3 New Google Link-Building Guidelines (post Penguin) « The Blog of Matthew Loop

3 New Google Link-Building Guidelines (post Penguin)

After the absolute carnage that Google’s Penguin update left for so many marketers, fellow chiropractors, and other business owners, I thought I’d post a quick article about how link-building should be done moving forward. In conjunction, you’ll learn how to recover if you were crushed by the search engine algorithm change.

This is not just a matter of opinion either. It’s based on what Google has actually stated along with extensive testing. Let’s get one thing straight, though.

At this point in time, links are still king!

Social sharing is definitely having a major impact on rankings.

However, it doesn’t carry the same amount of weight as authority backlinks yet. That may change in the near future, but at present, link-building takes priority.

Here are three link-building guidelines that work NOW, post Penguin.

1) Link Diversification

I’ve been saying this for years and now this is a MUST. It’s important to get quality links from online channels / content including videos, press releases, forums, blog posts, blog comments, social networking websites, article directories, etc.

If you narrow your focus to just one of the above, you’re likely to get outranked by competitors for any given keyword or phrase. Google likes to see variety so give them what they want.

Don’t know how to build links? If you’re a newbie or intermediate marketer, I have an advanced training program that shows you how to do it the right way for MAXIMUM impact and rankings increase.

2) No more than 5% exact matching anchor text links for any given keyword / phrase.

This is what most websites that got destroyed were hit the hardest for. Before, it was easy for marketers to game the system and just build anchor text links from high quality sites for even the most competitive of terms. You’d just keep creating links for the same keywords

However, the new rule works something like this.

Lets say you want to rank #1 on Google for “Phoenix chiropractor.” If you build build 100 links, no more than 20 of those should be exact anchor text matches for the keywords “Phoenix chiropractor.” Some sources even suggest no more that 10% exact.

Now, if you’ve been building specific links for years, it might take you some time to even out the ratio with natural looking links. This brings me to my third point below.

3) Get natural links

Traditionally speaking, there’s a difference on how a marketer would link to a blog post or website versus the average Joe on the internet. If a regular person sees a link they find interesting or would like to feature in a blog post, they’d be using natural backlinks like:

– yourdomain.com
– visit this link
– click here
– www.yourdomain.com
– read about it here
– here

There are lot more natural phrases, but I think you get the point.

Google has cracked down on what they call “over-optimization” for keywords. Penguin slapped webmasters that created a disproportionate amount of anchor text links. That’s why it’s important not to solely build exact matches anymore.

When you follow these three guidelines that have been presented here, you’ll be able to recover if you were penalized AND rank higher than ever before for the keywords you select.

If you need to check and see which links are currently hurting your SEO, you can use Market Samurai.

They instituted a new feature that tells you which links are healthy and which ones are not. You’ll want to run each URL of your site through their link checker immediately.

Lastly, in Social Media Elite, I’ve included a highly detailed 4 page PDF that teaches you everything you need to know about Google Penguin optimization. You’ll discover the right way to build brand authority / trust in Google’s eyes and how to present natural signals on your website as well as off-page.

Did you find this post valuable? If so, click the Facebook “like” button below and share it with your friends.

Related Blog Posts:

How to Create Top Ranking and SEO Friendly Blog Posts

The State of Social Media Marketing

Why You Should “Buy” Backlinks

12 Keywords Chiropractors MUST Rank #1 For on Google

About the Author

Matthew Loop is an author, speaker, investor, philanthropist, and the highest paid social media revenue strategist in North America. He helps brands, startups, and small business owners multiply their influence, impact, and income by harnessing the power of the Internet. Since 2005 he’s trained over 21,000 clients in 25 countries. Millions have viewed his free business growth tutorials online. Connect with him on FacebookInstagram, and Twitter.

Comments

8 Responses to “3 New Google Link-Building Guidelines (post Penguin)”

  1. Hey Matt – not sure when this post was made so hopefully you see this. I was checking out some competition on Market Samurai. Google is mysterious b/c it ranks one office in ottawa as #1 but has fewer backlinks than almost anyone, decent PRank, but by Market Samurai standards (at least what is visible) there is no obvious reason why this site is number one. Even when you look at the site it isnt that informative, no blog…Any insight? I’ll inbox you the website if you’re interested.

  2. Matthew Loop says:

    Hey Paul… If that’s the case, the other website might have VERY high quality links. It’s not necessarily the quantity, but the quality. So, it would be a good idea to use Market Samurai to see where their links come from, then try and get a link from the same sites.

  3. Steven says:

    I agree completely and it is something I have been trying to get across to my clients, particularly with regards to the diversification of link anchor text.

  4. Jim says:

    Great post and it goes to show how my site was hit but only on certain key phrases. I’ve spent a couple of years building rankings for the phrase “model kits’ ‘tamiya models’ and ‘tamiya model kits’ which has got me to about position 2 on google. Luckily i didnt choose just one phrase which would explain why these rankings didnt change post penguin After this I concentrated on a lot of social bookmarking links for say, ‘airfix’ which did at one point rank about 5th. These are the links that I have been penalised for and lost my rankings. Lack of link variety and link sources seems the reason. Let’s see if we can get them back by following your tips! Cheers

  5. Marty Popham says:

    good one Matt. how does one achieve a high quantify of high quality back links without doing it 24/7 all the time? what’s worked best for you?

  6. Good quality stuff like always Matt!

  7. I used to make a small fortune on eBay until they introduced the best match algorithm. Now it all seems to be about the big sellers selling volume.

  8. Dave Kinkade says:

    Hey Matt, I came across this via YouTube search. Watched your video and followed that over to this page. Proof positive that your strategy works. Thanks for the interesting and practical approach you shared. I’ve been around marketing plenty but there’s still a great deal of things to learn if you remain curious. Cheers!

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