This document discusses link building strategies and techniques for evaluating the health of a website's backlink profile. It covers 12 types of links, the PESCAR framework for link building, and 6 link checks including root linking domains, anchor text, site-wide links, authority distribution, link diversity, and link velocity. Tools are provided for conducting each check, with examples of healthy vs unhealthy profiles. Overall it is a guide for developing a natural backlink profile and monitoring its ongoing performance.

1. ©2007 Market Motive, Inc.
Todd Malicoat
Stuntdubl.com | SEO Faculty Chair, Market Motive
Link Building Clinic
A Website Backlink Health Checkup

2. Overview
• Types of Links
• PESCAR Link Building
• 6 Link Checks

3. “Link” is to SEO’s what
“Snow” is to Eskimos

4. 12 different types of links
• Presell Page
• Authority
• Directory
• Reciprocal
• Run of site
• One way links from friends of
related sites
• .edu/.gov
• radio, TV, newspaper,
magazine
• Press Release
• Article Bio
• RSS/Blog Aggregation
• Comment / Profile

5. PESCAR! Fishing for Links!
1. Process Strategy
2. Equity Education
3. Site Prospecting
4. Competitive Backlinks
5. Approach Assessment
6. Repairing Links

6. 12 Types of Links
1. Guest Posts/ Article bio links
2. Presell page links
3. Authority links
4. Directory links
5. Run of site links
6. One way links from friends or related sites
7. .edu and .gov links
8. Radio station, television, magazine, or newspaper links
9. Press release links
10.RSS/ aggregation links
11. Comment and profile links
12. Reciprocal links

7. Link Diversity Check
• If a site has…You should probably…
• 70% reciprocal links…
• get only one way links.
• 10k IBL’s from 10 unique IP’s…
• get some more unique linking IP’s.
• 90% links to the homepage…
• get more deeplinks.
• 80% identical anchor text…
• get links with different anchor text.
• 1000 IBL’s from 500 unique IP’s…
• get a run of site text link from 1k pages.

8. Why are links important?
Off page factors account for almost
70% of search factors
Via SEOMOZ.org 2009 Search Ranking Factors

9. Off page factors account for over 50% of factors

10. Don’t Worry About Links!?!
“Don’t think about
link building, think
about compelling
content and
marketing.”
http://searchengineland.com/the-top-five-seo-mistakes-according-to-
googles-matt-cutts-157574

11. Bobby Bad Ideas
Matt says all we
need is quality
content!

12. Bobby Bad Ideas
SEO is Dead
because it’s
sooooooo EASY!

13. Bobby Bad Ideas
SEO is Dead because it’s
sooooooo EASY!

14. Best Bobby Bad Idea Gets
3 Months MM Access –
tweet @stuntdubl - SomeEcards.com
All We Need is Some More
PageRANKs!

15. • Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link velocity check
Overview: 6 Link Health Checks

16. • Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link Velocity check
6 Link Health Checks

17. Are your links still passing juice?
Monitoring the rate at which linking root domains get removed from Google’s index
periodically, can be very useful to detect changes in rankings. If too many linking root
domains get de-indexed or penalized that would be a negative signal, very likely to have a
negative impact on your rankings.
Back Linking Health Check-up
http://connect.icrossing.co.uk/monitor-website-link-equity-loss_8347
1. Root Linking Domains Check

18. Are your links still passing juice?
Caveats
– Even though Google these days is de-indexing thousands of low
quality blogs, coming across a website with no indexed pages in
Google's SERPs doesn’t necessarily mean that it has been
penalized. Other causes for indexation are:
– An expired domain that no longer exists,
– An accidental de-indexation (e.g. a meta robots noindex on every page of
the site), or some other technical glitch.
– However, de-indexed domains that still have a positive TBPR value could
flag websites that Google has recently removed from its index due to
guidelines violations (e.g. link exchanges, PageRank manipulation).
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-check-which-links-can-harm-your-sites-rankings
Back Linking Health Check-up1. Root Linking Domains Check

19. Are your links still passing juice?
Tools to find out:
• Excel
• NetPeak Checker (http://net-peak.com/software/netpeak-checker/ ) OR
• SEO Tools for Excel (http://nielsbosma.se/projects/seotools/ )
• Instructions:
• http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-check-which-links-can-harm-your-sites-
rankings
Back Linking Health Check-up1. Root Linking Domains Check

20. • Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link Velocity check
6 Link Health Checks

21. Anchor text usually gives the user relevant descriptive or contextual information
about the content of the link's destination. The anchor text may or may not be related
to the actual text of the URL of the link. For example, a hyperlink to the blue-widgets-
homepage might take this form:
– <a href="http://www.bluewidgets.com">Blue Widgets Homepage</a>
The anchor text in this example is " Blue Widgets Homepage "; the unwieldy URL
http://www.bluewidgets.com displays on the web page as Blue Widgets
Homepage, contributing to clean, easy-to-read text.
What is an Anchor Text?
The anchor text, link label, link text, or link
title is the visible, clickable text in a
hyperlink.
Back Linking Health Check-up2. Anchor Text Check

22. Types of anchor text
Different anchor text types can be identified as:
– Exact match targeted keywords e.g. Marketing Training
– Broad match keywords e.g. Best Online Marketing Training
– Brand terms e.g. MarketMotive, MarketMotive.com
– Keyword + brand terms e.g. MarketMotive marketing training
online
– Image links
– Other e.g. 'click here', 'this site‘, ‘check this’ and other natural
anchor text that doesn't fall under any of the above
categories.
Back Linking Health Check-up2. Anchor Text Check

23. What does a natural anchor text profile look like?
Back Linking Health Check-up
The following may be a useful rule thumb:
• 55 – 60% – Should Link to Brand Name (with
Targeted keywords) – Ontime payroll
software, www.ontimepayroll.com |
• 25% – 30% – Should link to other words like –
Click here, visit this site, check this
• 10% – 20 % – Should link to exact match
anchor texts –Payroll Software
2. Anchor Text Check

24. What does Anchor over-optimization look like?
Back Linking Health Check-up
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/how-to-survive-googles-unnatural-links-warnings-avoid-overoptimisation
2. Anchor Text Check

25. What should it look like?
Back Linking Health Check-up
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/anchor-text-distribution-avoiding-over-optimization

26. • Free Anchor Text Distribution spreadsheet
Back Linking Health Check-up
• Tools
– SEOMoz Opensite Explorer
– Free excel spreadsheet template:
– http://bowdeni.com/free-anchor-text-distribution-spreadsheet/269/
2. Anchor Text Check

27. Monitoring your anchor text distribution – case study
– Study showing the percentage of links with anchor text for keywords that the site was
trying to optimize SERP visibility for (such as “blue widgets”) vs any other type of anchor
text (this could be “bluewidgets.com”, “blue widgets | the number one widget site”, “click
here”, or anything that wasn’t a keyword containing measurable search volume).
http://www.micrositemasters.com/blog/penguin-analysis-seo-isnt-dead-but-you-need-to-act-smarter-and-5-easy-ways-to-do-so/
Back Linking Health Check-up2. Anchor Text Check

28. Varying your anchor text, be creative!
– HP Inject Cartridge
– Inject cartridges for HP printers
– Ink for HP Printers
– Ink cartridges for HP
– HP Printer cartridges
– Hpcartridges.com
– Buy inject cartridges for HP
Back Linking Health Check-up2. Anchor Text Check

29. • Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link Velocity check
6 Link Health Checks

30. Back Linking Health Check-up
Site wide links are web links
that are placed throughout
every single page of a web site.
These are further divided into
two types
•Internal Site-wide Links
•External Site-wide Links
3. Site-wide Link Check

31. Back Linking Health Check-up
Internal Site-wide Links
Linking to internal pages within your own
website comes under "Internal site wide
linking". These include internal navigation
menus, footnotes and cloud tags
External Site-wide Links
Linking of all pages from an external site
to your website pages consistently comes
under "external site wide linking". Example
Blog rolls, sponsored footnote links.
These type of links/websites may be
considered spam (or sometimes
sponsored/paid links) and can potentially
affect negatively the Google algorithm,
specially if exact anchor text is used.
3. Site-wide Link Check

32. There are a few ways to quickly check your website against site-
wide links with the quickest one being Webmaster Tools.
– Login to your webmaster tool account
– Choose Your site on the web
– Click on “traffic” on your left hand side menu
– Choose “links to your site”
Webmasters Tools will list the domains that link the most to your site.
The ones that link several times should be flagged as potential site-
wide links and be manually checked.
Back Linking Health Check-up
Using webmasters tools: (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/)
3. Site-wide Link Check

33. Back Linking Health Check-up
Using webmasters tools: (https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/)
3. Site-wide Link Check

34. Back Linking Health Check-up
Using MajesticSEO tools: (http://www.majesticseo.com/ )
A free version of the tool is available to be used only on your own
website – checking for other sites require a subscription
Login to your MajesticSEO account
• Type your site into the Site Explorer Bar on the home page.
• Switch the option to Historic Index and
• Click Explore.
3. Site-wide Link Check

35. Back Linking Health Check-up
4 - Click on the Referring Domains tab. If the sort order is different, sort by
“Matched Links”, descending.
This will list sites linking to you based on the number of links they have pointing to you. This makes it very
easy to see site wide links into your site, and because we also include the Alexa ranking for each domain, you
can quickly assess whether the sitewide links need further investigation or whether they are benign:
Using MajesticSEO tools: (http://www.majesticseo.com/ )
3. Site-wide Link Check

36. • Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link Velocity check
6 Link Health Checks

37. Finding the distribution of high PR (or global link popularity)
site is a great starting point to finding the overall health of
your backlink profile
What is Pagerank?
PageRank is synonymous with:
• Link popularity
• Link juice
• Link value
• Link equity
Back Linking Health Check-up
4. Link Authority Distribution Check

38. 4. Link Authority Distribution Check

39. 4. Link Authority Distribution Check

40. Tools
– Seomoz Opensite Explorer
– Excel template by Dr. Pete
– Instructions:
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/link-profiling-with-open-site-explorer
4. Link Authority Distribution Check

41. What does a natural anchor text profile look like?
Via @SEOMOZ
4. Link Authority Distribution Check

42. • Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link Velocity check
6 Link Health Checks

43. Keep it “natural”
Back Linking Health Check-up5. Link Diversity Check

44. What should it look like?
Back Linking Health Check-up
http://www.seomoz.org/blog/anchor-text-distribution-avoiding-over-optimization

45. Concentrate on “Natural Link” distribution. Focus on link segmentation by type
as well. Google is smart enough to determine where and what type a link is on
any given page.
Natural type of links you should build:
•Paid or Free Directory submissions
•Guest Blog posting
•Blog commenting
•Pitching for reviews
•Content Marketing
•Newsrooms
•Press Releases
•Creating alliances with other websites especially in your niche
• Other links
http://memeburn.com/2012/04/upset-about-google-killing-seo-dont-panic-theres-a-way-forward/
5. Link Diversity Check

46. Back Linking Health Check-up
Unhealthy link profile
5. Link Diversity Check

47. Back Linking Health Check-up
Healthy link profile
5. Link Diversity Check

48. Tools
– Seomoz Opensite Explorer
– Link Detective
– (http://www.linkdetective.com/)
Back Linking Health Check-up
5. Link Diversity Check

49. Linkdex
5. Link Diversity Check

50. • Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link Velocity check
6 Link Health Checks

51. Acquiring a high number of links over a short period of time is not a good
practice and webmasters need to keep an eye on the levels of acquired
links, especially these days that negative SEO seems to become more of
an issue.
Back Linking Health Check-up
Using Ahref tools (http://ahrefs.com/)
6. Link Velocity Check

52. Back Linking Health Check-up
Using Majestic SEO tools (http://www.majesticseo.com/)
6. Link Velocity Check

53. Other Great Tools to check your Inbound Linking
Profile
Back Linking Health Check-up
• Majestic SEO,
• Open Site Explorer,
• Ahrefs,
• Blekko,
• Sistrix
• Buzzstream,
• Raven Tools
• Ontolo
• Linkdex
• But most important YOUR BRAIN!!

54. Review
• Root linking domains check
1. Anchor text check
2. Site-wide link check
3. Authority distribution check
4. Link diversity check
5. Link Velocity check
6 Link Health Checks

55. PESCAR! Fishing for Links!
1. Process Strategy
2. Equity Education
3. Site Prospecting
4. Competitive Backlinks
5. Approach Assessment
6. Repairing Links

56. Stuntdubl Approved Toolsets.
• SEOMoz – Tracking tools, analysis, community
• Raven Tools – Campaign management
• MajesticSEO – Competitive back link analysis
• SEObook – Competitive research/ community
• SEMRush – Competitive analysis
• SpyFu – Competitive analysis
• Linkdex – Link management
• Ontolo – Link discovery
• Link Prospector – Link discovery
• LinkDiagnosis – Link analysis
• Google Analytics/ Webmaster tools

57. Link Building Planner Spreadsheet
• Web tools
• National days and events
• Sponsor contests
• Sponsor clubs
• Sponsor events
• Badges
• Plugins and extensions
• Drupal themes
• Widgets
• Petition
• Finding Malware
• Printable resources
• 404 link reclamation
• Review something new
http://pointblankseo.com/link-building-strategies
http://todd.at/linkspreadsheet

58. More Tools
• Annie Cushing’s List – http://todd.at/annie
• Ahrefs.com
• LinkResearchTools.com
• Sistrix.com
• Rapporative
• LinkClump
• SEO Tools for Excel
– http://nielsbosma.se/projects/seotools/

59. LinkBuilders to Read
• JustinBriggs.org
• RossHudgens.com
• IpullRank.com / iAcquire Blog
• http://www.distilled.net/blog/
• http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/
• http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/
• http://pointblankseo.com
• http://www.linkbuildingbook.com/link-building-
resources.html

60. LinkBuilders to Read
• JustinBriggs.org
• RossHudgens.com
• IpullRank.com / iAcquire Blog
• http://www.distilled.net/blog/
• http://www.seerinteractive.com/blog/
• http://www.internetmarketingninjas.com/blog/
• http://pointblankseo.com
• http://www.linkbuildingbook.com/link-building-
resources.html

61. Review
• Types of Links
• PESCAR Link Building
• 6 Link Checks

62. FIN
Online Marketing:
• Training
• Strategy
• Consulting
Thank you!
Todd@stuntdubl.com