The Changing Dynamics of

Link Building for Google

2012 and Beyond

Christoph C. Cemper

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Link Building Over Time (2004)

OMG I got bannedfrom Google forpointing a PR8

sitewide link at my 3 days old datafeed

site domain!

Lesson learnt: don‘t overdo it

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Link Building Over Time (2012)

Lesson learnt: still don‘t overdo it

Penguins!Killed my site.

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

About Christoph C. Cemper

• The Guy with the Orange Jacket

• Linkbuilder

• SEO

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

About CEMPER.COM

• Link Building since 2003 US/UK/DE/AT

• All industries

• Lots of internal research; therefore,Link Research Tools

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

What DID matter in link building

• Precise Anchortext

• Google Pagerank

• Alexa Rank

• Google Link: command

• Google Cache: command• Because it‘s crippled by Google (since 2004, 2006)

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

What, no page rank?

Matt CuttsSays(SMX Advanced

Seattle 2008)

We return randompage rank data if wefeel like to – it‘s fun!

Lesson learnt: don‘t look at PR

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What still DOES matter in link building!

RELEVANCY&

TRUST

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Link Building Over Time (2005+)

GoogleGuysays

Build Content forUsers, Not for

Search Engines

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Does all thissound old

and familiar?

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About Christoph C. Cemper

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Content Quality is important? (2011)

PANDA!

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Panda and Link Building?

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Enough of the old SEO gossip

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Actionable Advice for Penguin Victims

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7 Ways to Identify Bad Links

7 Ways to Identify Bad Links4 strong indicators

3 soft indicators

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„Outing“ Post on SEOmoz March 15

• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-garbage-ranks-in-the-serps-a-case-study

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„Outing“ Posts‘ Result? – NO! 4 weeks later.

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WHICH LINKS TO REMOVE 14 Strong Indicators to Remove a Link

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4 Hard Reasons to Remove

• G!idx=0

• „PageRank“ advertised

• Same Owner/IP Networks

• Theme = Virus, Suspicious, Malware, etc.

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Remove Backlinks with G!idx=0

• G!idx = 0 !

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Hands Off „PR“ Advertised Links

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IP Popularity of backlinks

• smells fake

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Same owners

• Too easy!

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Suspicous / Virus Links

• Too dangerous!

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WHICH LINKS TO REMOVE 23 Soft Indicators to carefully Check & Remove Links

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3 Soft Reasons to Carefully Check & Remove

• Link Velocity Trends < -50%(link growth went A LOT slower)

• Low Power & low Trust(know the 4 types of power*trust links)

• Huge Outcalled Networks(know the outcalled networks)

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Link Velocity Trends < -50% !

All of thedropped sites lost link velocity!

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Four Types of Power * Trust Backlinks

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Four Types of Power * Trust Backlinks

• AVOID: Low Trust and Low Power(“junk links”)

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Four Types of Power * Trust Backlinks

• RISKY: Low Trust and High Power(“pagerank links”)

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Four Types of Power * Trust Backlinks

• GOOD: High Trust and Low Power(“trust link”)

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Four Types of Power * Trust Backlinks

• GOLDEN: High Trust and High Power

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CURRENTLY DOOMEDLinks from link networks are cheap links to remove now

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Advanced Process to find Link Network sites

Link Networkscan be found by

YOUpiece of cake…

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

So Google can easily do it.

We’re no PHP script collection.

We’re Google.

• Lesson learnt: don't underestimate Google(like the last 3-4 years)

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Penalized Networks

If a Network has a NAMEthen avoid it!

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Avoid Penalized Networks

• Build My Rank• HKSEO / High PR Society• Authority Link Network / ALN• Linkvana• Rank Jump• …

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HOW TO FIND LINK NETWORKS

Fast Solution

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WITHOUT lots of Excel leg work!

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Advanced Process to find Link Network sites

- take 5 link selling sites (suspects)

- automatically identify over 750 link selling sites

- (more suspects)

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Advanced Process to find Link Network sites

1. Do LJT with “suspect” bad sites2. Get common results (victims)3. Do CBLT for victims and you4. Common links are highly

probable bad links (check it!)5. Remove/avoid those bad links

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Holy cow, this CEMPER guy must be crazy,

I don‘t understand a word.

43

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Advanced Process to Find Link Networks

watch the videoat home!

http://cemper.co/linknet

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7 Golden Rules of White Hat Link Building

7 Golden Rules ofWhite Hat Link Building

revisited

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

7 Golden Rules of White Hat Link Building

1. Relevant page & in content links2. Domain Trust3. Natural Anchor Text4. NoFollow5. Juicy Page6. No Spam!7. Don’t buy links for page rank!

classic from2009

and 2007

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Look it up

Original Post & Presentation 2009

http://cemper.co/7golden

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

40 bonus slides

• Revisit„7 Golden Rules of Link Building“

• 2009 vs. 2012

business card forbonus slides!

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Management Summary

• All 7 Golden Rules from 2009 are still valid!(the details and metrics evolved tough)

• Spam/Automation got a lot worse(SEOs got away with a lot of black hat/grey hat stuff for too long)

• Google finally reacted to simple spam(Don‘t underestimate Google)

• 3rd Party SEO Metrics got a LOT better

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

Is Link Building and SEO dead?

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

What is really dead

• Avoid cheap links

• Avoid exact match anchors (SEO links)

• Avoid footprints

• Avoid shortcuts

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

You get what you „pay“ for!

Quality links work.

Cheap links don‘t.

(C) 2012 CEMPER.COM & Link Research Tools

THE BEST LINKSare those that

your competitorscan NOT get!

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Business Card for 40 Bonus Slides

your business card for 40

bonus slides

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http://cemper.co/trial

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Thanks for your attention!

QUESTIONS?

http://cemper.co/trial Link Research Tools trial

Business Card 40 extra slides

christoph@cemper.comtwitter.com/cemper

http://www.cemper.com/http://www.LinkResearchTools.com