As one of Google’s most important ranking signals, links have seen a huge number of changes in how they are viewed and how they apply. As an industry, we have been encouraged to learn that the power of links as a signal has decreased in favour of other metrics, but is that actually the case? Paul, with access to the link profiles of thousands of sites and literally billions of links, takes us through the arguments for how we should really view our links in 2017 and beyond.

1. Links as a metric in 2017
Are they still relevant and how do we ensure value?

2. Who ?

3. • 1997
Started as a web designer
• 2006
Moved through to the darker parts of
the web
• 2010
Transitioned to affiliate marketing
• 2011
Grew into a link building agency
• 2012
Helped found Kerboo

4. Lets talk about links

5. Do links still count?

6. Yes

7. Thankyou and goodbye!

8. Why am I qualified to have an
opinion on links?

9. I’ve spent 15+ years making my
living from links and SEO

10. • At Kerboo our team has scored more than 8
billion links for their LinkRisk
• We have helped thousands of sites
understand and solve their link related issues
• We have the biggest disavow database
outside of Google

11. Links have become a
confusing and complex topic
in SEO

12. The industry has many opinions

13. Tom Capper
SearchLove San Diego
2017

14. Rand Fishkin
Mozcon 2016

15. Agencies and brands have mixed
experience

16. “We get mixed results”

17. “We hear mixed advice”

18. “We don’t advise trying to get
links”

19. “Links will just come from what we
are doing with other marketing”

20. “But we got all that coverage
and it didn’t change our ranking
performance that much?”

21. “I worry about what we did in the
past”

22. “Google have sorted all this out
for us now”

23. Lets try and get some clarity
on the true picture for 2017

24. Where are we today?

25. Links once dominated how we
did SEO

26. Google began and to some
degree remain a
LINK BASED SEARCH ENGINE

27. PageRank

28. The PageRank (x) of the
linking page is shared
across the number of links
on that page
0.85 represents a
dampening factor to allow
PageRank to decay and
represent the likelihood
that a human user may
stop clicking

29. For years links and their PageRank
dominated how rankings were
calculated

30. In recent years that picture has
developed somewhat

31. Key changes

32. 2012: The change in stance on
links

33. Before 2012 links were mostly
positive for a site

34. So it became a volume game

35. I placed countless paid links

36. http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/it-seemed-like-a-
good-idea-at-the-time-24-pics/

37. http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/it-seemed-like-a-
good-idea-at-the-time-24-pics/

38. http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/it-seemed-like-a-
good-idea-at-the-time-24-pics/

39. http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/it-seemed-like-a-
good-idea-at-the-time-24-pics/

40. http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/it-seemed-like-a-
good-idea-at-the-time-24-pics/

42. • Penguin
• Manual actions (Link penalties)
• Methods of link value negation

43. 2016: a change in how search is
actually delivered

44. Amit Singhal resigns

45. John Giannandrea
Replaces him

46. The rise of the machines

47. It is BEYOND complicated now
*image stolen with no attribution at all

48. 2017

49. We have to now question how
and if links count the same way

50. Don’t believe the hype

51. Links haven’t gone away

52. Their role has shifted

53. Qualify a sites trust and intent

54. Qualify a page is worthy of
consideration by the machines

55. Provide trust and relevance

56. Confirm the user data they
already have

57. Proof that links still count

58. Google keep telling us to stop
abusing them

60. Kerboo client experience

61. An increase in links seems to
still provide improved visibility

62. Longer tail terms move quicker
than competitive terms

63. Links are one of the signals
Rather than dominating the signals

64. Tests that strongly suggest links
still contribute to ranking

65. It is VERY rare we get to test
signals by turning them on and off

66. Disavow

67. Kev Gibbons

68. https://www.blueglass.co.uk/
blog/removing-disavow-file-seo-
test/

69. Turning links back on
improved visibility

70. Not brand signals
Not domain authority
Not anything else
LINKS

71. And we have done many of
these projects now

72. Reavow as an SEO tactic

73. • 45 million links + in the profile
• 28,000 entries in a disavow file
• Previously penalised domain mostly
recovered now

74. We removed some disavow
lines and submitted the
trimmed disavow file again

76. With no other significant on-site or
marketing

77. Links were the factor that
changed the ranking

78. It is clear that links help boost
visibility

79. So why aren’t they as reliable
as they once were?

80. Factors affecting the ability
of links to pass their value

81. Google either penalise or ignore
bad links

82. Google have added protection
from link manipulation to the core
ranking algorithm

83. What does Google target?

84. INTENT

85. If you want to educate
yourself on what
Google considers
‘intent to manipulate’
bit.ly/
link-schemes-explained

87. Manual actions

88. Over 9 million
webspam actions
sent in 2016
bit.ly/
webspam2016

90. Link penalties are still a thing
Brands are still at risk

91. It is important to
know your link profile
and take steps to avoid a
penalty

92. Review your links and add a
disavow to insure against penalty
IF you have a pattern of
manipulation

93. Ignoring bad links

95. Penguin is how Google ignore
links they don’t trust

96. Penguin explained

97. Penguin was created to help
dampen the manipulation of
search results

98. Penguin used to penalise the
whole site and was run
occasionally

99. Penguin 4
Part of the core ranking algorithm
Real-time and a real problem

100. “Penguin 4 hasn’t really made
much of an impact”

101. IT HAS MADE AN IMPACT

102. IT IS MAKING AN IMPACT

103. ITS GOING TO BE A CONSTANT
PROBLEM TO BE AWARE OF

104. • Penguin 4 operates at page level
• It removes the ability for problematic links to
pass their value
• By removing that equity the ranking signals
for the page are reduced

105. Google say it operates in
‘real-time’

106. Its NOT real-time
Its progressive

107. • It relies on the bad links being assessed
during Google’s crawl
• And that will have taken some time to
complete and each change they make will
take a while to apply

108. Penguin is felt slowly and on a
page by page basis

109. Penguin is eating bits of your
link profile

110. Review your links and think about
the intent and quality in the profile

111. It is important to
know your link profile
and what might not pass
value anymore

112. What else might be
dampening the effect of your
links?

113. Google might not be trusting
the sites as much

114. Disavow weight

115. We have given Google a LOT of
disavow data

116. At Kerboo we try to use
PropensityToDisavow

119. It is clear that the same
thinking could be used to
provide trust signals at domain
level

120. All of which makes links
harder to understand

121. Obfuscation of the link graph

122. We never have all the links

123. We can’t see the disavow activity
of other sites

124. We can’t see what is being
negated by Penguin

125. We can’t see what sites aren’t
trusted by Google

127. Comparisons between link
profiles are now hard
*possibly impossible

128. So what do we need to
know to make sure we get
and keep the right links?

129. We have forgotten how equity
actually flows

130. Since the middle of 2016 we
have been working on
defining the value of a link

131. Building a new link metric

132. We have a unique set of
modifiers for that value

133. Caveat
This is an attempt to
derive a link equity value
and doesn’t take into
account all the other
factors that could cause
a page to succeed or fail

134. Building a new link value
metric

135. I asked people to vote on what links they
thought were ‘best for SEO’ in a profile
I then ran our new link value metric
It made me think about the value we have
been chasing

136. Score: 7.50

137. Score: 92.49

138. So why the big difference?

139. • Massive site with lots of equity
• Most pages share their own equity across LOTS of
links out from the page
• The nature and pace of content being published to
the site means that equity gets buried very quickly

140. • Big, well trusted site
• Pages have fewer outbound links
• Structure of the site remains fairly consistent so
equity continues to flow down from the root

141. At least have one eye on the
equity a link may pass if its
trusted

142. “What about the domain
authority though?”

143. “we don't have anything like a
website authority score.”
John Mueller - Google

144. Authority comes from the flow
of link equity and a raft of
other factors
(inc relevancy etc)

145. How do we maintain and build
link value in 2017?

146. Know your link profile

147. Reduce your LinkDebt

148. Protection
and general link hygene

149. Beware the cycle of intent

150. What is ideal today could be
LinkDebt tomorrow

151. http://www.dumpaday.com/random-pictures/it-seemed-like-a-
good-idea-at-the-time-24-pics/

152. Links still count

153. You need links that will send traffic

154. But you also NEED links that
pass equity

155. That are trusted by Google

156. And that will remain that way for
the long term

157. • Accept that many of your links may no
longer pass value
• Avoid ANYTHING that could demonstrate
intent
• Remove or correct any blatant intent in your
profile
• Make sure you maintain a clean and
relevant link profile

158. • Keep one eye on how link equity passes
• Aim for links from trusted sites that are
relevant and will always pass value
• Make sure you know every link that you get

159. Its not a volume game now

160. It’s a
quality and relevance
game now

161. Those who adapt

162. Are the people who will win

163. And YOU can win

164. Because...

165. SEO’s adapt

166. Thanks for listening
@pauldavidmadden
Kerboo.com