What is the most powerful ranking factor in SEO? That would be backlinks. Everybody knows: if you want to rank high, you will have to build links to your own site from other sites. Problem is, not all backlinks are equally good at helping you rank higher.

In terms of quality, backlinks can be categorized as such:

• Really great: these come from websites that are an authority in the niche they represent and boast a strong reputation.
• Good: these backlinks are from websites that can’t really be called an authority, but still have high-quality content, and their overall quality is high, too.
• Potentially dangerous: backlinks from sites you’d rather not visit at all (such as low-quality or obviously harmful) or sites whose specialty is way too different from yours.

That last one is clearly not like the other two, is it? It raises a few questions you probably want answered now. Let’s not keep you waiting.

• Q: What does “dangerous” mean?

A: Google used to penalize sites for having too many low-quality backlinks, even going so far as to remove them from its index and prevent them from showing up in search results. That doesn’t happen anymore. These days, Google Penguin (the link-evaluating update to Google’s algorithm) does little more than devalue those backlinks. The result is a lot less dramatic: a mere drop in site rankings.

• Q: Why are such backlinks dangerous in the first place? What does Google have against them?

A: Backlinks mean that someone voted your site as an authority. If that was all there was to it, everybody would be gaming the system with sheer numbers of links (and that’s indeed how it was at the dawn of SEO). Google realized that quality trumps over quantity and made the votes unequal – in a meritocracy-like way.

That’s why there’s a difference between a site which has proven its worth over time and a site which has not (or one that has even proved the opposite). A vote from the former carries more weight than a vote from the latter. Now, if you keep collecting “bad” votes, what does that speak of you?

So the obvious takeaway is: if you want your link building activities to bear fruit, build as many good backlinks as you can while gaining as few bad ones as possible (preferably zero). But what are you to do if you’ve already collected too many bad backlinks?

Then you have some cleaning up to do.

How to find bad backlinks

Undesirable backlinks generally come from three sources:

• Dubious, unauthoritative sites
• Sites thematically unrelated to yours
• Spam

The bad part is, 99% of the time you aren’t the one creating backlinks. Other people do it, and you have little to no control over what backlinks you are getting. It’s therefore an easy job for a nasty competitor to use shady backlinks to pollute your link profile and cause your rankings to take a nosedive. This is called “negative SEO.”

Fortunately, there’s a way to prevent that. All you need are SEO tools – namely, a toxic link checker.

Step one is to check your site for bad backlinks. For that, you can use WebCEO’s Toxic Backlink Checker Tool.

It’s easy as pie. If it’s your first time using the tool, it will scan your site automatically once you open it. Otherwise, you’ll just need to click the part saying Scanned X days ago (or Scanned today) and then Rescan. Now take a moment to sit back and relax until the tool finishes doing its job.

When it’s done, Toxic Pages will display a table with the most suspicious linking sites. This is how the tool evaluates them:

• URL trust level and Domain trust level. These are metrics provided by Majestic and are very similar to Moz’s Page and Domain Authority. Low numbers (below 0.5) indicate potentially harmful backlinks. Emphasis on “potentially”: good low-authority sites do exist, such as new websites that just haven’t made a name for themselves yet.
• Total number of outgoing links on the page. Unless you are Wikipedia, chances are, you can’t point to a big number of external domains from the same page at once without looking like a link farm. This only applies to dofollow links, though.
• Number of backlinks pointing to the same domain. Same reason as above.

If you want to change how the tool should evaluate backlinks, click on the Settings button or on Configure toxicity factors at the top of the screen. Other than configuring the factors listed above, here are a couple more things you can do:

• Tell the tool which links it should consider toxic and which ones it shouldn’t. That is, if you are confident your own preferences will be more accurate than the default settings.
• Automatically label links from specific domains as toxic. The reverse is true, as well.

Lastly, you can also manually mark URLs in the report as non-toxic. Such URLs will be moved to the Pages manually marked as non-toxic report and stay there in case you decide to change your mind.

How to remove bad backlinks

Okay, scanning is over and you have a list of offending backlinks. What’s the next step?

Getting rid of them, of course.

• Remove them manually. If you can edit those websites’ content yourself, the backlinks there will be an easy target.
• Contact the person who can remove those backlinks. This method is tricky because it can fail in so many ways. Maybe there’s no “contact me” section, maybe the person won’t receive your message or just won’t listen or care. But if it works, then you’re golden.
• Disavow those backlinks. You can just ask Google to not consider these specific undesirable backlinks as part of your link profile. There are two ways to do it: with the help of Google Search Console or right in WebCEO’s Toxic Pages tool.

How to disavow backlinks in Google Search Console

We’ll assume you have already created a Gmail account and registered your site as your property in Google Search Console. Let’s jump straight to disavowing backlinks.

First, you will need to create a .txt file with the links you want to disavow. In this file, you can list individual pages or entire domains.

• For individual pages, simply put their full URLs (e.g. https://example.com/page).
• Domains are described in this format: domain:example.com.

Once your file is ready, you can start using the Google Disavow tool.

Choose the affected site (if you own more than one) and click Disavow Links. The next page will warn you to be careful while using the Disavow tool; click Disavow Links again. It will display a popup window that will ask you to choose and upload your disavow file. Do that and click Submit.

The rest is up to Google. It might takes weeks to disavow the backlinks, so be patient.

How to disavow backlinks in WebCEO

The Toxic Pages tool displays an instruction for disavowing links right above the table with problematic links.

1. Select the links from the table.

2. Click the Download button to automatically generate a disavow file.

3. If you want to disavow an additional domain, add domain:example.com, then save.

4. Click the Disavow Tool button to open the Google Disavow tool.

5. Click Done after you’ve finished using Google Disavow.

Not having to create a disavow file manually saves time and is definitely a plus, isn’t it?

The pages you’ve sentenced to disavowal will be listed in the Toxic pages reported to Google report.

Now what’s next?

With the toxic links gone, your link profile is now cleaner than before. But the possibility of getting more of them in the future is always around the corner. In fact, it’s almost guaranteed to happen again.

In order to protect your link profile and Google rankings, you can make it a regular practice to scan your site for toxic backlinks and repeat the cleaning procedure. At least once a month should be fine. You can even automate the scanning part to make this task easier.

Safe link building to you!

The post Safe Link Building: How to Find and Remove Bad Backlinks appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

Hottest SEO news: Moz upgrades their Domain Authority metric!

Moz’s plans to make improvements to its DA have been known for a while now. That doesn’t mean you won’t find this post helpful. DA is a very well-known and widely used SEO metric; any changes made to it are absolutely worth discussing if you have a website to run. So keep reading!

This post is for you if:

• You do SEO, but don’t usually follow SEO news;
• You haven’t heard about Domain Authority or don’t quite understand what it is;
• You want to know how exactly Domain Authority has changed and what it means for SEO.

Let’s dive in.

What is Domain Authority?

Domain Authority, or DA for short, is a metric invented by Moz. It looks at the backlinks pointing to a website (i.e. how many domains acknowledge it as an authority), then calculates the probability that it will rank well in Google, on a scale of 0 to 100.

In a nutshell:

• What Domain Authority is: a prediction that isn’t guaranteed to be 100% accurate. However, it does come pretty close, and it does its job well. There is a strong correlation between high DA values and high ranking positions.
• What Domain Authority isn’t: a Google ranking factor or any other sort of an absolute thing that you must always take into account when doing SEO.

I mean, if DA was infallible, there wouldn’t be any need to upgrade it now, would there?

DA is widely used by SEO tools other than Moz – for example, WebCEO displays it in the Competitor Link Profile tool.

Which is why this makes this post all the more relevant to our users.

How has Domain Authority changed?

The motivation for upgrading their site-evaluating metric is pretty simple: Moz simply wanted to make it more effective. How exactly? They did it in three steps:

• Changed their approach to link profile analysis;
• Expanded the list of factors DA looks at when analyzing sites;
• Scheduled daily updates for the new DA.

Now, a few words about each.

DA has become more scrupulous about evaluating linking domains and their authority. It takes into account the fact that all ways of acquiring backlinks are not equal. Certain methods – such as link spam and buying links – are frowned upon by Google, as it prefers links to be genuine and reflect honest feedback from users. Therefore, the new DA will lower the value of those “dishonest” links in its algorithm as well.

What’s more, the Moz people have increased their link index to a whopping 35 trillion. It will let them detect link manipulation much more effectively; in fact, such a drastic increase is a must if they want to be good at this job.

What does this all mean?

The obvious consequence of this upgrade is that many (if not all) websites are going to see a drop in their Domain Authority score. However, as stated earlier, DA does not affect Google rankings, so that’s nothing to worry about. At worst, everyone will start being pickier about who links to them… And that could make improving Google rankings more difficult.

Next, the newer and longer list of factors determining a site’s DA.

It’s actually way simpler than it sounds.

The new DA incorporates another Moz metric called the Spam Score. What is the Spam Score? It compares your site against other sites that have been penalized or even banned by Google. The more “spammy factors” your site shares with them, the higher your score, and vice versa.

In short, depending on how “spammy” your linking domains are, your renewed DA score could go either way. You might even find it hasn’t changed at all.

Daily updates: self-explanatory. Moz used to update DA monthly, so this is a step forward without a doubt.

What’s next?

This update’s consequences are surprisingly much less dramatic than the update itself.

The most important takeaway is this: carry on as usual. Only search engines can change SEO as we know it – for example, if Google alters its algorithm. For now, SEO remains the same, as does one of its core principles: build your backlinks wisely. Reliable, high-quality, authoritative and context-relevant websites are your best friends as always.

Are you still worried your Domain Authority is too low? In that case, I have good news for you. High-quality backlinks aren’t the only way to increase it – another way is to make a revision of your link profile. Test your site now and see if you feel you should remove any toxic backlinks.

The post SEO News: Moz Upgrades Domain Authority appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.

With the weather getting hotter, Google has been aggressively rolling out update after update. It all started with the Google Mobile-Friendly Update aka Mobilegeddon. Then it was followed by speculations about an additional Google Mobile Search Update dubbed Platypus and confirmations of a ‘Phantom 2 Update’. The latter update was first noticed on 4/29 and has been confirmed to be non Panda, Penguin or Mobile Algo related. It targets the overall quality of search results. Google Phantom 2 seems pretty similar to the Google Phantom Algo tweak rolled out in early May, 2013. Not long after that, Google Penguin 2.0 hit websites. This means we should be on the lookout for the next big Penguin update. Some experts have already confirmed information about an upcoming link spam penalizing algo update.

With another big Google Penguin Update always round the corner, you will need to keep your backlink profile audit constantly updated and free of suspicious link referrals.

What kind of backlinks are in Google’s favor

Most webmasters and SEOs understand link building too literally and treat it as the main way to increase popularity on the web and gain higher rankings. No, no, and again, no! Google sees your backlinks as one measure of your content credibility; something that is built upon relationships with people. Earning quality backlinks has become more holistic and complex, where you should build your link profile manually, with a long-term, solid perspective. In the Post-Penguin era Google validates and ranks only those links built in a natural, non-manipulative way:

Editorial links are a common definition for the kind of backlinks that are generated in an organic, non-promotional way via trustworthy industry-level sources.   Make use of some of the 7 ways to earn editorial links provided by Amanda DiSilvestro in order to pass editorial link juice to your backling profile.

Implied Links are one of the safest type of backlinks. These are not actual hyperlinks, but just mentions of your website name or domain name that can dramatically benefit your backlink profile bringing a strong connection between your brand mentions and your site.

Social citations. Though providing nofollow value, social links are in play and are used to measure the power of your content. Let’s see how it works. You write a post on your blog, or elsewhere. What’s next? You send a newsletter email to your clients about your new article. With this kind of scenario you would hardly get new traffic to your site and earn more than a few inbound links. You will need to be out there diligently promoting your content asset (unique and informative or interactive) on every single social network where your potential clients might be. You may still get only 9 or 10 likes or shares per post, but then Google will compare your performance to that of others in your industry. The most effective social networks and platforms for building social citations are:

• Twitter, which is one of the top social networks for generating social citations and where individual posts are now a full-fledged part of Google search results pages. Read about the prospects of the latest Google-Twitter deal for your business and learn what factors can help you get posts into Google organic search listings and generate a great portion of new traffic.
• LinkedIn is a perfect place for sharing links to your content (LinkedIn Profile/Group) and blog posts (Pulse) in order to build your personal brand authority and earn new professional connections.
• Facebook is the right place to keep your audience informed about your company updates, special offers, industry news etc. The more your audience likes and shares your Facebook posts, the more you will expand your target audience (their friends) and your social link profile (Google records how many likes and shares posts receive that have your domain linked in them).
• Reddit/StumpleUpon/Growthhackers are powerful social media platforms for direct links distribution and branded content promotion. Remember that you should be proactive and unbiased. Share not only your content but provide useful assets with links to other sources.
• Quora is one of the most authoritative Q/A expert communities where you can generate links (nofollow) back to your site right in your in-depth answers and grow your personal brand authority and awareness. Quora is also a great source for attracting well-targeted traffic with a high conversion rate.

In a link building perspective, quora links may be officially nofollow, but they are highly indexable and rankable by Google.

Guest Posting is still in play if done in an unbiased non-promotional way. Guest posting can do more harm than good if you write for your own SEO benefits. Your approach to guest blogging should be like your approach to charity, which is altruistic as well as good for building trust and authority to your persona and creating a strong expert connections network where you’ll see pay-offs down the road. If you link to yourself from a guest post platform, consider linking indirectly to your Twitter platform. Read more about ways to find guest blogging opportunities at Social Media Examiner.

Co-citation is another effective way to build relative links back to your site. Co-citations are the link references cited on a single source page to two or more external related sources. This means that you will want to be listed with your competitors as much as possible. The most powerful method of building co-citations is competitive backlink analysis. The WebCEO Competitor Backlink Spy tool will help you to prospect high quality, niche-related links from third-party websites in order to get listed alongside your competitors.

Google will be totally happy with your website if you balance your link building strategy with all the above mentioned backlink types. Google doesn’t like it when SEOs go overboard with one single link building technique in their strategy. Ann Smarty learned a lesson after big G disgraced her “baby,” MyBlogGuest, last year for abusing of link schemes.  (Read about link spam/toxic links over two sections below)

The backlink data you should take under control in order to claim higher rankings.

Here are some of the essential backlink factors that determine link quality.

# of Linking Pages – Links coming from multiple unique and relevant pages = a strong ranking factor

# of Linking Domains – The number of linking domains is critical for determining the quality of your link profile. However, the quality of linking domains is more important than their quantity. Having 1000 links on 100 high quality domains is better than having 100000 low quality backlinks on 100 domains with low authority.

Linking Domain Age – Google likes backlinks hosted on older domains more than those hosted on new ones.

Linking Domain Authority – Google pays more attention to the links from domains with a high Home PR (they are now replacing PageRank with rankings measured by others in the industry).

Linking Domains Diversity – Google may consider an excessive number of links coming from the same exact domain a negative manipulative link building technique.

Page Rank of Linking Page/Page Rank of Home Page – The age of the linking page and linking domain determines its authority. The higher the better.

Backlink Anchor Text – Google sees the anchor text as a descriptor of a linked page. A backlink with a relevant anchor text is a powerful ranking factor.

Linking Domain Relevancy/Page-Level Relevancy – Since the Hummingbird Update, Google seeks to understand the theme of each site and gives more value to the linking domains and pages that are relevant to your site’s theme.

Location of Backlink – Contextual links are more valuable than those placed in navigation sections of linking sites. Sitewide links are considered low quality and manipulative.

% of Nofollow Links – Having lots of links with rel=”nofollow” status should be part of a natural link profile. Google doesn’t count them but pay attention to their presence in your link profile.

# of Social Shares of Linking Page – Linking page is considered valuable if it has a number of social shares and likes, i.e. brings natural traffic.

Ahrefs Domain Rank/Ahrefs URL Rank – These measure how valuable a referring domain/page is by verifying the number and quality of the backlinks they get themselves.

Backlinks Velocity – It provides the trend of your backlink profile for natural/unnatural growth.

What is a toxic link and how do you identify one?

When some of the above mentioned factors are devalued or abused, Google may consider one of your backlinks as manipulative spam link. If your link profile includes more than 20% toxic links you are in the Google Penguin Penalty risk group. For your backlink profile safety, WebCEO has created a specific toxicity formula that helps to identify toxic links.

According to this formula and Google Penguin-proof link building guidelines, backlinks are considered toxic in the these common cases:

• linking page has an excessive number of outgoing links
• backlinks are part of a network of links coming from the same linking domain/subnet/IP
• high % of sitewide links (placed in footers, headers, sidebars)
• high % of links with the same exact (generic) anchor text
• high % of directory backlinks, backlinks from comment sections and guest post backlinks (if they are not nofollow).

If you have thousands of backlinks and don’t know if there are toxic links among them, be sure to use our Backlink Quality Checker to find and detox harmful links.

The Algorithm of the Backlink SEO Audit:

For an effective Google Penguin-friendly linkbuilding strategy, WebCEO shares its best recommendations based on Google guidelines, our tried-and-tested techniques and customer experiences.

Once you have the needed SEO backlink data and a comprehensive backlink quality check tool at hand it’s time to get your all-in-one backlinks report which should provide solutions to problems related to:

1. Linking Domains Analysis.

A weighted analysis of the linking domains to your site is the first thing you should start with, in your Backlink Profile SEO Audit. A comprehensive report should provide information on how many links are coming from one single domain, how many juicy links it passes, what % of toxic links and nofollow links it provides. Such data as Home PR, Ahrefs Domain Rank will show the authority of a domain.

2. Linking Pages Analysis.

The analysis of a linking page should include insights about what anchor text it uses, what page of your site it targets, its quality (Google PR, Home PR, Ahrefs URL Rank) and status (dofollow, nofollow or suspected toxic) data.

3. Broken Link Check

Using WebCEO’s “Chosen Links Watch,” be sure to check the availability of your most important backlinks to search engines (you may have just redesigned your site and accidentally eliminated a page that had a great backlink to it). If your backlink profile has a lot of broken inbound links this may negatively affect your overall rankings.

4. Backlink Anchor Text Analysis.

Pay special attention to your backlink anchor texts, because they are the cover of your backlink profile. Check the diversity of your anchors, the number of exact-match anchors, how much link juice your link texts pass, how many source domains use this or that anchor text etc.

5. Linked Pages Analysis. The quality of backlinks is partially identified by those of your website pages that they are linking to. Be sure to check your most linked pages and determine if the backlinks to the pages are related and descriptive and diverse.

6. Toxic Links Analysis.

Once you check your backlink profile for shortcomings and have found the most harmful ones, you should add them to your get-rid-of list.

7. Competitor link profile analysis.

Competitve backlinks analysis is crucial for identifying weaknesses and strengths in your current link building strategy. You may consider sites linking to your competitors as your link prospects.  Evaluate your competitors’ backlinks in order to pick the most relevant and valuable with a high page ranking as determined by independent sources like Ahrefs and preferably from EDU. and ORG. domains.

If you don’t have a backlink checker tool on hand to conduct an audit of all of this complex backlink data, sigh up free for WebCEO to try our Backlink Quality Checker reporting tools and the Technical Audit tool.

Reminder: Be sure to audit your backlink profile on a regular basis, such as once per quarter, in order to keep your site safe and forget about having Penguin mania.

The post How to Keep Your Backlink Profile Ever Clean appeared first on SEO tools & Online Marketing Tips Blog | WebCEO.