Link Building
Post Penguin
So, what has
changed?
In reality,
NOTHING
except that….
The responsibility
is 100% yours
&
Further Pressure
Unnatural Link
Warnings
Disavow
Penguin
Penalties all
over the place
What has
HAPPENED?
Pre 1ST quarter of 2012
Some counted some
did not
Throw as many links
as you dared
If you threw enough of
the right stuff you won
&
MORE FORMAL
SET OF LINK PENALTIES
PENGUIN
IS A PENALTY / FILTER
DESIGNED
TO DULL THE EFFECT OF
People Chasing the Algorithm
Link Penalties
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
Signals to look for
 % of anchor
 % of sitewides
 % of suspect cctld
 more links that 40x or 50x
Risk is obvious in the anchor text distribution
www.linkrisk.com
THE PROBLEM
WE ALL NOW FACE
Links are STILL
the signal… but..
Google have hidden
what they consider
a bad link well
To rank you have to
build, but you have to
manage the risk far
more
Manage the risk of link building
1.
2.
3.
Audit what you
have
Have someone
audit your links
with experience
Determine what is
risky and what to
remove
 Removing is almost as bad as not
removing
 If you determine what the problem links
are, out of every 100 links you identify
as bad Google probably only thinks 20
are bad
 Removing all 100 is as bad for your
rankings as getting penalised in some
cases
FOR EVERY LINK
YOU REMOVE
You have to consider what
you might have to add & how
THE MYTH
OF NATURAL LINKS
Poor link metrics
(Majestic / Moz /
PR)
Banned
Words
Commercial
Anchors again
and again
Wrong
CCtld
What makes a link
problematic?
No interaction
on the site
Purpose of
the site
Links to bad
places
No Social
Activity on a
site (Twitter /
Facebook)
 Validate every link opportunity
 Only buy link building services if the
company can demonstrate that they
know what risk is and how they
handle it
 Be realistic in your link risk
exposure
Don’t follow what everyone else
does or you’ll be in the next filter
Guest Posts
Infographics
WHAT TO DO IF YOU
GET CAUGHT?
3 Main Risks:
Penguin
Link
Devaluation
Link Warnings
REBALANCE
AND WAIT FOR GOOGLE
REBUILD
WITH CAUTION
Manual Penalty:
 Link audit and clean-up
 Link removal attempts
(keep records)
 Disavow the links that
you cannot remove
WAIT!
REINCLUSION REQUEST
IF YOU AREN’T SUCCESSFUL TRY AGAIN
REDIRECTIONS
AND NEW DOMAINS
BEWARE WHAT PASSES…
TAKEAWAYS
 Audit your link profile
 Make sure whoever does the audit
knows what they are doing
 Don’t stop building but do build
with care and attention
 Watch your link profile all the time
Kristjan Mar Hauksson
@optimizeyourweb
BIG THANKS
MASSIVE THANKS TO @PAULMADDEN AND THE LINKRISK TEAM