When you've put a lot of effort in acquiring links to your
website, you want to make sure these links aren't lost at any time.
When multiple links are removed or changed within a short
timeframe this is a strong signal to search engines that these links could have
been acquired unnaturally.
Since Penguin, Google has gotten a lot improved at finding
all similar links. You might lose the value for all of them when only a couple
is tagged as obviously unnatural.
Monitoring which links are removed and which links are unclear
over time allows you to take action before Google does. So how do you efficiently
keep track of your existing links?
Why Monitor Existing Links?
Sometimes you trade more than just the fine content on your
website with a link partner. Although natural links should be seen as votes of
confidence, sometimes a link is an agreed obligation for business partners,
discounts, or other deals.
To see if they keep their end of the bargain it isn't sufficient
to check on them once. Far too often links are removed after a couple of
months.
Google spam detection is all regarding patterns in your link
profile. Groups of similar links are seen as degrees of normal behavior and
valued as such. When multiple links in a group start to behave less natural,
the whole group will be affected negatively.
Automated Link Alerts
Checking 50 links once a month is the most you should be
willing to do physically. When you need to monitor over 50 links you're
dependent on automated tools that alert you when a link has been changed.
You can choose between a variety of solutions that run as a
desktop application or as web-based service. When selecting the right service
for you, make sure that it has a variety of options to send you alerts and keep
in mind that the more frequently it re-checks links, the better.
What Changes are Important?
The most significant change to monitor is losing a link. You
need to know if just the link has been removed or the whole page it was on. The
latter often happens by accident, but the first requires aware action from your
partner.
It's also important to find out when the particulars of a
link are altered. Your link partner might add a nofollow or adds associate
tracking to the link. All changes to link specifics including anchor text and
landing page should be monitored.
Different Tools
If you aren't using expensive tools like Majestic SEO, which
has “Lost Links” as just one of their options, there are a variety of
alternatives that offer just backlink monitoring. Here are just a couple of
solutions:
Majestic SEO
Pro: Allows you to dig deep within all your links and you
don't have to pre-select which links to monitor.
Con: Doesn't have automatic alerts and doesn't report on
changes, just on lost links within the last six months.
Link Assistant
Pro: Has a lot of extra features to keep track of all link
deals.
Con: Runs from your local machine and is based on the
unwanted practice of link trades.
Linkody
Pro: Reports on every change to your link in detail. Linkody
re-checks daily and sends automated alerts. It combines a variety of methods of
link discovery and can even report on early placement.
Con: Can only be used for backlink monitoring. Similar
functionality is obtainable in complete services like Jetrank and Raven.
Acting on Changed/Lost Links
Once you take delivery of an alert, try to find out what the
original deal with that partner was. Contact them as soon as possible to
resurrect the link in time before Google flags it.
Although I'm a big fan of naturally acquired links, you need
to guard those link-gems you accidentally or intentionally acquired. Backlink
monitoring is one of those things too few of us do.
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