This presentation is from Affiliate Summit East 2014 (August 10-12, 2014 New York City).
Session Description: SEO is changing, link building is changing… and if you’re still using yesterdays methods, or if you’re a thin affiliate, then you’re bound to get hit by a Google update.
Unlock Your Social Media Potential with IndianLikes - IndianLikes.com
SEO Slideshow on White Hat Link Building
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Jim Boykin
CEO & Founder of Internet Marketing Ninjas
Owner of WebmasterWorld, Devshed, SEOChat, Cre8asiteForums, Threadwatch, +
SEO, Link Building, Authorship,
& Surviving Google Updates
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http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/ 12
We want
“White Hat”
Link
Building…
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http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/ 13
And here’s
the 5 phrases
we’re
targeting.
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http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/ 14
And here’s
the 5 pages
we need you
to get links to
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They already
submitted to lots
of Directories,
Article
Syndication,
Profile Pages,
Forum Links
Blog Reviews,
Guest Blog Posts
& Interlinked
their own sites.
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If you ever did any one (or more) of those
methods excessively, then you’re at a higher risk.
If you ever mixed any of
those methods with exact
match anchor text for
commercial phrases, you’re
also at a higher risk.
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Links as a measurement are not going away
“It turns out backlinks, even though there’s
some noise, and certainly a lot of spam, for
the most part are still a really, really big win in
terms of quality for search results.”
Matt Cutts Feb 19th
2014
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What does Google
Consider Link Schemes?
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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“Buying or selling links that pass PageRank.
This includes exchanging money for links, or
posts that contain links; exchanging goods or
services for links; or sending someone a “free”
product in exchange for them writing about it
and including a link.”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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“Excessive link exchanges ("Link to me and
I'll link to you") or partner pages
exclusively for the sake of cross-linking”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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“Large-scale article marketing or guest posting
campaigns with keyword-rich anchor text links”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
“If People just move away from doing article
banks or article directories or article marketing
to guest blogging and they don’t raise their
quality thresholds for the content, then that can
cause problems. “ Matt Cutts
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“Using automated programs or
services to create links to your site”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/
66356?hl=en
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“Additionally, creating links that weren’t
editorially placed or vouched for by the site’s
owner on a page, otherwise known as
unnatural links, can be considered a violation
of our guidelines.”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?
hl=en
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“Links with optimized anchor text in articles or
press releases distributed on other sites.
For example:
There are many wedding rings on the market. If
you want to have a wedding, you will have to
pick the best ring. You will also need to buy
flowers and a wedding dress.”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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“Low-quality directory or bookmark site links”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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“Keyword-rich, hidden or low-quality links
embedded in widgets that are distributed across
various sites, for example:
Visitors to this page: 1,472
car insurance”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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Forum comments with optimized links in the
post or signature,
for example:
Thanks, that’s great info!
- Paul
Paul’s pizza san diego pizza best pizza san diego
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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“The best way to get other sites to create high-
quality, relevant links to yours is to create unique,
relevant content that can naturally gain
popularity in the Internet community. Creating
good content pays off: Links are usually editorial
votes given by choice, and the more useful
content you have, the greater the chances
someone else will find that content valuable to
their readers and link to it.”
https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66356?hl=en
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Real Examples “Bad Links” from sites that were
included by google as example links that should
be removed.
Sites are the same, I changed the specific page
URL to protect the guilty whom hired us.
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So what do you do
if you’re effected by a google update?
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What if you don’t have a manual penalty?
(But think you were hit by Penguin?)
Are you sure you got hit by Penguin?
Oct 4, 2013 - May 22, 2013
Oct 5, 2012 – May 25, 2012 - April 24, 2012
Solution
1. Get your backlinks from Google and other sources.
2. Separate out the “Live” from the “Dead”
3. From the Live, separate out the “Good” from the “Bad”
4. Put the “Bad” in the Disavow (by domain)
5. Wait until the next Google refresh to see if it worked.
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Solutions:
1. Analyze your backlinks from Google, etc.
2. Separate the “Live from the Dead”
3. From the Live, Separate the “Good” from the “Bad”
4. Then you will need to email all the “Bad” sites to get
links removed
5. Then you will need to do a reconsideration request
stating all that you did to get the links removed. List those
you were able to remove, and put all the rest of the “bad”
domains in the disavow document.
Then wait about 2-3 weeks for an answer. If no,
hope for example links.
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Please let me out
of Jail.
I will stop chasing
short tail and I will
do great things to
build my brand
from now on.
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Reconsideration Requests:
•Save all the data to google docs or a webpage and reference in your report.
•Record your entire backlink profile via Majestic, OpenSiteExplorer, and ahrefs….or
use Google Webmaster Tools Links by Date
•Note all links you feel are bad and that you've contacted to have the links removed.
•Save a few copies of your emails you sent to show Google.
•Show links you were able to remove.
•Show that you wrote again to emails that were bounced.
•Show them you have done everything you can to get those links removed.
•Tell them you Fired your SEO Company
•Tell them you fired the person who hired the SEO Company too.
•Tell them you’re a converted Matt Cutts and Webmaster Guidelines Fan.
•Tell them you’re not chasing phases anymore.
•Tell them you’re all about Branding and doing good things that earn trust
•Tell them what your future plans are, and how you've changed.
•Start doing the things you said you’ll do…and don’t buy links again…
and Change your strategy from here on out….you’re done with the short-tail game.
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Dear site owner or webmaster of http://www.website.com,
We received a request from a site owner to reconsider
http://www.website.com for compliance with Google's
Webmaster Guidelines.
We've reviewed your site and we still see links to your site
that violate our quality guidelines.
Specifically, look for possibly artificial or unnatural links
pointing to your site that could be intended to manipulate
PageRank…..
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Recovery is by no means guaranteed.
In fact of the people who go to the trouble to
remove many links & create a disavow file,
only 15% of people claim to have seen any
benefit using the disavow tool.
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-disavow-rankins-17946.html
The other 85% who weren't sure of any benefit
may not have done enough, or may have made
their backlink profile worse than it was prior.
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Matt Cutts Answer:
“It can definitely take some time, and
potentially months. There’s a time
delay for data to be baked into the
index. Then there can also be the time
delay after that for data to be
refreshed in various algorithms.”
Danny Sullivan Question:
“How long will it take sites to see any potential
improvement? It seems like potentially months.”
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“[The Disavow Tool] If used incorrectly, this feature
can potentially harm your site’s performance in
Google’s search results. We recommend that you
disavow backlinks only if you believe you have a
considerable number of spammy, artificial, or low-
quality links pointing to your site, and if you are
confident that the links are causing issues for you.”
(Matt Cutts)
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But recently Matt Cutts has encouraged broader
usage. He has one video which discusses
proactively disavowing bad links as they come in
& another where he mentioned how a large
company disavowed 100% of their backlinks that
came in for a year.
The idea of proactively monitoring your backlinks
is quickly becoming mainstream.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFJZXpnsRsc
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oRi1rAI_TmY
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Even if a recovery is deserved, it does not mean
one will happen, as often errors do happen.
And on the off chance recovery does happen, it
usually does not mean a full restoration of
rankings.
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-reconsideration-request-error-17629.html
http://sugarrae.com/online-marketing/seo/need-understand-penguin-recovery/
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Most Common Backlink Anchor
Text is all Keyword Phrases
and not Branded Phrases
BobsWidgets.com
Top 5 Most Common Backlink Anchor Text
Cheap Widgets
Discount Widgets
Online Widgets
Widget Store
buy Widgets
Bobs Widgets
www.bobswidgets.com
BobsWidgets.com
Bob Jackson Widgets
Bob’s Store
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Does your website has
thousands of pages,
…But only a few of
those pages have
backlinks to them?
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Evil competitors removing your good links, and
sending you bad links?
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What Can I
do that will
send the
good signals
to the search
Engines?
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“…The Objective is not to
“Make your links appear
natural”
The Objective is that your
links ARE natural. “
Matt Cutts
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Do brands worry
about getting links?
I don’t have to ask for links
….But when I started I did.
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Send Quality Brand Signals to your Site
It’s Links + Everything Else
.
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LinkBait Content
Content that is GREAT and Shareable.
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Portent Content Idea Generator:
http://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker/
HubSpot Blog Topic Idea Generator
http://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator
Content Forest Title Tool Generator
http://titletool.contentforest.com/
Some Tools to Help with Linkbait Titles
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1. Create Content that is buzz-worthy:
PopURLs.com, RadURLs.com, BuzzFeed.com, Klout
2. Make sure your content is sharable.
3. Outreach: In-house, client emails, Follower
Wonk, Zoom Profiler, Etc
4. Promote: Paid Stumbles, Facebook Ads,
Promoted Tweet, Google Adwords
5. Syndication: Outbrain, Taboola, Zemanta, Pay
for Awesome, Viral Content Buzz
Tools to help you with LinkBait.
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Tools To Help find LinkBait Ideas, and to create
good titles:
Portent Content Idea Generator:
http://www.portent.com/tools/title-maker/
HubSpot Blog Topic Idea Generator
http://www.hubspot.com/blog-topic-generator
Content Forest Title Tool Generator
http://titletool.contentforest.com/
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1. Create Content that is buzz-worthy:
PopURLs.com, RadURLs.com, BuzzFeed.com, Klout
2. Make sure your content is sharable.
3. Outreach: In-house, client emails, Follower
Wonk, Zoom Profiler, Etc
4. Promote: Paid Stumbles, Facebook Ads,
Promoted Tweet, Google Adwords
5. Syndication: Outbrain, Taboola, Zemanta, Pay
for Awesome, Viral Content Buzz
Tools to help you with LinkBait.
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Rel=“author”
FAQ’s from Google
http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2013/08/relauth
or-frequently-asked-advanced.html
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It’s not just the Google Author Tag!
Having a Google Profile
just fills in some blanks
they may not have
already known.
…But with a profile you
do get a picture.
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Google is Connecting
Sources, Influencers,
Industries.
Through mapping the
web of people…anything
they can connect, they
collect….Linkedin -
Twitter - Facebook -
Emails – Bio’s -
Usernames (ie, forums
username) …AND Google
Plus.
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Get Links from Trusted People
To quote Google’s Agent Patent:
Similarly, if the signer has a large reputational score
due to the writer having an established reputation
for providing accurate reviews, the rank of the
referenced content can be raised accordingly.
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“…We're doing a better job of detecting
if someone is an authority in a specific
space, (could be medical, could be
travel, whatever) and trying to make
sure that those rank those a little more
highly if you're some type of
authority...“
Matt Cutts – Penguin 2.0 pre release
talk.
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“Within search results,
information tied to verified
online profiles will be ranked
higher than content without
such verification,
which will result in most users naturally
clicking on the top (verified) results.
The true cost of remaining anonymous, then,
might be irrelevance.
Eric Schmidt – Executive
Chairman of Google
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A Lot of References from
Authors and Pages =
High Author Rank.
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“The true cost of
remaining
anonymous,
then, might be
irrelevance.”
Eric Schmidt –
Executive Chairman
of Google
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Bring the community to you.
(Takes time to get to this point)
How you can do this:
•Find Brand Enthusiast
•Bring the Authors and Experts to your site
•Build the Community on your site with the experts and Brand Enthusiast
•Create Resources that will give reasons to come back to your site
•Create a portal/community for your community
What this can do for your site:
•Experts writing quality content for your site
•Brand enthusiast who know what they’re talking about writing & promoting for your brand.
•Real Authors credited on your site
•Real Resources on your site that are of value to others to use and to continue to go back to.
Real pages that can get trusted citations from others
•You can be more trusted, and have more and better trusted signals going to your site than any
of your competitors can using this method.
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1. Stop Chasing the Short Tail
2. Write Great Content to get Links and mentions
3. Start Making Connections with Influencers
4. Only publish new “Main Pages” or pages that will get signals
(social, links, referral traffic)
5. Get Signals and Traffic to you site from Social Places
6. Get Signals to your site from Hubs and Authorities in your Industry
7. Find ways to get people to return to your site.
8. Use Authors on your site, & get links and citations from real people.
9. Build great “things” for your site (widgets, quizzes, contests, tools)
10. Create Great Resources so you don’t have to ask for links.
11. Build Your Brand/Community
Tips from Jim’s Point of View
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Jim Boykin
CEO & Founder of Internet Marketing Ninjas
Owner of WebmasterWorld, Devshed, SEOChat, Cre8asiteForums, Threadwatch, +
SEO, Link Building, Authorship,
& Surviving Google Updates