1. Advertising
    y u no do it?

    Advertising (learn more)

    Advertise virtually anything here, with CPM banner ads, CPM email ads and CPC contextual links. You can target relevant areas of the site and show ads based on geographical location of the user if you wish.

    Starts at just $1 per CPM or $0.10 per CPC.

AMA: Ask Me Anything Regarding Link Building

Discussion in 'Link Development' started by Malika.Sharma, Apr 6, 2016.

?

Do you think link building is like a mystery?

  1. Yes

  2. No

Results are only viewable after voting.
  1. #1
    Hi all,
    I am Malika Sharma and have been doing SEO from past 9 years now. Today, I am thinking of giving back to the community at DP. So here I am, creating this thread!

    AMA: If you have any questions regarding link building such as how to acquire links for your website, what strategies to follow etc., you can ask me here!

    I would answer your questions as soon as I can and to the best of my knowledge!

    Cheers!
    Malika
     
    Last edited: Apr 6, 2016
    Malika.Sharma, Apr 6, 2016 IP
  2. mike_sun

    mike_sun Well-Known Member

    Messages:
    859
    Likes Received:
    45
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    140
    #2
    I'm glad one of experienced members has show this dare.
    Can you clear my one doubt please, Is no follow link has any value at all?
     
    mike_sun, Apr 7, 2016 IP
  3. Malika.Sharma

    Malika.Sharma Active Member

    Messages:
    351
    Likes Received:
    11
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    78
    #3
    Hi mike_sun,

    Great question! A lot of talks have happened about this particular subject and while there is not a definite and measurable answer for this, I can shed some light onto the 'perspective' and the perceived value of nofollow links.

    In the beginning nofollow links were deemed to have no value at all. However, when search engines like Google started to focus more on social media (example - introduction of Google+) it became apparent that search engines definitely look into social signals. Internet has become a place where people share information, people network with people, brands are recognized more on social media than 'off-internet'. Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest etc. these platforms are all heavily used by people daily which gives search engines a reason as to why they need to pay attention to social signals. But when you look at a lot of (major) social networks, their links are all nofollow.

    Search engines are more sophisticated than ever in the past and its only going to get better to provide good user experience. Search engines rely a lot on social signals in today's time for the signals and signals are only conveyed when there are 'links'. If you have more people sharing your links on social media and talking about your brand, it would definitely have a positive impact on your SEO too. This impact would however be indirect.

    Dofollow links are your direct ranking signals whereas nofollow links are indirect.

    I started talking about social media because thats where the value of nofollow links is the most. The same concept can be applied on the websites with nofollow links. If the website has great domain authority and has built credibility in search engines, having a nofollow link is only going to benefit the link building effort.

    Talking about this with a link builder in mind.

    1. Backlinks profile should look natural - Almost every link builder, who has been in this industry for a while knows that having all links as dofollow is not great! A balance of nofollow and dofollow is required to make it look natural.

    2. Dynamics have changed a bit - As talked above, search engines are now headed in the direction where they can provide value to the users. The best signals can be attained from quality sites and social media platforms. All these sites would usually have nofollow links but still search engines likes these sites and in turn, gives more value to links coming from these sites.

    I hope this answers your question, even though its a lot of theory in here but its important to put things into perspective.

    :)

    - Malika
     
    Malika.Sharma, Apr 10, 2016 IP
  4. Patricia Ann Lee

    Patricia Ann Lee Active Member

    Messages:
    1,190
    Likes Received:
    73
    Best Answers:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    95
    #4
    Can you give examples or specific details on how you measure your link building success?
     
    Patricia Ann Lee, Apr 11, 2016 IP
  5. Raxix

    Raxix Member

    Messages:
    31
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    28
    #5
    More I'm learning regarding SEO more I'm thinking that I am a noob!!

    Hi Malika, I have a question please explain a bit in detail.

    As we know Google give preference to natural backlinks. What is the difference between natural and ordinary backlinks? How Google know our intention whether a link is created for backlink purpose or not? or it is just a game of website on which we are try to backlink to??
     
    Raxix, Apr 11, 2016 IP
  6. Malika.Sharma

    Malika.Sharma Active Member

    Messages:
    351
    Likes Received:
    11
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    78
    #6
    Hi Patricia,

    Thanks for stopping by!
    I use average rankings from Google Search Console to measure the success of link building campaigns. Usually, I would set up a 1 year link building campaign which I would divide into 4 periods of 3 months each. At the end of 3 months, I evaluate the efforts invested in gaining links against how much of change in average rankings we have noticed in Google Search Console.

    Having it broken down into 3 months enables us to look at a better picture without going too granular. Usually, while educating client about the impacts of link building when I have taken a client on board, I specify it to them that significant changes will only be visible after 6 months of link building. I do so because, depending on the type of industry, sometimes a website takes longer to have a positive impact as opposed to websites in not-so-competitive niche.

    Hope this answers your question.

    - Malika
     
    Malika.Sharma, Apr 11, 2016 IP
  7. Malika.Sharma

    Malika.Sharma Active Member

    Messages:
    351
    Likes Received:
    11
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    78
    #7
    Hi Raxix,

    I classify backlinks into two categories for easier understanding - Natural and unnatural.

    Ordinary backlinks could either be natural or artificial and they probably have less value in them as opposed to links coming from a high quality website.

    Natural backlinks are earned by a website when people shares their links or websites mention these links. These are totally gained without buying link packages. Now, there are lots of definitions and heaps more details to those definitions to what qualifies as a natural link.

    To figure out natural or unnatural activity, you look at website's backlinks profile and the sites that are linking to it.

    Search engines can figure out if a link is natural or not based on the following:
    • Are there a lot of links going out from a webpage?
    • Does the backlinks profile has questionable number of links from same IP address?
    • Does the anchor text distribution in backlinks profile unbalanced?
    • Does the linking site has poor quality and looks spammy?
    and much more.. Search engines dont reveal the secret to their algorithm but the above ones along with others are definitely few things that one should look into to identifying if the links are natural or unnatural.
     
    Malika.Sharma, Apr 11, 2016 IP
  8. Patricia Ann Lee

    Patricia Ann Lee Active Member

    Messages:
    1,190
    Likes Received:
    73
    Best Answers:
    1
    Trophy Points:
    95
    #8
    So this is more on SERP ranking? Am I right?
    And what do you mean by link building campaigns? On search console??
     
    Patricia Ann Lee, Apr 18, 2016 IP
  9. lwseller

    lwseller Greenhorn

    Messages:
    72
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    18
    #9
    Hi Malika.Sharma , i have been scummed by a lot of seo Gurus untill now , everyone does not provide what you get for what you pay, so i am tired by seo gurus.
    They just take money and "never know what you get" 1 year now i am tired with them... so to get to the point.. i need a short step by step guide to increase organic traffic by my self. Could you provide some information? thank you. Mostly i believe i need to do quality link building

    Thank you
     
    lwseller, May 4, 2016 IP
  10. Rachel@MoreNiche

    Rachel@MoreNiche Peon

    Messages:
    9
    Likes Received:
    2
    Best Answers:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    3
    #10
    Hi Malika,

    I've recently been looking at 'ego bait' methods and wondered what you thought about them? Would you consider this to be acceptable? Obviously you are earning the links through content but there is intent to get links behind it. Personally I don't see this an issue as long as the content is quality and provides value to the audience (for example interviews & round-ups). But my opinion of course counts for nothing so I'd be really interested to get yours too (since we're talking link building).

    Great thread by the way, really nice to have people offering help in such a way :)
     
    Rachel@MoreNiche, May 5, 2016 IP