Are Exact Match Links Still Effective Post Panda And Penguin

Before we start talking about building links of any kind to a site, whether they are internal links or external links you will need to know what Google sees when you start building links to any of your pages.

We have spoken about Google Analytics in a previous post and this is one area where you will find the statistics very helpful in deciding where you want to be building external links to on your site.

What Is Google Looking At

I am going to mention this again before I continue and remind you that everything Post Panda revolves around your sites bounce rate, so with that in mind lets get into it.

One really big “Red Flag” that has been identified is when you point hundreds of external links at a page on your site that has a high bounce rate, this looks un-natural to the search algorithm which may trigger a penalty at some stage on your site.

This is regardless of what many are talking about with diversity and anchor text it simply is not natural to have hundreds of links pointing to a low quality page and no amount of link diversity is going to change that.

If you have experienced this on your site then the simple solution is to decrease the bounce rate and create a good user experience for that page. Then once you have been able to improve the user experience you can then consider building links back to that page if you have not been diversifying the anchor text.

What Happens To Those Links

Firstly, you need to remember that a link is still considered a vote for your site, however in saying that there are some elements of Penguin that can change that very fast especially if you have been building links to a site or page with a low quality score (Red Flag) and not changing the anchor text to make it look more natural.

Should You Still Do Exact Match Linking

Anyone that has been a constant reader on my site would know that I am not only a full time affiliate marketer but also heavily involved in article marketing. I have seen the devastation caused by these updates first hand and it hurt not just me but many others online, but there is always hope when all seems dark.

As we have mentioned above the very first step you need to take in the recovery of your site or for those looking to simply future proof their site from more updates is to increase your user experience, then consider building links to your pages.

You can still use exact match linking but you also need to consider what other words would be used in your anchor text to help describe your pages to anyone reading an article and seeing your link.

Understanding what you can and can’t do from here on in will save you countless hours of wasted time. If you have “NOT” started to see any form of recovery now then maybe you are using the wrong information which is scattered all over the internet from people who have never experienced any form of penalty.

• Setting Up Your Analytics Account
• Understanding The Penguin Penalty
• What Happens To A Site With A Panda Penalty
• Are Exact Match Domain Names Still Effective
• Do You Know That Duplicate Images Can Hurt Your Rankings
• How To Lower Your Bounce Rate And Increase Your User Experience
• Site Navigation How It Can Effect Your Bounce Rate Significantly
• Get Better Results With Your On-Page Optimization
• Building Links And Growing Your Site Traffic

You really need to understand that these linking penalties actually were first rolled out in Feb 2012 under Panda and only became noticeable to many when Penguin was released, so that has got to tell you that both are interlinked and need to be looked at as a whole not as individual updates.