Sha Menz from rmoov.com talked about dealing with a manual action for external link spam at the 2014 Search Marketing Expo conference (SMX). The conference took place at the stunning Crystal Palace Ballroom on the edge of Sydney Harbor. Sha spoke about process and procedures, but also touched on some of the intangibles faced by agencies working in this area .

1. Penalty Game
Getting Your Head
In The
by Sha Menz
@ShahMenz
#SMX Sydney 2014

2. Situational Awareness
@ShahMenz #SMX

3. @ShahMenz #SMX
Can give you the edge you need
to win

4. @ShahMenz #SMX
Hero

5. @ShahMenz #SMX
Casualty

6. WHAT
is
your
Situation?
@ShahMenz #SMX

7. WHY
Are we dealing
with link penalties?
@ShahMenz #SMX

8. Risk
@ShahMenz #SMX

9. Retribution
@ShahMenz #SMX

10. Reward
@ShahMenz #SMX

11. @ShahMenz #SMX
Risk

12. Calculated:
Risks that were knowingly taken
Someone decided to roll the dice
because they were after the prize
and thought they could win
@ShahMenz #SMX

13. Unintended:
Tough to come to terms with
For these people a manual action hits
HARD
@ShahMenz #SMX

14. The Risk of Ignorance:
Ignoring the possibility of exposure
to an unnatural linking penalty is
SHORT-SIGHTED
@ShahMenz #SMX

15. WHY
should I care?
@ShahMenz #SMX

16. @ShahMenz #SMX
Penguin
How does
work?

17. “Penguin works by balancing Good vs Bad
to provide a value. If that value is below a
threshold you are affected by Penguin. With
this in mind the effectiveness of any negative
SEO strategy is based on the proximity of
the target site to that threshold.”
@ShahMenz #SMX
http://www.epiphanysearch.co.uk/blog/2014/05/disavow-file-faqs/

18. “A truly awesome site with loads of amazing
backlinks is unlikely to be phased by
anything less than 500,000 bad links. A site
however that already has 500,000 bad links
working against its good links might only
require a nudge to put it over the edge.”.”
@ShahMenz #SMX
http://www.epiphanysearch.co.uk/blog/2014/05/disavow-file-faqs/

19. @ShahMenz #SMX
Retribution

20. You are going to have to work for it
@ShahMenz #SMX

21. @ShahMenz #SMX
Reward

22. The ultimate Reward
@ShahMenz #SMX

23. Barriers
@ShahMenz #SMX

24. Obvious:
Time
Revenue
Resources
Expertise
Data Gaps
Identify solutions that will work for you
@ShahMenz #SMX

25. Unseen:
Your mindset
Webspam Team mindset
Emotional “fallout”
Failing to recognise these is effectively
sabotaging your effort
@ShahMenz #SMX

26. @ShahMenz #SMX
You need to put on your Google Hat
© Brandignity

27. @ShahMenz #SMX
“You are what Google thinks you are”
until you can prove otherwise

28. LEARN
to play the hand
you’ve been dealt
@ShahMenz #SMX

29. Big Brand:
Move FAST
Use your influence
If your prolonged absence from the SERPs
could make Google look bad, it’s in their
best interest to process quickly.
Don’t drop the ball.
@ShahMenz #SMX

30. Not So Big Brand:
It’s all about the work
Preserve referral traffic
Protect that Brand
Detail and precision are you best friends.
You’re going to have to wait for review.
Use the time to eliminate on site issues.
@ShahMenz #SMX

31. Brand? What Brand?
Ask yourself if there is anything to save
Consider a new start
Assess business case
Be careful about just “Moving down the road”
@ShahMenz #SMX

32. LISTEN UP
it’s all about
Process
@ShahMenz #SMX

33. 3 Critical Steps
you need to
get right
@ShahMenz #SMX

34. Uncovering the Data Pool
utilise every
available
link source
@ShahMenz #SMX

35. Combine and De-duplicate
Google Analytics referral traffic
Google Webmaster Tools
Bing Webmaster Tools
opensiteexplorer.org
Mine the SERPs
Majestic SEO
SEMrush
ahrefs
@ShahMenz #SMX

36. Heads up
@ShahMenz #SMX
Help with your Google data
@TonyMcCreath
SWAT GWMT Exporter
http://seo-website-designer.com/SWAT-Google-Webmaster-Tools-Exporter

37. Managing Link Data
Never delete data
Pay attention to patterns
Use it to diagnose mistakes
@ShahMenz #SMX

38. 3 Critical Elements
of link analysis
@ShahMenz #SMX

39. The Link
@ShahMenz #SMX

40. The Domain
@ShahMenz #SMX
Don’t get this wrong!

41. The Profile
@ShahMenz #SMX
Look for patterns

42. @ShahMenz #SMX
What is a “bad” link?
What is an “unnatural” link?
are they the same thing?
© Wildblogger

43. Heads up
@ShahMenz #SMX
Dig into Disavow Data
@disdit_
disdit.com
http://www.disdit.com/why-disdit.php

44. Heads up
@ShahMenz #SMX
Analyse Backlink Data
@TonyMcCreath
SWAT Backlink Checker
http://seo-website-designer.com/SWAT-BackLink-Checker

45. Heads up
@ShahMenz #SMX
Retrieve Anchor Text
SEO Backlink Checker 1.3

46. The Final Countdown
@ShahMenz #SMX

47. Finding Viable
Contacts
The usual suspects – Domaintools database
Contact through domain registries
Use Reverse IP Lookup Tools
Use reverse image search
Match incidental data
Ask other link targets
Follow Social trails
@ShahMenz #SMX

48. Reverse IP Lookup
@ShahMenz #SMX

49. Learn which registries provide access
@ShahMenz #SMX

50. Reverse Image Search
@ShahMenz #SMX

51. Match Incidental Data
@ShahMenz #SMX

52. No shortcuts
@ShahMenz #SMX

53. Do the work
@ShahMenz #SMX

54. Document everything
@ShahMenz #SMX

55. @ShahMenz
@rmoov
Australia (02) 6145 2065
USA (786) 348-2163
#SMX Sydney 2014
always remember, help is just a tweet away
@ShahMenz #SMX