The Google Disavow Links Tool: Summary of Objective and Use

The Disavow Links Tool was released by Google in October. Its purpose is to enable you to identify low quality links and request that Google does not take such links into account when calculating your PageRank. You can therefore reduce the effect of link spam or irrelevant links on your web pages.

What Links Can Harm Your Page Ranking?

Google lists web pages, not entire domains or websites. However, while each page is fundamentally indexed and listed on its own merits, your entire domain could suffer if you are using low quality links on numerous pages. What is a low quality link? Here are some examples:

Paid links: you have paid for backlinks to be generated by a third party. Irrelevant links: links from pages that have no relevance to your target page content. Reciprocal links: Excessive link exchanges - some may be acceptable, but only Google knows what is 'excessive.' This is often associated with the irrelevant links mentioned above. Low Quality Articles: Links from poorly written articles. If you pay a small amount for a large number of articles they are likely badly written. This will harm your ranking. Comment Spam: Software-generated comments on other people's blogs. Web Spam: Links from web spammer sites Automated Links: Software generated links or automated programs that create links. Contextual Links: You often see these in blue on passages of online text. The links appear to be irrelevant to the topic of the page. These are software generated and can result in your PageRank being reduced and your listing being harmed if they are linked to your website.

Keep in mind that we are discussing links to your web pages. Links from your web pages to spammy sites will also harm your ranking, but you can remove these manually yourself. You cannot remove links published on other websites (more on this below).

When to Use the Disavow Links Tool

Matt Cutts of Google recommends that the Disavow Links Tool be used sparingly and only as a last resort. Matt emphasis that "most people do not need to use this tool." He describes it as a tool for power users, not the home user or regular business.

He recommends that you use Google Webmaster Tools to get a list of your backlinks and check the most recent first. If you believe that you site or individual pages are being harmed by links over which you have no control, you should ask the webmaster of the other site to remove them. If this fails, then you can use the Disavow tool to flag them so that Google ignores them.

Examples of How Bad Links Can be Generated

You made a charity donation in return for a link that happened to be sandwiched between links to a Pharma company and a sex site. You made comment on a blog relating to casino gambling, leaving a link back to your pet food page. You paid for links that were generated from a wide range of websites totally irrelevant to your niche. You belong to a reciprocal linking service that offers you links in return for you publishing the links of others: in each case they are published on 'links pages.' You have links on a site that relates to your niche, but on which many others have disavowed their links. Google may regard this as a suspicious site.

Google, through Matt Cutts, has clearly stated that this tool should be used sparingly and only when necessary. It will not remove the link from another person's website, but will exclude it from the ranking calculation in much the same way as the 'nofollow' attribute does (Matt's words). It will take about a week to come into effect, but much longer to reverse!

Summary

This is not intended as a Google Disavow Links Tool tutorial, but simply to set your mind at rest that it is no big deal to most people. Those that have employed dubious linking strategies in the past, or even that still do so, will have more reason to be interested in it.

What was acceptable many moons ago is not acceptable now, and link-building software services, paid links, auto-blogging and auto-comment services are no longer acceptable to Google. Neither are badly written articles with poor content and grammar, and articles created by scraping the web. You may want to disavow links from such publications.

Google has intensified its campaign against such automatic generation of content and is seeking natural hand-written articles and website information. The Google Disavow Links Tool is just one more way of Google enabling you to meet its requirements. In the words of Matt Cutts himself: "Most need not use it - only a very small number of people, and if used indiscriminately you could should yourself in the foot."

Why Should I Care About Directory Guidelines?   

Organic SEO Services: How to Build Links Without Using the Internet

Not everyone has thousands of dollars to invest in link building. Many business owners have found creative ways to obtain quality backlinks to their sites and get the highest return on investment without even using the Internet. A successful link building campaign can begin offline with minimum costs. Here are a few ways to use offline marketing for building relevant links:

Dropping your website address in conversation is the easiest way to make people visit your site and get relevant backlinks. Mention your website URL when you attend special events, take launch at a restaurant, or go out with your friends. Sometimes all it takes is requesting a link verbally.

Another way to get quality backlinks is sponsoring an event. Nearly every city has a few popular events that take place every year. What better opportunity to get your name in front of thousands of people? If you make a donation or sponsor an event, it is completely acceptable to ask the event operator for a link to your website. Ask him to include a banner along with your link on his site or blog.

Publish a press release in a local magazine or newspaper. Make sure you include your website address. This strategy is suitable for local business owners who want to increase brand awareness and get targeted backlinks.

If you have your own business, join industry trade organizations. This entitles you to a listing in the group's directory and boosts your perceived authority in your niche.

For many webmasters and online business owners, conference speaking is a great way to get high quality backlinks and share their expertise. This type of event usually features contests, live entertainment, and good food. Put together a small networking event and hold it at a local restaurant. You could plan to have a guest speaker, invite local artists to display their work, and offer prizes to your guests. Once you have planned the event, spread the word about it. Send out press releases, contact local journalists, and give away promotional products. Always include a link back to your website or blog.

Hand out business cards with your website address on them. If you are selling hard goods, ask your supplier to add you a local distribution centre on their site and include your URL. Using offline marketing to build links is not easy, but with a little creativity and hard work anything is possible.

Why Should I Care About Directory Guidelines?   

Building High Quality One Way Back Links To Your Website

Getting to the top of the search engines is the holy grail for anyone who has a website and a dream. In order to realize that dream of being ranked number one a person must be committed and willing to put in some hard work.

The first thing that a person needs to think about is the niche they are targeting and coming up with some really great content. It is vital to have content that is both easy to read and gets to the point across easily to the reader.

After the website has been built and there is excellent information placed on it, an individual will need to let the world know about the existence of the website. This is where having high quality links pointing to the website becomes a top priority.

There are many websites that discuss the importance of having links pointing to a website in order for it to climb up the search engine rankings. It is not enough to have just links in bulk these links must have authority.

Google which is the top search engines uses a term referred to as Page rank and it ranges from 0 to 10 where 0 is a low authority website while a 10 is the top site on the Internet for their respective niche. To put things in perspective Google.com has a page rank of 9 so that can give some insight on just how challenging it is to get to the top.

Now the first step in the process is looking for directories that allow an individual to post content, EzineArticles.com is a great example of this and when there is content added a person can add a link that would point to their website. When the search engines crawl the Internet for an update they would detect these links and that would improve the notoriety of the website.

Another benefit is whenever a person is reading these articles they could click the link embedded in the message and that would bring traffic to the website. This is not something that a person could just do one time and achieve success it requires consistent effort.

Each new article that is added will build up the reputation of the website and that will also make the website more popular. Aside from EzineArticles.com there are other ways to post articles which let an individual post on public and private networks.

When reviewing the various link authority websites that are out there look at the niches that are being targeted to ensure that they match the website being promoted.

It is imperative to use only the best quality content in order to ensure that readers find want they need and will continue to come back for more information.

Why Should I Care About Directory Guidelines?   

Backlink Tool: How to Build Links With Infographics

Infographics are some of the most powerful SEO tools in the social media world. These graphics are visual representations of information or data. Using infographics has become a new way of sharing information on the Internet. Instead of writing a blog post or an article that includes lots of percentages and stats, you can create an information graphic that ties it all together in a visually appealing image. This way you can express complex messages to readers in a way that enhances their comprehension.

Increasingly more webmasters are using infographics for link building and SEO. Adding images to your posts makes them more interesting and appealing to readers. Search engines love multi-media stuff. Statistics show that infographics are up to 40 times more likely to be viewed and shared on social media sites compared to text. They are easy to add to websites and they boil down the most important elements of complicated stories.

A well designed infographic that offers fresh information and appeals to the interests of your audience will always be successful at building quality backlinks. One of the biggest benefits of using information graphics as part of your link building campaign is that the links you will get tend to be from relevant websites. Some of the most popular types of infographics are data visualizations, viral visualizations, iconic visualizations, and business insights.

Many infographics fail because their design is low quality or their topic is poor. An engaging topic combined with a visually appealing design can make the difference between high quality backlinks and a wasted investment. If you create compelling graphics, a highly authoritative website will use the embeddable HTML code to share your work withy its readers. You should also consider adding your images to popular infographic depositories, so that others can see them.

Studies indicate that over 60 percent of people are visual learners. Internet users are generally looking at information graphics on lunch breaks or whenever they have some free time. Most of them don't have time to read long articles. If you want to get the most out of this link building technique, create infographics that are attractive, informative, relevant, and easy to share.

Marketing is essential to maximize the exposure of your images. If you are getting information from external sources, let the owner of the dataset know about your intention. He might be interested in any tool created using his data. If you are using independent contractors to create infographics for your site, ask them to feature your design on their websites or in their portfolios. Make sure your infographic has a Facebook like button, a Twitter button, and social network share buttons for Pinterest and Reddit.

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