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    2. SEO Tactics
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    4. What Makes A 'Natural Link Profile'?

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    After more than 13 years, and tens of thousands of questions, Moz Q&A closed on 12th December 2024. Whilst we’re not completely removing the content - many posts will still be possible to view - we have locked both new posts and new replies. More details here.

    What Makes A 'Natural Link Profile'?

    Link Building
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    • T0BY
      T0BY last edited by

      I find it hard to recognize unnatural link patterns when the links to my site are so familiar.  It can be hard to see the wood for the trees!  How many links from one site is too many?  Does it depend on the size of the site?  Thanks for your advice on this.

      Toby

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • T0BY
        T0BY last edited by

        Thanks for your help everyone, you have answered my question very thoroughly!

        Toby

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • Andy.Drinkwater
          Andy.Drinkwater @Highland last edited by

          I know, but that all comes down to Google being able to find them. Poor links they can identify more readily than something that has been bought on a trusted site (and there are a lot).

          You should take a look through the finance market - I don't bother with that now because in order to compete, you should see how much link buying goes on! The same with a few other cut-throat industries too.

          -Andy

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • Highland
            Highland last edited by

            I'm trying to address the above-board methods. Can you buy links without getting caught? Sure. But why do you think Google built Penguin in the first place? And what's to say they won't roll out something in the future that can catch them more readily?

            nofollow is the only safe route with paid links. Anything else is playing with fire.

            Andy.Drinkwater 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • Andy.Drinkwater
              Andy.Drinkwater @Highland last edited by

              Let's start with the first important question: Did I pay for this link? If the answer is "Yes", then do they nofollow the link? If no, you need to either get it removed or make sure they nofollow it.

              That isn't actually correct. A lot of link buying goes on with the big names, but there is no way for Google to find this out. Link buying does have it's place, but must be done very carefully.

              If you were buying a link on a spammy blog site though, then you would hope someone wouldn't go there in the first place - but people do. These are the sites that Google can be aware of. Before anyone proceeds down this line, you would need to check the site out, traffic, look if it has been penalised, etc.

              I'm not justifying the practice of buying links (as this this against Google TOS), but it happens. If you get found out, expect a big hit.

              -Andy

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • Highland
                Highland last edited by

                Let's start with the first important question: Did I pay for this link? If the answer is "Yes", then do they nofollow the link? If no, you need to either get it removed or make sure they nofollow it.

                So now we've gotten the obvious ones out of the way. Now... how to spot the unnatural links. A link can be unnatural if

                • It shares specific keyword rich words with other links. For example you have 200 sites that link to you saying "Buy widgets now"
                • The sites are low quality. Blogs with 1-3 posts that look abandoned after posting content that reads like an ad for you. Article writing sites.
                • The site has no logical relation to your site whatsoever. Tire stores linking to doll stores doesn't make sense.
                • There's a network of these links. If you've not gotten the hint from the previous two, look for patterns that stick out to you.
                • There's little diversity. You have lots of links from very few sites.

                So how to spot them? I'd cross-reference AHrefs with Open Site Explorer and look at keyword text and, in OSE, look at the strength of the site (PA/DA columns).

                Lastly, what to do about them? If you think there's something that is actively hurting you then slowly begin to chip away at the links either by requesting removal or disavow. but remember that if you don't do this without a plan you WILL hurt your site.

                Andy.Drinkwater 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • Andy.Drinkwater
                  Andy.Drinkwater last edited by

                  In terms of a neutral link profile, it needs to, above everything else, appear natural. If your link profile consisted of nothing but dofollow links, then this could be considered unnatural.

                  There is no limit to the number of links that denote something odd, per se, but you must step back and look at it from Google's eyes. Would they want to see 400 article links all coming from submissions at the same site? Would this suggest article spam? Are these articles each going to be high quality?

                  It is much more natural to have a few links from a site, but if someone is genuinely seeding all of your content, then I would expect this to be, at worst case, a neutral signal to Google. They will know how good the articles are, how often they are shared, who is posting them, etc.

                  Also, keep your anchor text neutral / clean. Don't over-optimise it as this will undoubtedly bring problems with it.

                  I don't really like plugging my own site, but have a read of this: http://bit.ly/1LyeiAh. You may get some additional info there.

                  -Andy

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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