Rooting out unnatural links from your backlinks network has become a top priority for many affiliate partners in the post-Penguin SEO world. But rooting out those less-than-organic links isn’t quite so easy, until now.
In a recent recent article/infographic titled, How Google Finds Unnatural Links to Your Website, on SearchEngineJournal.com, SEO expert Christoph C. Cemper lays out a strategy for identifying questionable link neighborhoods.
Why Find Unnatural Links?
In his article, Cemper cites the advice own mother gave him about avoiding bad neighborhoods and points out that Google operates on the same principles:
It is very simple. If you have bad co-citations with a majority of backlinks from a spammy link network, Google will see the pattern very easily, and you will be penalized sooner or later.
That means that every webmaster and affiliate partner needs to identify a strategy for researching link partners before getting involved with them. And if you think you can take a link partner or network at their word, you might find yourself in some pretty spammy company.
Want to know more about best practice link building? Check out Link Building Post-Penguin in 10 Easy Steps.
Finding the Right Research Tools
Cemper’s research methods revolve around his own, proprietary, tools like Backlink Profiler, Link Juice Thief and Common Backlinks Tool. What he finds is that plenty of networks and sites that claim to be engaged in organic linking methods are not being entirely truthful.
Whether you use his tools or not, the need for this kind of research is extremely important. Link sellers and spammy link networks are not going to identify themselves as such, so it’s up to you to find out what they’re really up to.
Using his own tools, Cemper very quickly identifies potential link partners who have long, ugly backlink profiles that stretch into some pretty sketchy Internet neighborhoods. Starting with just one web address, he’s able to identify over 800 potential link selling sites.
Finally
No matter how you do it, you need to keep a very close eye on who you’re linking up with these days. It definitely takes some extra work, but it’s better than getting dragged down in the next Penguin refresh.
How are you checking out potential link partners these days? Let us know in the comments section below this article.