The SEO & Link Building Wiki

Google Penalties or Manual Actions are issued and often have an immediate and drastic effect on the rankings of web pages rankings in the search results.

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Google Filters describe effects seen in search results when results are suppressed due to algorithmic reasons that Google won't disclose.

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Spot unnatural links before Google does! The Link Detox Genesis algorithm helps you spot unnatural links that are likely to trigger a Google filter or Manual Action Penalty. We’re using Link Detox Genesis in our link risk rules with millions of data…

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What are NoFollow links? A NoFollow link has an attribute that allows webmasters to tell search engines “Don’t follow links on this page" or "Don’t follow this specific link." A link can have one or more rel attributes, where “rel” is…

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DoFollow Links don't exist. Some people mean a Follow Link when they say DoFollow link. Don't be like them. The correct term to use was and remains "Follow link".

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What does Disavow Links and Domains mean? When SEOs disavow links, they tell search engines not to count the links for rankings. Some people say that disavowing a link is the same as putting a NoFollow tag on it, but based on our experience this is an…

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Link Audit is a discipline of SEO that had its debut with the Google Penguin updates. It involves the removal and disavowing of toxic links, link risk management and the overall knowledge of risk factors for you and your niche. Every SEO who already…

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Link Juice - Use 1 Link juice often refers to the link value a link is able to pass on to the target. Many assume this would be only a metric defined by the link graph, e.g. the LRT Power, Ahrefs UR or in the page Google PageRank. Other aspects, namely…

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Creating a disavow file and uploading it to Google Search Console is the first step in invalidating links to your domain. The disavow file is usually created with link audit tools like LinkResearchTools Recover or Link Detox.

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Backlink Profile Coverage explains, in percent of the total known number backlinks to a domain, how much was actually covered in a backlink analysis.

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What is DTOXRISK? Link Detox Risk expresses the estimated risk a link has in a backlink profile. Everything value above 1000 very likely causes a link penalty. DTOXRISK® is short for Link Detox Risk®. Link Detox Risk: find toxic links and…

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Look at the link velocity trends and understand what is the natural or unnatural backlink growth for any given linking domain. Link Velocity Trends describe the change in growth or decline. It does not relate directly to the number of won or lost links. Hence it can also be a negative number if a website still earns links, just a lot less than it used to.

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Link Detox Rules

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Link Detox (DTOX) is software that automatically rates links based on automated rules we develop. In addition, we calculate and estimate the probable risk for your domain receiving a Google Penalty or Google Filter.

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A Complete Link Audit takes all possible link data sources, API integrations, and extra uploads into account to maximize the Backlink Profile Coverage towards 100%. Link Detox performs a "Basic Link Audit" on the links and domains found in the past 30…

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Empirical SEOs are Digital Marketers for organic search like Google that question what's going on, try to understand the algorithms, filters and changes by observation, testing, and experimentation. This is what SEO was original, before the strong…

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Link Risk Management refers to the process of doing pro-active maintenance on a domain's backlink profile for the purpose of having Google trust it more and not run the risk of triggering a manual or algorithmic Google Penalty. History of Link Risk…

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Internal links are links that go from one page on a (sub-)domain to a another page on the same (sub-)domain. They are commonly used in main navigation but are more helpful when embedded in the actual content of a website, to help the reader navigate.…

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Link Crawl Budget refers to the total number of links that can be crawled for one or more domains in LinkResearchTools (LRT) and Link Detox (DTOX). Link Crawl Budget is assigned on sign-up and renewal for a given service period (e.g. one month) and then…

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A "Google Update" refers to update to Google's way of ranking websites in the organic search results. Usually, this means a change to many, if not thousands of websites positively and negatively. The reason why such a "shake-up" happens is that Google…

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Link building is the process of generating backlinks to a website through various methods. By obtaining more and higher trusted links thank competitors, Google evaluates a site as a higher quality website than theirs, if content and user-experience are…

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Link Prospecting is the art of finding new pages you want to get a link on. There are many places where you can search for new link sources: The Google search results, your competitor’s backlinks or your competitor’s link targets. With the right…

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Backlink Analysis is the cornerstone of link building and SEO. It stands in the beginning, the middle AND in the end of the link building process. Building links without knowing your backlink profile is like running over a minefield with a blindfold.…

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A Backlink Profile describes the combined backlinks to a website, in an abstract way. People would say "I have this very strong link in my backlink profile", without specifying which link, and why it was seen as strong. Backlink Profile is often used to…

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The page where a backlink is originating from is usually referred to as source page or referring page. This is the exact URL the link is placed and implemented on. URL examples of a referring pages could be a website page…

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Competitor Research refers to analyzing and monitoring your competitors in various aspects, including their search engine optimization (SEO) to learn from their methods and mistakes. Understanding the backlink profiles of your competition and comparing…

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Link Growth describes when a domain's backlink profile increases by new links (by whatever technical link type). Link Growth it's the opposite of Link Decline. Link Growth is measured and expressed in various units. Possible units to measure link growth…

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What is a ranking factor? A ranking factor is considered a signal or metric that influences rankings in search engines, often Google. Various "Ranking Factor" studies were published by companies by MOZ, Search Metrics, SEMrush and others, that all had…

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DomPop stands for Domain Popularity, or Referring Domains.

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Links are still the #1 ranking factor says Ranking without links is really, really hard. Yes, the external links. - Gary Illyes, Chief of Sunshine and Happiness at Google, October - November 2016.   Links in particular are really important to Google…

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One of the most important elements for quality and safe link building is a good neighborhood. If you read this article you will learn what a bad neighborhood is and how co-citations can lead you there. Hint: it's NOT the same IP hosting block, as many believe. Also, you will learn how to add valuable co-citations for your site and how to analyze these co-citations.

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As a webmaster or SEO, there’s nothing worse than getting a message from Google Search Console (GSC) about a manual action that has been placed on your website. In this post, we’re looking at the different types of manual actions - i.e. Google Penalties - websites can receive and ways to deal with them.

Learn more about An Introduction to Manual Actions in Search Console