Link Profile Audits and Google Penalty Recovery - SMX Munich 2014

Link Audits!

The time to act is NOW!!

WHO IS GARETH HOYLE?!@search_magician!

One of the largest signal providers in !the UK!

Link Audits!

The time to act is NOW!!

Links are the signal !

IS A PENALTY OR FILTER !PENGUIN !

AIMED AT LINKS!

TO DULL THE EFFECT OF!DESIGNED!

People Chasing the Google Algorithm !

WE ALL NOW FACE!A PROBLEM!

Germany: They are coming for you!!

They were not lying!

Important decisions to be made!

Google controls the WHOLE game!

Links are STILL!the signal

MANAGE EACH ONE!EVERY LINK HAS RISK!

Managing your Risk!

•  Risk of being caught out by Google!

•  Risk of a competitor reporting you to Google!

•  Risk of a site linking to you being penalized!

•  Google swimming upstream!•  Risk of disavow!

WHAT TO DO IF YOU GET CAUGHT?!

If your visibility graph is like this!

You have a problem!

Manual penaltyversus

Algorithmic drop!

Algorithmic drop!Check the update timeline !

Do the times coincide with ranking / traffic drops?  

Algorithmic drop!Rebalance your link profile and wait….  

Commercial anchor text + Just for SEO links != Blatant SEO  

Penalty!Manual!

Manual Penalty!

Google have sent a number of waves of

unnatural link warnings!There is now a much

more formal procedure to get the penalty

removed!

They are still sending them!

Manual Penalty Notification!

Manual Penalty – WMT Console!

Manual Penalty – WMT Console!

Google Penalty Recovery !!

via !!

The 5 step link audit and !link removal / disavow !

process*!!!

*as we see it!

Step 1 – Gather ALL link data!

Step 1 – Gather ALL link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

• Check Anchor text %!• Homepage vs Deep links!• Geolocation analysis!• Sitewides!• Deindexed sites!  

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

• Need to be very strict!!• Made for SEO = Has to go!

• So much data – Where to start!!

• Here are a few tips to help you out J!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

•  If you have a large link profile filter these words:!

• Beware of false positives!

Submit! Add! PR!Link! Dir / Verzeichnis! Free!

Article / Artikel! Press / Presse! SEO!Bookmark!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

• Filter what is left by:!!!

!Anchor Text!!Flow metrics!!Domain Authority!!PageRank!

!!

•  Your data set is getting smaller!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

• Manually auditing sites!• Multi URL opener is your friend!• Grab contact details as you go!• Record the type of link – further

analysis later!• Keep / Remove / Maybe!

!

• LinkRisk has “investigate” for this!

Step 2 – Analyse all link data!

• Document EVERYTHING!

• Use Google docs where possible – You may need to share the doc later!

•  If data is too big to paste – try: !file –> import –> replace current sheet!

• Dropbox and Excel!

Step 3 – Link Removal!

Step 3 – Link Removal!2 schools of thought!!1 – Attempt to remove the links!2 – Straight to disavow!!I am of the 1st opinion!!So are Google!

Step 3 – Link Removal!“First and foremost, we recommend that you remove as many spammy or low-quality links from the web as possible”!!!https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/2648487!!

Step 3 – Link Removal!Google  tell  us  to  remove  the  links                      

Step 3 – Link Removal!•  Manually outreach to site owners!

•  Automated tools exist – We prefer a manual approach!

•  Create a dedicated webmail account – You may need to share access !

!

Step 3 – Link Removal!Hi [yourname],! !I’m contacting you to kindly request that you remove the link(s) below that we’ve spotted linking to www.URL.com:! ![link(s)]!  !This does not directly suggest anything wrong with your website and we apologise for any concern raised by this message. ! !Please advise if this is ok/when complete so we can update our records! !Thank you! ![Full name]!

Step 3 – Link Removal!•  Send  a  maximum  of  3  emails  –  

Nega9ve  PR  /  is  anyone  there?  

•  Allow  9me  between  sending  to  same  sites  –  not  everyone  is  online  all  day!  

•  Update  the  Gdoc  /  XLS  at  every  step  –  You  may  need  to  share  access  

Step 4 – Disavow Links!

Step 4 – Disavow Links!•  Tells Google to ignore the links!!

•  Must be site owner in WMT!!

•  UTF8 text file in, csv out ?!!

•  Uploading a new file will replace all previously uploaded ones. !

Step 4 – Disavow Links!•  Disavow at domain level!#attempted contact on 12/03, 17/03 and 23/03/14!domain:test.com!•  Disavow at page level!#owner removed links, but missed this!http://www.test.com/pages/spam-links.html!!•  Not many good links on bad URLs!!

Step 4 – Disavow Links!#attempted contact on 12/03, 17/03 and 23/03/14!domain:test.com!#owner removed links, but missed this!http://www.test.com/pages/spam-links.html!#attempted contact on 13/03, 18/03 and 23/03/14!domain:testsite.de!#scraper site – disavow please!domain:testurl.ru!

Step 4 – Disavow Links!•  No direct link from WMT!!

•  Lots of warning messages!!

•  https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/disavow-links-main!

!•  Or search online!!

FOR EVERY LINK YOU REMOVE!

You have to consider what!you might have to add & how!

Step 5 – Reconsideration requests!

Step 5 – Reconsideration requests!

•  All about the detail!!

!

•  Dealing with a human at Google!

!

•  Why should they remove the penalty?!

Step 5 – Reconsideration requests!

•  Provide evidence of suffering!

!

•  Provide evidence of effort!

!

•  Provide evidence of a lesson learnt!

Step 5 – Reconsideration requests!

•  Send via WMT manual actions!!

•  Wait 7 – 10 days from disavow!!

•  4 – 6 attempts on average!!

•  Be patient – Once submitted – What can you do?!

Step 5 – Reconsideration requests!

•  Example text too long for a slide!!•  Email me – will share some

templates!!

gh@seo.im!

Google Penalty Recovery !!

via !!

The 5 step link audit and !link removal / disavow !

process*!!!

*as we see it!

Life post penalty!

Penalty removal ≠ Rankings back!

What you had is gone!

You have trust issues!!

KNOW WHEN YOU’RE

BEATEN

Now Aware of the !Dangers!

GOOD SIGNALS! GOOD RANKINGS!

Proactively manage your Risk!

National / International SEO!

Local SEO!

Local SEO!

Broken Link Building via

WMT / LinkRisk!

REDIRECTIONS AND NEW DOMAINS BEWARE WHAT PASSES…

2014 – The year of the person not the site!

SAY HELLO! gh@seo.im

@search_magician

linkrisk.com