Weekly SEO news: 24 April 2012

Welcome to the latest issue of the Search Engine Facts newsletter.

Many people are uncertain about the best way to get backlinks to their sites. There are one-way links, reciprocal links, nofollow links, paid links and more. This week's article will help you to improve your link building activities so that you get the most effective links for your site.

In the news: an error in Google's algorithm caused a ranking drop for many sites, Google tries to fight review spam and more.

Table of contents:

We hope that you enjoy this newsletter and that it helps you to get more out of your website. Please pass this newsletter on to your friends.

Best regards,
Andre Voget, Johannes Selbach, Axandra CEO
1. How to benefit from backlinks (even without Google)

Many people are uncertain about the best way to get backlinks to their sites. There are one-way links, reciprocal links, nofollow links, paid links and more. This article will help you to improve your link building activities so that you get the most effective links for your site.

Google

Step 1: ask the right question

If backlinks did not affect your rankings in any way, which type of backlinks would you build?

The answer is simple: you would focus on the links that deliver visitors to your website. If you get backlinks that deliver targeted visitors, you will make money with these links and you will increase your rankings at the same time.

Step 2: reconsider nofollow links

If a nofollow link drives visitors to your website then it's still a good link. In addition, nofollow links contribute to the natural link profile of your website.

When you find a website that could be a good link partner, don't worry about the nofollow attribute.

Step 3: reconsider your anchor texts

As long as the anchor text is related to your website, everything is fine. Don't try to get the perfect anchor text from every linking page.

The content around the link is usually much more important for the click-through rate that a link gets. If it is in the right context, a simple "Click here" link might drive more visitors to your website than a link with an over-optimized anchor text.

Step 4: tell the other site why they should link to your site

Give the other website a reason to link to your site. Some websites request money, others simply want a backlink or content that they can use on their pages (for example an article).

Some websites will link to you if you correct an error on their pages (a typo, a broken link, etc.).

Build links as if search engines did not exist. If you manage to get backlinks that drive targeted visitors to your website, you will get additional sales and higher rankings on search engines.

The link building tools in IBP will help you to get these links. If you haven't done it yet, download the free demo version now.
2. Search engine news and articles of the week

Google: inside view on ads review

"Today I wanted to delve a little deeper and give some insight into the systems we use to help prevent bad ads from showing. [...] Even with all these systems and people working to stop bad ads, there still can be times when an ad slips through that we don’t want."



Matt CuttsGoogle: an error causes a ranking drop for many sites

"I saw a recent post where several sites were asking about their search rankings. The short explanation is that it turns out that our classifier for parked domains was reading from a couple files which mistakenly were empty.

As a result, we classified some sites as parked when they weren't. I apologize for this; it looks like the issue is fixed now, and we'll look into how to prevent this from happening again."



Google-backed research fights review spam

"Fake reviewers can have devastating affects on a variety of Internet-dependent businesses, but with the emergence of user-reviewed social-style operations like Yelp and TripAdvisor, both positive (to promote a business) and negative (to damage a competitor) frauds are becoming endemic."



GoogleNY Times: don’t be evil, but don’t miss the train

"With ‘Don’t be evil,’ Google set itself up for accusations of hypocrisy anytime they got near the line. [...]

Arrogance can come easily to phenomenally well-educated people who have always been at the top of the class. Success, though sometimes fickle, comes fast, and is registered in millions and billions of dollars. The world applauds, so it’s easy to see yourself as a person who can choose well for the world."



Search engine newslets
  • Google now shows ads for misspelled keywords.
  • Spring cleaning: Google discontinues several products.
  • Yahoo beats expectations.
  • Bing releases Bing bar 7.1.
  • Google may face fine over Safari privacy bypass.
  • Google target of new federal privacy probe.

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3. Recommended resources

Check the backlink profile of your website and much more

SEOprofiler is a full-featured SEO solution that can analyze the backlink profile of your website and much more.

You can also use it to spy on the Google rankings and Google AdWords campaigns of your competitors, it helps you to get new backlinks, it helps you to optimize your web pages, it checks your rankings on search engines and much more.

seoprofiler

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4. Previous articles

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