Backlinking, the notion of a post-penguin link profile

Kristof Maret

12 years ago

répartition des ancres de liens entrants

The inbound link, a real sesame to the top places of the ranking, took a serious turn of age at the end of May 2013.

successive “Penguins” have given a big kick in the anthills of search results and many sites have seen their positions plummet. Lost places often dearly acquired through the creation of more or less controlled and legal backlinks .

An article by Kristof, project manager of the SEO agency SEO PME.

The power of the inbound link is undermined.

Google has just refined its algorithm.

He is now able to value your site or penalize it according to its backlink PROFILE.

If you have acquired these links thanks to your notoriety and you are spontaneously quoted thanks to the quality of your articles, you are a champion.

If, on the other hand, you ordered 1000 links as a Christmas present from your portal, or the BLs you create by hand only focus on a single anchor such as: “my-job-my-city”, you may have lost a few places.

The notion of a link profile

This notion of link profile has existed for a long time, Majestics SEO is one of the best analysis tools and its members know how to interpret the “noise” of its graphs, indicators of the level of trust and citations attributed according to the quantity, origin and rate of appearance of Backlinks on the web.

It is determined by the combination of different parameters that are complementary or intertwined.

The balance and distribution of the content of the anchors of the link

From “keyword-exact” to “click-here”, link anchors should look natural and therefore be extremely varied, and the proportion of anchors of the “keyword-true” type should not (should no longer) dominate anchors of the “click here” type or the URL address. That said, I’ve been following these precepts for two years because an article in wordtracker (http://www.wordtracker.com/) explained the common sense of this mix in 2011. (sorry I can’t find the reference)

Anchor Balance

My profile as seen by Majestics: Variety and no more than 5% of the same anchor.

Let’s take 5 types of anchors and try to balance their presence in a link profile:

Perfect Anchor Aimed at 20%
Variations of the perfect anchor 20%
URL 20%
Brand Name 20%
Rotten anchor (click here) 20%

1) The variety of the links and their origin

All supports are good, but there are some supports that are better than others. ( see articles on inbound links)

Here is a simplified list of classic supports and the type of anchor I recommend you to place on them.

Blog comments (anchor = your first name, your first name with your city, a nickname);
Link forum signature (anchor based on your NDD and/or url;
Presentation on local directories (any type of anchor including “see site” and even … no links at all – just the quote -;
Guest post (probably the best support) (optimized anchor + URL;
Article on publication site wrongly called CP (optimized anchor and variation + URL;
Social networks (anchor = URL (small quality, but necessary, remember to publish an intro of your articles on G+);
Content aggregators of type scoop.it (anchor = title of the article (Tb Sources of nofollow);
Link on image (often your logo) (no anchor or work on the Alt tag.

This recommendation aims to allow this overall balance, for example

that a blog comment gives control of your anchor on a nickname and sometimes offers you a deep link (thanks to how luv) on the H1 of the article
The directory only pointing to the homepage gives you the choice to put your mark in the title/anchor
Articles published on excellent blogs with high Trust Rank will be opportunities to put heavy links on an optimized anchor in order to give it a real dominant weight.

2) The proportion of follow/nofollow of the profile

Forums, blog comments, and content aggregation sites are the best sources of nofollow links, as they are easy to get, use them to balance the proportion of nofollow and natural anchors in your link profile.

We are talking about 40 to 50% nofollow in a natural profile to resist the penguin’s claws.

2) The ratio of the number of links to the quantity of domain names

If your 4000 links come from 2 websites, it means that these links are in the footers of these two sites. Google then assigns very little value to these links.

So vary your media and avoid footer links, or massive offers on worthless subdomains.

Speaking of support: look for sites whose activity is related to yours to post your links, it will always be more credible.

Dotted pages

Remember, we will ideally point our links to certain internal pages in order to avoid stuffing on the home page.

To the homepage 40 to 60%
Towards internal pages 60 to 40%

Creation speed

The algorithm also looks at the speed at which the links were created and the regularity of their publication.

By purchasing an automated service that sweeps the planet and lays M… on sites strainers at full blast balloons over 3 days, you send a clear signal to Google. You are cheating and your profile is not natural.

In this 2011 article, I recommend ” one BL a day for breakfast ”

I would add to never stop backlinking and to take advantage of all opportunities even outside of working hours

In case your site starts, be more than careful and patient. Put your 30 links in the first month, go up to 45 the second as if to make a movement of popularity, then go to 60 in the 3rd month.

The idea is then to acquire a plausible cruising pace that belongs to you and that you can maintain.

This is how I work for my clients.

At cruising speed I create 20 to 25 bl for my clients, links of all kinds and on all media. The formula is a winning one, may you be inspired by it or entrust me with the task.

I have at the disposal of the sponsor an online file that allows you to view the BLs and check the overall profile of the linking.

In conclusion:

The construction of a network of links is more and more a matter of finesse and time to be spent, spamming software will lose its luster and have to adapt while the patient work of craftsmen will be valued.

It will cost more and more to climb the SERP via link building alone and my final advice will be . TAKE CARE OF YOUR content, pamper it, it is more valuable than ever.