SEO SPAM IN ACTION:Analysing “Website Design” SERPs in NZ

website design

Overview:

• Analysis of link-building practices for the sites currently ranking Top 5 on Google.co.nz (Google New Zealand) for the term “Auckland Website Design”.

• “Website Design” gets 1,600 exact monthly searches in New Zealand.

• The Top 5 results were captured from an Icognito search on July 28th 2014

Disclaimer: The author of this document is not affiliated with any of the websites analysed hereafter, nor their competitors.Information was compiled for research purposes only.

#1 zyber.co.nz

#3 fueldesign.co.nz

#4 96black.co.nz

#5 littlegiant.co.nz

#1 zyber.co.nz

Side-wide ‘dofollow’ Client Footer Links

Keyword-stuffed anchors: “Website Design”.

Dofollow Backlinks Unique Domains Backlinks/Unique Domains82,797 676 122

High PR Paid Links (PBN)e.g.

scfairshare.org – PR4, “website design Auckland “ Dec 2013mianesthesiologist.org – PR3, “Auckland web development service “ Apr 2014

andrs-dz.org – PR5, “Auckland website design “ July 2014

#1 zyber.co.nz

Dofollow Backlinks Unique Domains Backlinks/Unique Domains82,797 676 122

#1 zyber.co.nz

SEO Score: FPBN spam links, unearned links, keyword-stuffed anchors.

#2 wikipedia.org

SEO Score: AEarned, natural links, varied anchors.

Dofollow Backlinks Unique Domains Backlinks/Unique Domains3,558,852 403,194 9

#3 fueldesign.co.nz

Dofollow Backlinks Unique Domains Backlinks/Unique Domains37,385 148 253

Side-wide Client Footer LinksKeyword-stuffed anchors: “Website Design”. Nofollow attribute only used for client portal link.

SEO Score: DUnearned dofollow links, keyword-only anchors.

#4 96black.co.nz

Dofollow Backlinks Unique Domains Backlinks/Unique Domains4,650 103 45

Side-wide Client Footer LinksKeyword-stuffed anchors: “Website Design”.

SEO Score: C -Unearned dofollow links, keyword anchors.

#5 littlegiant.co.nz

Dofollow Backlinks Unique Domains Backlinks/Unique Domains122,989 175 703

Side-wide ‘dofollow’ Client Footer Links

Mixed branded anchors: “Website design By Little Giant”, image links.

SEO Score: C +Majority of backlinks are unearned dofollow links with branded anchors.

Takeaways:

• Google Quality Guidelines recommends webmaster avoid link schemes.

• A link scheme is:

“Any links intended to manipulate PageRank or a site's ranking in Google search results may be considered part of a link scheme and a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”

Links schemes include:

• Buying or selling links that pass PageRank.• Keyword-rich, hidden or low-quality links embedded in widgets that are

distributed across various sites.• Widely distributed links in the footers or templates of various sites.

4 of the 5 sites ranking top for “website design” in New Zealand participate in link schemes.

Tip:

Footer link schemes are easy to spot by dividing the number of dofollow links by the number of referring domains:

As the above table shows, only Wikipedia.org has a natural number of dofollow links per linking domain (9).

So why does Google rank these sites top? More SEO research & SERP analysis: http://internetfolks.com

Twitter @tomtheseoguy

Website Dofollow Backlinks Unique Domains Backlinks/Unique Domains

zyber.co.nz 82,797 676 122

wikipedia.org 3,558,852 403,194 9

fueldesign.co.nz 37,385 148 253

96black.co.nz 4,650 103 45

littlegiant.co.nz 122,989 175 703