whether or not it has already ran its course.
“Anchor text is actually diminishing as a signal and being replaced by something else, something Google has gotten very clever about.” – Rand Fishkin, 16/11/2012
The above quote is taken from a recent whiteboard Friday post by Rand Fishkin; he refers to co-citation as being the next big influencer within the industry. In short, co-citation is the relationship between a key phrase and website but with little or no optimisation for that key phrase. He suggests that any time you see a website that doesn’t have the anchor texts for the particular phrase you are searching, the reason it is performing so well is due to co-citation. He has since come to the conclusion that this may not be what is impacting the SERPs and it may in turn be the result of Google ignoring more signals as opposed to applying new ones. So what does this mean? Well, as anchor text becomes less of an influence, it means we need to focus more on AuthorRank, brand citation and the quality of our content in order to build reputable, highly authoritative websites.
Spread Footprint
Before the Penguin update, exact-match keywords for anchor texts were all the rage and for good reason – they worked. During this time you were able to focus the majority of your backlinks on a low number of separate anchor texts. Times change however, and as each day passes Google gets smarter and as a result the Penguin update was introduced to penalise those who Google thought were practising link manipulation. This leaves us with no option but to become smarter linkers, ultimately meaning we need to create a natural backlink profile whilst following SEO tactics which is a tricky procedure to get right yet when done correctly the benefits are invaluable. This effectively means anchor text diversification is now the key; more focus should be pushed towards a variation of naked URLs, brand anchors, brand-keyword hybrid anchors and exact-match keyword anchors in order to give your link profile a natural, healthy look.
Quality Not Quantity
Let’s start with the basics; a link from a high PR site such as the BBC will pass on more link equity than say, a link from free-backlinks-to-your-site.net and while the PR and domain authority of a site are vitally important you should also consider the relevance of the site linking to yours. For example a PR-2 site in the same niche as you may be deemed more valuable than a link from an irrelevant PR-5 site. So while PageRank and relevancy are key it is vital to analyse at the site itself; does it have great content? Does it have an active and engaged audience? Is it purely set up for guest posting? By answering these questions you can efficiently pick and choose the websites that will provide future proof links for the year ahead and beyond. If you continue to use the quick-win methods that worked prior to the recent updates you are setting yourself up for failure. Always remember that low quality directories, link farms and quick wins might work short term but can be harmful to your profile in the long term, so put the effort in, your website deserves it!
Existing Relationships
There may be more opportunities to build backlinks within your existing industry than you currently think. Guest posting is a great example; if you have published a guest post on a particular site via email outreach there is no harm in thanking them for their time and simply asking if they know of anyone else who may be interested in accepting posts – it works! Moreover, great content can lead to more link-building opportunities; it is not unusual to be asked to post on someone else’s website simply because they loved the quality of your work. Remember to think about the people you work closely with from suppliers to customers, by maximising these relationships it is possible to gain high quality links that not only boost your link profile but help build your reputation within the industry.
Build New Relationships
As previously mentioned it’s all about getting those high quality links and in order to do so you need to start thinking relationship-building. Link-building strategies can be time consuming but if they are done effectively they can reap huge reward and the ultimate goal is to achieve these rewards on a regular basis. One good example of this which can be applied to many industries is to write a weekly review on the top 5 articles of the week relating to your industry, not only does this provide what is hopefully an insightful and informative look into your niche but it also allows you to generate great backlinks and here’s how; By reaching out to those bloggers whose articles you reviewed you are able to compliment them on their fantastic insight and politely ask them for a shout out and if it works you both win. This is where the power of social media can be utilised to its full potential. Reach out to these people within your industry weeks or even months before you plan to attempt obtaining a backlink from them in order to build relationships and engage with your audience.
Now, it will come as no surprise to you that having a relationship with a particular person/blog/business will increase your chances of obtaining a link however it is important to ensure your efforts to develop and maintain these relationships do not outweigh the benefits of the link itself. Spending hours commenting, complimenting or giving advice to those who never respond is not the end of the world as you are still engaging with your community however you should attempt to manage your time efficiently. It is therefore imperative to have an efficient plan in place, whether it be a relationship building strategy or content strategy – they are proven to work.
As you may know, Google+ is a great social media tool for businesses and the introduction of Google+ Communities will only improve the impact it can have. These new communities offer you the chance to communicate with your audience and learn about what they want. Again, it is yet another opportunity to become a voice within your niche and a chance to turn those new relationships into existing ones.
Content Strategy
You may of heard the term ‘content is king’ being thrown about the internet for a while now, and as cheesy as it is beginning to sound, it is for good reason – it really is king. First of all, creating backlinks to a website with poor content is pointless, why drive traffic to a site where there is nothing beneficial to the user? It’s a waste of their time and yours. Secondly, the idea behind great content is that it can do the work for you… eventually. Creating informative, interesting pieces of content focused around your industry will help you become a reputable name within your niche. Now, you can’t expect to jump straight in at the deep-end and immediately have a huge cult following however using strategy it is achievable. When using social media to display your content a great method to use is a skimming strategy and by that we mean start off by getting your content noticed by a small, local audience at first in order to gain some sort of reputation and from this foundation you can then work your way up the levels. At the lower levels you can hope to see social signals playing a part in your growth with an ever-increasing following giving you a great platform to build on.
Generating great quality content with the intention of obtaining links is known as linkbait; throwing the reel (content) into a pond of opportunity (potential websites). It is vital you ensure you push your content via all your social media platforms in order to increase the size of the pond. As for quality content, this can be thought of as the ‘bait’, the better the content the more appealing the bait. In order to improve your content strategy further, check out the post by our very own Chris Green for more information on becoming a content SEO.
Diversity is Key
There are many different ways you can obtain backlinks; from guest posting to directories to content strategies, and each have their own added benefits. Guest posting, assuming you are writing about your niche, allows you to generate quality backlinks from relevant sites and allows you to show off your expertise within the industry. Directories can also help boost rankings and arguably make up a natural profile although it is important to select the appropriate directories and avoid spamming. Long-term content strategies often consist of producing a diversified range of quality content such as insightful infographics, videos, press releases and competitions as these will help you reach a wider audience and achieve backlinks and authority which is every link-builders ultimate goal.
What’s Next?
Forget trying to get around the system, and start building a natural footprint. In previous years link building was childsplay; building blog networks, spammy links, keyword density, and spun content was the bread and butter of low quality SEO firms the World over. By comparison today link building has matured into a well rounded approach which provides genuine benefit to internet users in the form of quality content and innovative campaigns.
As we enter 2013, there is a lot of buzz around social influences and AuthorRank and how they are going to influence SERP’s. The key to future proofing your links is to get out there and make yourself a respected authority within your niche. Utilise the impact of social media and the importance of great content as these will allow you to build your brand and this will become vital as you become a respected authority.
by Luke Olding
http://www.highposition.com/
Easy On The Anchor
Since the introduction of Penguin in April of this year, and based on much analysis, the link building world came to the conclusion that anchor text as a ranking signal is slowly changing and becoming less important, and even problematic if overdone. With AuthorRank waiting in the wings it seems the ever increasing power of social influence and authorship spell bleak times ahead for anchor text influence with some even debating whether or not it has already ran its course.
“Anchor text is actually diminishing as a signal and being replaced by something else, something Google has gotten very clever about.” – Rand Fishkin, 16/11/2012
The above quote is taken from a recent whiteboard Friday post by Rand Fishkin; he refers to co-citation as being the next big influencer within the industry. In short, co-citation is the relationship between a key phrase and website but with little or no optimisation for that key phrase. He suggests that any time you see a website that doesn’t have the anchor texts for the particular phrase you are searching, the reason it is performing so well is due to co-citation. He has since come to the conclusion that this may not be what is impacting the SERPs and it may in turn be the result of Google ignoring more signals as opposed to applying new ones. So what does this mean? Well, as anchor text becomes less of an influence, it means we need to focus more on AuthorRank, brand citation and the quality of our content in order to build reputable, highly authoritative websites.
Spread Footprint
Before the Penguin update, exact-match keywords for anchor texts were all the rage and for good reason – they worked. During this time you were able to focus the majority of your backlinks on a low number of separate anchor texts. Times change however, and as each day passes Google gets smarter and as a result the Penguin update was introduced to penalise those who Google thought were practising link manipulation. This leaves us with no option but to become smarter linkers, ultimately meaning we need to create a natural backlink profile whilst following SEO tactics which is a tricky procedure to get right yet when done correctly the benefits are invaluable. This effectively means anchor text diversification is now the key; more focus should be pushed towards a variation of naked URLs, brand anchors, brand-keyword hybrid anchors and exact-match keyword anchors in order to give your link profile a natural, healthy look.
Quality Not Quantity
Let’s start with the basics; a link from a high PR site such as the BBC will pass on more link equity than say, a link from free-backlinks-to-your-site.net and while the PR and domain authority of a site are vitally important you should also consider the relevance of the site linking to yours. For example a PR-2 site in the same niche as you may be deemed more valuable than a link from an irrelevant PR-5 site. So while PageRank and relevancy are key it is vital to analyse at the site itself; does it have great content? Does it have an active and engaged audience? Is it purely set up for guest posting? By answering these questions you can efficiently pick and choose the websites that will provide future proof links for the year ahead and beyond. If you continue to use the quick-win methods that worked prior to the recent updates you are setting yourself up for failure. Always remember that low quality directories, link farms and quick wins might work short term but can be harmful to your profile in the long term, so put the effort in, your website deserves it!
Existing Relationships
There may be more opportunities to build backlinks within your existing industry than you currently think. Guest posting is a great example; if you have published a guest post on a particular site via email outreach there is no harm in thanking them for their time and simply asking if they know of anyone else who may be interested in accepting posts – it works! Moreover, great content can lead to more link-building opportunities; it is not unusual to be asked to post on someone else’s website simply because they loved the quality of your work. Remember to think about the people you work closely with from suppliers to customers, by maximising these relationships it is possible to gain high quality links that not only boost your link profile but help build your reputation within the industry.
Build New Relationships
As previously mentioned it’s all about getting those high quality links and in order to do so you need to start thinking relationship-building. Link-building strategies can be time consuming but if they are done effectively they can reap huge reward and the ultimate goal is to achieve these rewards on a regular basis. One good example of this which can be applied to many industries is to write a weekly review on the top 5 articles of the week relating to your industry, not only does this provide what is hopefully an insightful and informative look into your niche but it also allows you to generate great backlinks and here’s how; By reaching out to those bloggers whose articles you reviewed you are able to compliment them on their fantastic insight and politely ask them for a shout out and if it works you both win. This is where the power of social media can be utilised to its full potential. Reach out to these people within your industry weeks or even months before you plan to attempt obtaining a backlink from them in order to build relationships and engage with your audience.
Now, it will come as no surprise to you that having a relationship with a particular person/blog/business will increase your chances of obtaining a link however it is important to ensure your efforts to develop and maintain these relationships do not outweigh the benefits of the link itself. Spending hours commenting, complimenting or giving advice to those who never respond is not the end of the world as you are still engaging with your community however you should attempt to manage your time efficiently. It is therefore imperative to have an efficient plan in place, whether it be a relationship building strategy or content strategy – they are proven to work.
As you may know, Google+ is a great social media tool for businesses and the introduction of Google+ Communities will only improve the impact it can have. These new communities offer you the chance to communicate with your audience and learn about what they want. Again, it is yet another opportunity to become a voice within your niche and a chance to turn those new relationships into existing ones.
Content Strategy
You may of heard the term ‘content is king’ being thrown about the internet for a while now, and as cheesy as it is beginning to sound, it is for good reason – it really is king. First of all, creating backlinks to a website with poor content is pointless, why drive traffic to a site where there is nothing beneficial to the user? It’s a waste of their time and yours. Secondly, the idea behind great content is that it can do the work for you… eventually. Creating informative, interesting pieces of content focused around your industry will help you become a reputable name within your niche. Now, you can’t expect to jump straight in at the deep-end and immediately have a huge cult following however using strategy it is achievable. When using social media to display your content a great method to use is a skimming strategy and by that we mean start off by getting your content noticed by a small, local audience at first in order to gain some sort of reputation and from this foundation you can then work your way up the levels. At the lower levels you can hope to see social signals playing a part in your growth with an ever-increasing following giving you a great platform to build on.
Generating great quality content with the intention of obtaining links is known as linkbait; throwing the reel (content) into a pond of opportunity (potential websites). It is vital you ensure you push your content via all your social media platforms in order to increase the size of the pond. As for quality content, this can be thought of as the ‘bait’, the better the content the more appealing the bait. In order to improve your content strategy further, check out the post by our very own Chris Green for more information on becoming a content SEO.
Diversity is Key
There are many different ways you can obtain backlinks; from guest posting to directories to content strategies, and each have their own added benefits. Guest posting, assuming you are writing about your niche, allows you to generate quality backlinks from relevant sites and allows you to show off your expertise within the industry. Directories can also help boost rankings and arguably make up a natural profile although it is important to select the appropriate directories and avoid spamming. Long-term content strategies often consist of producing a diversified range of quality content such as insightful infographics, videos, press releases and competitions as these will help you reach a wider audience and achieve backlinks and authority which is every link-builders ultimate goal.
What’s Next?
Forget trying to get around the system, and start building a natural footprint. In previous years link building was childsplay; building blog networks, spammy links, keyword density, and spun content was the bread and butter of low quality SEO firms the World over. By comparison today link building has matured into a well rounded approach which provides genuine benefit to internet users in the form of quality content and innovative campaigns.
As we enter 2013, there is a lot of buzz around social influences and AuthorRank and how they are going to influence SERP’s. The key to future proofing your links is to get out there and make yourself a respected authority within your niche. Utilise the impact of social media and the importance of great content as these will allow you to build your brand and this will become vital as you become a respected authority.
by Luke Olding
http://www.highposition.com/
Δεν υπάρχουν σχόλια:
Δημοσίευση σχολίου