1. Link Training
Internet Marketer Expo
May 2017

2. 2017 IMx - Link Training – About Me
About Me
• Senior SEO Consultant, BillHartzer.com
• Founder, DFWSEM Association (2004)
• US Brand Ambassador, Majestic.com
• Practicing Organic/Natural SEO since 1996
• Formerly Senior VP, Advice Interactive (Advice Local)
• Senior SEO Strategist, Globe Runner
• Director of SEO, Standing Dog

3. 2017 IMx - Link Training - Overview
Overview
• Linking Basics
• Using Majestic for Link Analysis
• Analyzing Your Links
• Google Manual Penalties & Cleaning Up Links
• Advanced Linking Tips
@bhartzer

4. 2017 IMx - Link Training - Linking Basics
Why Use Links as a Ranking Factor?
• Google has run experiments that excluded links as a factor.
• Google doesn’t have a way (yet) to exclude links
@bhartzer

5. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Linking Basics
Anchor Text
<a href="http://www.example.com">Example Anchor Text</a>
• Anchor text describes what a user will find when they click
• Keyword rich anchor text still helps rankings
• Too much? Algorithmic or manual penalty possible
@bhartzer

6. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Linking Basics
Link Placement – Maximum SEO Value
• Header & content areas most valuable
• 1st link counted if multiple links to same
URL on page
@bhartzer

7. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Linking Basics
Paid Vs. Natural Links
• Buying or Selling Links that Pass
PageRank is bad
• Google can identify Guest Blog Posts,
Sponsored Posts, Advertorials
• Sponsored Posts must be “nofollow”
• Sponsored posts must disclosure it’s
paid or sponsored (FTC guidelines)
• Google knows which sections are ads
@bhartzer

8. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Linking Basics
Link Schemes Are Bad
Google’s Guidelines: http://bit.ly/google-link-schemes
• No Paid links that pass PageRank
• No Excessive link exchanges (define excessive?)
• No Large-scale article marketing or guest posting
• No Using auto programs or services to create links
• No Optimized anchor text in articles or press releases
• No Low-quality directory or bookmark links (Web 2.0)
• No Forum comments with optimized links
• No Keyword-rich, hidden or low-quality links in widgets
• No Widely distributed links in the footers or templates
@bhartzer

9. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Linking Basics
Google Ignores Certain Types of Links
• “Most” links with “nofollow” link attributes on them
• Most Web 2.0 links (and other low quality web spam)
• Google ignores 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc. link to same URL on a page
• “1 | 2 | 3” links
• “Previous and Next” links
• Google might ”nofollow” certain links internally even though they
are not tagged as “nofollow”.
@bhartzer

10. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Linking Basics
Why Cloaking Links Doesn't Work
• Cloaking = serving up one link to Google, another to humans
• Google, doesn’t crawl links, they just “notate them”
Google sees link to page.html
Human sees link to page2.html
• Google doesn’t crawl page to page link they did years ago…
• No longer possible to cloak (manipulate) links
@bhartzer

11. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic
What is Majestic? www.Majestic.com
• Formerly known as Majestic SEO (majesticseo.com)
• Marketing Search Engine
• SEO Backlink Checker
• Provides Link Intelligence Tools
• Site Explorer shows inbound link & website summary data.
• One of the world’s largest link crawlers
• Link data provided back as far as 2004.
@bhartzer

12. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic
@bhartzer

13. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic Search Explorer
@bhartzer

14. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic Trust Flow & Citation Flow
Majestic Trust Flow and Citation Flow
• Trust Flow = Number of clicks from seed set of trusted sites to a given
URL, or Domain
• Citation Flow = Number of citations to a given URL, or Domain
@bhartzer

15. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic – Finding Bad Links
Identifying Low Quality and Bad Links
@bhartzer

16. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic – New and Lost Links
Identifying New and Lost Links
@bhartzer

17. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic – Compare Tool
Compare Tool
@bhartzer

18. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic Keyword Checker
Keyword Checker
• Shows how often keywords appear in the Majestic Index
@bhartzer

19. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic – Bulk Backlinks
Bulk Backlink Checker
@bhartzer

20. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Majestic Neighborhood
Checker
Neighborhood Checker
@bhartzer

21. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Analyzing a Link Profile
Analyzing a Site’s Link Profile
• Gather all of the links (Majestic, GSC, ahrefs, OSE)
• Review Trust Flow, Citation Flow, Topical Trust Flow
• Review anchor text, compare vs. keywords ranking
• Review percentage of anchor text (brand vs. keyword text)
• Review SEMRush.com Data
• Site penalized by Google Penguin in past?
@bhartzer

22. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Google Manual Actions
Manual Actions in Google Search Console
• Partial Match – affects certain pages
• Full Match – affects whole site
• Unnatural links – both require link cleanup, review
@bhartzer

23. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Manual Actions
Manual Actions – Unrelated to Google Penguin
• Unnatural link warnings not related to Google Penguin (even real-time)
• Unnatural link warnings not related to any algorithmic updates
• Sites affected by Google Penguin in the past should still clean up links
• Manual actions are more severe, require a reconsideration request
@bhartzer

24. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Manual Actions Revoked
Getting Manual Actions Revoked
Unnatural Links? Clean up links, document everything.
• Identify all links to site
• Combine GSC, Majestic, Ahrefs, OSE links
• Manually review links (Link Research Tools can help)
• Identify links to remove
• Contact site owners, document emails, contact dates, etc.
• At least 3 attempts to contact site owners (rmoov.com can help!
• Disavow links not removed
Request Review: include letter, spreadsheet with data proof (link
to Google Drive spreadsheet)
@bhartzer

25. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Find All Links
Finding/Combining All Links to Site
Find every link to your website possible, even old links.
• Google Search Console
• Majestic.com
• Ahrefs.com
• Open Site Explorer (Moz.com)
• Download all links, put into MS Excel Spreadsheet
• Remove Duplicates
@bhartzer

26. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Link Cleanups
Upload Links to Link Research Tools
Take combined links, put into list in .csv file, upload to Link Detox.
• LRT’s Link Detox evaluates every links to site
• Assigns level of risk for each link
@bhartzer

27. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Link Cleanups
Identify Links to Remove in LRT
Remove Toxic links, Review Suspicious Links to site.
• Every link assigned a reason why it’s toxic, suspicious, etc.
@bhartzer

28. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Manual Action & Link Cleanups
Contact Site Owners
Email contact is best option, phone call works very well too.
• Use whois data for most accurate email address
https://whois.icann.org
Sending Emails:
1st Contact - short, concise email. Few words, but personalized.
2nd Contact - longer, still concise. More descriptive, still personalized.
3rd Contact - “action required” phrase in subject. Descriptive, yet personalized.
4th Contact - Very stern, “action required”. Personalized.
Link Removal Requests should come from email at domain being cleaned up.
@bhartzer

29. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Email to Site Owners
Emails to Site Owners
Sample email, first contact:
Subject: Question About badsite-articles.com
Hi badsite-articles.com,
Recently when we reviewed all of the links to
clientdomain.com, we noticed that your website is
linking to clientdomain.com on this page here:
http://mail.badsite-articles.com/index.php?c=99&p=55
I'm wondering if you would remove this link on your
website to domain.com?
Thank you, Bill
@bhartzer

30. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Disavowing Links
Disavow Links
After at least 3 contact attempts, disavow certain links
(domains).
• Assign every link a status in spreadsheet
- Link Removal Sent, 2nd Request, 3rd Request, 4th Request
- Unable to Contact, Refused to Remove, Requested Payment
- No longer Links Back, Successfully Removed
• Spreadsheet includes all emails and contact with site owner.
• List URLs and Domains of Unable to Contact, No Response,
Refused to Remove, and Requested Payment
• Prepare Disavow File, upload text file to Google, Bing
@bhartzer

31. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Reconsideration Requests
Filing a Reconsideration Request
Google wants to know that you suffered in order to clean up links.
• Prove to Google that you went above and beyond to clean up links
• Provide spreadsheet with status of every link, and emails
@bhartzer

32. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Reconsideration Requests
Example Reconsideration Request
@bhartzer

33. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Reconsideration Requests
Sample Manual Action Revoked
• 52,252 Total Links to Site
• 217 referring root domains
• 693 Healthy Links
• 709 Inorganic Links
• 569 “live” inorganic links to remove
After three attempts over 3 weeks to contact site owners via email:
• 296 site owners responded
• 12 sites refused to remove the links
• 257 links were successfully removed based on our email requests
• 27 links – site owners requested payment to remove the links
• 2 links – we were unable to contact site owners
• 274 links – site owners were completely unresponsive after 3 contacts
• 256 links were removed as a result of our link removal efforts
@bhartzer

34. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Reconsideration Requests
Sample Manual Action Revoked
• Kept track of all URLs, Status of URL, Dates, and emails
• Added all data into spreadsheet
• Uploaded spreadsheet to Google Docs
• Wrote letter explaining process, linked to Google Drive Spreadsheet
@bhartzer

35. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Getting Google Trust
Getting Google to Trust Your Site
• Majestic’s TrustFlow highly correlates to rankings
• Trust bulletproofs site from Google slaps and Algo
Updates
• On-Page Trust Optimization
• Trustworthy Domain Info
• Trusted Links
@bhartzer

36. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Getting Google Trust
On-Page Trust Optimization
• Link out to Authority Sites when appropriate
• Privacy Policy, Terms of Service, Disclosure pages on site
• Bounce Rate, prevent pogosticking
• Blocked Sites (users can block your site via Chrome
browser)
• References and Sources (at end of articles)
• Schema Markup (local sites’ contact matches local
citations)
@bhartzer

37. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Getting Google Trust
Trustworthy Domain Info Could Help
• Register your domain for 2+ Years
• Make it public (don't hide with privacy whois)
• Put whois info on your contact page
@bhartzer

38. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Getting Google Trust
Get Links From Trusted Links, Seed Sites
• Closest you can get to having a link from trusted seed site the better
@bhartzer

39. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Getting Links
Untapped Link Sources
• Donate to Charity
• HARO Help a Reporter Out
• PodcastGuests.com
• Expired Domains
• Blog Aggregators (Alltop)
• Broken Link Building
• Perform Research, Socialize Results
• Find Content w/links, Better Content
@bhartzer

40. 2017 IMx - Link Training – Example of a Manual Penalty
Less Than 10 links: Manual Penalty
@bhartzer

41. 2017 IMx - Link Training - Contact
THANK YOU
Contact
Bill Hartzer
SEO Consultant
Email: Bill@BillHartzer.com
Phone: (214) 236-4378
Web: https://www.billhartzer.com
Twitter: @bhartzer
Facebook: facebook.com/bhartzer