Tom Whittam

SEO Consultant, Ayima

Proactive Measures for Good Site Health

Tom WhittamSEO Consultant, AyimaCyclist (the Lycra kind)http://ayi.ma/brightonseo

Tweet us! @AyimaAyima began in 2007Headquartered in NYC & LondonSEO partner to Fortune 20 & FTSE clients

“How businesses can benefit from being proactive with their backlinks”

Why do we need to be proactive?1. Manual Actions2. Penguin

Is Every Site Different?

3 situations you may recognise1. Large corporate website2. SME website3. New agency client

3 situations you may recognise1. Large corporate website• Large backlink profiles• Historic techniques• Affiliates/sitewides

3 situations you may recognise2. SME website• Minimal SEO support• Budget restrictions• Low brand awareness

3 situations you may recognise3. New agency client• What did the old agency do?• Types of link building?• Check their other clients

How Can I Be Proactive?Link MonitoringBacklink Audit

Link MonitoringNegative SEO

Negative SEO1. Ahrefs New/Lost links (<60 days)2. GWT link dates3. Most common anchors4. Who links the most?5. Keep a record of link numbers MoM

Link MonitoringGetting Hacked

Getting Hacked1. Security issues/content keywords GWT2. Update plugins - http://ayi.ma/x3y083. Routine backups4. Regular password updates

Link MonitoringAffiliate Networks

Affiliate Networks1. Affiliate system check2. Block parameter in GWT, GA and

Robots.txt• Use Robots.txt tester in GWT

3. Attempt to implement nofollows4. Disavow

Just so you know…• Affiliate network checks• Is the nofollow attribute used?• Does the link go through a redirect?• Type of redirect?• Redirect path?

Just so you know…• Affiliate link on road.cc

Just so you know…• Inspect element

<a href="/buynow/track.php?buyaid=5&amp;nid=129269&amp;link=aHR0cDovL3d3dy5kZWNhdGhsb24uY28udWsvQy01OTU1NTEtYmlrZS1oZWxtZXRzP3V0bV9zb3VyY2U9cm9hZGNjJnV0bV9tZWRpdW09RGlzcGxheSZ1dG1fY2FtcGFpZ249cm9hZGNjX3Nob3BwaW5n&amp;exact=0&amp;section=1&amp;deal=0" target="_blank" rel="nofollow"><img src="/buynow/images/buy-5-top.png" width="120" alt="Buy it now" class="google-buynow"></a>

Just so you know…• Inspect the link path

Just so you know…• Block parameter in GA

Admin / All Web Site Data / View Settings

Just so you know…• Block parameter in GWT

Crawl / URL Parameters / Add Parameter

Just so you know…• Block parameter in Robots.txt• Use GWT Robots.txt tester• Read this - http://ayi.ma/robotsguide• Test here - http://ayi.ma/robotstool

Link MonitoringReferrer Spam

Referrer Spam1. Identify problem sites in GA2. Block bots in Robots.txt3. Exclude in GA & block bots at profile

level4. Disavow

Just so you know…• Identify spam referrers in GA

Just so you know…• Block bots in Robots.txt

#SemaltUser-agent: semaltspiderDisallow: /

Just so you know…• Or .htaccess

RewriteEngine onRewriteCond %{HTTP_REFERER} semalt\.com [NC]RewriteRule .* - [F]

Just so you know…• Exclude referrers in GA

Admin / Profile / Tracking Info / Referral Exclusion List

Just so you know…• Block all known spam bots in GA

Admin / All Web Site Data / View Settings

Backlink Audit

Backlink Audit1. Download links, use multiple sources• GWT, Ahrefs, Majestic SEO, Moz OSE

Backlink Audit2. Open Excel; remove duplicates, add a

domain column and populate3. Use pivot tables to identify patterns• Anchors, number of links, type of link

Backlink Audit2. Open Excel; remove duplicates, add a

domain column and populate3. Use pivot tables to identify patterns• Anchors, number of links, type of link

Backlink Audit4. Check every domain• Use Google’s Quality Guidelines / your

gut feeling• Keep a record of every website you

visit• Contact details, quality, anchor text,

type of link• Identify if you want to remove the link

Backlink Audit5. Contact Webmasters to remove links• Record date of contact & outcome• Don’t pay them (keep a record if they

ask)• Disavow if they refuse/don’t respond

Remember…Set your own thresholds and don’t be afraid

Example: Sitewide Identification

Example: Sitewide Identification1. Get your domain list2. Add a column, populate with 1URL Domain 1http://www.site-1.com/example/1 site-1.com 1http://www.site-2.co.uk/example/133 site-2.co.uk 1https://www.site-3.net/example/1 site-3.net 1https://www.site-3.net/example/2 site-3.net 1http://site-4.com/example/1 site-4.com 1http://site-5.com/example/1 site-5.com 1http://site-6.com/example/1 site-6.com 1http://site-7.com/example/1 site-7.com 1http://example.site-8.com/example/1 example.site-8.com 1http://site-9.com/example/1 site-9.com 1

Example: Sitewide Identification3. Select your data then the Pivot Table

button

Example: Sitewide Identification4. Sort your data

Example: Sitewide Identification5. Investigate• Footer link?• Banner link?• Forum link?

Submitting a Disavow

Submitting a disavow1. Identify domains for disavow• Add “domain:” to the front of each

one (no spaces)

domain:example.comdomain:subdomain.example-2.co.uk

Submitting a disavow2. Copy into a .txt file• Add a #comment identifying the date

added• Add any old disavow data

#Disavow added 12th September 2014domain:example.comdomain:subdomain.example-2.co.uk

Submitting a disavow3. Visit the disavow tool and follow the

instructions• Add the file to the correct profile

http://ayi.ma/disavow

Submitting a disavow4. View GWT messages for your

confirmation

“If I disavow without getting a manual action, will it hurt my website?”

Search traffic post proactive disavow

Disavow of 339 domains submitted March 201420% of domains pointing to site

5 Takeaways

5 Takeaways1. Complete a backlink audit2. Identify low quality links for removal3. Contact WM’s and disavow where

necessary4. Monitor your incoming links5. Keep a record of everything

Thanks!

Tom WhittamSEO Consultant, Ayimatom@ayima.comhttp://ayi.ma/brightonseo