Building links in a penguin ridden world - BizUp

Building Links in a Penguin-‐Ridden World How to recover, survive and prosper after

Google's latest link Armageddon

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Nice to meet you

●  7 years in SEO & Link Building (4 in iGaming) ●  Former Head of SEO for Populis (Excite, Blogosfere, Mokono)

COO of BizUp: ●  Search, Social and Mobile MarkeMng ●  5 Languages in-‐house (IT, FR, ES, DE, EN) ● Experience in compeMMve segments (Gambling, Finance...)

MaTeo Monari

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1)  Why links?

2)  The “Perfect Link” 3)  TradiMonal link-‐building methods

4)  Google Penguin 5)  The “Perfect Link” – Revised 6)  Penguin-‐proof “natural” link-‐building

What we’ll see

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•  On-‐site SEO (code, structure) is the base, you car. •  Content is necessary to drive it, it’s the pilot.

•  Links are your gasoline (1 link = 1 vote, but not all votes have the same value...) → The harder the race, the more/beTer gasoline you need

Why links? Content is king? No, content is the pilot

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The Perfect Link (?)

l  Towards your “money pages” l  With your “money keyword” in the anchor text l  From a site about your “money keyword” l  On a page about your “money keyword” l  As many as possible

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TradiMonal link-‐building methods

Link exchanges

Link pyramids & networks

Content syndication

Directories

Mass link-buys

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But Google knows many things...

l  IP address of each site l  Whois informaHon of each site l  Email addresses in each site l  Template & CMS of each site l  Links (in + out) of each site l  Adsense codes of each site l  AnalyMcs codes of each site l  WMT account of each site ... + Historical data

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...so what if things went wrong?

If Google idenHfied “dodgy” links, it could:

à Clean-‐up of most risky links

à AutomaHc de-‐penalizaHon à Manual re-‐inclusion requests

•  Ignore them (= not count them)

•  Temporarily penalize a site or secMon (once a certain limit was reached)

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We all hate Pandas since 2011...

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Full updates’ history: http://www.seomoz.org/google-algorithm-change

...from April 24th we hate penguins too

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Official definiMon

” [...] an important algorithm change targeted at webspam. The change will decrease rankings for sites that we believe are violaHng Google’s exisHng quality guidelines.

[...]

Sites affected by this change might not be easily recognizable as spamming"

( http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.it/2012/04/another-step-to-reward-high-quality.html )

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What it meant

1 vote

no vote

a negative vote

1 or

Google started to give NEGATIVE VALUE to some links matching a general on/off-site “over-optimization”: a site or section can be gradually, permanently devalued. Penguin is NOT a penalization.

1 link = or

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So...

•  No to link exchanges •  No to link pyramids and weels

•  No to aggressive content syndication

•  No to aggressive directory submission •  No to mass link-buys

à Increased risks associated with old methods:

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...and what if you have been “hit”?

•  Remove links from link networks

•  Remove links with aggressive anchor texts

•  Remove links from dodgy placements

•  Remove links from obviously unrelated sites

•  Gradually acquire “perfect” links...

à NO quick recovery: Google will have to gradually re-evaluate your profile while you...

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The Perfect Link (?)

l  Just someMmes towards your “money pages” l  Just someMmes with your “money keyword” in the anchor text l  Just sometimes from a site about your “money keyword” l  Just sometimes on a page about your “money keyword”

“NATURAL”

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What does “natural” mean?

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Natural = Similar to others

1) Who is your real competitor? Black / White hat SEO? Target? Budget?

2) In-depth analysis: Links’ distribution across pages Anchor text distribution Link development over time Site-wide links vs. links to specific pages IPs / networks Link-building methods used

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Examples of “natural” link distribuMon:

Across pages

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1011121314151617181920212223242526272829303132333435363738394041424344454647484950515253545556575859606162630

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

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In the anchor text

113

2537

4961

7385

9759 17

21 2933 41

45 5357 65

69 7781 89

93 101105109113117121125129133137141145149153157161165169173177181185189193197201205209213217221225229233237241245249253257261265269273277281285289293297301305309313317321325329333337341345349353357361365369373377381385389393397401405409413417

0

50

100

150

200

250

300

350

400

450

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In Mme:

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But how should one get links now? 1) “Natural” link building campaign 2) “Natural” anchor texts

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“Natural” link-‐building campaign 1 : Guest PosMng / Bloggers’ outreach

l  Use just as many links as in other posts. l  Do not link only your site. l  Spread links in the text. l  Link from on-‐topic posts. l  Use REAL blogs, of REAL people

l  NO “site reviews” full of links l  NO “blog networks” of “support sites” links l  NO link-‐stuffing at end of arHcles l  NO off-‐topic sites/arHcles

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Strictly NOT Connected sites

“Natural” link-‐building campaign 2 : Careful, big-‐scale arMcles’ exchanges

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“Natural” link-‐building campaign 3 : On-‐topic embeddable widgets

Odds calculator

Slots mini-game

Poker questions

(Source: http://www.widgetbox.com )

Embed code = you decide link attributes

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“Natural” link-‐building campaign 4 : Engaging content creaMon + PR

a.k.a. “Link baits”: design, production, distribution/PR

Infographics

Tools In-depth industry research

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“Natural” anchor text

•  Aggressive anchor text: [...] online casino, [...] casino •  Anchor text variations: [...] on-line casinos, [...] on line casino

site •  Longer anchor texts: [...] this new site about online casinos •  Natural anchor texts:

•  [...] this page of bizupmedia.com about online casinos •  [...] these blackjack games on bizupmedia.com •  [...] some online casinos like this or that

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1)  Links are sHll a key SEO element

2)  The concept of “Perfect Link” has evolved 3)  Google Penguin made links potenMally “negaMve”

4)  Old link-‐building methods are now more risky

5)  Penguin-‐proof link-‐building is sMll possible

To recap

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Thank You!

COO of BizUp srl

twitter.com/matteo_monari

matteomonari

ujigeng

[email protected]

MaTeo Monari

hTp://www.bizupmedia.com/en/

Building links in a penguin ridden world - BizUp

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