Believe it or not, so many go about the way of building links to their blogs incorrectly. Often times I get emails from people wondering why their site has dropped from Google and lost most of it’s income. The answer is often in the anchor text (assuming they were hit around the time Penguin rolled out). In order to keep up with Google and actually look forward to the algorithm changes there are a number of things I always do with anchored text.
Canned By Google Now What?
Obviously, if you haven’t read my how to build links in 2013 you might want to go ahead and check that out. But, with the amount of spam on the Internet Google finally solved the problem. How did they do it? They released Panda (which was to resolve spun content). That worked to some degree, but then people started building lots of spumy links with the exact anchored text they were trying to rank for. Penguin was rolled out and this sent a lot of sites to the Google morgue.
Have you been hit from Penguin? Chances are if you have you might want to switch up how you build your anchored text. For instance, if you have all your anchors text keywords you are trying to rank for then your not going to see good results in the search engines (well Google, maybe Bing and Yahoo), but they are light years away from Google.
So if you have been sent to the Google morgue, you might find your blog or site dead, but you can crawl back from the dead like a zombie. I have done it before and the key to this is mixing up your anchored text.
The Golden Ticket To Bouncing Back
What I tend to do is build 30% of my anchors keywords I am trying to rank for. The other 70% is blog commenting (CommentLuv enabled), authority blogs, guest post, press releases, social media, content syndication, directories (such as Botw.org, Business.com, Yahoo, Dmoz, ect.) and other authority links from sites I run through SEOmoz. I focus on quality backlinks rather than a ton of junky or spammy looking links. You might want to check out my post on links that are ineffective on my business guest blogging site.
It’s all about diversity and mixing it up a way that looks natural. I hate when I go to the WarriorForum or some other Internet marketing forum and see thread after thread about wiki backlinks, profiles links, spun content, drip feeding, get ranked fast, ect. People focus so much on gaming Google that they put together poor quality sites and send a massive amount of crappy backlinks in hopes of making a lot of money.
Probably the most important part of developing niche blogs/sites is providing valuable content to your readers. I highly recommend content marketing. Ask yourself does your site belong on the first page of Google. If not you need to increase the content value, frequently update it, and be social (not spammy) on some of the bigger social media websites.
True, it’s a lot of work and I have sites that are 1-4 years in the making. It’s a real job and this is why I do it full time. My mentality isn’t to game Google or make a quick buck, but rather create quality sites and SEO the sites in a way that is ethical and correctly. It’s about the longevity of my business, not just a get rich quick mentality. So many people don’t have the right mindset. If you need a way to get pumped up check out this post on What Chael Sonnen can teach us about blogging. I don’t care if your not a UFC fan, he knows how to marketing himself.
What are some of the best ways of mixing anchored text you have found? A lot of people just say they ignore SEO altogether or that SEO is dead, which I don’t believe is the case. True, it has evolved from simple to highly complex.
Great post with some GOOD IDEAS. And I agree with the importance of Social Proof.
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Angus McEwan recently posted..Are your Upline and MLM Leaders Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing?
Hey Angus,
Thanks for stopping by home to see you around my blog again
I’ve never done a lot of SEO acrobatics, Garen, and that’s mostly because ranking my posts is not the most important thing in my particular business model.
I’ve done enough of it, though, to agree that trying to “game” Google is not a winning strategy. Not long-term, anyway.
We need to remind ourselves that Google wants what we should want: high quality, low-spam content that is highly relevant to a user’s search terms.
You make a great point when you ask us if we think our posts deserve to be ranked high. If we put ourselves in Google’s shoes each time we deliver content, we may do a much better job with SEO and content delivery.
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David Merrill 101 recently posted..Keeping Pace With Online Communications
Hey David,
SEO is always my long term goal and provide a massive ROI if you can get your keywords number 1 and stay there. Another thing I have learned is write yourself a letter as the customer and develop your site around that. This helps you invision exactly what people are looking for and develop a high quality website.
Great post – agree on content marketing, so important to add some value out there.
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Kim Stanbrook recently posted..The Cloak Of Gratitude
Hey Kim,
A always ask myself does my site deserve to be there? If not I need to work on my value.
Great article Garen. As a writer, I’ve always made content my priority, though I’m well aware of SEO and do manage to do a fair job of building links. I’ve never dabbled in the quick fix solutions that got so many people in hot water, so most of that is still baffling to me. You are so right when you say it’s long term – few people who jump into blogging realize that, but they certainly find out soon enough. Thanks!
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marquita herald recently posted..Are You Living Life True to Yourself?
Hey Marquita,
Yeah, I am a writer too, but sometimes I ask people do you even read your content. It doesn’t always seem to be correct grammar and just looks like a jumbled mess. Launching my guest posting service real soon
Thanks Garen, this a good reminder for me to go back on my older retail sites and check the anchor texts there. I probably did a lot with the same keywords. I should add some long tail ones instead.
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Lisa recently posted..The Ultimate Personal SEO Checklist for 2013
Hey Lisa, yeah make sure you mix it up a lot. Google is really cracking down on exact keyword text. I made this mistake and is taking me quite some time to recover from it.
Hi Garen,
thank you for your valuable information and the links to other related posts.
You are obviously demonstrating, being an example how it is done.
Quality content that is of interest to the readers and commenting on other blogs is the way to go!
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Cheers,
Yorinda
Yorinda recently posted..Making Changes and the Limbic Lag
Hey Yorinda,
Yes I believe quality content and less SEO is the way to go. Google has hinted at this for a year or so now.
Hi Garen, This is my first time here and I really like what you have done with your blog. You have so much great information here I know I am going to learn a lot form you. I have seen a lot of people using this CommentLuv I do need to learn more about this. So you get anchor keywords from this alone? HUM This was very helpful for me Thanks for sharing I am off to check out more on this site of yours here. Chery
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Chery Schmidt recently posted..Simple CraigsList Strategies For Online Entrepreneurs
Hey Chery,
Yes CommentLuv is a must have and I would highly recommend you read my CommentLuv review if you haven’t already. Really, a great plugin and I use it on all my sites.
It can be frustrating that Google keeps changing its algorithms, but it does keep coming back to one thing… be natural in what you do. Thank for a value-packed post!
Willena
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Willena Flewelling recently posted..Open Your Imagination to a World of Possibilities
Hey Willena,
Yep Google is always going to be changing but one thing is for sure we have to know how to adapt and make quality websites.
In the past, I have tried hard to do some gymnastics with my linking, but I stopped pretty quickly because it got to be too much work, and writing was no longer fun for me. Now, what I do is just write for my audience, and it works. This is a great reminder to keep doing what works…create great content!
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Christi Johnson recently posted..How To Be An Author On A Budget
Hey Christi,
Thanks for stopping by. Yeah lots of people try gymnastics with SEO. Quality beat quantity every time.
It’s interesting…I find that ranking isn’t overly hard once you start writing consistently. I find that Webmaster Tools helps me to know my keywords and target what readers are looking for. Between that and Hittail, I am good to go. Still, SEO does matter a bit…but only a bit. I think the value offered to the reader matters a lot more. I’d love to know your thoughts on my thoughts. LOL! Great article, Garen!!
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Christi Johnson recently posted..Avoiding Divorce – Is That Even Possible For People In A Challenging Marriage?
Hey Christi,
Yeah, content is king and a lot of people don’t get the concept that you have to create a site that has some value. Otherwise, your wasting your time with SEO with a site that is of low value. Really, I just focus on quality links and don’t do these crazy tactics meant to just game Google. Yeah, a lot of time you can just go through Webmaster Tools and see what is getting you the most traffic. Also, on the pages that are getting lots of traffic from Google create new content from those pages and link them to your new content. Google loves this and you are providing a lot of value which will stand the test of time. Otherwise once, Google sees people are bouncing off your site left and right they will lower your rankings.