Google Panda Update: Say Goodbye to Low-Quality Link Building
A while back, I wrote about how to get the best high volume links. Speedy forward two months and Google has made two major changes to its algorithm -- first to target spammy/scraper sites, followed by the larger Panda update that targeted "low quality" sites. And, Google penalized JCPenney, Forbes, and Overstock.com for "shady" linking practices.
But The Competitors Are Doing It' Is not an Excuse
What's it all mean for link builders? Well, it is time they say goodbye to low quality link building altogether.
This may be hard for some link builders to digest, if you are coming from a research standpoint & you see that competitors for a specific keyword are dominating because of their thousands on thousands of pure spam links.
Perhaps it is not the links that got the competitor where they are today. Perhaps they are a large brand with a nice reputation to be where they are for that particular keyword.
But here are two things you must think about about finding low quality, high volume links in your analysis:
Maybe it is not the links that got the competitor where they are today. Perhaps they are a large brand with a lovely reputation to be where they are for that particular keyword.
If the above doesn't apply, then perhaps it is a matter of time before Google cracks down even further, giving no weight to those spammy backlinks.
Because, let's face it. You don't need to be the SEO company behind the next Overstock or JCPenney link building gone wrong story!
How to Decide a Valuable Backlink Opportunity
Lots of ads- If the site is covered with three blocks of AdSense, Konterra text links, or other marketing chunks, you may need to steer away from them.
How are you able to decide whether a site you are trying to gain a link from is valuable? Here are some "warning" signs as to what Google may have or finally deem as a low-quality site.
Lack of quality content- In the event you can get your article approved immediately, chances are this is not the right article network for your needs. If the article network is approving spun or poorly written content, it will be hard for the algorithm to see your "diamond in the rough." Of coursework, when a site like Suite101.com, which has one hell of an news story system, gets dinged, then extreme moderation may not necessarily be a sign of a safe site either (in their case, ads were the more likely issue).
Lots of content, low traffic- A weblog with a Google PageRank of 6 probably looks like a great place to spam a comment. But if that weblog doesn't have lovely authority in terms of traffic and social sharing, then it may be put on the list of sites to be de-valued in the future. PageRank didn't save a quantity of the sites in the Panda update, thinking about there's several sites with PageRank 7 and above (including a PR 9).
Where ought to you focus your energy? Content, of coursework!
Lack of moderation- Kind of goes with the above, except in this case I mean weblog comments and directories. In the event you see a ton of spammy links on a page, you don't need yours to go next to it. Unless you think about it a spammy link, and then more power to you to join the remainder of them.
What Ought to You Be Doing
Nine in 10 organizations use blogs, whitepapers, webinars, infographics, and other high quality content to leverage for link building and to attract natural, organic links. Not only can use your content to build links, but you can use it to build leads as well by proving the business knows their stuff when it comes to their industry.
