The Role Of Links In SEO

Jérôme VerstryngeFor Ligatures.netDecember, 2014

License: CC BY-ND 4.0

Table Of Contents

● Internal vs External● PageRank● Domain & Page

Authority● DOFOLLOW &

NOFOLLOW

● Types of Traffic● SEO & Link Building● Negative SEO● Disavow Tool● Facts &

Recommendations

Links: Internal vs External

● Websites are identified by their domain name (site1.com, site2.com...)● Links: means to reference and to navigate between web pages● Internal link: between same site pages (page A to B)● External link: between different site pages (page B to C)● Backlink: from another site to your site (site2.com has a site1.com backlink)

Page

APage

B

Page

C

http://site1.comhttp://site2.com

Understanding PageRank

● Google attributes a weight to all web pages

● This weight is divided by the number of outbound links

● This amount (also called linked juice) is added to weight of target pages

● The process is repeated infinitely, as links are created and removed between pages on the Internet

● PageRank (PR): a 0 to 10 value attributed to each page, which is a logarithmic function of its weight

2.5

10

2.5 2.52.5

Today, Googledoes not publish

PageRankinformation anymore!

Domain Authority & Page Authority

● Yesterday– High PageRank meant high

ranking in search results– People started creating

unnatural (i.e. fake) backlinks

● Today– Search engines:

● Can I trust a backlink?● Are the source and target

pages/websites related?● What about content?

– Backlinks are necessary to rank high, but not sufficient

● Moz– Created domain authority

(DA) & page authority (PA)– Metric based on many

factors (0-100 logarithmic scale)

– Indicates likeliness to rank at Google

– DA & PA are publish frequently, replacing PR

Do Follow & No Follow

● DOFOLLOW & NOFOLLOW: attributes set on links (or whole web pages)

● A kind of endorsement● Tells search engine web

crawlers to navigate through or not

● Also enables the passing of link juice or not

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10

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NOFOLLOW

Users see no difference between

DOFOLLOW and NOFOLLOW links

Types Of Traffic

● Organic traffic: user clicking on links displayed in search engine results (excluding advertising links)

● Direct traffic: users typing URLs in their browser, clicking links in their favorites, emails, documents

● Referral traffic: users clicking on links located on external website

● Paid traffic: any traffic coming from sponsored links or web page advertising

● Social traffic: direct traffic coming from social websites

What is SEO? What Is Link Building?

● SEO: Search Engine Optimization (techniques for ranking) ● Link Building: a SEO method aiming at increasing organic

traffic by increasing the number of backlinks to a website● Link Scheme: a set of unnatural links organized between

one or more sites to help target websites rank higher– Some malicious people use link schemes to improve rankings– ...but negative return on investment on the long term (always)!– Unnatural links networks are detected better and better– Unnatural links impact rankings negatively– Can trigger severe ranking penalties too

What Is Negative SEO?

● Ranking has become hard:– High competition in many niches– Less return from link building

● “If I can't rank higher, I can hurt ranking of competition”

● Negative SEO: unnatural links pointing at competition, created by malicious people

● Solution? The disavow tool

What is the Disavow Tool? Link Profile?

● A Google tool to neutralize backlinks to your web site– A kind of reverse

NOFOLLOW feature– Protects from unnatural

links negativity– Operates at the link level or

website level● Link profile: the set of

backlinks of a website

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10

2.5 2.52.5

Disavowed links are effective after they are reprocessed by web crawlers and a

refresh at Google has happened

DISAVOWED

Facts & Recommendations

● A bad internal link structure hurts your SEO● PageRank is not king in computing rankings anymore● Don't make a religion of Domain & Page Authority● Content is as necessary as backlinks to rank● NOFOLLOW links have value, they bring traffic● Successful websites have a diversified backlink profile● Focus on diverse sources of traffic

Further Readings

● Getting started with SEO● SEO guidelines & checklists

Click