As search engines continue to penalize poor link building techniques what is a marketer to do when it comes to proper link analysis and how can they avoid becoming a casualty of the war against link spam?
Join Dixon Jones, of Majestic SEO and Pete Dudchenko of Rio SEO as they explore the changing linking landscape over the past year and what role link analysis will continue to have as SEO evolves and search engines update their algorithms.
Key Takeaways:
Learn how Google’s algorithm updates have affected the linking landscape of SEO
Learn the key metrics needed for proper link analysis
The future of link building and analysis in content marketing
Tools and technologies that can provide valuable link building and analysis insights
Speakers:
Pete Dudchenko, VP of Product Management, Rio SEO
Dixon Jones, Marketing Director, Majestic SEO
2. Agenda
Key Takeaways:
Learn how Google‟s algorithm updates have affected
the linking landscape of SEO
Learn the key metrics needed for proper link analysis
The future of link building and analysis in content
marketing
Tools and technologies that can provide valuable link
building and analysis insights
5. Why Links Made Google Great
Alta Vista and others could not get
the scale
Google‟s Page Rank algorithm
requires knowledge of the whole
web to work well
Links were at the heart of the
algorithm and these were also the
hardest metric to fake
6. Google was King!
Year Annual Google Searches/ Daily Searches
2012 1,873,910,000,000 5,134,000,000
2011 1,722,071,000,000 4,717,000,000
2010 1,324,670,000,000 3,627,000,000
2009 953,700,000,000 2,610,000,000
2008 637,200,000,000 1,745,000,000
2007 438,000,000,000 1,200,000,000
2000 22,000,000,000 60,000,000
1998 3,600,000 9,800
7. Then SEOs Piggy Backed Google
SEOs find out how to “game”
Google Search
SPAM boom
Google Search „owns‟ the market
8. Almost All Link Building Worked
Without a human element to the
algorithm, Google was bad at seeing
bad links
Google was “scared” to give some
links an algorithmic negative score
So if only 1 in 100 links counted,
quantity was still king
9. What Started to Change for Google?
Google Analytics and other
tracking helped
Social Signals can give a different
insight layer for Google
They managed to start the
magical correlation….
10. The Magical Correlation of Links + Search
Links Influence Google Rank
Social Networks and Referrals
Building a Link Campaign
11. In 2012, The Tide Turned
For a while, people started to sink. It
was a perfect storm for Google.
The harder you had gamed Google
before, the harder you fell now.
12. The Important Elements of Penguin
Anchor Text played a big
part in rankings
Links either counted or not
There was no feedback
loop
Google SAID paid links
were bad
Too much Anchor Text was
a penalty signal
Links can also count
negatively
Disavow process to
reinforce the algorithm
Google can detect and
penalize paid links
Before Now
13. So Now It‟s ALL About TRUST
Google‟s Page Rank scored a web
page based on links alone
Now Google knows which links to
TRUST and which to DISTRUST
14. Majestic SEO Flow Metrics to the Rescue
Majestic SEO Link Analysis Flow
Better Link Quality Metrics
Build Better Links!
15. Understanding Link Quality Metrics
What is Link Quality?
How do I approach the right
link opportunity?
16. Citation Flow: Based on Flowing Link Counts
Trust Flow: Based on a Trusted Seed set
What is Citation Flow?
Based on link counts
18. A Less than Perfect Link Profile
Be wary of links with high
citation, but low trust
Look at the motivation
behind each link to be sure
19. Here‟s One of Those Links…
Poor link posted on website
Spam-based approach
20. Are Links Still Important?
Quality over quantity
REMOVE low quality signals
Heavy Anchor Text
Paid Links
Low Quality Links
Traffic should reflect the
link equity
This Man says YES But Now...
21. Pete Dudchenko
Speaker Intro
VP Product Management, Rio SEO
7+ Years Experience in the SEO and Online
Marketing industry
14+ Years in Software Development building
enterprise level products
Involved with Covario/Rio SEO since the
company inception
22. How Does this Fit into the BIG PICTURE?
Digital Marketing Changed
Convergence of Data
Social, Local, Mobile and
MORE!
It‟s more than basic linking
24. It Begins With Content Inspiration
For SEO, it starts with Keyword
Discovery
The goal is to create content
that is relevant and engaging
to your target audience
The more relevant the
content, the more likely to be
Found, Friended, Followed &
Forwarded
25. Content Creation and Optimization
On-Page SEO needs to begin
now, not after-the-fact
Real time SEO feedback
Content topics and target
audience interests are known
and used during the creation
process
26. Content Distribution and Promotion
Great content needs to be
promoted
Content follows a democracy
where it is voted into a high
ranking position
Focusing around On-Page
SEO here is too late
Social Promotion
Link Acquisitions
Local Distribution
27. Reporting and Analysis
Factors both on-page and off-
page elements
Off-Page elements include a Link
Audit Score
Link Audit Score brings in Trust Flow
and Citation Flow metrics
Better Link Analysis
Rio SEO Audit Score