What is a Google update and should I be concerned about it?
Google uses complex algorithms to retrieve data from its search index and instantly deliver the best possible results for a query, ranked by relevance, on its search engine results pages (SERPs). Google updates refer to a change in those algorithms. However, these updates are generally nothing to be concerned about – quite the opposite. The […]
Which Links Are Most Valuable?
It has been established that Google’s search algorithm heavily relies on backlinks, making them crucial to SEO and site rankings. Links are necessary if you want a high page rank and organic traffic for your website. But quality is always prioritized over quantity in link building. A website with good-quality links will get a higher […]
What Happens If I Build A Bad Backlink?
Having bad backlink on your website can be terribly wrong for SEO. A bad backlink can stall your business’s growth, ruin all your marketing efforts and even land you in Santa Google’s naughty list. A backlink is termed ‘bad’ when it is violating Google’s Webmaster guidelines. For the uninitiated, a link’s bad if it’s linking […]
How Important Is It To Fix Broken Links?
Imagine a user lands on your website’s homepage. Great stuff, you’ve got someone coming into your sales funnel. Now this person starts clicking on a few links here and a few links there. Good, that means they’ve got a search intent and are looking for an answer, solution, or product from your site. However, if […]
How can I tell if my website has been hit by a Google Penalty?
Google penalties come in two forms: algorithmic penalties and manual action penalties. You can easily tell if you’ve been hit by a manual action penalty as Google will inform you via your Webmaster Tool that a page on your site or your entire site has been penalized. Manual action penalties are often accompanied by a […]
When can I start seeing results from link building?
The answer is that it depends. (C’mon, don’t sigh!) On average, consistent link building combined with on-page optimization can deliver measurable results in a matter of months. We’ve seen our clients improve their rankings for targeted keywords in a time span of anywhere between four to twelve months. However, there are a lot of factors […]
How important is the ratio between followed and no-followed links?
You should always aim for a natural link profile rather than obsessing over a “perfect” ratio between do-follow and no-follow links. Having said that, there is an optimal ratio you can aim for – as long as you’re doing that naturally. If you’re skewed too much towards do-follow links, you might be viewed by Google […]
Do penalties get carried over in a 301 redirect?
First, let’s quickly get what is a 301 redirect out of the way. A 301 redirect is a permanent redirect of a page from one URL to another. 301 redirects basically tell the search engine to send the site visitor to a different URL than the one they typed in or clicked on. Now the […]
Does anchor text still matter?
Way back in Nov 2017, an Ahrefs official asked Google’s John Muller on his Twitter feed whether anchor text was important for search engines when considering internal links. He replied, “Most links do provide a bit of additional context through their anchor text…” Anchor text’s importance hasn’t waned over the years. As search crawlers become […]