Mayday Solution #2 – Check Your Backlink Strategy!
Continuing along with a theme about the latest Google Mayday algorithm update, another one of the other standout metrics that has really struck back at me, is the site link profile, both in and outbound!
This latest round of algo changes really takes the old adage that “ANY backlink is better than none at all”, and tosses it right into the sewer! In fact, low quality links may actually hurt more than they help! As if we didn’t see this coming right?
What does your backlink profile look like?
By that I mean… what percentage of backlinks to a site are from:
- In-Content Links on Related Sites (The most natural and Highest Value)
- Blog Comment Backlinks
- Article Directory Backlinks
- News or Press Release Backlinks
- Social Bookmarking Links
- Video or Youtube Backlinks
- Purchased Backlinks (It is what it is…)
- Same Server – IP Class Backlinks
- etc…
Yahoo site explorer or even Google Webmaster Tools (Seems better recently) can show you a good list of your backlinks, so you can start looking at the profile at a granular level! **If you need tips on how to build a steady flow of BL’s, I have one of those posts in the build process now also! :-) It’s already got more than 50 ways, and grows daily!
So – What Did I Find in My Backlink Profile?
I won’t hide the fact that I had a few sites hit by Mayday, and try to remain as open as possible about the solutions I am working toward. One of the common factors I dug up among the 3 sites that lost 70-80% of the organic google traffic on June 2-4th:
- A LOT of Blog Comments over 3 Years (aka Comment Devaluation)
- A LOT of Social Bookmark Links (Digg, StumbleUpon, Friendfeed, etc)
- Strong Footprint in Several Well Known Article Directories (aka Article Devaluation)
- Entire Site Splogged Across 4 Other Websites! (Nearly impossible to block)
- Very Few “Authority” Backlinks…
- Never Bought Any Link Placements
What this tells ME… is that Google has tuned the algo to recognize and possibly devalue to some extent, the most common and easiest methods people work to get backlinks.
The key… that’s been mentioned everywhere for so long… is balanced moderation. In other words… spread your link efforts across several of the methods mentioned in the beginning of this article, versus focusing on only a few!
Basic Link Building Tips:
- Spread Efforts Across Several Types of Backlink (Articles, Comments, Video, etc)
- Chase Authority Links for Your Survival! (Just 1 Authority link is worth hundreds of others!)
- Vary the Anchor text of Your Links (Serious)
- Vary the Pages You Link to! (Your website is large, link deep!)
- Accept that it Takes Time! (Don’t build too many links each week)
- Ask Your Visitors to Link Back to You! (Serious, put it in their faces and ASK!)
- Add more tips of your own below in the comments…
Carnival & Blog Distribution Not Hurting!
On occasion, I partake in submitting content to blog-carnivals (don’t laugh, great source of visitors) and some of the paid article distribution models I won’t mention in this post. (Even though you pay for the content and distribution, G may view as paid links)
They did not consistently show in the link profile. Meaning… other sites using the same methods did not suffer the same result.
What Does Your Link Profile Look Like?
Previously Published Articles You May Like to Read:
- Mayday Solution #1 – Start Fixing Bounce Rates!
- The Easiest Linking Strategy on the Web!
- Check Your eBay/BANS Affiliate Sites
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I have been doing my part to "Build the Internet" since 1994, when I built my first website! Since then, I have built hundreds of niche websites for myself and many others, focused on design, applications, ecommerce, search optimization and internet marketing.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for an interesting article.
One question:
You wrote – Ask Your Visitors to Link Back to You!
(Serious, put it in their faces and ASK!)
The “SEO expert” view that i have been given is that reciprocal links equal out, and therefore serve no purpose…
I questioned the logic in this, but they insist it is the case.
You suggest a reciprocal approach. Can you back this up with some reasoning?
Thanks
Neil
@Neil – I didn’t mention recip in this particular article Neil, but as long as the site is related to yours, I cannot see a reciprocal link hurting in ANY way! (Unless your site is unrelated to the source of the link)
It may not be as powerful as a one-way, in-content, in-context, link… but if it’s from a similar niche with a similar audience, and good for visitors, it won’t hurt!
The reason reciprocal links got such a bad rap… was because people put up link-swap pages on their pages. You know… “Link to me, and I will Link to you” kind of pages. Then they just swapped with ANYONE willing to swap.
If you treat your links with editorial care (review each, make it worthy) they carry GREAT weight!
Mark
Hi Mark,
Thanks for reminding me about Blog Carnivals. I haven’t used those for a few years.
Your findings in this case are not consistent with mine, Mark. The site where I have been the most has only two kinds of links:
1. In-content links from similar websites – A handful of PR6+ links too
2. Blog comments (where I reference the URL against my name)
I’ve never taken part in any of the other methods, though I guess 4-5 Ezinearticles may have that link. Blog comments are discounted since they are all no-followed. And that means the only way my site has got linked is via in-content links. There is no reason why the site should have dropped over 70% of traffic.
Another site I have – It’s more like a news site. I write real link baiting article once every week and receive several great quality links – I’m talking of PR8+ websites linking to my blog. Since that’s a new website, I cannot compare its performance. But I can say that it has not grown since March…
@Anand Srinivasan – Blog comments, even though no-followed… are followed by spiders. The ONLY thing they don’t do is pass PageRank. Google was the inventor of the nofollow tag…
Not to do the whole tin-foil-hat (I have a 3-layer tin hat) thing Anand… but are all the affected sites in the same account with G?
- Same Webmaster Tools account?
- Same Analytics account?
- Same Adwords account?
etc…
I had never put in the Analytics script on them until the crash happened in March. Yes, same WMT and Adsense account. But since then, I have 301d one of the site to become a section of the other website so now they both are technically only one site.
@Anand Srinivasan – I have a running list of common factors on the sites I follow, that were affected Anand. (I follow other sites also, Alexa shows the story)
- Same domain registrar?
- Same site owner?
- Same server?
I have a list of common factors on mine… there are some serious similarities.
M
@Mark Hansen – Looks possible, Mark. Considering that most (if not all) webmasters have the same WMT account, Adsense account (by rule),etc. on all their accounts, this means either all of my sites are doomed or none of them is..
Question is, why should Google do this? Nowhere is it advocated that one person or entity must hold only one website. There is no reason to penalize someone for this..
PS:Great to see you finally posting on WMW about this ;-)
@Anand Srinivasan – LOL, I lost my old WMW account info (From 2001) and had to create a new account, but its a top 5 place I visit daily!
OK… WHY? Because they can! Its part of the “We don’t share our methods, because people will exploit us, thing”
Do a BING search for “does Google use whois” – read the graywolf article. (Micheal from SEOMoz, Pubcon, etc)
M
sorry but I can’t ever believe Google will punish or penalise a site for it’s backlinks strategy.
If it did then there would be unscrupulous webmasters and SEO’ers all over the world building dubious backlinks pointing at their competitor’s sites.
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Mayday Solution #2 – Check Your Backlink Strategy!