The SEO game has changed drastically over the last year. A lot of the tactics that worked 12 months ago don’t work anymore. And it’s not just newbie SEOs who are making mistakes… even experts who have been in the field for years are making mistakes.
Here are 5 mistakes that even experts are missing:
Mistake #1: Building rich anchor text links
You probably already know by now that rich anchor text links are bad, but how rich is too rich? There’s actually a post penguin anchor text case study that just came out and shows that you can get rankings without building too rich links.
The site Doctor650 built 13 links with the following anchor text:
- Here
- Doctor 650
- My site
- Dissecting The 650 Credit Score
- Here
- Doctor650.com
- Here
- http://www.doctor650.com/ (no-followed link from YouTube)
- Resource on 650 credit scores
- Doctor650.com
- Clicking here
- Doctor650.com
- 650 credit score
Within 54 days of the site launching, it started to rank in the top 4 for the keyword “650 credit score”. This just shows that you can still rank for any term, even with a brand new site, but you have to rotate up your anchor text.
You don’t want your anchor text to be richer than 30% and you want to try and variations of your anchor text. Why? Because it is rare that someone would naturally link to you with rich anchor text 100% of the time.
I’ve ranked for terms like “online poker” or even “insurance quotes” all by building non-rich anchor text links that are relevant. And when I do build rich anchor texts, which is not too often, I throw in a lot of variations.
Mistake #2: Building too many links too fast
How many links do you need to build to rank for competitive terms? You actually don’t need too many, you more so need time. Slow and steady is what’s winning the race in the SEO game.
If you look at the Doctor650 site, not only did they not build too many rich anchor text links, but they also didn’t build too many links. I’ve done this with competitive keywords and noticed that the easiest way to climb to the top is to not build too many links. More so, just go for authoritative links.
And if you think building a lot of links is better for you, just look at this case study by Marcus Taylor, in which he built 10,000 links within 24 hours. He shot up to a number 1 ranking in Google, but within 3 weeks he was pushed down as he built too many links.
Google’s algorithm is sophisticated because they know what rate websites typically build links at. If your link count is growing at an unnatural pace, you won’t rank too well.
Mistake #3: Building too many links to your homepage
Have you ever looked at the link profile of the other sites in your space? What portion of their links are from .gov and .edu sites? What portion of their links is going to their homepage versus internal pages?
Instead of building links to your homepage, consider building links to the majority of your internal pages. Just look at Wikipedia, that sites ranks for almost every term out there and it is the 6th most popular site in the world.
Majestic SEO is showing that Wikiepdia in total has over 600 million backward links, while the homepage has roughly 6 million links. That means 1% of their total links point to their homepage, while 99% goes to internal pages.
If you want high rankings, consider building more links to your internal pages versus your homepage.
Mistake #4: Writing a lot of mediocre content
Have you ever read the content on sites like eHow? They have over 5 million pages of content, they rank for a lot of terms on Google… and they have millions of backlinks.
Although they do well, it’s not worth copying their content strategy? Why, because their content is mediocre and not detailed. For example, if you Google “how to install a bidet”, this page from eHow ranks in the top 10.
Do you see the problem?
That page does a terrible job at explaining how to install a bidet. If eHow wrote articles that were over 2400 words and were very detailed like Wikipedia they would rank much higher and get more traffic.
Based on this article, you can see how Google prefers to rank web pages with at least 2000 words of content on page 1.
Mistake #5: Links build authority
By being classified as an authority site, you’ll rank higher. So how do you become an authority site? You get more links, right? Although links do help build authority, it’s not the only way.
- Social media – by building up your social media profiles and getting more tweets, likes, and shares, your website will rank higher. Google and Bing have both publicly stated that they look at social signals.
- Author rank – Google is able to verify authors, which means they can now track who is writing great content, versus mediocre content. So even if your site doesn’t have a ton of links, you’ll probably start seeing it rank higher in the future if you have authors with a lot of authority blogging on your website.
- Age – although time isn’t a factor you can easily control, sites that are older tend to rank higher… even if these older sites don’t have as many backlinks. So if you are considering starting a new business, try to buy an existing website in your space that is at least 5 years old… this will help you rank higher faster.
If you want to rank higher, try to make your website an authority site. Just don’t focus all of your energy on building links, as it isn’t the only way to become an authority site.
Conclusion
SEO is a constantly changing game and if you don’t keep up with it, you won’t do well. Don’t focus on the quick hits, slow and steady really does win the SEO race.
What I’ve personally experienced throughout each Google update is that quality content will continue to rank high and receive traffic. For example, all of my blogs got a nice traffic bump by 15 to 41% on January 1 when Google made their update.
What other mistakes have you seen SEOs make?
This amazing course will teach you, step by step, how to double if not triple your traffic over the next 30 days.
Is there anyway to keep tab on anchor text variation?
The other problem which I see in Google ranking system is that they do depend on authority of the website. See how often crappy Yahoo answers outrank the better website. Even, eHow is a good example of it.
Probably, this is the reason why people more stress on the quality or authority backlinks. Ranking will follow automatically
Hey Ricky – You can keep a track of your anchor text variations by downloading the anchor text data from Google Webmaster Tools and then analyzing it in Excel. You could also pay for tools like Open Site Explorer or Ahrefs.com which will help you analyze and filter this data quicker.
Dev,
Glad you mention all these tools for Anchor text analysis, but I’m not sure how perfect the data in GWT is. I would rather prefer MajesticSEO, it has much better data. After recently shutting down keywords analysis, I can only hope that Ahrefs.com will provide better insight on backlinks.
Ajaz
I found that Ahrefs.com data is more accurate for me.
Yea, you can also do it for free in Google Webmaster Tools to some extent.
That’s right Ricky. Google sometimes gives more importance to Page Rank and authority of the site but they still have lot of good “ranking algorithms” which can outclass spammy content. Google has really tightened the screws for the spammers in the past two years with Penguin and panda updates. Social signals does play an important role. If the content is shared by many people on social networks and mainly by authoritative people, it really gives a ranking boost to the content. One more mistakes experts often do is build links to home page alone and forget to build links to the inner and more relevant pages.
Building links to inner pages is really important. I try not to build links to my homepage anymore… linking to inner pages is working well for me.
I used Ahrefs.com.
This was excellent sir! Simply Excellent!
Well on your first point, building unnatural links to your site. First you are agree to point then you are not agree to it. You are telling the mistakes but this point are good for ranking in google, what you say. ?
Great tips! Thank you!
What also worked great for me is posting content regularly. I rather add something to my site every 2 days then a whole lot at once.
Since I’ve been adding content regularly I get a lot more visitors from Google!
Plus, you should also be getting more social media traffic.
Hi Neil,
I always learn a lot from your blogposts. I found your explanation of anchor text links very useful. I have heard that co-citation is going to replace anchor text, is this true?
Regards,
Diana
Some say it is, but I am not 100% sure… time will tell.
Neil,
AWESOME post! I’ve been preaching varying anchor text for a long time. Especially with the new Panda update, you really need to diversify. Keep up the good work!
Best,
Edward
Edward,
By Panda I’m sure you mean Penguin Update. Right?
Ajaz
Of course, LOL. Oops.
It’s so funny how they are all animal names…
Yeah, I sometimes wonder why Google’s farm animals are black & white.. LoL..;)
Yea, I have no clue why either…
I guess it’s because of black&white hat…
Yep, Penguin.
Yep, based on Penguin, you need to vary things up a lot more.
I thought I was the only one who found that funny. LOL. Variation is key!
Nope, I think a lot of us do.
I am curious about author rank. Does it use the number of followers to treat as a good sign of authority?
I believe that may be one factor as well.
Domain Name: DOCTOR650.COM
Created on…………..: 2012-08-14 15:27:21 GMT
Expires on…………..: 2013-08-14 15:27:21 GMT
Last modified on……..: 2012-08-14 15:27:22 GMT
Above Stats objects your line …
Within 54 days of the site launching, it started to rank in the top 4 for the keyword “650 credit scoreâ€
Though new site can rank in less than that time.
Thanks for pointing that out. I got that data from the SEOmoz post…
DOCTOR650.COM Google ranking is still 2 which is not too bad for the website launched a few months ago. Is it possible that the “created date” is somehow screwed up on whois?
Not sure… it could be, but it is hard to mess with that date.
Great post. Now I just have to knuckle down and focus on writing some great content as a priority and make link building a secondary consideration.
Writing good content is the easiest way to build links.
All true. Your blog is great source of SEO news and useful information. Thanks for that, it really makes my work easier.
Thanks Kamil!
My biggest mistake then could be linking to the home page but I do that more by accident when I write guest posts, maybe I should vary up my author bios a bit.
Great post as always Neil.
You can fix that. Start linking to your internal pages now.
What else they do wrong? em they follow Matt Cats advices without experimenting anything.
every website should have a different SEO approach
Well, creating good content is an easiest approach that should work for 99% of all websites.
Best information source on the web. I can’t afford your fees at present, so put up a donate button. I, and I am sure many others, will trickle in many pennies for the great articles that you provide.
Totally concur with your opinions, Russ. Bang on the money. And talking of which…
…Neil, I think one reason people don’t enrol on more courses is that they know many of the fundamentals already – why would they know what course is good for them or where authorities in the niche were, anyway?
It’s like, if you go to ASDA (Walmart), you don’t buy the ‘meal deal’ when you know you’ve got cheesecake and cola in the fridge; you just buy the Spaghetti Bolognese.
I’d rather be able to slip a random $2 or $3 spare change I’ve got knocking about in PayPal to a site that has the best value Bolognese.
If I feel punished for having to buy the meal deal when I think I don’t need most of it, I’ll hold onto my cash.
Enough about the food, already – I’m wishing I had that Black Cherry Cheesecake, now.
One other point about linking, internally or to domain authority sites.
Rather than just link the keyword, link a complete thought or phrase.
For example, say I wanted to link to my work site with this sentence:
“If you’re searching for unbiased articles, features and opinion, start-up global TV network, FeckTV.com reports the news like it is, as it happens, 24/7 from around the globe.”
In days of yore, the anchor text would purely have been the brand name, “FeckTV.com”.
Too much of that nowadays and, as you point out, your site gets treacherously close to being judged as spam by the web-indexers.
Nowadays, a more organic looking link should be: “start-up global TV network, FeckTV.com” or “FeckTV.com reports the news”.
Either demonstrate what I mean by anchor text comprising a whole thought or phrase.
And, rather than link to the home page, as was so oft the case a year hence, as you point out that link could now go to an about page, article page – whichever page is most relevant to the phrase that constitutes the anchor text.
Thanks for another brilliant article, Neil – I wasn’t aware of the 2,000 word homepage deal with Google.
Guess where I’m off to now…
…anyone else need more copy for their home page, drop me a line in the form through my link, above – I’m not free, but am a) brilliant and b) totally value for money.
p.s. sorry, Neil – couldn’t not get that in, the way the comment went, bud. xxx
Thanks for the feedback! Your analogy really helped me out and it is making me rethink things, which is good. I will let you know if I am able to change things up.
Thanks for the feedback… I will see what I can do about the fees.
Excellent, clear post Neil.
I’ve received several calls lately from companies with ranking problems because of nearly everything on your list! Nice job, as always.
Thank you Kirk.
This post is really good and i have also note it that anchor text diversification is working in Link Building to get your website in top 10.
Keep in mind that you need a lot of diversification… some won’t work.
Absolutely true on your “rich anchor text links.” One of my sites took a big hit when the algo changes went into effect. Hind sight is always 20/20 right?
You can always go back and fix it.
great read Neil, just recently added the Google authorship to all of my sites, looking forward to seeing if it helps with the rankings.
Let me know if it affects your click through rates.
Hey NEIL. I have read many posts in this blog. But this is the first time I comment on this blog. I have a small question. When we are commenting on other blogs, a backlink is created for home page. Is it also harmful ( Mistake #3: Building too many links to your homepage) ?
It shouldn’t be as most blogs use rel=nofollow.
Extremely insightful content as always Neil!
Thanks Fred.
“I’ve ranked for terms like “online poker†or even “insurance quotes†all by building non-rich anchor text links that are relevant.”
But do you still rank for them?
For some I do.
Another great post.
The factors which you have highlighted are quite simple but it is surprising to see that a lot of experts still make the mistakes.
A lot of people do because they don’t keep up with the times. You can never learn enough…
2000 words is a lot– do you think 2000 words once a month is better than 400 words a week? Does longer always get perceived as better? Also, is it a good idea to have resource links in your blog, or does it just drive traffic away?? Regardless, thanks for your wonderful insight!
If the 2000 word piece is better than the 4 400 word pieces, then go with the longer one.
Neil has correctly pointed that instead of going for large number of links; one can go for smaller number of links which are authority sites.
Raplus – When you get a backlink in comment; it is generally a no follow link and it generally do not make a difference as webmasters generally make their comments no follow.
Regards
Thanks for chiming in Gaurav!
Neil, great post! I wish it was longer as I was eager to learn more, it’s a completely unknown zone to me. It will also be in compliance with your How Content Length Affects Ranking:))
http://www.quicksprout.com/2012/12/20/the-science-behind-long-copy-how-more-content-increases-rankings-and-conversions/
Try it out, writing longer posts does help boost rankings.
HI,
Rich anchor text with good spread out of your top keywords…This is what google algo look at after allthe updates google made….But too many rich text anchor will result being marked as spam by google…so be careful.
Regards
Yep, you have to find a good balance. Ideally 20 percent or so… maybe even less.
Excellent in depth post. Really appreciate your work.
Thanks, I put in a ton of time and hours into writing my blog posts.
I used to put many links on my blog. It´s not so good I guess.
If you think linking out to those sites benefits your readers, then keep linking away.
I would pick the following link profile. What would be yours?
Rich (exact match) Anchor Text links = 25%
Rich (rephrased variations) Anchor Text links = 25%
Relevant (but not exact or rephrased variations) links = 15%
Domain Name links or Page URL links = 15%
Graphic links = 10%
Irrelevant “click here” type links = 10%
All of my links are ideally relevant… all diversified except 10 to 20%. None are exact match.
This is really a great post & I do agree with you that link variation will help a lot but the main problem is that in spite of having rank on google I am not able to convert conversion for my website so what I have to do for that? As I have read your website blog’s & that is fantastic but looking for help & guide me for the same.
Second, Social media gives only visitors that is my personal experience but not helping for conversion. What you think about the social media ? & does it effect for the conversion?
This post should help: http://www.quicksprout.com/2013/01/14/11-obvious-ab-tests-you-should-try/
Social media traffic can convert as well… it does for me.
Hi Neil,
As usual, a great post for amateurs & pros alike. Though, I have one thing to add – Internal linking. Sometimes even pros forget to place relevant internal links to site’s pages, while this is the aspect which is most under control of an SEO.
Thanks for the writeup though,
Ajaz
No problem. Internal linking is the one thing that really helps Mashable rank well.
Hey Neal,
Awesome post. I learned a lot from your new SEO strategies and going to implement those from now onwards. And will share the result with you.
I look forward to hearing the results.
I can’t look into a crystal ball and predict the future, but I have a strong feeling social media is going to be really really important I’m working hard to build my social profiles and authorship ranking now….I haven’t seemed to absolutely need them to rank well so far, but they definitely help….however by the end of the year beginning next year i think it will be a crucial element. What do you think Neil?
It will. Social media is what is helping a lot of the sites out there do so well. Great way for search engines to figure out if a site is creating good content.
The funniest and most common mistake is after a site migration not removing the Disallow: / from robots.txt.
LOL, I didn’t think about that one.
Excellent post. I am agree with your all points.
Hopefully you can implement some of them on your blog.
As always, great info Neil!
The one on rich anchor text was really an eye opener for me, so obvious I never even thought of it.
Yea, it is just unnatural for someone to link to you with your exact anchor text.
That Doctor650 site looks like a very weak site. Almost like the old adsense sites. And it’s ranking high and staying there? Really???
Yea, it is still ranking really well. Even after they posted on it.
Hey Neil thanks for this tips. So, Google authorship can help us to get higher rankings in search result?
Not always, but more so it can help with click throughs.
No.3 Mistake, Yeah i agree that i did this mistake too. . .. Now my main target will be build link for inner Pages. . . .
As you know bloggers usually writes various type of article on various keywords, for them what you will suggest? How they should use there anchor Text?
Thanks for this post Neil.
Use random anchor text or ones related to the page. Just let it flow naturally.
Thanks a lot for a very informative article about constantly changing SEO. I will try to go slowly, as you said with building backlinks to my site.
Just make sure you build them from relevant sites.
Great example Neil and very inspirational. I did not think a new site could rank that well that fast but I guess I have some more learning to do!
Yea, the doctor 650 site ranked really fast.
This Doctor650.com site is very weak and I don’t think the keyword “Doctor 650″ is too competitive… but I agree with most of your statements above.
It isn’t, but it still shows what you can do in a short period of time.
hey neil., the content strategy may be used for blogs and article websites.. bt wat about general websites (or) E-Commerce..? most of these websites have hardly 200 to 400 words content on the body section..,is it enough or else is it good to maintain above 500 words on home page?
and have one more question.., is it good practice to have content below footer for only SE purpose but written uniquely and without stuffing keywords?
You can always add a blog to those sites. Or have product reviews left by purchasers.
I try not to have content below the footer as it isn’t a good user experience.
Thanks neil for sharing, today i fully read your content, previous days was not interesting so much , but i enjoyed today u mean to say guest blogging is a new card in this seo game 2013? A person having a blog site with content getting included in a medium rate, although he is not writing the content, so in that case he is have a tag of reputed authorship.
Shouvik Mazumder
BusinessProDesigns
Guest blogging is old… more so it will continue to work in 2013.
Hey Neil, Thanks a lot for the great content of yours … Really inspired me.. Your are my idol
..
Just several question that always in my head.
1 How many link should be in my profile forum ?? That already solved when hear a yours interview’s in youtube when i build my link in the forum profile. Only one site link at a time.
2. Is it ok or bad for SEO if my signature in each of these forum just build link to different inner page of my site .. Or it is more google friendly if i just have an anchor text to my main domain. This is because i only have one website ..
..
1. I don’t recommend using forums to link build.
2. It’s ok, but not a good link tactic. Just use the name of your site in the Signature instead of stuffing the link with keywords.
Thanks Neil for the answers u really help me a lot with all your post. I am very inspired each time i read your post . To make a good post like yours on my own. Quality and experience is the thing.
Hi Neil,
You had said, “So if you are considering starting a new business, try to buy an existing website in your space that is at least 5 years old… this will help you rank higher faster.”
Do you think really it works? I had tried once, but the page rank came down to N/A . Any feedback?
It works. I do it all the time.
Not sure why that happened to the pagerank, but it should come back in time.
Neil,
Please correct me if I’m wrong, but the words “in your space” are important. It should be a related website so Google sees continuity in the subject matter. It also needs to be an active website and not just a domain reservation.
Donna
That’s correct. It is really important for it to be relevant.
Really it’s true ,we make mistake many time, so this blog to help to get where we make mistakes.
Yep, hopefully this helps stop you from making mistakes.
Neil, yet another great post with to-the-point recommendations. I guess it takes an industry some time to get that things stop working. And I guess what prevents the industry from realizing are spam campaigns offering thousands of links at low cost, and things like that. Thanks for sharing and having your input as the industry’s leader!
Thank you Alex. Your kind words means a lot to me.
I think one of the SEOs mistake that I’ve seen most often is the omission or lack of image or video optimization (like Alt Text, Caption etc…).
Thanks.
Yea, those things are really irritating to do, but they help.
Google has to count something though. You are right currently it is quantity of text (with it being non-duplicate) and relevant links. This is however not difficult for SEOs to achieve. Once they do that and all vie for the top spots, what does Google count from there?
That’s why they continually change their algorithm to fight SEO.
Hello Neil, hope you are doing good as usual. I regualrly visit your blog to catch up with the latest going on in marketing. This was an interesting post and got to know some unique stuff. Keep it up!
Thanks LollyPop… appreciate the comment.
Hi Neil, I always learn something new when i visit your blog.
How many backlinks should we pursue daily? How many would be too many? One seo mistake that is sometimes overlooked is not linking out to other authority blogs. I’ve seen a difference in traffic post penguin after doing this. Thanks for yet another great post.
cheers
Julian
It varies, there is no one exact answer. Just build slow and it should be a small percentage of your overall link count (assuming you already have some back links).
Now the “recognizing author” part is new to me. And, would it be wrong to just use similar anchors choosing them among, let’s say, five?
I would use a lot more than that. 5 is not enough.
I have just a Simple Query i.e. You mentioned we should not make too many links together and I am Experimenting this,as I have purchased a fresh new domain and I am making links for it,as I want to see the effect of this on the next PR update.And for this I have to make links and I am making those links,should I stop or go for it ?
Hey Mohit,
I think you should go for it,as I Have done same type of experiment in the last PR update and Yes I got succeed in it and got PR 3
Glad to hear it worked out for you.
Go for it, assuming it is an experiment and you don’t care for the domain/site.
Hi Neil,
great post however I am not very sure about social media. It is true that likes and shares are considered by search engines but I guess they are considered more as a “things to have” rather than a ranking factor as they can be easily manipulated.
Francesca
It is, search engines themselves stated that it affects rankings.
Very useful posts for all of the newbies and Experts too.you are right creating too many links may prove harmful.
Glad you liked the post Mohit.
Brilliant set of information. Its amazing how things have changed so much in the last few months, perhaps more is at the corner, who knows. Quality content is vital and social shares seems to be important.
Always go for good content as that’s what gets the most social media shares.
SEO changes so fast, its difficult to keep up, best is to be honest.
Or just create good content. That’s an easy way to stay ahead of the game.
Hi Neil,
I have to say that I agree with you 100% here. You are right on that this is the new SEO.
The better content you write and the more “natural” tactics you use, the better off you are.
Thanks for the post, Neil.
The credit score company you mentioned in your first example got fast results… within 54 days.
But those 54 days can seem to take forever if you’re an entrepreneur in the middle of those 54 days and trying to earn some income!
For that reason, I think it can be tempting for many business owners to try and game the system a bit and attempt to boost their rankings faster. But, as you point out later in your post, it’s all about quality of content.
… and I would add that we also need just a bit of patience.
You just have to be patient. That’s the thing I don’t have either… but sometimes you just have to wait.
Good stuff, but no, I don’t think real experts fall for these. I think you become a real expert when stop falling for it.
Building lots of mediocre sometimes happens because you have to contribute the content to a larger plan.
All of these problems amount to: you developed a productive method for SEO, but you let the scale of it get out of control.
A lot do. I have seen it myself. I know an expert that just spent 500k on sites that were doing these bad tactics, then the sites got penalized. He didn’t think much of their tactics at first, but it screwed him over.
this article really help me to build my site,now i know how to started niche site.
thank a lot niel.
You are welcome Grosir.
Many SEOs are happy with keywords that are simply effective at getting people to their site, and not overly popular to the point of being highly sought after. But that’s not enough. The third criteria you need to consider is, is the keyword talking about something UNIQUE that your company does better than your competitors? Or does everyone else offer the same value you’re promising?
For example, if you have “low prices on watches,” as a keyword and you also offer a 60-day guarantee that no one else offers, consider using keywords like, “great watch guarantee” or “high quality watches” or “watch guarantee” too. Those search terms, while not as popular as “low prices,” will be more effective at getting the more discerning buyers to visit your site, and will ensure that those people visiting will be more likely to BUY something.
In summary, are your keywords: accurate, effective, AND competitively unique, you’ll have much better luck attracting more of the right people, and getting them to follow-through with purchases.
Maggie, thanks for sharing. Your example will help a lot of people who read Quick Sprout.
Thank you!
I have some agree and disagree points with this article. For example, I do agree that making too many links is not good specially for new domain. On the other hand, I don’t agree that google place 2000 word article on first page. That’s not true, I even see article with 200 words but with informative stuff can be place on first page.
If you look at the research piece, it shows that the “average” content length is 2000 plus words. Yes there maybe other sites with less content that rank well, but the average looks to be high.
Some excellent points Neil. Really like point #3 about building links to internal pages as well as the home page. This is something we have only just started to do, just seems more natural, so we’re hoping it will help our SERP. Nice to know someone else is thinking on the same lines.
Point #4 about quality content is so true. Although we know that eHow links still swamp a lot of the listings – they won’t for ever. They are almost all poor quality so the writing has to be on the wall for them – hopefully soon!
Yea, I hate eHow. They have some really really bad content.
Great piece of writing. I don’t know much about SEO. Learn lots of new things about SEO from your post. Hope your will help get better positions in search engine rankings.
Thanks! I hope I do as well.
Best of luck with your rankings.
Hi Neil,
Nice Post. I enjoyed reading it. Could not get new point to add into the list.
But you advocated for long posts but this post is not too long.
Yea, I won’t add fluff. But if you include the word count of the page (including comments), it is really long.
Hi Neil
Good piece and very up to date with SEO thinking.
Loved…
“Why? Because it is rare that someone would naturally link to you with rich anchor text 100% of the time.”
Now that is so obvious, but the old strategy was to go with rich anchor text all the time!
BTW – welcome to Genesis – just seen Brian Gardner’s piece on Facebook.
Yea, I love Genesis. The site loads so much faster now.
Hmm. Not so sure. Web pages rank for terms, not web sites.
Getting a website to rank for a single term isn’t what most people are trying to do.
While the site might rank for 650 credit score, its competitors are ranking for all kinds of credit related search terms. What is you’re searching for 700 credit score? This site won’t appear.
Although there is a mixed bag of 13 links, the one link that is most likely driving the ranking is the Youtube link. Perhaps the presence of the YT link combined with a mixed bag of other links is the ranking signal Google is looking for. I’m guessing it is.
If they built links for 700 credit score, I am pretty sure that they would have ranked for that as well… They just chose 650 for the test.
Hi Neil,
Once again saurav here this post really amazing for those who don’t want to accept new Tacts in seo.
Most of them are senior member and all of them use same strategy only built too many links.
This post dedicate to all seniors who don’t want use new seo.
Regards
Saurav Sharma
Social Media Strategist
GlobalHunt India Pvt. Ltd.
Yep, you have to continually adapt as SEO is a never ending game.
Very interesting post. SEO changes so fast, its difficult to keep up, best is to be honest.
It is hard to keep up… even for me. But by reading and testing things out, you can keep up.
Hi Neil, thank you for covering a great topic! SEO techniques will probably keep on changing however some of the core concepts of SEO will stay the same.
Yea, the core will stay the same. For example, I don’t see links not being valuable anytime soon.
Great post,thanks for sharing it.
No problem, glad you liked it.
Hi Neil, Great thanks for sharing valuable lesson with us. I also will implement what you said.
Great, let me know how it goes.
Thank you Neil for keeping us up to date on SEO. Those who want to stay on top must adapt to an ever changing cyber landscape or fall behind.
Yep, you have got it!
Great post as usual – I had completely forgotten about using Ahrefs for checking links.
As usual you make a lot of sense in what you say, although 2,000 word posts, thats a hard one, although when I read your posts they would easily be that and more. Easier to read 2,000 words of good content than 400 words of crap…
Thanks Brian,
It is true that longer content is easier to get through when you provide value.
Great post Neil! I totally agree with your point. Your blog is a fantastic source of useful informations and I always learn from it. Thank you for the great share! Keep posting!!!
Awesome, I am glad to hear it!
you always seem to be up-to-date with the goings on of the SEO world, that’s why your the go-to-man
big takeaway – build links to internal pages. Most of the links I’ve created go direct to my homepage
Thanks Lewis, appreciate you sharing what you found most useful in this post.
There are lot of SEO’s stuffing the keyword in the content blindly t rank better in Google search, they might come to the first page soon but quickly the keyword drop will be seen
Definitely, you have to be careful and do it right.
Hi Neil
Thanks for a great post – just a quick question on not building links too quickly.
I recently disavowed some links to improve my link profile. I’m aiming for higher quality links with a better spread (i.e. more variety)
That said, some of my competitors are ranking on page 1, with 1500 links, most of which seem to be blog comments…
So am I dead in this niche? Should I pack it all up or continue with tips like yours?
Thanks
I don’t think it is a long term strategy to build links through comments. I would keep writing really good content and build good links as that is what will win in the long run.
Nice tips, as always Niel.
What I do to get better in SEO is maximizing my on page SEO, thanks to Yoast for creating great tool for this. Next step is to create several post on around the topic with some keyword variations plus link to previous posts
Sounds good, keep up the hard work!
nice tips, but i have one problem with any attempt to show natural and basically artificially build links.
This is what we all do, but i’m stell think that google know when the links is real natural and when it’s try to be…
In this case, it’s only a matter of time…
Yes, you have to be careful and try your best to get all natural links.
Hey Neil, what is your take on optimizing backlinks coming to a site? For example, I’m working on a site that has a good number of links but 99% of them use only the companies name in the anchor text. Is it worthwhile to optimize those links and ask the webmasters to update the anchor text to something better, or would Google penalize something like this? I’m trying to figure out if it makes more sense to just build new links or if there’s benefit to optimizing some of these links we currently have. Would love to know your take on this (if there’s any previous research on this).
I’ve seen this work, but be careful. Don’t get too agressive or else it can hurt you in the long run.
Slow and steady wins the race.
Great post again.. Neil..
I should start building links to my internal pages as well, as of now we are linking home page only everywhere. thanks for the tip..
We also need to generate content on regular basis, as we are not doing that now.
Thanks again for this post.
Great, glad to see you know what you need to get done.
Thanks Neil, understanding the importance of taking the long-tail approach to SEO will grow your business more than you would originally think. With SEO becoming so obtuse and ever-changing, it is hard to understand what is needed to maintain success. Great post!
Yep, you have got it.
Good info here. Yes, you have to keep up with SEO on a regular basis to be able to compete. I find that a lot of companies really do have way too much mediocre content published. They put all the effort into attracting traffic, but don’t consider what will happen once it’s there.
Good point, thanks for your added input.
Nice information really ever experts miss these thing and everything we learn something from these kind of mistakes.
Thanks, I hope you found these tips helpful.
Amazing Neil i have just implemented some of the techniques such as anchor variations and i can see some positive results, wow am happy with the content.
Awesome, thanks for sharing!
Thank you for writing and sharing this post, great explanation, it will definitely help me in my role at Synechron which involves managing SEO and website traffic.
No problem, happy to have helped.
Thanks heartly about the 5 seo mistakes… Sometiems, I am so upset with the SEO and Google arithmetic. But I have to use it greatly…. I will take your sweet tips when i am working next time….
Let me know if you have any questions as you go.
Neil Patel,
I am based in India. I must say you Research a lot.
There are lots of Rumors on the Internet Regarding SEO, But your conclusions are accurate, I Must Kudos.
I also read about you, and glad to see that an Indian is setting the stage again.
You are also Quite Young, Keep up the Good work.
We all Benefit from it.
Can You shower more light on Google authorship.
Mistake #3: Building too many links to your homepage
is it lead to NEGATIVE SEO ?
is my ranking positions hurt by others using spam link building to my site ?
No… more so you need your whole site to rank well. So you have to build links to all of your pages and not just your homepage.
Like your thoughts here Niel. I agree, building too many links in your website is definitely a big mistake. They have saying that, “slowly but surely”. Yes, there are a lot of SEO strategy than you can work successfully without in hurry.
Thank you Oliver, glad you agree.
Excellent post Neil and thank a lot for sharing such valuable information. I like your blog, it is source of me to learn SEO. thanks for sharing.
Thanks, happy to hear you are able to find helpful information here.
This website is the best, it really helps me out!!
I liked this post a lot as it was super to the point opposed to some of your others where they get crazy in depth and there are too many take aways for one post (in my opinion). I like the point about getting other high authority authors to guest post on your site, great idea!
I like your blog a lot.
Your information for SEO Experts is logical and technical
Thanks for sharing such a wonderful information with us people
I didn’t noticed that building too much links on your homepage will lead you at risk.
Thank you
Hello,
This is really a great post & I do agree with you that link variation will help a lot but the main problem is that in spite of having rank on google
Thank you
Hi Neil, I think u have done lot of research about in the field of search engine optimization.
Hi its great post for SEO executive
One will get benefit of this post
thanks for sharing
In these days whit all this algoritm changes is very hard for to make seo, its take time, money, nerves of steel and many sleepless nights… aaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
))
I think in general, the use of automated programs!
Great photos and also an inspirining way to shoot affordable images creatively with capturing some timeless moments.
Hey Neil,
You are dong a great job! I’ve been in this industry for more than 7 years now. I’ve go through many websites to keep myself updated but you posts help me to keep updated and more…
You have the pulse of SEO! Keep it up!
Sushil, thanks! Glad you find it all helpful .
Hey thanks. Love these tips. I keep seeing your add to get SEO help from you. I’m not into buying an old (or aged) domain. I want something fresh, but I know how hard these are to get good SEO on. (i.e. names like these… http://brandroot.com/). How good are you at taking nothin to somethin?
Tommy, sign up for our consultative services and we can see how we can help you..
nice post. This blog always kick ass.
Cheers.
That’s really nice blog post.
I have some confusion while creating a backlink. As per you say in the first point that building a rich anchor text link are bad. However we are doing forum posting, blog comments and many other. In that we are targeting the keyword as like android app development, android app developer into the name or signature.
Is that good to do in that way? Or We should just use something like an a long tail word? Let me know….
Looking for something new techniques…Wish You could help me out from these.
To be honest, it all depends on what you are trying to accomplish..
Its means that the work we are doing is not so much worthwhile.
The conclusion would be like that we need to do content optimization over high authority site.
Isn’t it right?
It’s another informative article Neil. It reminds me how to improve building links to my website particularly the “dont’s” that need to avoid and apply the right strategy. Thanks for sharing this one! Keep up the good work!
Katharine, glad you found it helpful. Thanks for reading and best of luck!
Thanks Neil, it was very useful reading. I’m also confused about the anchor rich text links. No matter what I’m told I’ll continue building my links with my keywords there (trying to diversify a bit, but my handmade links must have my keywords there always it’s possible). What I’ll do is to put more effort in getting more “spontaneous” links, which I’m pretty sure that most will comply with that new guideline of not being precise with my keywords.
Antoni, I think you should try that strategy you have outlined. It can definitely do a lot to help out your link equity.
great info!
I usually add something to my site every day I think it much better then put much info in 1 day , because of the latest google updateds
Dan, thanks for reading
hello Neil,
looks like i have found some details about what not to do while doing SEO for your website that might be bad for your website and i am going to keep these in mind.
thanks for the post,
Siddhant
Siddhant, great. Let me know if you need any additional pointers or help.
AWESOME post! I’ve been preaching varying anchor text for a long time. Especially with the new Panda update, you really need to diversify. Keep up the good work!
Glad you found it helpful
This guy is right on track. Slow and steady works and sticks more importantly. However I still see spammed sites killin the top 5 for high comp keywords.
Great post Neil. Seeing a lot of sites with tons of same anchor dropping or having their links discounted.
Jeffrey, yes it is best to avoid that.
The most significant challenge with Google should be to check the quality written content. It’s good to pay attention to creating great content as an alternative to link building. Google genuinely loves quality and fresh new contents.
Great point. Quality content is always going to be key.
What I love in your blog posts Neil, that you try to include case studies of sites, which is really helpful in understanding the things in a better way.
I think case studies are very important to provide a basis for claims.