Welcome to this week’s podcast episode In this episode we are going to be Talking about a topic that is becoming Increasingly an issue for anyone that Does link building and that is selecting Your link targets because link building Is changing link sellers are getting Smarter and Link Farms are getting Smarter and quite often I’ve been fooled By buying a link on an obvious thing From that I would never have said yes to Because some of the metrics that we have Historically looked at Etc are being Traded and so we’re going to be talking About that in this episode if you are Building links you have to watch this Episode it’s going to help you a lot and Maybe avoid you some trouble so I’m not Gonna tease you more Everyone welcome to the Atari Haka Podcast in today’s episode we are going To be talking about something that I Think is going to be interesting to a Lot of people who are listening to this We’re going to be talking about link Farms and we’re going to be talking About link building in general but the Fact that more and more size that you’re Most likely are reaching to and getting Links from all in farms at this point And they might not do what you want to Your rankings and I actually asked Marketers before this episode like what A major should take to like get started
And the image I had was I think link Farms are the best proof That free market is the best way to push The Innovation forward because all these Link Farms have been changing so much Recently and nobody’s talking about this In the industry uh and honestly they’ve Fooled us quite a few times in the last Few months making us believe they were Real sites when they were not real sites And we’ll show you exactly what folders And what we got we got got essentially And that was quite interesting so we’re Going to share that experience with you We’re going to share with you the Learnings we have and probably the size You should avoid getting such bangings From but before that you know what’s Coming how’s it going Mark well I love First of all how you say that I somehow Approved that analogy when it was like Between one of your your two bad choices And then I I didn’t actually approve of It but sure enough that’s approving for Me let’s go let’s go with the the free Market economy causes causes link the Other one was like Vari and zero zero Involved so yeah I think I think that’s that’s fine I think let’s Stick with that but anyway people don’t Are not here to listen about the free Market there’s like a free economies for Economics for that it’s a much better Podcast
I’m not sure which one you would be Listening to but uh let’s talk about Link building here because that’s how People want to hear about uh and so I want to start with some stats because Actually we recently did the link Building survey and uh people have like Working with the process of processing The results right now so we’re going to Be giving you guys a bunch of insights On the link building Market in a few Weeks like uh the writers are still Working on it scrunching the stats Etc But 50 to 60 of all the participants in That survey which is almost 800 people Uh are doing guest posting as a link Building strategy and I think that was The number one link building strategy That uh people were using across Everything basically so that was the Most used tactic and about 80 of the People who uh do guest posting uh were Paying for guests so if you’re not Paying for guest posts you’re in a Minority at this point four out of five People are paying for guest posts when They’re doing guest posting so when Someone says on Twitter they’re doing Guest posting they’re most likely paying For it even though they might not Necessarily state it but there’s one in Five chances they’re not paying so just Don’t judge them too quickly and then For those who don’t pay people that
People say and basically that they are In the news for its risky or too Difficult to pay that they are not able To find good paid opportunities so They’re open to the idea where they just Can’t find it and I think they might you Know essentially have had some of the Thoughts we’re going to talk about in This podcast or that they couldn’t find Like Niche specific sites uh in uh in a Niche basically and they didn’t want to Get things from generic side so that is That gives some context like guest Posting it’s hot right now let’s just Say that it’s it wasn’t so much like Pbns were more of the rage like three Four years ago and now I don’t hear About pbn’s that much anymore although I Think a lot of guest posting is PBS this Day I think we could say that uh Exactly they’re like a commit variance Is a great analogy and Um and so like I think these two have Kind of merged at the low end of the Market and and I is and that’s what’s Happening and and now everything’s a Guest post but nothing’s really guest Post Um so explain to us maybe what the Problem is with these link farms and Like why we should be avoiding them yeah So basically this this all comes back to Your free market analogy at the start Right SEO you like it seo’s value links
Highly and rightfully so because Evidence has shown that the links Dramatically improve rankings Um but it didn’t take long for site Owners to catch on to this and I Remember five six years ago doing Outreach campaigns and getting loads of Free links for mediocre affiliate Websites whereas these days the vast Majority of people you Outreach to below A certain threshold are going to come Back to you with a price offer so They’ll be selling links and this Like dichotomy has been made worse by The uh in certain niches the CB like Such a CBD you can’t buy ads so the only Way to promote is through doing SEO and Through doing link building other niches Such as Casino very difficult to get Links naturally or for from bloggers From legit size so you tend to have to Buy links so there’s this huge budget And like amount of demand that’s that’s Cropped up over the last few years Um particularly from CBD I might on my Ad and there has thus been a selection Or a section of site owners or perhaps They were former Um pbn owners or some combination of of Two have realized they can make a lot of Money selling links to these people Um and so people have started building Huge businesses around this like I know One travel blogger uh who built I think
It was over a hundred websites uh in This in in that space selling links and This was going back many years ago now When we did a recent hiring spree for a Link building role several of the Applicants who applied actually worked For companies who were essentially link Farms so we got a bit of an interesting Insight into how they operate as well Actually the scale they they work on Yeah writer is another one as well for Sure so in a way these link Farms are Really just a reaction to to what people Want links are hard so they can be Commoditized and bought and sold easily And Quantified using metrics such as Dr There’s going to be a market for them uh The difference is a high uh profit Margin on them huge yeah a lot of money To be made in in this space Um now the difficulty in 2022 is Spotting them because if you go back Just a few years they all look the same Uh they weren’t very well designed they Stood out a mile you could literally Just look at the home page and yeah it’s Probably a link farm and that was that But of course free market economy uh Link Farmers the people running these Sites adapt and the sites have gotten Better and better to the point where the There’s this big gray area in the middle That’s it’s actually really difficult to Say is this is this a link Farm or is
This a real business that sells links uh And the that gray area in the middle is Is getting bigger and bigger and bigger So we wanted to go through a number of Different factors you can look at to Help you build up a picture of what’s Going on with a a site because this is Not so simple as just looking the Homepage these days I think before we go Through the factors that I want to do Two things one I want to say that you Don’t like my analogy you love It because you just talked about it all The time and second The party line here you started it so I’ll finish it And second Um I want to talk about like what the Consequences are from getting links from Ning Farms because I think that’s an Important Point as well like recognizes Them is one thing but it’s like is it Really that bad to get links from being Found like do they work the network can They help you Etc and honestly it’s hard To give a definitive answer on this Because it always depends it says here Um but I think that If you have too many links from very Obvious link Farms it can be negative For you we believe we have one site Recently that I actually got affected by That I think we made the mistake of Being two lakhs in the links that we
Picked and then uh actually I fitted one Of our sites and that’s what made us Look a lot deeper into that and that’s Why we’re talking about this today so You don’t have that mistake but I think If you build the occasional link from Building from link Farms it’s like was Google just gonna ignore it at best They’re actually going to help your Rankings I don’t think Google flags all Of them Etc Um but I think it’s just something that You need to be a little wary of if you Are doing lots of uh Outsourcing your Link building and like paying third Parties or like you know not looking too Closely to the links you’re acquiring Um because if it becomes a big part of Your link profile then yeah I think There could be risks again it it’s hard Like Google doesn’t necessarily tell you These days you’ve been flagged folding So penalized folding so you’re getting Less traffic for links but From my research I’ve seen several sites That I have done a lot of that kind of Link building that got negative uh Traffic effects from these core updates Basically and uh and I suspect it might Be that but I can’t say for sure and There’s no science behind it so I want To put a big disclaimer around this you Know it’s also when we look through a List of links it it’s not that difficult
To spot the link farm so yeah and we’re Able to do it pretty easily I don’t Think it’s too difficult for for Google To start categorizing these in in such a Ways not only that but Google could have A policy change right we know when Penguin rolled out a long long time ago Now like they didn’t penalize you for The links you built after the update Dependency for the links you built Before the update uh and so like you Know if you do dirty stuff today even if It works you you potentially put your Future self at risk of getting affected By updates Etc so that in general while I don’t think it’s going to be a big Problem if you have a couple of these Links I think you should try to avoid Making these majority of your link Profile and I think that’s good context For what’s coming after basically so now I think you can start going through how Do you spot the lean Farm okay so the First is a very basic look and feel I’ve Got an example here it’s four software Downloads.com and this is what I was Talking about before when I say this is Like the Classic Link Farm oh yeah look I’m not sure exactly what is about it It’s like probably like the text logo That black nav bar that looks like the Default WordPress so 1995 design you Know yeah the PowerPoint logo you know It just it doesn’t look like much TLC
Has been put in into it like would you Read that site if you landed on these From search and you’d land on that site Do they run ads like that’s we’ll talk About that but I don’t think they’re Even running ads right no no yeah so Like it’s super obvious like a site like That not running as I’m like okay see You later well I wouldn’t say the ads on I wouldn’t actually say the ads of Affected that much because there’s Plenty of sites I know but like I say We’ll talk about that but like there’s No way to make money from this basically Other than selling links and it’s like Uh it’s it’s a problem for me yeah I Mean I I for now though I just want to Focus on like that initial look and feel So yeah uh because this is what most People were used to when they were Looking at link Farms several years ago And they could spot them a mile away but They’ve gotten a little bit better Um and I’ve got another example here Um I say a little bit better still not Amazing but uh this one here is soup dot IO and this actually came out in a Recent uh call we were doing with uh With a few Platinum members and uh it’s A really interesting site because you Know it looks okay I guess it’s a bit More modern bit fancier okay they got Some stock images there but there’s There’s some it doesn’t look as
Obviously fake as the the other one at First glance it passes that initial First glance uh test but if you look Closer there are a few more issues one Of which and this is very very common is That there are very broad selection of Topics on the site yeah and this is done In such a way so they can sell relevant Links to more website more agencies Because if you want a technology link Then you can get it if you want Something to do with science and health Or business you can do it and they’re Very broad categories you can classify Most stuff kind of under there if we Actually dig into some of the categories I mean let’s read the categories that They have yeah they have home news Technology business entertainment and Science and health and usually when I Talk to a link Builder that shows me a Site like that I’m like all right let’s Play a game I challenge you to find a Niche where you cannot put a relevant Link on that site like try to think of a Niche where you can’t do that paintball Entertainment CBD science and health VPN Technology banking business like you can Do any sub Niche you want in that and That’s the mark of a lot a lot a lot of Lean Farms these days like they try to Look like these generic magazines and It’s super so like usually looking at The navigation bar for me gives it away
Really quickly these days because and And I challenge you to play that game Try to think of a niche that you cannot Fit within their categories and if if You cannot think of one It’s 90 unless it’s a site you know About like Forbes or something like that Or Mashable or something then it’s an Inform very likely or it may be a local Newspaper that’s the one thing that Might be actually okay but actually Several local newspapers are also doing Farms so yeah yeah surprise and we’ll Talk about that later as well but I I I Want to really avoid making too many Definitive statements like if this then It’s a link Farm yeah because there’s so Many different factors here which we’ll Go through in this this podcast episode And the mental model you have to take With this is that you’re trying to build Up a picture of what’s going on and you Need to look at all or most of these Factors usually in order to to do it Because it’s not always super obvious And we have a few examples later on Which are really borderline Um and and we can talk about them Towards the end so yeah the broad topic Broad topics is is one the next uh issue I want to talk about is the types of Posts which appear on there so I’ve got An example here earthenworld.com uh I Mean you can see already they have the
The different categories at the top Although it’s not too far to a travel Space history not too far removed but Yeah it’s a bit better because for Example business is not there I mean There may be strategy news or something But like it’s not fully covering Everything and that’s I think Introducing a little bit of the Nuance Here you know Or something I don’t know like you know Like if you want to if you if you if you Look at the categories on the uh sidebar However you’ll see they have about 20 Different ones there and they do have a Business category they have a travel Tips category oh here you go um oh yeah I see it okay fine yeah they even have a Gambling category which is what I want To talk now which is the types of posts That you see on the site so if you look At the home page of a site and you see Fifth post down five biggest online Gambling companies in the world Then and the seventh post is how online Poker evolved in the US over the past Years and what games are currently Available in New Jersey then you know Spidey sense starts to go off a little Bit here I know I just said that it’s Hard to draw a definitive conclusions From this but this would be one of those Cases where I’m leaning more towards Actually doing that uh now what happens
In some sites is they try to be a little Bit more sneaky if you look in the home Page it’s actually really well designed Has high value content not obvious link Farm stuff but if you click on any of The categories then often you can see The the real post that they’re they’re Posting on there and that’s where all The the dodgy guest posts will will Appear okay I wanted to ask you a Question though if a site has some links To casinos Would you Like not get a link from it if Everything else is fine for example like Is that like a because I think that’s a Big debate in the SEO world like I I can Hear your dog it definitely would not Get that link but um otherwise but what Would you do would you get a link from a Site that is otherwise good but that has A few Casino links or would you not yeah It’s not necessarily a deal breaker to Have a a couple here and there it’s just If if they have a gambling category uh Full of full of them then no I wouldn’t Go for that Um Authority hacker for example has the Odd link to a casino site here and there Not because they’ve done guest posts or Anything like that I mean we would never Do that but because we’ve actually Talked in the past about some uh really Interesting link building examples like
PR stuff that some casinos did in order To to win some links there’s an Interesting marketing case study so I Covered PornHub as well in some examples Yeah I mean in that context when it’s Done right and when it’s very relevant To what we’re talking about it’s it’s Really no no issue I think where you Start to have problems is when you know Five of the last 10 posts on their site Are obvious guest posts from casinos and There’s a big difference between the the Two there I mean there’s a difference between Promoting the casinos with exact Machenko text to a commercial page and Like mentioning them inside the business Case study very well contextualized Within the post uh not necessarily Trying to sell anything and all push a Specific landing page with a specific Keyword I think that’s kind of like the Way I would look at it but Many many times when you’re like Hesitating It’s usually the the first The the first one right where they’re Just trying to push anchor texts uh and Specific landing pages in that case like I think when I was reviewing for disavow Recently I was trying to like I was Essentially saying well if there’s more Than two or three Probably not if there’s like the odd one Even if if everything else is good on a
Domain I’ll probably go for it uh Because the truth is while in practice You probably know don’t want to be close To this site In practice it’s sometimes challenging To find sites that don’t link to this I Mean if Forbes links to these sites for Sure you’ll find casino links on Forbes Did not want a link on Forbes uh same With mashables and same with all these Big sites do you not want to link on Them so it’s like it’s hard to put a Hard rule uh and as most things we’re Going to talk about is how to put a Hardware on anything but it’s kind of a Negative point I would say Okay so the Next point is the lack of an alternative Business model and this has become Especially prevalent uh recently with Mummy bloggers and I don’t mean to Single them out specifically because it Happens with all Sites but I just need a Misogynistic comment are you gonna get Canceled I just seem to have noticed a Lot of these types of sites where Someone has started a real blog and has Started blogging started writing Interesting information uh sharing Insights from their their personal life Whatever but Because they haven’t really approached It as a business that perhaps haven’t Made so much money or you know just made A few hundred dollars here and there and
Then as they start growing in Dr and Traffic they start getting offers from CBD sites from Casino sites from anyone Doing link building To get a link yeah yeah Um and they realize that they can make a Lot of money like you know sometimes a Full-time income or even more uh just by Selling links on their their site so They start doing that and then They start to try and like do more of That and more of that and then that just Becomes their their business so they you End up with this site which is Or originally well it originally was a a Real site with a real person behind it Um but all the recent posts are just Obvious paid link stuff to office Sometimes they’re mixed as well Sometimes they keep blogging as well Like it’s not so obvious like sometimes They keep adding other content and mix It with paid posts that sometimes they Hide the paid posts and they put only The real posts on the front on the home Page Etc it’s quite tricky yeah that’s True there’s an example here I’m going To use optimisticmummy.com Keeping the positivity in a crazy hectic Life and you know there’s a there’s a Blogger here except the first post is All you need to know about gambling laws In Ontario Ontario Canada uh or the Second one six instances where you where
You will need a family lawyer Um and it just you know you start to Build up a picture of what’s what’s Going on here what’s happening with the Site and what’s going on with the the Business model Um they also have this cassinable as you Can see they’ll say Ad kind of on the on The sidebar as well with a text link as Well and yeah it’s pretty obvious what They’re what they’re doing and why They’re doing it Um and this would be a kind of a big red Flag for for me when I’m I’m doing but I Don’t think it’s just smoking vloggers I Think the main point of this is like Does the site why what how is the site Making money and if you can’t answer That question other than they’re selling Links Then it’s probably a link Farm um so Like that’s why for example earlier in The episode I was like okay this site is Not even running ads because I know it’s counter-intuitive but I’d Rather see a site filled with exotic ads All over Um That that seems to be more real like the The site owner has a way to make money Which is getting page views getting paid With us or getting a bunch of affiliate Posts uh so that the the site owner is Trying to make money from Affiliates or
Collecting emails and then trying to Sell stuff your emails like trust Whatever they’re doing to make money or Like having products Um but if you can’t find any of that Like the first site you shared didn’t Have any of that it was just content Published and then no ads no affiliate No nothing and same with that mommy Blogger site right it’s just like Where’s the money right and if you can’t Answer that There’s no way that this is not a link Farm usually like there’s a few Altruistic people out there left but Like there are likely to be the people That would sell you links right they’re The people who have like strong Principles and uh and they just they Want their site to be great and they Won’t do they won’t like corrupt it for 20 bucks Um so it’s like if you can’t find any Other business model it’s quite tricky To to really trust that website and for Me it’s a big uh it’s a a big red flag If I can’t find any business model with This site so I think that’s you need to Answer that question how does this site Make money if you can’t answer that Question other than paid posts it’s an Info you can also look at factors such As how much traffic do they have like This this optimistic mommy for that 4
000 visits per uh let’s talk about Traffic so well I’m just saying like you Can kind of combine it Um it has four thousand business months So how much money are they going to be Making off of that Not very much so how are they sustaining Themselves well the selling links so Yeah kind of goes let’s jump on to Charge but arguing traffic because I Think it’s a good one I think organic Traffic is definitely a good sign that Our Google likes the website obviously Especially with all the recent cover Updates and Google being quite harsh With small Publishers and so on like if The site still has organic traffic it’s A good sign that Google likes them and I I would say to you today it’s a much Much better sign to see high organic Traffic than to see high Dr or da or Anything like that I think we have a Huge problem with SEO tools and the Problem is that I have this Theory where Google is zombifying a section of the Internet right now right it’s taking low Quality sites it’s killing their Traffic But the Dr or the authority on the SO2 Still stays High because these SEO tools Are not zombifying a section of the Internet Um so like on one end you have Google Saying we hate these sites and on the
Other side you have SEO tools saying we Love these sites I don’t think I don’t Think that’s a fair assessment they’re Not saying that SEO too but that’s how People I think I know but like that’s How people read them let’s just say that Yeah and but I think that’s ultimately The problem here is uh how people Interpret Dr like most people don’t even Know what it is like it’s just actually Measure yeah so it just measures the Number a quantity and quality of links Pointing to to our site Um and that is a problem because people Don’t use it for that they use it for an Indication of oh a hundred is a battery Uh zero is a lower Authority site right Um yeah and They’re not like none of the SEO tools Are removing the bad links or taking any Any kind of traffic drop or or anything Like that into account so while Dr and Stuff can go down if you abandon a site It goes down very very slowly right and So you can a site can be dead for Five years ten years and still have 90 Of his Dr it’s it’s Peak and that’s not Really going to tell you what’s going on So traffic is therefore more interesting To look at it is more interesting to do I mean yeah and I want to I want to Finish on SEO metrics on Dr especially Specifically because most of the Industry at this point uses DL but I
Really think that now we need a new Metric for Authority that you know Combines multiple things uh I know icms Has attempted to do that I haven’t Looked at it to be honest but I know That the authorities call uses things Like uh search traffic Etc but I do Think HRS needs to look at that because We are heading to a world where there’s A Travis vision of things where like What they show the picture issue and What Google actually does is becoming More and more split you know it’s like It’s not the same picture anymore where It used to be much closer in the past Before all these core updates Etc that Essentially kills low quality sites even Though they’re high Authority and have Lots of links you know ultimately though It’s only a small percentage of the Internet that this is affecting Um but it’s a big percentage of the Sites who you’re outreaching to because Most of the sites who are trying to rely On these kind of metrics to to inflate Their their perceived Authority are the Link Farms so the exact target market Which you know you’re you’re is being Affected here And the people who pay for the SEO tools They care a lot about that even if it’s A small part of the internet right and So that disconnect is a huge issue Because a lot of people I mean a lot of
People they are wrong in the way they Read these metrics but You know when you sell the tool and when You build a metric I think it’s your job To do essentially a communication Campaign to re-educate your customers And at like maybe I don’t think they Need to change VR I think they need to Come up with a new kind of like Authority metric that would then take More into account than just things Because I think links just don’t cut it Anymore like you see sites with lots of Links getting Dunked On by Google Um and then they’re just recycled as Link Farms that’s what’s happening it’s Kind of like the the cycle of Life uh SEO version you know well it’s actually Like size size High Authority eventually Like it goes wrong editorially or Whatever or they just had lots of shitty Links they get Dunked On by Google Minus 95 traffic domain drops Someone picks it up buys it on the Auction for like 10 grand builds a Shitty pbn on it slash link farm and Eventually resells links for a bunch of Money tries to get their money back and Make a profit and the problem is the It’s kind of like it’s kind of like the Zombie apocalypse right like when one Bites you you just become a zombie Yourself you know and eventually it Spreads you know
Um and so it’s a bit uh it’s a bit of an Interesting example here of uh of a site Actually European financial review so Dr62 and at one point they did have what Like 10 000 visits or something which Isn’t amazing but Um they now have 545 so if you don’t Look at traffic you’re just looking at Dr it’s a dr-62 site you think oh that’s A good link Finance um but it’s actually More likely not such a good link Yeah so usually I look at two things and It’s funny because I’ve been teaching That in tests for years actually like it Since test 2.0 we have this so it’s Almost like six years or something four Or five or not even a bit less four five Years uh attention to people for people To look at the organic traffic divided By the Dr and then look at that number Because what it does is it gives you an Idea of like the SEO efficiency of a Given domain like how much Authority do They have and how what do they do with It are they are they successful are Actually transforming The Authority into Organic traffic so when you compare size If you divide these two metrics together Um I do that with my competitor research When I want to pick up Heroes because Then I identify the over performers of My industry and we can kind of like look At what they’re doing and Inspire Ourselves from what they’re doing it’s
One of the metrics that we do and I Think now it’s probably a good metric For link building as well I think just Building that metric of like yeah Organic traffic divided by Dr it’s it’s Obviously not perfect because Dr doesn’t Scale in early so like these skills in Nearly I think you could make a more Complicated formula But it’s still an interesting one to see The people who perform and I think if You did that number and you put a Minimum threshold on who you would want To get a link from like if they if they Only get like 10 like even like 100 Traffic power point of the eye it’s Pretty terrible uh so like if they if The if the number is less than 100 then I don’t want to actually get a link from That site or something so I think that Would be an interesting we haven’t Explored that I just uh I was just Thinking that you should probably put This threshold but I think it’s a it’s a Good one to look at better than just Looking at Dr at least it’s not perfect I think someone can do a better job but Yeah that gives an idea and if you want To learn more about uh tasks The Authority size system and the training In there go over to Authorityhackertraining.com and you can Sign up for a free training video which We have which shows you
Um some of the stuff Um that we’re talking about there and Much more as well what exactly is in There Please Well I can see I can see you know this Well no it’s basically I mean in touch With teach people how to build a big Like how to start the site basically so It’s like everything about starting a Site like how to pick a niche how to Monetize it how to uh like build your Site technically all of that so I kind Of the free trading essentially touches A little bit on each thing right so There’s there’s five five or six tips And one is on like Niche election one is On site building and like tools to use One is on like how to build like you Know uh affiliate tables without paying For any plugin for example things like That so there’s a bunch of tips for Starting your site you can take these Tips and build your site and not buy the Training if you want or you can check it Out uh if after you’ve checked the free Training if you want to get more Basically so that’s you know pretty open On that so the next point is going to be On uh traffic drops so there are some Sites out there I’ve got exam an example Here Europeanbusinessreview.com probably Related to European financial review I
Would imagine uh but they have a Dr of 79 which is really good is this amazing Amazing Dr and they have what is it 62 000 traffic which is a decent it’s not Very efficient if we’re using the metric You you created for a stair Gale but What’s really interesting is if we look In ahrefs at the traffic history they Used to have a couple years ago or even Just less than that 323 000 so they’ve lost was it like 80 odd Percent of their traffic in the last Year or so which isn’t a good look I Would say uh and this is a big red flag There and so while they still have some Actual traffic the recent traffic drops May indicate a problem and that will Help us to build up a picture of of What’s going on here okay so the next uh Factor we want to look at is going to be Outbound links so where they’re actually Linking out to and you know we kind of Touched on this a bit before when we Look at the types of guest posts and the Con content on their site but if you go Into ahrefs and look at outgoing links Linked domains and then you sort in Descending order of date you can see who They’re linking out to recently and that Will help you build up a picture of what Is going on the one big thing I want to Say about this is it doesn’t work on the Light plan it’s only I think ahrefs Standard plans or or higher so yeah just
Be careful there so one kidney per month Yeah Uh but I’ve got an example here it’s it It sounds like apple but it’s a v Instead of a there’s a v-ness of avplay News app pull news.com I really Understand what’s what’s going on with That name but if we start by if we look At their outgoing links I mean just look At the stuff in there it’s like Um hospitals resume resume help Um Pest Control Garden Room buildings That looks like a local business Um you know there’s a lot of sites in Here a lot of links to sites in here That look like they’re doing a lot of Commercial Um link building right they they Probably don’t have very good content on Them theirselves so they just have to to Buy links and the fact that at least Half of the links on here are to those Types of sites you know local lock Repair business and in the UK is one of Them and then the other half of the the Links are to kind of nonsense sites like Business I Business Insider USA dot XYZ I mean that’s that’s kind of a bit Sketchy uh so you can really use this Report to to get an interesting insight Into to what’s going on yeah lots of uh I I use that a lot as well like when I Was um when I was also doing checking The disabled from the staff I still have
The auto completion ahrefs I was just Putting CBD or casino and I could Actually find all the outgoing links to Cbdo casino sites so for example I would Just put it on that site I just found Five CBD size for example just typing CBD in it if I type Casino there’s three For example so I’ll give you an idea of Like how to find uh shitty outboundings As well that was one of my vetting Methods Yeah and uh and and once again you just Have to be careful because if you go and Type in CBD or Casino in any site you’ll Often find you’ll find something yeah so Just just take it with a I didn’t say it Was bad I just take it was one way to Evaluate you know uh okay do you want to Talk about the next one or anchor text Yeah I’m gonna talk about anchor text It’s an important one it’s context and Anchor text so it’s like it’s a lot of Text but uh the the two things that I Wanted to highlight is one that I have On scandasia.com which is another uh Quite obvious uh link farm and the way I Do this is I open like a random article On the site and I look for the outbound Links in an article so in this case There’s three outbound links in the Article I you know it’s HR tips and Tricks that will help you manage people Much easier uh then you have one that Says human resource software which is
A little bit completely uh out of Context and then you have another one That’s like no actually you only have Two but like you get the idea like when They said like an exact match anchor Text that matches a high search volume Keyword in there that’s a little bit out Of context so there’s not a bunch in the Post I tend to flag that as like Yep They’re probably selling that links and Then the context as well is the other Example that I have so it’s on the site Called bumpy.com with two PS and the the Post is top psychology book every Student should read okay that’s not a Problem Um but for example they talk about so They’re talking about psychology right They talk in the essentialism uh that is The way to Simplicity and in the middle Of the article they literally mention uh Like the fact that you might be buying Papers online for your exams as a you Know at school or something it’s like It’s really completely out of context as Well it doesn’t make sense basically It’s like they just like wrote an extra Sentence just to put this in there and Shoehorn it in there I and when you Identify these kind of like shoe horned Link in content that just gets Completely off topic then that will give You a good idea of that this is a link Found basically okay great so the next
Factor I want to look at is looking at What their the site’s ranking for uh so If you again if you enter ahrefs organic Search top pages that’s going to give You a list of the top pages ordered by How much traffic ahrefs estimates each Page is getting and I got an example Here the techtarget.com Where 87.8 of their traffic comes to one page And that one page ranks for some term Mephemy or something me yeah I don’t Even know what that is but that is also Not even in English Markets but in Vietnam Uh so they’re getting all all of the Traffic or most of the traffic in the Site Um is attributed towards that one pages That was that was ranking Um and we talked about this in the Podcast a few years ago there’s example Of a keyword it was like zero X zero Zero X zero which is a common Windows Error which people were searching for And some sites managed to rank on page One for that and they’re getting like Hundreds of thousands or millions of Visits in ahrefs Um and there are a few kind of weird Anomalies and certain keywords that were Causing things like that and it seems Certainly seems that there are still Albeit less so like cases of of this
Happening so I’ll always check the or if You have time check a site look at the Top pages uh and see if they’re actually Getting traffic to anything legit Anything relevant anything to do with What the the topic is about or if it’s Random foreign language Um I’m not going to say nonsense Keywords because I don’t know what it is But you get the picture okay the next One I wanted to talk about is raid cards So very often when you Outreach to your Site that looks like a good link Building Target the reply to you is a Big email that seems extremely well Organized that gives you the list of Their prices conditions what they accept Don’t accept extra it’s a huge email It’s obviously a templated email so I Actually have an example that we Received that blurred out the contact Information and so on so we’re gonna put This on screen but you you won’t Necessarily have to see all that so of What we call a rate card looks like and That’s essentially the site giving you All their conditions in one simple email Telling you to send the money on PayPal To this address uh telling you exactly Which what you can do in terms of Linking not linking essentially give you An sop to buy your link on their site Telling you they don’t negotiate even Though they probably negotiate
And then when you see that a site is That well organized and has put so much Store into the process of Link Transactions you can tell that it’s not Their first rodeo that they’ve done it a Few times and so that usually receiving An email like that as a response would Trigger a second check of the website on My end to try to check for these other Things like these you know ranking Keywords like these uh output you know Outbound links what what size the link To Etc because quite often you’ll find That this site might not be as good Quality as you expect it to be so for me A big red card is receiving some kind of Uh the rates like that and an email that Is well put together basically so be Careful Yeah it’s a really difficult one for That because if you are selling you know If you’re a real site and you’re selling A few links here and there if you’re an Organized person you’re probably going To develop some kind of rate card Um and and this is the problem with all Of the things we’ve talked about today Right There are very few of them which out and Out will tell you what’s what’s going on You kind of have to look at a lot of Them together in in combination and Honestly it takes a lot of time to do All this research digging through every
Single site you’re considering getting Getting a link from Um so you’re you’re kind of battling to Find these factors but you’re battling Against Time at the same time Which is which is always always Difficult and I’ve certainly found that This year and in recent years it’s much Harder than it used to be to Definitively say yes is definitely a Link Farm or this is not a link Farm Takes longer there are many examples Which kind of fall somewhere in the Middle Um there’s there’s this example here I Want to show you it’s a daily dream Decor and there’s a uh it’s quite a nice Looking site right yeah so it’s a Dr 48 Site with uh like 16 17K traffic so not Amazing but not bad either especially For uh what appears to be a focused site On on Decker design that that kind of Thing Um so I wanted to ask you Gail if you Have a look at this this site there’s a Is your house infested with spiders Seven answers that seven signs the Answer is yes and there’s a link to it That’s like oh if you find a spider egg Contact a little local pest control Company like Affinity pest control which Is a local local business and obviously There’s some kind of Link building going On there most likely paid we don’t don’t
Know for sure But the context isn’t that bad right This is this was what I would say Falls In that gray area in the middle so how Would you classify that is this is this Site a link Farm based on on what you Can see here I’m looking at it now actually so I they Run ads so I like that but traffic is Growing Uh it’s not crazy I mean being the r48 With less than 20K traffic it’s not very Good let’s be honest Um like it’s it’s not they’re not very Good at SEO Um for this Niche especially it’s an Easy Niche to get traffic in like a site Like that that’s run properly should be Over 100k already in traffic uh if I Look at the outgoing links I’m gonna do My CBD Casino trick I see three CBD sites And I see And and that’s not even a SC2 Casino Sites uh so it’s like that’s that’s Definitely falling in it’s like okay There’s some of these links Um but there’s not necessarily I’m Actually looking at like one of the Pages you have to be a bit careful Though because what one of those cvd Links is not CBD links it’s called CBD Glass Studios which is a glass glass Design Studio it just happened to have
CBD in in their name Uh so this Yeah yeah it’s not it’s not so simple But they are definitely selling links Um like I’m finding it like definitely I See like the casino one at like the Changing face of casino and gambling uh It it yeah they are selling they are Selling links but at the same time They’re they’re a bit smart about it Because they talk about the layouts of Casinos and essentially the interior Design of the casinos so it’s like it’s Not completely stupid to to do it that Way so will that buy like my question is Would I buy a link on this yeah yeah Uh I guess it depends on the rest of Your link profile but It’s it’s not a great link I wouldn’t be Excited about it yeah but you can see How this is one that can kind of you Could go either way with it yeah right It’s not a lot of things to say it Depends on your policy yeah I think it’s Like you need to build a spine for your Link policy right it’s like there’s some Projects so I’d be like no only Great Links and there’s some products I’ll be Like you know what I don’t give a I Just need some links and and catch up my Competition is building a bunch of much Worse things and they’re doing just fine Maybe I’m just gonna go after that kind Of link and it’s completely fine so I
Think it depends on the project so some Projects here some project no I guess it Depends that’s my answer But uh yeah I like to build a editorial Guideline for the links I get to a given Project and like how how do we try you Know and I think this is the ultimate Takeaway which I’d like most people to Have from from this show is there’s There’s very few Rights and Wrongs when It comes to to choosing whether a Link’s Good or not whether you want it Um or not it always depends of course It’s it’s SEO but it’s it’s depending More and more the these days as sites Like this which could be a legitimation Thumbnail it’s depending more and more Sites like this which which could be a Legit site telling a few links here and There or it could be just a very well Put together link Farm I don’t know Um our our existing and and transacting In the in the link market so that’s That’s really the takeaway I want Everyone to to have from this Yeah I think that was the thing it’s Like it’s it’s quite complicated and It’s not like a quick glance yes no Anymore you can’t look at one number and Say yes no you can’t look at one given Metric like even organic traffic you can Treat it essentially you can cheat Everything yep people I mean they’re Answering to the demands of the market
What happened is people were buying Links on very obvious thing farms and People were complaining they were like We don’t want these links we don’t want To pay this much for these things and They were like okay how do we make links That we can sell for more and they Essentially came quite close to looking Like real size but in the eyes of Google They’re not real sites in many cases and A lot of these I’m pretty sure they’ll Probably just do nothing they’ll Probably you’ll spend money and you’ll Just waste it Uh and we don’t want you to waste your Money Um so I would say that uh it you should Put a little bit more effort than you Probably have historically into finding The right link targets for your link Building and that was what this podcast Was about any final words of wisdom or You already did it Um I’m good thanks You’re good all right well thank you for Coming for the podcast and we’ll see you In two weeks for the next episode [Music] Thank you [Music] Thank you [Music]