Presentation by Chris Genge on April 23, 2013 at the SEMPO Meetup in Vancouver discussing current link building practices, Google link penalties, Google Disavow Tool and Google Reconsideration Requests. Visit www.1stonthelist.ca/contact to get in touch with us or call us Toll Free at 1-888-262-6687!

1. Off-the-Cuff
Link Building
April 23, 2013
Chris Genge

2. About Me
 Started in …
 Never believed in building links
 Pressured to do linking for clients when
everyone else started doing it
 Starting pulling back around Panda and
Penguin time
 Today deal with all types of client’s
diverse range of optimization campaigns

3. Has this happened to you?

4. Maybe you can try this …

5. But we all know Google doesn’t care because
they have their crime fighters to stop you

6. Just fix the problem … you know it
was a bad idea to start with.

7. Remove the bad links …
Even if you didn’t build them ….
• Another SEO Company!
• Or a “helpful” competitor!

8. And then get reincluded
It won’t be easy but it’s worth it!

9. Depth of Link Cleanup
 Use tools to analyze backlink profile:
 Google Webmaster Tools
 Open Site Explorer
 Majestic SEO (connected to WMT)
 Ahrefs
 Other in house tools
 Flag harmful links:
 Low PR, AC, Domain Authority
 Out of country links
 Link farm/Pure SEO value
 Not relevant to your market
 URL contains “link”, “seo”, “directory” etc.
 Domain name is random – weird letter/number combinations
 Keyword stuffed domain
 Multiple links to your site
 Too much keyword rich anchor text
 Check Analytics Referral Traffic for these links

10. Use your discretion
 Is the page user
friendly?
 Would you trust the
page?
 Even if it looks okay
now – will Google
find it spammy in
the future?

11. Request Removal
 Contact site owner to request removal or
no follow of link.
 Contact page
 WHOIS lookup
 Contact 2x then add to disavow file if
unsuccessful

12. Building Disavow File
 Evaluation process should leave you
confident these domains provide very
little to no value.
 List domains or exact URLs
 Tell Google what happened and what
you have done to fix the problem by using
comments in the file.

13. How long does Disavow take?
 2 – 10 weeks to get
activated
 May take more
than one time
 If extensive
cleanup is in order
add to the file over
time

14. Reconsideration Checklist
After you have cleaned up and disavowed
1. Tell Google what happened:
 List violations and who is responsible
 Describe what you did to repair
 List contact with all webmasters
 Tell about Disavow link file
2. What did you do to ensure it won’t happen
again?
3. Request Google reconsider your website. It
may take several attempts

15. A New Industry
Is it still true that bad links can’t hurt you?!

16. Link Opportunities for Today
 “Creative link building
ideas” has 63.9 million
Google results
 Are there any original
creative ideas left?
 How do you help a client
build links on a small
budget or with little
commitment or effort.

17. Strong General Approach
 List online assets (videos, photos, unique resources etc.)
 Why would people link to you anyways ?
 List offline assets (customers, staff, networks)
 How can you leverage the connections you have?
 Research competitors online resources
 Do they offer something linkworthy that you could also offer?
 Research competitors links
 What are people linking to?
 Can you find new link opportunities?
 Research your own links
 Are any key topics or pages on your site missing? More
opportunities to new links on other related sites?
Key is to Strategize, Be Reasonable and Adapt
 Takes time.
 If idea isn’t working don’t be afraid to abandon.

18. No Quick and Easy Way
 Monitor brand mentions
 Ask for link in return for a discount or favor
 Find something that’s missing
 Businesses with customers you could provide value to
 Publish new resources for your suppliers
 Get others to write a testimonial about your product
 Interview experts
 Infographics
 Sponsor events, non-profit, local organization
 Give scholarships that get advertised on EDU sites
 Teach customers to watch for link opportunities

19. Chris Genge
1-888-262-6687 ext. 705
chris@1stonthelist.ca