SEO Link Audit - Advanced Techniques to Protect Your Website

Presented by: Scott Polk Founder – Marketing Nomads

The Link AuditGuide to Penalties and Recovery

The Link Audit

The Link Audit

Reasons

• Preemptive … before you get a penalty

• Penguin … devaluing of links

• Penalty – Unnatural Link Notification

• Algorithm Update

Google Penguin Updates

Penguin = devaluing of links AND websites

There have been 6+ Penguin updates sine 2012• April 24, 2012 – Penguin v1.0

• May 25, 2012 – Penguin v1.1

• Oct 5, 2012 – Penguin v1.2

• May 22, 2013 – new version Penguin v2.0

• Oct 4, 2013 – Penguin v2.1

• Oct 17, 2014 – new version Penguin v3.0

• Nov 26, 2014 – Penguin v3.1

• Dec 1-4, 2014 – Penguin v3.x (rolling update)

Google Penguin Updates

Penguin … devaluing of links (Penguin v1.0)

Unnatural Link NotificationsLink Penalty Types

• Site-wide Matches - section lists actions that impact an entire site.

• Partial Matches - section lists actions that impact individual URLs or sections of a site. This generally does not indicate which pages are affected.

Penalty – Unnatural Link Notification

Manual Actions – Site-wide Matches

Penalty – Unnatural Link NotificationManual Actions - Partial Matches

Data Collection

Link Audit: Data Collection

Utilize various sources of data

• Google Webmaster Tools

• LRT (Link Research Tools)

• SearchMetrics

• Ahrefs.com

• Majestic SEO

• Internal Link Acquisition Reports

The Link Audit: Data Analysis

Datapoints to look for• Unique Linking Domain Count• Links from penalized domains (PR0 – not in index)• Links with Exact Match Anchor Text• Site-wide Links (Footer – Sidebar)• Links from non-relevant content• Links from Article Directories & • Links from Traditional Directories• Links from same IP or C-Block• Hidden Links within HTML• Comment Spam (Follow & NoFollow)• MozRank, Alexa, Domain Authority

Link Audit: Visual Review

The Link Audit: Visual Review

• Relevancy – is this site relevant to your site?

• Natural – does the link look natural?

• Location – where is the link located?

What is a Bad link?

Link Audit: What makes a bad link?

Author Bio Links

Link Audit: What makes a bad link?

Exact Match Anchor Text

Link Audit: What makes a bad link?

Hidden Links within HTML

Data Action Projects

The Link Audit: Data Action Projects

• Link Removal Requests– Manual vs. Automated Tools (Used automated tools

to create links? Got a penalty? Please learn from this mistake and do not use an automated tool)

• NoFollow– Link sending you traffic or part of brand strategy?

Affiliate Links to your site

• Disavow– If a link cannot be removed via requests. Do not pay

to have a link removed

• Affiliate Links

Link Removal Requests

The Link Audit: Data Action Projects

Link Removal Requests

Manual vs. Automated Tools

The Link Audit: Data Action Projects

Automated Software - Link Removal Requests

• I am the owner of Google Plus

The Link Audit: Data Action Projects

Disavow

Affiliate/Merchant Links

Affiliate Links

• Do NOT try to gain link equity from Affiliate Links

– If it is an Affiliate Link then it’s PAID

• NoFollow

• Custom Landing Pages

– Create Custom 404 error page for Affiliates to link to and use so the link equity will not pass

What’s Next?

Once you have cleaned the link profile, then submit your documentation to Google.

If under manual penalty for links, wait for response, if it is rejected repeat process

Once clear … start on Link Acquisition

Link Acquisition

• Organic Outreach of content – unique

– Interviews / Thought Leadership

– In-depth Articles

• Content Marketing

– Infographics (image & interactive)

– Videos