LINKBUILDING SOP NOTES

Link diversity We want approximately 50% - 70% of our inbound links to go to our home page The remainder should be deep links to other pages, scattered across the site Links should come from different domains - we don’t want more than one or two links

from site a (any url) to site b (any url) Massive volumes of links are now a penalty flag - so instead we want modest numbers

of links from multiple sources. Links should come from e.g. web 2.0 properties, social media, other blog sites etc but with just a few from each with multiple different sites and site types.

High Quality

1. Relevance - we only want links from sites where the subject matter is at least broadly relevant to our key phrase

2. We need to ensure that anchor texts are highly varied to reflect a 'natural' link pattern e.g. anchor texts should include (and be highly mixed and varied) with a wide ranging distribution, where they are not repeated frequently: Our home page URL as www. or http://www. Our site brand name Then keyword anchored texts in multiple different formats.

3. We would want to aim for anchor texts that used each of the following once or twice but no more than a few % of the overall link text. Let’s suppose we are looking at office relocation e.g.

office relocation

relocating my office

moving office

moving my office

moving your office

office moves

moving my business to london

relocating to london

business relocation 4. We want to ensure that links (wherever possible) and in the vast majority of cases are

contextual 5. We also want to carry out a link profile analysis of sites that rank #1 for our target

keyword and do our best to mirror this in terms of link distribution 6. We need to ABSOLUBTELY make sure that our link building is steady (appearance

natural) over time and NOT build large numbers of links followed by little or no activity - better to have 1 / day from all sources and sustain it over time.

7. We need to make sure that no single anchor text term (for a site as a whole) represents MORE THAN 20% of the total backlink profile. In the event that a single anchor text term exceeds this maximum value, we need to rectify by building new links with other anchor texts to bring the anchor text profile back within acceptable limits

Reciprocal links and requesting link exchanges is strictly banned

8. If we choose to link to a site or a web 2.0 property from a master site which is already linking to us anywhere within the site, ONE of the links MUST be marked as no-follow.

9. This means that when selecting link out destinations (external links) from our master site, we need to verify that there is no inbound link from that site to us. If there is and we feel that we still want to channel visitors in that direction, it MUST be marked rel=nofollow.

10. However, we should also find authority sites to link out to from pages selectively, and these should be followed links. The aim is to improve the user experience. For example: the jobs site. We should find a list of 10 or so key RELEVANT authority sites that we may wish to

link out to (e.g.) government pages on employment law, contract guides etc 11. Part of the SOP should be for any site we are working on Find key authority information sites that contain information that is highly relevant

to our site visitors. Wherever possible these should be non-commercial Note the URLs, page titles and primary keyword for that page for later use and

reference Place these outbound links on relevant pages, but do not linkspam the target sites -

i.e only use on selected pages where the content is directly relevant. 12. We want to AVOID inclusion of links in a blog roll, whether on our own sites or others -

this generates sidewide links which G is viewing as spam and penalizing.

13. When creating articles or posts on Web 2.0 properties or third party blogs or sites, we

need to include contextual links (i.e links from within the body of the article itself)

wherever possible as opposed to URL links, and we want to try and use a novel anchor

text variation that is as unique as possible.

14. Most importantly however we also need to ensure that for 1 x link back to a site we are

promoting, we include at least 1 x backlink for a site or web property that is high

authority and we do not own. However, we do not wish to exceed 3 links out per page.

15. We need to make sure that a proportion of our inbound links include phrases like 'click

here' 'read more' and 'learn more' to give the anchor texts a 'natural' link profile.

Links from article marketing, guest blogs and blog comments are ONLY OK IF

16. No one link source (of these above) dominates the link profile - I would suggest we aim

for a 15% ceiling on any one of these

17. Guest blogs (or blog articles placed on a third party site) are only placed on sites with a

Good Profile - i.e we need to be mighty careful in selecting these. As mentioned before,

for every link we place back to one of our sites or a promoted site, we also need to

include at least ONE link to a third party, high PR and Authority reference site.

18. Blog commenting is OK - but again, we need to aim for a maximum ceiling of 15% of the

total inbound links to a site

19. Overall, we also need to also ensure an even mix between follow and no follow links (as

would be seen naturally) and that we vary anchor texts (as per previous emails)

Forum and Profile links

20. Golden rule for these - we can gain good and valuable links from forums and profiles,

again these must not be excessive in relation to the overall linking mix... BUT there is

one very important point that needs including in an SOP.

21. Where a forum or profile backlink to one of our promoted sites is created, we MUST

make sure that we actually place a number of valid posts on that forum or blog or social

site.

22. We must also make sure that the forum/ site is on a related subject area to the one our

link relates to.

23. We need to make sure that we keep the information on file, and once every month or

two months, go back and place another post on that forum or blog etc - regardless of

whether we include a link on the comment we place or not (in fact preferable to not

place any link in comments, except where valid to the subject in hand)

24. Another point to have in our SOPs (we will ultimately want a checklist of DOs and

DONTs) here is a point that we need to include - will be most relevant for working on

client sites.

25. We need to make sure that there is NO links exchange page and/or make sure that if

there is (as a resources page or similar) that these links are registered/ tagged as rel=no

follow. If the client insists on keeping these as followed links (for other reasons), then

the outbound links must be directly relevant to the subject matter of the site providing

the links. Failure to do this = rank penalty

26. @20% - 25% of naked links - i.e URL only random anchor text links - including click here

and more info.... but most importantly we dont want to have the same anchor texts

(exact keyword match) occurring too often so we probably want to develop a long list of

potential anchor texts before starting any campaign and select from these randomly

whilst link building About 40 - 50% of ALL links need to be no follow