How to Analyze Links and Avoid Google Penalties?

There is a deep connection between link building and search engine ranking. This explains why large companies with responsive websites implement and monitor a link schedule. All goes well until one day the SEO expert receives a manual penalty notice from Google. To avoid this dreaded email from popping up in your inbox, here’s what an experienced SEO agency, San Diego , has to say.

Why Facing Penalties?

Manual penalties from Google are only implemented in the worst of all Webmaster Guidelines violations. Most of the sites affected from “bad linking” end up losing their search engine ranking. With the latest Penguin upgrade, your website is likely to lose all search visibility as a manual penalty. The easiest way to determine if your site has been hit by bad linking is to review your web traffic through Google Analytics (or any other web analytics tool). In the event your website witnesses a significant reduction in organic search traffic, you’re heading for trouble.

How to Identify Bad Links?

You can set up a regular link remediation or maintenance schedule on your website. If you’re working for a reasonably large and renowned brand, it is a good idea to check your link profile on a periodic basis. Here’s a look at various bad linking methods that result in Google penalties.

Buying/Selling Links

Any buying or selling links that are created for the sole purpose of impacting search engine ranks is a classic example of a “link scheme”. Google does not allow it. This can include links that require you to, #1: Exchange money for posts containing links #2: Exchange services or physical goods for links #3: Sending a free product to someone, asking for a review and then including it in a link

Large-Scale Article Marketing

These links are easy to identify as they originate from a content marketing website. Their domain names usually include the word “article”. In contrast, guest postings are difficult to identify, unless they are expressly declared so by the blogger.

Automated Services for Link Creation

Using ScrapeBox or any other similar tool that generates several spammy links, within a short time, frame result in Webmaster Guidelines violations. Blog comment section spam and forum profile links often rely on automated products (such as bots) for link creation. A simple link analysis can help you identify and separate these types of links.

Bookmark Site Links

This happens whenever a link from any directory is included, without adding any SEO value to in-site text. The only exceptions to this rule are the local SEO directories. If a link is added to these directories as part and parcel of an SEO campaign, it will only impact local algorithm code. It is unlikely to have any impact on the normal link acquisition activities.

How to Save Yourself?

SEO experts recommend that you use a minimum of three different tools to identify and trace all links that may be adversely affecting your profile. Bear in mind that exporting links from consoles (such as Google Search Console) is unlikely to identify all possible links that affect your profile.