35 Link Building Tips for Penguin

Pretty Good Scott. If only your Mother hadn't messed up and named you Scott you might have gotten an invitation to the Mike SEO club. Don't be too hard on her everyone makes mistakes. If you need a good lawyer for a name change then let me know.

Only 15%? We are on the back foot. Google is in a strong position.

Nice list! It's a shame though that most people will continue using the same crap-hat techniques they always have... :p

Actually, most of these were not your ideas at all. They were taken from posts similar to this one (before Penguin). You did make some minor changes to a few of them.

Very much effective post. Probably the best and most important post after penguin update. You know, the website times are divided into two parts 1) Before Penguin and 2) after Penguin. Hope this post will work as a bridge between them.

Not using automated tools is a joke
You keep building links by hand for one domain and I will rank multiple domains in the same time ok?

Don't try to be "the know it all guy" when you aren't.
Sure, the list looks nice, but missing some important things.

Have fun!

It's not about the tools but how you use it. You can always use tools if you have lots of sites to optimize but you just have to limit your submissions and prevent massive submissions.

Great tips you shared. learned some new ones.

A decent list, BUT....



Some common sense, but also a few contradictory remarks and some fluff thrown in too. But overall it is a more sensible approach than most on the face of it.

I agree with you in most points which you mentioned especially we should also focus on no follow links 20% along with do follow links. Also on page is the most important factor to bring the keywords in top rankings.

You listed some great points here Scott - well done!

It becomes more important to build less links with your targeted money keywords.

Through personal testing, reviewing, and research, I came to the conclusion that websites who had a neutral backlinking profile have better chances of ranking consistently in Google.

In fact, if your website has more than 50-60% backlinks with your money anchor texts, odds are that you´ll face a penalty.

Definitely stay below 50% (money anchor texts), and build your backlinks with different, non money anchor texts to at least 50%.

Great tips Scott.

I just want to add that when it comes to automated tools just make sure you know how to use it correctly and when to stop using it.

I also agree with what you said about building backlinks manually in the beginning and gradually increase it later on.

Nice Post .But simplify that one....
If we create nofollow links about 20% then its Okey for my website.

This is realy good list! thank for your sharing!

my question is one one is aiming for a particular keyword or my client needs a keyword placed on top. How can I exactly do that using natural link placement.

I mean if there is no anchor text then how would Google know that I need a particular keyword promoted.

Please help.

I would also like to make sure that is this natural link building works. I have heard it from so many people now but I am not sure about that ?

Point 12 seems to contradict point 32.

Anyway, you forgot #36 - Use common sense.

There is no such thing as a "natural link profile." It is speculation from people imagining what "natural" looks like. But the fact is, top ranking sites have an infinite array of apparent profiles.

If there was a natural link profile everyone would have it and everyone would be building contrary links to competitors to destroy their profile.

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It all starts with quality. The Penguin update translates to = quality. No more short cuts.

The one thing I'd probably dig deeper on is the following:

First focus on getting your onsite SEO as good as possible. This is about 20% of successful ranking and you will not be penalized for it so long as you don't over do it.

Pre-Penguin, that is correct. Post-Penguin, be careful. The goal isn't to overoptimize, as its a delicate balancing act between the two these days.

The old days of 10%+ KWD are over. So is making sure that your title, H1/2/3 tags, are all perfectly optimized with your keyword. What's important post-Penguin is to make it look like you AREN'T optimizing for the keyword. Lower the KWD to less than 5%. Put the keyword once in the title, and then in one H tag. Use the other H tags for supplemental long-tail keywords.

Great Share Scott. Really a good list.

These are really good tips. I think just follow them and do SEO, it helps a lot.
I am keep it. thanks.

Thanks For Sharing Your valuable knowledge.........

Really great tips to get rid of panda. Nice Post

Engaging content > backlinks

Great tips! Keep it up.

Why not reduce it to two rules?

1. Build a long term business instead of just websites. (This actually inhibits rule number 2)
2. Don't game google at all. Exception: If you absolutely have to (in case you're not sexy enough to attract backlinks a 100% naturally), game them in a way that even a human reviewer doesn't realise you gamed them. Hint: At least 99.99% of your super spammy BL's that the service providers in this very forum and in many other places call strong, secret sauce, panda-safe, 100% natural, etc. don't belong in the category of human-review-safe. (Unless the reviewer tends to be a complete dud that is)

Don't follow the above rules and at a certain point (update from google, manual review) you will be left behind crying. Your (super helpful, intelligent, sophisticated and well-informed) reaction will then sound more or less like the following: "Google are such evil stupid peeersons. They destroyed my whole empire and income, bohooo!" It's perfectly o.k. for You to do that, go ahead and blame your "opponent" for your own inability. I mean after all it's them who did something not conform with the code of conduct, right?! But, and that's a big but(t) with two t's actually, don't ever come here to this very forum and whine about how bad google is and how you did everything right since I told you now. Thank you so much for that! *End of rant*

P.S. If you find sarcasm or even irony in this post you are gently invited to keep a share of it, but the rest I'd like to have back because it's soo hard to create .

~ R. Shawner

thanks for sharing this

useful discussion thanks for list wise information , some of website rankings gone trying to get back my results i hope this information will help

this is panguin updates 1.0
..................................
1. Pick your battles wisely. A very competitive keyword requires great link building and may take years to see ROI. 2. First focus on getting your onsite SEO as good as possible. This is about 20% of successful ranking and you will not be penalized for it so long as you don't over do it. 3. Make sure you have a clear understanding of what a natural link profile looks like before starting any link building and try to mimic natural. 4. Aim to limit anchor texts (money keywords) to about 15% of the overall backlink profile. 5. Focus more on links that pass authority to your site rather than links with highly optimized anchor text. 6. Stop counting links - more links does not always equal improved ranking. 7. In the beginning try to build every link by hand - later you can speed things up. 8. Be very careful of SEO services, especially cheap ones as most are junk. 9. Build less links. I've been looking at how many links legitimate sites receive and most don't receive that many. Certainly not 1000's in a few months. 10. Don't build a wall of dead end links i.e. 1000's of links pointing to your site that have no backlinks of their own. 11. Build links to your links and go a few layers deep. 12. Make most backlink anchor text to the root domain or brand. 13. Aim for about 20% nofollow links. 14. Build links that have traffic value and not just ranking value. 15. Buffer dangerous links (i.e. Private Blog Network links) and don't point them directly to your site. Keep them a few tiers back and mix in other niche links. 16. Stay away from spun content and if you do spin make sure it's by hand, at word & sentence level. 17. When using content for links ask yourself - does this read like spam? if the answer is 'yes' then improve the content. 18. Avoid tools like Senuke X, AMR, Scrapebox & Xrumer. These tools are designed to create mass links and that's just not natural. 19. Avoid blasting links to tier 2 / 3 etc - they all lead back to one site in the end; better to avoid blasts of any kind. 20. Future proof your link building. Shortcut methods that work today may be slapped down tomorrow. 21. Blend your backlinks by weaving in links to other authority sites related to your niche. 22. Sign up to SEO Majestic or similar and monitor your backlink profile to make sure it resembles natural. 23. Get unique content for your posts. Either hand write it or use a service like iwriter. 24. Don't ping your links - how low quality is a link if you need to ping it relentlessly to get Google to acknowledge it. 25. Make your site/content useful and attract as many natural links as possible. 26. Try to make your site as white hat as possible and approach any fabricated link building like watering down beer. 27. Avoid Private Blog Networks that have a name. 28. Avoid chasing the loophole - every loophole is closed down in the end and if you've made it your main SEO strategy you will find yourself back at square one. 29. Make sure links are from numerous sources thus increasing link diversity and IP's. 30. Don't over optimize keywords on site or off site. 31. Make sure link velocity is varied - a steady link velocity just isn't natural. 32. Maintain a balance between links to inner pages and the home page. 33. Capture long tail traffic with plenty of hand written, well researched content. 34. If most of your links are artificial don't use Google Analytics. 35. Practice patience and think if IM and SEO in terms of years. Next year this will make decent money.

Thanks for these tips. Also, make your links look more natural as possible.

this is really a great tip, but basically never automate anything ... it's going to get tough guys, but for the long term it's worth it.

Great tips mate, Thank you for sharing

Vic Shinoda

Most of users said that don't do over anchor optimization but in this thread you are saying "Make most backlink anchor text to the root domain or brand."

Thank you for sharing.

amazing post thanks for that!~

Thanks for your list very much effective post. Probably the best and most important post after penguin update.This content will work as a bridge between them.

Diversity and consistency is the name of the game nowadays.

This was really helpful! Thanks a bunch

Thanks Scott for the tips you but I also agree with Shawner hahah he got some point.

Most of them are great tips, thanks for posting...

Such a great list! You put a lot of time and effort into this post. These are definitely great steps.

your information is pretty good...because google slapped my couple of website...your information can help me a lot to recover my rank on google...

This information is very useful. Thank you

Thank you for sharing

redzone

Really helpful Scott. Thanks for sharing

Since some seemed to feel like you poo-poo'd on their link building tactics, I would like to thank you for a giving some common sense to those types. I also prefer your "better safe, than sorry" approach, even if it is harder.

Thanks!

Great tips! thank you.

"Avoid blasting links to tier 2 / 3 etc - they all lead back to one site in the end; better to avoid blasts of any kind."

Does this mean-don't use UAW on 2nd tier sites at all?

If I were to summarize Scott's post, I would say that you have to do your link building smarter, in a way that it looks natural for Google.

Nice list scott,I agee with your points and issues.And I really appreciated with it.Thanks for sharing with us.