Google Panda Update Says Goodbye to Low-Quality Links
Google has made major changes to its algorithm to target spammy sites, followed by the larger Panda update that targeted “low quality” sites. This all started when Google penalized JCPenney, Forbes, and Overstock.com for “shady” linking practices.
What’s it all mean for link builders? It means we say goodbye to low quality link building.
If your competitors are still highly ranked on Google and you find that they have low quality link built around their search marketing campaign, then there are two things you must consider about finding low quality, high volume links in your analysis:
- Maybe it isn’t the links that got your competitors where they are today. Maybe they are a big enough brand with a good enough reputation to be where they are for that particular keyword.
- If the above doesn’t apply, then maybe it’s just a matter of time before Google cracks down even further, giving no weight to those spammy backlinks.
Lets face it, non of us here at Trimark Marketing Group want to be the Internet Marketing company behind the next Overstock or JCPenney link building gone wrong story!
How to Determine a Valuable Backlink Opportunity
How can you determine whether a site you’re trying to gain a link from is valuable? Here are some “warning” signs Google may have as a low-quality site.
- Lots of ads. If the site is covered with five blocks of AdSense, Kontera text links, or other advertising chunks, you might want to stay away from those sites.
- Poor quality content. If you can get your article approved immediately, that means there is no quality check and chances are this isn’t 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 shine in the dark.”
- Good amount of content, low traffic. A blog with a Google PageRank of 6 probably looks like a great place to spam a comment. But if that blog doesn’t have good 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 some of the sites in the Panda update, considering there are several sites with PageRank 7 and above.
- Moderation Lack. Kind of goes with the above, except in this case blog comments and directories. If you see a ton of spammy links on a page.
What Should You Be Doing
Where should you focus on? Content, of course!
Most organizations use blogs, whitepapers, 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 informative tips and articles to show your visitors how much you know when it comes to your industry.