Control Link Risk to Help pick up Search Rankings

Google’s growing focus on punishing sites for “unnatural” backlinks could shine some light on what just may be the weakest link in your overall SEO approach.

Even if you haven’t taken part in link buying or related manipulative plans, you can still take a hit in search rankings for having too many low-quality backlinks if you aren’t doing enough to manage dangerous links. If unconnected or low-quality sites have linked to your site without your knowledge, your ranking can suffer a hit.

Although addressing the issue is no simple task, benefits over time can be worth it. Removal your sites of what Google search has determined are low-quality backlinks will pick up your standing with search engines, as well as with visitors who may otherwise have a poor awareness of your site because they see your URL associated with poor quality websites or those with an irrelevant relationship to yours.
Shift in Link-Building Practices

Google search becoming more complicated with its calculations in recent years has greatly impacted how it uses backlinks as one of a couple hundred factors taken into account in seminal search rankings. The result has been a seismic shift for many site owners and SEO consultants in how they approach link building. Those who made use of what Google search labels “link schemes,” have rapidly found themselves with a whole host of backlinks that are attracting penalties and raising havoc with their site rankings. While most people working in SEO can readily list the types of links that have fallen out of help with Google seach, here’s a short primer of some of the more notable, in bullet form:

•    Backlinks originating from sites you manage.
•    Backlinks from forum comments and discussion boards.
•    Purchased links.
•    Links from large-scale article distribution with keyword-rich anchor text.
•    Unnecessary link exchanges.
•    Low-quality bookmark or directory site links.
•    Widgets embedded with unrelated links.
•    Over-use of keyword-rich anchor text in media releases and articles.
•    Backlinks between sites that have an irrelevant relationship or none at all.

You can read plenty of online opinions about Google search not placing as much emphasis on links as a factor in determining search rankings and how this is transforming approaches to SEO. But in soul, links still hold value. It’s just that Google has turned its attention from quantity of links to quality of links, with emphasis on valuable, relevant content with naturally happening editorial links and incidences of social sharing. 

Reliability in acquiring high-quality backlinks in this manner only add to the site’s authority and reputation.

It’s no chance that Google’s own advice to webmasters is to wean themselves from traditional link-building activities and concentrate instead on creating high-quality, relevant content that naturally gains an online following. The backlinks you attract become more like true votes of approval for your skill on the topic area. The greater the volume of high-quality content you produce, the more votes by way of high-quality links you should be able to gather.

Managing Your Link Profile

For most site owners, Google’s improved focus on spammy links is a wake-up call to study site link profiles and take control of managing link risk on a more ongoing basis, beginning with a link audit. There are some ways you can go about it. Using Google webmaster tools to gather information on what backlinks exist for your site is a logical place to start. However, there is strong proof that not all bad links may find their way to the list generated within the tool. In addition, you may find you aren’t able to get enough backlink-specific analysis or hold up for identifying and eliminating unnatural links using Google webmaster tools alone.

There are plenty of link risk tools accessible online that can give you more in-depth information and analysis, as well as provide greater support for reducing the number of less-desirable backlinks moving your site over time. Your best bet for link risk management is to use a combination of things. You can also use Google webmaster tools along with one or two additional data sources, such as SEOMoz, Ahrefs or equally effective service, to get a more solid picture of backlinks for your site. Then, choose a second online or downloadable tool that delivers link profile auditing and risk management information so you can continue monitoring your site over time.

The data source sites will help recognize links while the link risk management tools can help you prioritize and manage backlinks while giving you the supportive analysis you need to get rid of low-quality links. Look for a link risk management tool that can also easily recognize links that use manipulative anchor text. Some of these tools will also provide some automation to the multi-step backlink removal process.

Back to Basics

While online and downloadable tools can assist by automating some parts of the back link removal process, the basic steps necessary for removing undesirable back links remain the same. Of course, you want to begin with the low-hanging fruit: those back links you put in place previously yourself and have direct control over. For example, your ranking may be negatively impacted because you’ve connected too many times from other sites you own or you may have used far too many keywords in anchor text with articles or media releases you’ve posted.

Once you’ve used your tool of choice for identifying, grouping and prioritizing low-quality or abnormal back links for removal, you will need to go through the time-consuming, mostly manual, task of locating contact information for webmasters or owners of the originating sites and sending needs for removal. It’s probably easiest to create an email template that can then be customized as needed. In the email, explain that you are focusing more on link risk management after seeing your site ranking drop with the latest release of Google’s algorithm. Politely request that your link be detached.

Keeping a Clean Slate

Once you’ve followed these steps and provided enough time to sufficiently monitor progress, including responses to link removal requests, you may consider using Google’s Disavow to clean up what is left.  Just be sure to follow the orders carefully so you don’t unintentionally damage other areas of your site.

In addition, Google offers a reconsideration request form. If your site has a history of aberrant back links but you have now addressed the issue and your site is now following Google’s quality guidelines, you may want to complete this form asking for a re-evaluation. Expect the process to take several weeks.