9 Ways to Check the Quality of a Link is a post from the best Link Building Tools available worldwide.
Learn how to check your website’s link profile in only 9 steps
So many Google Updates and websites losing visibility on search engine results have made most SEOs question themselves. “What still works to improve a website’s ranking?”
On-Page and content marketing are a trend, but they are not enough. As long as Matt Cutts says backlinks are relevant to ranking, you’ll have to keep building links. However, only high quality links can boost rankings, and that’s why you have to constantly check who is linking to your website.
Rick Lomas presents 9 very practical ways to check the quality of your backlinks, including detailed how-tos on using the LinkResearchTools for your link check.
We look forward to your feedback and always appreciate you sharing the work of our Certified LRT Professionals.
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Table of Contents
Are Back Links still relevant to search results?
Checking Links using Link Research Tools
The Link Research Tools Metrics
Basic SEO stats
Ranking Keyword Metrics
Link Ratio Metrics
Onpage-Linking Analysis
Google Indexing, Ranking and Legacy Link Metrics
Link Source Country & City
Domain Registration Details
Authority Backlinks
Social Votes
Link Velocity and Link Velocity Trends
Where to find all these metrics in Link Research Tools
Choosing Metrics in CLA
Choosing Metrics in CKA
Using Link Detox to check the quality of backlinks
1. Is the link on a page that is blacklisted or banned?
2. Is the link on a page that is dangerous?
3. Is the link on a page of a weak domain?
3.1 Your link is on a very weak page that has no external links
3.2 Your link is on a very weak domain
3.3 The link is on a young domain
3.4 The link is on an old, but weak domain
4. Is the link on a domain with a penalty?
4.1 The domain is not indexed in Google
4.2 Your link is on a domain which is very weak because of a penalty
4.3 The link is on a page that doesn’t rank for its own title
4.4 The link is on a page with no Google PageRank
4.5 The link is on a page that has been banned from Google
5. Is the link on a domain associated with a bad neighbourhood?
5.1 Domain’s Theme is listed as suspicious (Hacking, Suspicious or Pornography) or high risk
6. Is the link on a spammy directory?
6.1 Link Directory Links
6.2 Article Directory Links
6.3 Links coming from typical link voting directories
7. Is the link on a page with a massive amount of outgoing links?
8. Is the link anchor text unnatural or suspicious?
8.1 Is the link highly unnatural?
8.2 Sitewide Footer Links
8.3 Hidden image links
8.4 Are you overdoing the Money Keyword anchor text?
8.5 Are you overdoing the Compound Keyword anchor text?
8.6 Is the link on a spammy forum?
9. Is the link on a domain that is part of a link network?
9.1 Does it have the same IP or Class C IP as some of your other links?
9.2 Do you have links that come from domains with the same domain name registrant?
9.3 Do you have links that come from domains with the same domain name server?
9.4 Does the source domain have a negative Link Velocity?
9.5 Does the source domain have the same Google Analytics code as other linking domains?
9.6 Does the source domain have the same Google Adsense code as other linking domains?
9.7 Does the source domain have the same Website Footprints as other linking domains?
Conclusion
Are Back Links still relevant to search results?
The whole of this article is about backlinks. Some say social media is more important now, some say that OnPage SEO and content is more important than backlinks. I believe this to be 100% untrue. Here’s what Matt Cutts, head of the Google Spam Team has to say about backlinks:
Checking Links using Link Research Tools
The most important thing about any link is not the actual type of link it is, but the quality of the page it is on. Furthermore the quality of the domain that the page is on too. It makes sense that if the domain or the page is shady in any way, it would not be a good idea to have your link on there. For this reason, most of the time we will be considering the source page of the link and the domain that it belongs to.
For the sake of determining the quality of a backlink I have grouped the various qualities of a back link into 9 categories that you need to check. These are:
Is the link on a page that is blacklisted or banned?
Is the link on a page that is dangerous?
Is the link on a page of a weak domain?
Is the link on a domain with a penalty?
Is the link on a domain associated with a bad neighbourhood?
Is the link on a spammy directory?
Is the link on a page with a massive amount of outgoing links?
Is the link anchor text unnatural or suspicious?
Is the link on a domain that is part of a link network?
1-7 can be assessed by considering an individual link, 8 and 9 need to be assessed by considering your existing links too.
To put the things that you need to check into nine categories was quite tough, so within each section there are sometimes a few different scenarios that you need to be aware of.
The one tool that can be easily used to check all of these points very easily is Link Detox, which although it requires some human input, can give accurate results very quickly. Other Link Research Tools can also be used as we will see later, but the one thing they all have in common is the Link Research Metrics that they all use. For this reason it makes sense to look at these first. If you are not currently a Link Research Tools user, the next section will not mean much to you, so you may like to skip the next section.
The Link Research Tools Metrics
The days of saying things like, “I only put my links on sites with PR>3″ or “I only build links on Authority sites like WordPress.com, Blogspot.com and EzineArticles.com” have well and truly gone. We now have to look at many different metrics for each link and in some circumstances multiple links simultaneously. If this sounds too complicated, it is because it is! Fortunately Link Research Tools make sense of this for us as we will see later. You can find detailed information about all of the LRT Metrics on this page, but for now lets have a quick run through them:
Basic SEO stats
Basic SEO stats are the number of links to page and domain, linking root domains, the topic or theme of the site, technical site type (i.e. blog/CMS etc) and the CEMPER Power™ and CEMPER Trust™ metrics.
Metrics: BL, BLdom, DomPop, Theme, SiteType, Power, Trust, Power*Trust
Furthermore the Power and Trust can also be measured for the domain or topdomain
Metrics: Power*Trust dom, Power*Trust topdom, Power-topdom, Power-dom, Trust-dom, Trust-topdom
Ranking Keyword Metrics
The Link Research Tools use SEMrush to provide information about rankings for pages and domains. KwPage reports the number of keywords a page ranks for, while KwDomain reports all rankings for a whole domain as known by SEMrush.
Metrics: KwPage, KwDomain
Link Ratio Metrics
The Link Ratio Metrics are new metrics used to evaluate SWR (site wide ratios) and DLR (deep link ratios) of the source of a link.
Metrics: SWR, SWR-page, SWR-topdom, DLR, DLR-topdom
Onpage-Linking Analysis
The parameters of this package look at the links of a page and tell you how many links of each kind a page has. Detailed information can be found here http://www.linkresearchtools.com/helptext/
Metrics: MetaRobots, IntL, ExtL, IntLNF, ExtLNF
Google Indexing, Ranking and Legacy Link Metrics
Google PageRank and Majestic ACrank are old legacy link metrics that can’t be relied on anymore. However sometimes PR can be used for finding out more about a page where a link is. For example if a domain is 10 years old but has no Pagerank, would you want your link there?
Metrics: PR
A very useful metric that we do use is the Google Indexation. If a page isn’t indexed by Google, is it good to have a link there?
Metrics: G!idx
The Title Rank Metric is one I love to use when explaining to a client who doesn’t believe a link they built on an ‘authority site’ eight years ago is no good now. When I show them that the page on which they have a link doesn’t rank on the first ten pages of Google for its own title, they generally agree that the page has been penalised. The TitleRank metric describes how far up a linking page ranks in Google for its page title. If it ranks on a very high page number or does not rank at all, it’s probably penalised.
Metrics: Title-home, TitleRank-home
Link Source Country & City
This metric tells you in which country and city this domain is hosted. If you are looking for links for a local business this may be important to you. But also if you are looking at many links and they are all coming from irrelevant countries, this may raise a flag due to a suspected link network.
Metrics: CNTRY, CITY
Domain Registration Details
For some SEOs information about the domain registration can be useful. The domain creation date is said to affect trust. Older dates are better. Identifying the IP address can help spot link networks.
Metrics: DCD, REG, IP
Domain Expiry & Registrar details can also be helpful. Anybody dumb enough to set up a link network with domains having similar or identical registrar details is asking for trouble. On the other hand, the domain expiry date is useful to see. Domains that don’t expire for a long time are believed to have a positive impact on the trust of the site.
Metrics: DED, DNR, DNS
Authority Backlinks
Backlinks from universities and governmental agencies are usually more trusted and can be good places to have your links.
Metrics: DomPopGOV, DomPopEDU, BLedu, BLgov
Link Research Tools has some unique metrics that it uses with some of the old Moz.com authority indicators. These are used to show the probability of a domain or page having ranking authority in Google.
Metrics: Trust, Trust-dom, Trust-topdom, MozAuthPage, MozAuthDom
The power of Dmoz and Wikipedia has been known for a long time, with Link Research Tools we have easy access to the number of backlinks from dmoz.org as well as backlinks from each country’s version of Wikipedia.
Social Votes
If you believe in the power of social media then there is a plethora of metrics covering Pinterest, Retweets, Facebook Likes, Shares and Comments, Google+, Reddit and StumbleUpon.
Metrics: RTs, FB!Votes, G+1, Reddit, StumbleUpon, FB!Likes, FB!Shares, FB!Comments, Pinterest
Link Velocity and Link Velocity Trends
Link Research Tools has these new metrics to help us understand how the link growth of source domains works. This becomes very important when you need to identify sites that have been forgotten about or have possibly been penalised.
Metrics: LVT, LV4m, LV6m, LV12m, LV24m
Where to find all these metrics in Link Research Tools
The main tools we will use for checking links are the Back Link Profiler (BLP), the Competitive Landscape Analyzer (CLA) and the Competitive Keyword Analyzer (CKA). These are very useful for quickly spotting links that are on pages that look good or bad. The King of all link health classification is the Link Detox (DTOX) tool, which is amazing. So why don’t we use Link Detox all the time instead of the other tools? The answer is that Link Detox runs comparatively slowly and also uses the Link Detox credits up rather quickly. You can never have enough Link Detox credits!
With the BLP, CLA and CKA you can choose which metrics you want to see:
The key here is to select the metrics you are going to need, otherwise it will slow the processing speed of the report down. There is no extra credit cost in selecting lots of metrics if that is what you wish to do.
Choosing Metrics in CLA
The Competitive Landscape Analyzer is used to look at the metrics of your own backlinks as well as your competitions back links. The great thing about the CLA is that it uses the metrics that involve ratios between other links, so you can quickly identify Deep Link Ratios and Sitewide Ratios.
If you use CLA in its default configuration, the Quick Analysis, there is a basic set of metrics that are selected:
But if you want to see more data then you can select a Detailed Analysis:
This opens up a stunning array of extra metrics that you can select:
All the more advanced metrics are also available:
Is that enough data for you? How about the social factors and the authority metrics too:
The CLA is a very comprehensive tool. It is worth noting that selecting a lot of metrics will slow the report down and also cost you a few credits too.
Choosing Metrics in CKA
The Competitive Keyword Analyzer is designed to help you identify keywords that promise high rankings with minimal effort. This is done by comparing different SEO metrics for the current top 10 sites for multiple keywords. It is a good opportunity to spot links that can be used to your advantage. There is a very reasonable set of metrics that can be selected optionally:
Using Link Detox to check the quality of backlinks
SOn the surface Link Detox is an easy to use application that helps you determine the quality of links. Beneath the surface, Link Detox is an incredibly complex and clever piece of software that makes sense of all the above metrics and uses them to trigger various rules. The rules are used to determine if a link is healthy, suspicious or toxic. It really is the easiest way to perform a link audit on any website.
Link Detox can be run in 3 different modes, ‘Classic’, ‘What if?’ and ‘Review’.
Classic mode is where it examines all your existing links and compares them with each other. This is the most common use of Link Detox and you can use it like this to find Toxic, Suspicious and Healthy links to your own site, or even your competitors’ sites.
‘What If?’ mode is where you can upload your own lists of links that you believe you might be able to get and then see how they will fit in with your existing links.
‘Review mode’ is where you can load in your own list of backlinks that you may be able to get, but they will not be compared with your existing links.
The metrics used in Link Detox are all preselected to make the running of this tool as easy as possible:
So now we know what tools we can use and what metrics are going to be useful , we can look at nine different ways to check a links quality.
1. Is the link on a page that is blacklisted or banned?
For various reasons domains can become blacklisted. When they do, they are often listed at somewhere like the Spamhaus Domain Blocklist (spamhaus.org). Having a link on a blacklisted domain is not good.
1.1 How to test for blacklisted or banned domains
Unfortunately there is no central place online where you can check a domain is blacklisted or banned. However, you can run Link Detox in the ‘classic’, ‘what if’ or ‘review’ mode to find out. If Link Detox finds that your link is on a domain which is blacklisted it will trigger the SUSP21 Rule. Link Detox checks a lot of blacklists to see if the domain is listed, if it’s on a blacklist the link is bad.
Luckily sites that trigger the SUSP21 rule are rare, in fact in my fairly extensive Link Detox experience so far, I have not seen one.
2. Is the link on a page that is dangerous?
Without realising it, your links maybe on a domain that is listed as dangerous. This means that the domain’s theme is listed as dangerous with possible malware, malicious activity or a virus which is classified as a bad neighbourhood. As you would expect these are terrible links to have, with no exceptions.
Here’s an example of such a link on http://betpedia.ru/William_hill that was linking to williamhill.com:
2.1. How to test for dangerous domains
Sometimes your browser may warn you about a dangerous domain, but often it won’t. Fortunately you can use Link Detox in the ‘classic’, ‘what if’ or ‘review’ modes to test for dangerous domains. Dangerous domains will trigger the TOX2 rule in Link Detox. The TOX2 rule is actually triggered by a mixture of things, but it will always mean that the domain is dangerous.
You can easily filter for any of the rules in the data table of Link Detox like this:
3. Is the link on a page of a weak domain?
Having your link on a domain that is weak is not a good place for it to be. Here are some of the scenarios you might come across:
3.1 Your link is on a very weak page that has no external links
An example of this would be a forum or a page created by some automated spamming activity. Sometimes it might look like a normal page, but is just weak, like this one on http://dev.freebetsplus.co.uk/component/content/article/86-william-hill/291-william-hill-poker linking to williamhill.com:
3.1.1 How to test using a BLP report
With a BLP report you can filter like this:
CEMPER Power*Trust™ = 0
CEMPER Power*Trust™ Domain < 5
3.1.2 How to test using a Link Detox report
The SUSP1 rule will be triggered. The SUSP1 rule means that it is a link coming from a page on a very weak domain, for example: a link from a page without external links (which is often the case with a forum) or a link resulting from some automated spamming activity or a link on a page of a link directory.
3.2 Your link is on a very weak domain
The reasons a domain may be weak could be that it is new or very weak or because it has a penalty. Here is an example on http://3ww.caingram.com/Travel_croatia.htm which is linking to http://www.navis-yacht-charter.com/.
3.2.1 How to test using a BLP report
With a BLP report you can filter like this:
CEMPER Power*Trust™ Domain = 0
3.2.2 How to test using a Link Detox report
In a Link Detox report the SUSP2 rule will be triggered. The SUSP2 rule means that it is a link coming from a very weak domain that is probably new or has been penalized by Google. A page that has been penalized by Google is going to be a bad place to have your link. In the case of a SUSP2 it is a possibility, we will look at more definite examples later.
3.3 The link is on a young domain
If the link is on a young domain, it may not be a bad thing as the site might grow and become more powerful. However if it does not, it could become a problem later.
Here’s an example of such a link on http://abchemtech.com/shopping/automotive/?p=5 which is linking to http://www.prioritycollisionchesapeake.com/
If you have read my case study about WilliamHill.com from April 2014 you might notice something about the example above. It is another story, but if you recognise something familiar it would be great if you left a comment below ☺
3.3.1 How to test using a Link Detox report
Such a link will trigger the SUSP18 rule. The SUSP18 rule means that it’s a link from a page that is coming from a young domain (less than 6 months old) that has a low CEMPER Power*Trust Domain below 3.
3.4 The link is on an old, but weak domain
This is a domain that has been around for a long time and has never really been used or visited. Such a domain will have no Google PageRank and a link on it will be worthless.
3.4.1 How to test using a Link Detox report
In Link Detox the SUSP19 rule will be triggered indicating that this is an old domain with no homepage PageRank.
4. Is the link on a domain with a penalty?
As you would imagine, if Google has penalised a domain and your link is on that page, it is not going to value your link at all. Even worse, a link on a penalised domain is now one of the most harmful links you can have.
I have recently removed a manual spam action penalty from a site of mine that was hit by Penguin 1.0 in April 2012. The site got penalised because I built links to it for years, which worked fine until Penguin came along. Here is an example of a link on http://kilmarnockmotorhomehire.yolasite.com/ which links to http://www.motorhomesdirect.co.uk/motorhome-hire.html. This link that once worked is now highly Toxic. (btw this link could not be removed so it has been disavowed)
4.1 The domain is not indexed in Google
The TOX1 rule means that the link is on a page that is not indexed by Google and this could mean that Google has decided to give the domain a penalty. But it is worth keeping in mind that a non-indexed link could also mean that it is on a new domain that nobody has linked to yet or it has a problem in the robots.txt or meta robots tag. It is worth checking these things before you condemn the link completely. Having said that, a domain that is not indexed in Google will have no SEO benefit, so removing it is the better option if you are unsure. The example I gave above was a TOX1 link.
4.2 Your link is on a domain which is very weak because of a penalty
As we discussed above, a domain that has CEMPER Power*Trust™ Domain = 0 could be a new domain, a weak domain, but could also mean that it has a penalty.
4.3 The link is on a page that doesn’t rank for its own title
If a page isn’t ranking for its own title in the first 30 pages of Google then there is something seriously wrong with it. This almost certainly means that it has a penalty. The exception to this might be if the page has a very common generic title like ‘Partners’ or ‘Home’ which will have a hard time ranking for these terms.
4.3.1 How to check with the Back Link Profiler ( BLP)
If you run a BLP Report you will need to enable the extra metric TitleRank, then you can sort the report to display:
Page has CEMPER TitleRank™ 30+,
CEMPER Power*Trust™ Domain < 5 and
CEMPER Power*Trust™ < 5
4.3.2 How to check with Link Detox
The report by Link Detox will trigger a SUSP4 rule which means that the page the link comes from does not rank for the title of the page which is usually a sign that this page or domain is being penalized. SUSP4 is surprisingly common in a Link Detox report, especially where there has been a lot of automated link building.
4.4 The link is on a page with no Google PageRank
Google PageRank™ is becoming more inaccurate and unreliable and most SEO experts no longer regard it as a metric they can trust. However it is unusual to see any established web site with no Google PageRank™ at all. If a site has no Google PageRank™ but has some weak links to it that is even more suspicious.
4.4.1 How to check with BLP
When you run a BLP you can select Legacy Link Metrics in the extra metrics section. The Legacy Link Metrics will show you ACrank and PR. Link Research Tools say, “Google PageRank and Majestic ACrank are legacy link metrics we don’t recommend you to base your decisions on for a variety of reasons. These metrics are replaced now by the new ‘Power’ metric, which is more accurate, more up to date and more consistent. In conjunction with the ‘Trust’ metric the evaluation of links is a lot better than any of these legacy metrics.”
So filter by
PR = n/a to n/a
4.4.2 How to check with Link Detox
A Page that has no PageRank but does have at least some weak links will trigger the SUSP14 rule in Link Detox. The SUSP14 means that this link has no Google PageRank. This could be a sign Google has penalized this site from the search engines. Google PageRank is becoming more inaccurate and unreliable for most SEO purposes, but it does have some uses like this for determining if a site has a penalty or not.
4.5 The link is on a page that has been banned from Google
A site that is banned from Google is never going to be a good link. Link detox can easily identify these by look for a site that no longer has any rankings in Google, but has a CEMPER Power*Trust™ >0.
A link like this will trigger the SUSP27 rule.
5. Is the link on a domain associated with a bad neighbourhood?
This makes a lot of sense. If for example you have a web site about good parenting, you wouldn’t want links from porn and gambling sites would you? It is all a matter of being aware of your neighbourhood and who you appear to be associated with.
5.1 Domain’s Theme is listed as suspicious (Hacking, Suspicious or Pornography) or high risk
Most webmasters aren’t looking for links from hacking or porn sites, but if you run a porn site, then maybe you would. This is where the classifying of the theme of your site is very important in Link Detox.
Even after classifying WilliamHill.com as a site about gambling, this link was flagged as being on a suspicious domain. This is on a Polish URL, http://rimuwonox.pev.pl/bet-on-horses-live-video.php linking to http://sports.williamhill.com/bet/en-gb/realtime
It doesn’t look like a good link for sure, a site about accommodation in Madrid (Spain) doesn’t really need to have links to a British sports betting site. Link Detox is very good at detecting suspicious themes.
5.1.1 Checking for suspicious themes with Link Detox
Link Detox will show the SUSP5 rule being triggered which means that the theme of the domain has been listed as Hacking, Suspicious or Pornography. For most webmasters, links from these type of websites are not what they want.
5.1.2 Checking for a high risk score associated with the URL
If the SUSP20 rule is triggered it means that a high risk score has been detected for this link and it is recommended that you review these links carefully, the higher the risk score the higher the probability that you should get rid of these links.
6. Is the link on a spammy directory?
Despite everything SEOs were told until 2012, directory links are now mostly worthless. Anybody who tells you that a money anchor text link in the resource box of an EzineArticle is a white hat link is wrong. But it is not just article directories.
6.1 Link Directory Links
For many years SEOs would fill link directories with their links. Quite often it wouldn’t be just one link to the home page, but multiple pages within the same link directory. In Link Detox the SUSP15 rule means that these links are coming from typical web link directories. These directories have obvious footprints. The only purpose of these directories was to artificially inflate link popularities and/or sell links. Although this used to work for SEOs it cannot be recommended these days.
Here is an example of a Link Directory link. Yes I will hold my hands up and admit it is one of mine again! This is http://www.free-link-directory.info/detail/link-81908.htm linking to http://www.motorhomesdirect.co.uk/motorhome-hire/motorhome-hire-7/. Looking at this sort of link in 2014 it is hard to believe that links like this ever had any value, but they did!
6.2 Article Directory Links
The SUSP16 means these links are coming from typical article directories which were the successor of link directories and often also automatically filled with useless articles just to get a link from as many domains as possible. Often these article directory pages were furthermore linked with spam links to increase their inbound links and thus make those otherwise useless pages more helpful. While this was usual practice for years for many SEOs it cannot be recommended these days. Here’s an example of one of mine, this is http://www.amazines.com/Travel_and_Tourism/article_detail.cfm/1759418?articleid=1759418 linking to http://www.motorhomesdirect.co.uk/.
6.3 Links coming from typical link voting directories
The SUSP26 rule means that it’s a link coming from link voting directories and is a common way to inflate link popularities and/or sell links which is not recommended anymore. I couldn’t resist sharing this example that I built years ago, but would be insane to use now. This is http://www.mytoplist.gen.tr/story.php?id=28083 linking to http://www.motorhomesdirect.co.uk/location/north-east-england/ with the anchor text ‘Fast Tips for Learning German’ – what on Earth was I thinking!
7. Is the link on a page with a massive amount of outgoing links?
The SUSP17 rule means that this page has more than 1,000 outgoing links. This could be a sign for a spammy blog or directory. Please ensure that you review these links carefully.
Here is an example of such a page, this is http://www.gyygle.com/detail.html which links to 1,486 URLs. You can see this number by enabling the ExtL Metric.
8. Is the link anchor text unnatural or suspicious?
I think we can all spot ridiculous unnatural anchor text now, but sometimes it really isn’t quite as obvious as you may think. Unnatural and suspicious link anchor text may also be flagged as a result of not just one link, but multiple links when they are considered collectively. Sitewide links are no longer a good thing and unnatural deep link ratios can stand out too. Again, by far the best tool for this is Link Detox which uses calculations of metrics, its own cross referencing with databases and its own secret algorithm.
8.1 Is the link highly unnatural?
Highly unnatural? What’s that? If you are using Link Detox to check your links you may see the TOX3 rule has been triggered for some links. This means that the Link Detox Genesis™ algorithm classified this link as very unnatural. Link Research Tools recommend removing links like these or disavowing them using the Google Disavow Tool. Sometimes I have a problem convincing clients that a TOX3 link is bad, especially when it looks legitimate. The truth is that I have submitted reconsideration requests to try and clear manual spam actions, only to find that Google come back with sample links that still violate their guidelines. More often than not these are TOX3 links. Here is an example on http://aaa.ukdirectorylist.co.uk/9510/iPhonefixed.html which is linking to http://www.iphonefixed.co.uk/
8.2 Sitewide Footer Links
Sitewide links in the footer of the page will trigger the SUSP11 rule in Link Detox. Today it is not likely that somebody will offer or try to sell you a sitewide link, but if they do it really isn’t worth it. Big brands might be able to get away with it, but for the rest of us it is probably more of risk than a benefit.
Here’s an image used by WilliamHill.com on a domain from Belarus http://www.pokerist.by/payment-systems/ linking to http://poker.williamhill.com/ru/ – because this image is sitewide and in the footer, it is not a good place for a link to be. There are 1,653 instances of this here.
8.3 Hidden image links
Hidden images will trigger the SUSP25 rule in Link Detox. A hidden image link is usually a sign of bad linking tactics. The example below is actually a poor link on http://kansaionsen.blogspot.fr/2011/07/sento-in-china-facing-same-problems-as.html linking to http://www.retailmenot.com/view/ascentive.com which is about discount coupons for computer software. It is a dreadful link, but the hidden image is just a missing avatar on the comment. Nevertheless if you read this https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66353?hl=en from the Google Webmaster guidlines you will read “Hiding text or links in your content to manipulate Google’s search rankings can be seen as deceptive and is a violation of Google’s Webmaster Guidelines.”
8.4 Are you overdoing the Money Keyword anchor text?
This is where you need to consider the link profile as a whole. With Link Detox the SUSP28 rule will be triggered if the money keyword’s anchor text is found in more than 5% of the link profile. In these ‘Post Penguin’ times most of us are now aware that a low percentage of anchor text money links is the way to go, but some old school SEOs will still want to overdo them. Don’t!
8.5 Are you overdoing the Compound Keyword anchor text?
Just like the Money Keyphrase anchor text you want to make sure that you are not overdoing your Compound Keyword anchor text. Compound Keywords are phrases like “iPhone screen replacement by iPhonefixed.co.uk” If you have more than 5% of these in your link profile the SUSP29 rule will be triggered in Link Detox.
8.6 Is the link on a spammy forum?
Spamming tools that we all used pre-Penguin like SENukeX and XRumer traditionally spammed lots of forums. These are now well known to our favourite search engine, so if you have links from these forums you need to be careful. Links with anchor text classified as Brand, Money or Compound coming from these sort of forums will trigger the SUSP30 rule in Link Detox. Generally links like this are to be avoided.
9. Is the link on a domain that is part of a link network?
Link networks have been around for years now and many services did very well over the years, such as Linkvana and BuildMyrank. Linkvana and BuildMyRank were considered to be completely white hat, legitimate services until Penguin. Google has taken no prisoners with these link networks and destroyed each one in turn. Google continues to do so and this has forced the link networks more underground, like the elusive Russian SAPE network and ones that crop up from time to time in the Warrior Forum. Blackhat SEOs will continue to use their own link networks and Google will get more clever and eventually penalise the networks. If you decide to use these sort of services, you have to be responsible for your own actions and manage the risk. You must treat every day you get traffic as if it is your last one, it could all be gone tomorrow.
It is possible that you could have used some bad SEO companies in the past who put your links on their own private link networks without you knowing. If this is the case there are a few things you can easily check.
9.1 Does it have the same IP or Class C IP as some of your other links?
I know we have all been tempted by the ‘shiny objects’ in places like the Warrior Forum. Offers promising undetectable, high PR, Penguin Friendly links that are going to skyrocket your site to #1 in Google are sometimes hard to resist! Cheap private networks don’t even bother to spread their hosting around different IPs properly.
IP addresses have a format that has an IP address which is made of 4 numbers separated by dots as in aaa.bbb.ccc.ddd, each number ranges from 0 to 255. This is the IPv4 format. If the ‘ccc’ block of the IP address appears too often in a link profile this could raise a flag.
The SUSP7 rule is triggered if multiple links have the same IP address, which could mean that it is a link coming from a possible spammy link network.
The SUSP8 rule means that it has detected links coming from the same C-Class IP address as other linking domains.
Link Detox will trigger the SUSP3 rule for links that are:
on a page which has more than 10 backlinks from 1 Class-C,
has a CEMPER Power*Trust™ Domain < 5 and
has a CEMPER Power*Trust™ < 5
9.2 Do you have links that come from domains with the same domain name registrant?
You would think it unlikely that somebody would use their own name as the registrant on multiple domains in a private link network, but it does happen. In my case study from April 2014 I uncovered some link networks from India that were linking to WilliamHill.com. These were ridiculously easy to spot as all the domains were registered by the same individual.
In Link Detox, the SUSP6 rule may be triggered to alert you to a possible link network. SUSP6 means that Link Detox has detected links coming from the same domain name registrant as other linking domains. This normally means that the links are possibly from a link network. You should always be aware of your neighbourhood.
9.3 Do you have links that come from domains with the same domain name server?
The SUSP9 rule means that it has detected links coming from the same DNS (Domain Name Server) as other linking domains. It is possible that you just happen to have a lot of links from a sites that use a large shared hosting company like HostGator, where they have generic Name Server values for large numbers of sites. It is probably more than likely that some of your links are coming from very simple link networks that share the same DNS.
9.4 Does the source domain have a negative Link Velocity?
If you have a link on a page from a domain which has a Link Velocity Trend < -70% this is probably part of an expired domain link network or a domain that the public has lost interest in. Eitherway this is going to be a very suspicious link.
A negative Link Velocity like this is easy to spot with Link Detox. The SUSP10 rule will be triggered meaning that the domain has a Link Velocity trend dropping by 70%. Link Detox does this in a rather ingenious way by analysing the link growth of every domain and if the link growth of the last 4 months is significantly smaller than it was in the last 12 and 24 months, the SUSP10 will come into play. This is usually a sign that the domain has been abandoned by the current owner. This has been a common occourance since Penguin has became part of our SEO lives.
9.5 Does the source domain have the same Google Analytics code as other linking domains?
The SUSP12 rule in Link Detox means that the domain name has the same Google Analytics code as other linking domains. If multiple domains have the same Google IDs then it is a strong signal of a possible link network. A legitimate, but debatable, use of the same GA code over and over could be derive from somewhere like a web design agency. A web design agency could feasibly have lots of clients that they like to manage with the same GA account. The question you might ask then is “why are they all linking back to the same place?”. Usually web design agencies that do this are the same ones who put ‘Cheap Web Design by Terrible SEO Company’ in their client’s sitewide footers.
9.6 Does the source domain have the same Google Adsense code as other linking domains?
I haven’t seen this for a long time, but around 2006 I became interested in a company based in Texas called webhostforseo.com which was founded by Todd Spears. Todd is extremely knowledgeable about webservers, server security and blackhat linking techniques. I was stunned when I heard somebody talk about Adsense on one of the unofficial training videos about building your own blog network. It wasn’t Todd, but they went though buying domains with Privacy, using different Class C IPs and posting unique content on the blog network. Not bad so far, I thought and then he said “So if you have all these blogs you may as well monetize them with Adsense”. I knew then that was sheer insanity! “Hey Google I’ve just built a blog network with 50 blogs that all belong to me!”
Most people running private link networks, stopped using Adsense when it stopped making cents and stopped making sense!
In Link Detox the SUSP13 rule means that the domain name has the same Google Adsense Publisher ID as other linking domains. If multiple domains have the same Google IDs then it is a strong signal of a possible link network.
9.7 Does the source domain have the same Website Footprints as other linking domains?
This is one of the top secret areas of Link Detox, which makes it the only tool that can be relied upon to work out if there are too many similar footprints in your linking domains. Link Detox will trigger the SUSP22, SUSP23 and the SUSP24 rules meaning that the Link Detox Genesis™ footprint detection found this domain to be closely related to other domains that link to you. This is often the case when the majority of your links come from similar sources like WordPress, Wikis or a certain kind of CMS.
Conclusion
If you have managed to read through all of this, congratulations! Checking the quality of a link is not easy at all. We have seen that there are a multitude of factors that can affect the quality of a link. To make things more complicated, sometimes you can’t consider one link on its own, but you must consider the impact this link will have when you are taking the rest of your links into account.
The one tool that shines is Link Detox as this is an incredibly powerful tool that does all the hard work for you. Even better is the fact that you can use it to check links you already have as well as links that you think you might be able to get, before you even go to the trouble of getting them. Getting high quality links has never been easy and it is getting harder, but Link Detox can really help.
If you have a great site that gets lots of links naturally because people love your content, you might have a different problem. If you are acquiring links that you have no control over you need to have a regular Link Detox schedule to make sure you are not inadvertently putting your site at risk.
If you have not used Link Research Tools yet, especially Link Detox, I think you know what you need to do next.
What do you think?
We appreciate hearing your comments!
This case study was written by Rick Lomas, Owner at Indexicon, and proud user of Link Research Tools and Link Detox.
A word from Christoph C. Cemper
This analysis was conducted and written by Certified LRT Professional, Rick Lomas, who has taken the next step to become a Certified Link Research Tools Xpert.
Rick demonstrated his expertise in creating a complete guide with helpful tips for a link quality check using the LinkResearchTools and Link Detox. He is only one case study away from getting his Xpert certification. Therefore, I’m very happy to share his research with you and encourage him on his way to becoming an LRT Xpert.
Our goal is to provide our user community and clients with quality service and knowledge. Our Certified LRT Professionals and Xperts are key to achieving this goal.
I look forward to Rick Lomas’s future work, and I personally recommend working with him whenever you get the opportunity.
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