Start Using Google Panda Update, & Say Goodbye to Low Quality Link Building

Well, the time has come to say goodbye to low quality link building altogether. Google has made two major changes to its algorithm to target spammy/scraper sites first, and then followed by Panda update that targeted low quality sites. In addition Google penalized JCPenney, Forbes & Overstock.com for “shady” linking practices.

Competitor’s Research

This situation could become tough for some link builders to digest, especially if you’re coming from research and if you see that “competitors for a particular keyword” are dominating because of their thousands & thousands of pure spam links.

But here are two things you must consider about finding low quality, high volume links in your analysis:

1. Maybe it isn’t the links that got the competitor where they are today. Maybe they are a big enough brand with a good enough reputation to be where they are for that particular keyword.

2. If the above doesn’t apply, then maybe it’s just a matter of time before Google cracks down even further, giving no weight to those spammy back links.

If you don’t want the SEO Company behind the next Overstock or JCPenney link building story go wrong. Then you have to face it.

Some Signs to Determine a Valuable Backlink Opportunity

How long can you determine whether a site you’re trying to gain a link from is valuable or not? Here are some “warning” signs as to what Google may have or eventually deem as a low-quality site.

· Lots of ads. If the site is completely covered with five blocks of AdSense, Kontera text links, or other advertising chunks, you might want to steer away from them.

· Lack of quality content. In some case if you can get your article approved immediately, then chances are there that, this isn’t the right article for the network of your need. If the article network is approving spun or poorly written content, it will be hard for the algorithm to see your “diamond in the rough.” For example, when a site like Suite101.com, which has one hell of an editorial process, gets dinged, then extreme moderation may not necessarily be a sign of a safe site either in their case, ads were the more likely issue.

· Lots of content, low traffic. A blog with a Google PageRank 6 probably looks like a great place to spam a comment. But if that blog doesn’t have good authority in terms of traffic and social sharing, etc… then it could be put on the list of sites to be de-valued in the future. PageRank didn’t save some of the sites in the Panda update, considering that those sites are with PageRank 7 and above.

· Lack of moderation. Same kind that goes with the above, except in the case of blog comments and directories. If you see a ton of spammy links on a page, you don’t want yours to go next to it.

What Should You Focus on?

Do you think where should you focus your energy?  If you think about the “Content”, then your right!

Nine in 10 organizations use blogs, whitepapers, webinars, info graphics, and other high quality content to leverage for link building and to attract naturally. Not only you can use your content to build links, but you can use it to build, leads as well by proving that the business knows their stuff when it comes to their industry.

Start Changing Your Link Building Strategy

With all these recent news, penalties, and algorithm changes, begin to change your link building strategies right now, for a colorful future!

Tips For Increasing CTRs

Many ways exist for increasing CTRs (short for Click Through Ratio) on certain advertisements placed on a web page. The most important is where the ad is placed. An ad placed near the top of the page is more likely to be seen than an ad placed at the bottom of the page.

Research shows that the best area of placement is just above the center of the page or below the navigation bar. This doesn’t imply that ads placed near the top left hand side of the page will not show enough visitor interest. They will however, especially if they are placed next to information that is more useful to the visitors.

Actually, ads placed between blocks of high quality content will attract the maximum number of click throughs. As interesting as it may sound, some ads placed at the bottom of a story or article too can also generate a high CTR. This can happen even more when the ads are connected to the content that the user is browsing.

Since we read English left to right, an ad that is short and wide will receive more clicks than a narrow and tall ad. A good method towards getting more clicks is in changing the colours of the ad frequently in order to provide variety to the visitors, and in order to make them less monotonous.

Animated banner ads is another way to improve the site’s CTR. These banners attract more attention than static ads. Nevertheless, the danger with animated ads is that they can irritate the visitor’s eyes if they are not used moderately.

Rotation can also be a useful strategy. Instead of using one ad it will make sense to use a series of ads on a rotation basis. The user will get a fresh message every time he looks at the ad.

Targeting also contributes to help CTRs due to the fact that the ad is only being viewed by those visitors who are interested in the subject. For example, a scholarship ad for Washington students will probably have a higher CTR if it is viewed only by students living in Washington.

Besides placement and targeting, CTRs will also depend on the way the ad has been designed. An eye-catcher will get a more efficient response than a dead ad. In a similar way, ads that take too long to download might not interest users.

It will also be important to track the ad’s performance. An ad might perform very well for the first few days and then lose the interest of the visitors. If the CTR falls below 0.5%, you should move, change or replace the ad.

You must also remember that a higher CTR will signify a higher revenue for website owners and a higher RoI for the advertisers.


J. M. Stevens is contributing editor at WebDesignArticles.net. This article may be reproduced provided that its complete content, links and author byline are kept intact and unchanged. No additional links permitted. Hyperlinks and/or URLs must remain both human clickable and search engine spiderable.