Fibre Marketing

Tag: Link Building

A Breakdown of the Nofollow Link Attributes

Posted on by Chloe

In SEO, nothing stays the same for long; a link strategy that works one day may not work the next. Google originally launched its nofollow link attribute in 2005 in an attempt to stop comment spam and untrusted links. The Googlebot didn’t crawl, index or rank internal and external links, but ignored them completely. The rel=“nofollow” attribute excluded a link from the search algorithm, and that was that.

In September 2019, Google revealed that the nofollow feature would begin weighing in on how Google would rank the site, i.e. the content, links and anchor text would feature in spam measurements, but more as a “hint” than an explicit directive. With this update Google could now recognise content and anchor text, and follow the links they deemed necessary, regardless of nofollow. Importantly, Google claimed it still would not crawl or index these links in any way. With this update we were also introduced two new related link attributes, rel=“sponsored” and rel=“ugc” (where UGC is user-generated content). Both of these contain more detailed information about the link.

What each attribute means

  • rel=“nofollow” applies whenever you want to link to another webpage but don’t want to endorse or give any credit to that page in the process. This attribute basically allows Google to treat the untrusted or spammy link, and will likely be ignored.
  • rel=“sponsored” is to help Google recognise those links that you’ve deliberately added for advertising, sponsorships, or other paid agreements.
  • rel=“ugc” tells Google what you consider user-generated content, for example legitimate comments on a blog or a forum post.

It’s possible to give a single link more than one attribute, for example rel=“nofollow sponsored.” However, the impact of a link will be reduced if it’s not an accurate description of the link, for example if you’ve chosen rel=“sponsored” for a blog comment.

The March 2020 update

After March 2020, Google will treat the nofollow attribute as a hint for conducting a spam analysis, and possibly for rankings, depending on just how relevant and high-quality the links were. If Google feels that, after crawling the surrounding content and anchor text, the link is in fact relevant, then it may crawl the link despite the nofollow tag.

What’s the confusion?

Google claimed in its update that links would not be ignored if they had any of these three attributes; rather, the attribute would give Google algorithms a “hint” about the kind of link it was seeing. In other words, data is still being collected from those links to track and rank the link scheme, ultimately having the potential to improve the overall website search ranking. This can be confusing unless you understand exactly why Google has made these updates.

The reason for this feature is to constantly discourage spammers – Google attempts to identify spammy, unnatural link patterns so these links can be properly omitted. The only way to do this is to gather the data for these links so Google can correctly recognise and categorise them. By calling these features a “hint” Google can still access the important data it needs.

To add to the discussion, John Mueller recently stated that all guest blog post links should also have at the minimum the nofollow attribute on them, regardless if they’re paid or not, and irrespective of how natural the link seems (for example, if you’ve put a link in the byline). This claim divided the SEO community as some links in guest posts are included for natural reasons, such as genuinely using a site for research purposes, or the link is included in an author’s bio. People also felt that, if a change like this were ever to be implemented, Google would be trying to have a larger claim over the internet.

Overall the mixed reaction to this change is yet to go away, with questions frequently appearing across social media platforms and forums. Furthermore, Google’s Gary Illyes mentioned in June that more nofollow link changes may be on the horizon.

What this means for your search results

Google will use these attributes to gather data to feed into its search ranking schemes, tagging links with information that marks it as excluded or included in searches. Though Google claims there should be no significant effect on search results, some people are naturally worried. It’s important to remember that even after the March update, the attributes are still just hints.

What should you do?

You don’t have to make any changes, if you don’t want to. You could opt to do nothing and keep using nofollow attributes as you have been. You could always consult your SEO team if you’re concerned about a few key links, however. For paid links, you will need to keep a nofollow attribute or amend it to a sponsored attribute or a mix of sponsored and nofollow.

Link Building During The Coronavirus Outbreak

Posted on by Chloe

Coronavirus hasn’t just affected the daily lives of billions of people across the globe.

It has also forced businesses to make numerous changes in the way they operate. Many have been forced to adjust to social distancing regulations, figure out remote working, and understand how they can keep their heads above water.

That’s why, we’ve been sharing with you several SEO tips over the last few weeks that can help your business get through these challenging times. Hopefully, they’ll also help you to see the glimmer of opportunity that lies in this crisis and help your business thrive.

So far we’ve covered what the coronavirus means for your SEO and why you need to keep creating content during the outbreak.

Today, we’re going to turn our attention to link building and explain why it matters, and which factors you need to take into consideration now.

What is link building?

You can think of link building as a way of building connections online.

Put simply, it involves asking another website to add a hyperlink to your website as a valuable resource for their users. Usually, the better the website that links to you, the better your rankings.

These are just some of the reasons why link building forms such an important part of any search marketing strategy.

How do you build links?

Building effective, high-quality links isn’t an easy task, despite how we’ve made it appear above. Changes to the search engine algorithms mean that digital marketers are constantly adjusting their strategies according to what is getting the best results.

Some of the main ways to build links include:

  • Outreach. Just tell someone else in your niche you have content that they might love then share it with them, then hope that they’ll share it with their readers. That’s it. This can be a great way to earn a natural link.
  • Guest posting. Guest posting involves approaching a high-quality website in your chosen niche and offering to create content for them for free. You’ll earn a link back to your website and help boost your traffic too.
  • Content marketing. Content marketing involves creating content, contributing to expert publications, collaborating with other experts in your field and repurposing your existing content.

There can be a significant overlap between these so most digital markers use a combination of several to help their  clients achieve the results they are looking for.

Why does link building matter?

As we’ve mentioned above, link building is a great way to help improve your rankings. But that’s not all it can do. It’s also an excellent way to build relationships with other experts in your niche, build trust, increase your referral traffic and establish you as an authority in your niche.

Because of coronavirus, link building has become more important than ever. We need the support of community, of other professionals and businesses in our niche if we want to survive these difficult economic times.

Four great tips to help you navigate link building during coronavirus

Although many bloggers and marketing departments have been furloughed, links are still being built. In fact, many businesses and organisations are viewing these times as an opportunity to reconnect with their audience, tune in to the unique needs of their audience, add extra value, and position themselves as experts in their niche.

Here at Fibre Marketing, we’re proud to help that happen. Here are four tips for link building during COVID-19, based on our personal observations and research.

1. Show that you care

Real human connections and mutual support is more important now than ever before.

Because regardless of whether you’ve fallen sick or not, coronavirus will have taken its toll on your life.

That’s why it’s so important to stay friendly, approachable, and human when creating content for link building purposes and doing outreach. Provide real value to your audience. Make a difference to their lives.

Remember, link building isn’t just about hyperlinks- it’s also about building relationships and providing value to your audience. What better opportunity than now?

2. Choose who to reach out to, carefully

Although there are no hard and fast rules when it comes to who to approach for link building, we do have a few tips to share based on what seems to be working.

For obvious reasons, healthcare links haven’t been an issue as they are very timely and can work well if you’re a specialist in a certain field with facts to share.

When it comes to other industries, we’ve seen a bit of a mixed bag.

For example, although travel is an industry that has been hard hit, there have been a few publications wanting new travel content to stoke the flames of wanderlust. But note that this hasn’t applied to every site in the industry.

Again, this is likely to change over the coming months and years as we come out of lockdown and adjust to the new realities of the economy.

3. Consider the most effective topics

We’ve noticed that certain topics have become very popular over the last few weeks and are worth focussing your efforts around. This includes anything relating to gardening, mental health, and working from home.

Clearly, these are very general ideas and could spark any number of possible content titles that would resonate with the audience in question. To narrow down these ideas, first consider whether your business has a unique angle to offer, advice to give, or can provide further value to your target audience.

It’s also worth having a look at what people are talking about. Topics that seem to work well during coronavirus seem to be related to:

  • Social distancing
  • Helping the sick and those in need
  • Positivity and self-development
  • Parenting/homeschooling during a pandemic
  • Technology: how it can help your business to continue and maintain social connections

4. Use what you have

Do you have any existing content that has resonated with your audience in the past and is relevant to the current situation?

If so, consider using this content for link building purposes or editing/rewriting it to provide even more value.

This could help you save valuable time and money and could also help you build your authority as an expert in your niche.

Summary

Navigating the current coronavirus pandemic isn’t easy for any of us. But that doesn’t mean that your digital marketing efforts have to crumble.

There has never been a better time than now to build those valuable connections with your community, demonstrate your expertise and support your audience.

Internal Link Building: What Is It, And Why Does It Matter?

Posted on by Chloe

Every site has – and should have – internal links. Though they’re easily forgotten, they’re a fundamental way of improving your site’s performance in search engines. To put it simply, internal links are what they sound like – hyperlinks that go from one page to another on the same domain or website. We’ll be looking at what they are in a little more detail, show you the SEO benefits and give you a quick rundown of how to use internal links on your own site.

What internal links do

They’re most commonly used in main navigation and allow your users to move around the domain according to a hierarchy that makes sense for your site. They also help distribute link equity/ranking power across websites. Though external links are important – those “backlinks” that take visitors to other sites – internal links are another – and arguably easier – way to significantly boost your site’s performance.

How they help your SEO performance

To put it simply, a search engine like Google has “spiders” or web crawlers that trawl the content and pathways of a site when deciding to direct visitors there. If you publish new content that isn’t on the sitemap and has no internal or external links, then the search engine has a harder time “seeing” it, potentially ignoring entire chunks of content simply because it cannot quickly locate a path to them. In other words, link equity will be unevenly distributed across the site.

Internal links can be a clever way to get traffic to pages you can’t naturally link to in any other way. A properly organised and logically hierarchical site distributes the ranking power evenly, resulting in a better ranking overall for each page. The more internal links, the more trust and equity for your site.

How to use internal links

The best way to build a high-performance hierarchy that’s navigable for both users and search algorithms, is to create internal links and supplementary URL structures. The links can be images but are more commonly anchor texts that the user sees and clicks. Try the following tips to boost performance:

  1. Structure your hierarchy with the most important pages at the top, going down the pyramid in importance. Create “silos” or logical subcategories to organise pages that naturally belong together – each topic cluster is linked to the main hub and so to the rest of the hierarchy. You want natural, relevant links, which will perform better than simply trying to shoehorn various keywords into content. When in doubt, it’s better not to link than to create an irrelevant link.
  2. Use good anchor texts – they don’t need to be an exact match. Make the text clear, specific and as natural as possible in context. Make sure to keep internal links in mind every time you publish new content, and avoid using the same anchor text over and over again.
  3. Conduct a comprehensive site audit to find any broken links, links pointing to blocked or deleted pages, “orphan pages” (those with no links), links going to irrelevant pages, or links written in the wrong format. Alternatively, audit tools are simple to use and will help you understand your redirect traffic.
  4. Don’t overdo it. It can be a bad idea to have too many internal links. Prioritise your user experience and link only when it’s natural and helpful to do so – 10 or so is a rough limit (this page has 8).
  5. Remember that your site needs to be user-friendly, too. Regularly check that your site architecture, user experience and navigability is what it should be, especially if the site is expanding.
  6. You could conduct your own Google search to help you decide exactly where to link from. Use the search operator site:yourdomain.com “keyword or phrase related to page” to see how often the phrase appears in your site’s posts. If you find a keyword with no link – put a link there. Your SEO team can help with this.
  7. Identify your power pages: those pages that have the most backlinks and highest authority. Your most important sites should have the most internal links to tell web crawlers how important it is. A tool like Screaming Frog can help you filter out your top pages.

At Fibre Marketing, we’ve found that Internal link building is simple once you understand the basic principles. As with most SEO, you’re essentially finding ways to make your site as visible, relevant and valuable to users as possible – and this is a question of understanding the rules search engines use to determine this.

A Day In The Life Of Content Marketing Specialist, Chloe Price

Posted on by Chloe

Last month, we kickstarted our ‘A Day in The Life’ series with Search Performance Manager, Ed, taking centre stage. This month, we’re gaining an insight into the day of a Content Marketing Specialist.

Link building is one of the top three ranking factors and yet can be one of the hardest things to master. As more content marketers and webmasters work to improve their backlink profile, more and more barriers are installed, and so the need to adapt and create new strategies is essential in this role. Link building also requires a lot of time, something that not everyone has – which is why many businesses turn to SEO professionals.

So, without further ado, let’s take a look at a day in the life of our Content Marketing Specialist, Chloe Price.

What Does Your Morning Routine Look Like?

The first thing I do is check my emails from both my primary accounts and outreach accounts. I reply to all that I can or note down what needs doing in order to move on to the next stage. I run our social media accounts, so I also schedule posts, join in with online discussions and see what’s trending. Following this, I’ll read SEO newsletters to see what’s happening in the industry.

What Are You Responsible For?

I manage our link building team, so I’m responsible for making sure that all clients meet their targets each month. This involves arranging their monthly outreach schedule, arranging brainstorming sessions for content, testing new strategies, and liaising with the rest of the team to make sure that we’re exceeding our clients’ targets.

As well as this, I manage our team of freelance writers, so I pay their invoices, check availabilities, edit content, and keep an eye on client budgets.

I’m also responsible for social media and our search marketing blog.

What Does A Typical Day Look Like for You?

I try to split my day into halves. I’m more awake in the morning, so I focus on link building. I could be pitching titles for guest blogs, useful link building, going through competitors’ backlinks, or pitching news-worthy titles to journalists. A lot of time goes into creating a natural link profile for a website, so it’s essential that I do this whenever I can.

In the afternoon, I work on a variety of tasks such as editing content, working on the Fibre Marketing blog, social media tasks, paying invoices, and responding to any emails that have come in over lunch. It changes every day.

What’s Your Memorable Work Moment?

When I first started, a team member saw on mobile that a SERP featured fourteen Ads on the first page. We posted this on Twitter, and it went viral! We even featured in Search Engine Journal and SERoundtable. As I was the only one working on social media, I had to spend a fair amount of time responding to comments and retweets. It was pretty exciting for my first month!

My other most memorable moment was building my first link from my trial shift – I wasn’t even working for the company at that point!

What Do You Get Up to After Work?

Alongside my work at Fibre, I also have a few ongoing projects. I read people’s novels, collaborating on edits before they send to literary agents, and review books for publishers and indie authors.

Alongside this, I take photos for my Instagram account, which involves me awkwardly posing with piles of books in public places and receiving quite a few stares in the process. I also run my own blog.

When I’m not doing any of the above, I like to take day trips with my family and friends, exploring different places throughout the country that I’ve never visited before.

What Do You Want to Achieve in Your Career?

I want to improve my link building – I’d love to get a client on the BBC one day!

I also want to expand on my knowledge of content marketing and try out new things, and even conduct my research into the world of digital marketing, seeing what businesses can do to build their brand.

What’s One Piece of Advice You’d Give to Someone Wanting to Work In SEO?

Follow as many social media accounts as you can. Most of my inspiration comes from trending topics and discussions, and it’s also where most of my SEO knowledge comes from. You learn what’s important and why, and the different tactics needed to conquer the many aspects of search engine marketing.

One of the reasons why I enjoy working in SEO is because it’s such a supportive community – everyone shares advice and quick tips, content that they’ve enjoyed reading or tools that make their lives easier, which really shows through social media. It’s what makes the SEO landscape an exciting environment to be a part of, as you can progress quickly and build strong relationships across the industry. 

If you’re interested in SEO and want to know more about working in the industry, follow us on Linkedin to see what we get up to here at Fibre. You can also find us on Twitter, where we share the latest updates within the search marketing industry.