**by Julie Joyce**
If you use Majestic SEO's Compare Domain Backlink History tool
<http://www.majesticseo.com/comparedomainbacklinkhistory.php>
to view the link growth profiles of a few sites, you'll most likely
notice at least one link spike somewhere. A link spike is exactly what
it sounds like it would be: a point in time when backlinks go up
sharply, backlinks go back down sharply.
Link spikes are of particular concern when you realize that they can,
in some cases, serve as a red flag to a major search engine. They
aren't exactly trends, of course. Well, not most of the time…you
would definitely expect to see link spikes as a trend with certain
types of sites, such as sites that only sell Christmas decorations or
Halloween costumes for example, where on a somewhat regular interval,
link spikes would occur that are quite easily explainable.
What causes link spikes?
Something happens. Yes, it is that simple. Whether that something is
a flurry of paid links, a juicy piece of linkbait, news trends, brand
PR, etc. can be completely irrelevant if there are no other trends to
correspond. With the recent death of Farrah Fawcett, for example, we
should expect to see link spikes to sites like www.farrahfawcett.us
and the wikipedia entry
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farrah_Fawcett>
for her. These link spikes will, however, correspond with search
trends of course, thus making them seem a lot less suspicious. On the
other hand, if we saw link spikes for a site that sells those
animatronic fish that sing "Don't Worry, Be Happy" we might be
scratching our heads.
Types of link spikes occur naturally
News: if it's in the news, it's only natural to assume that you'd
also see some link spikes for it.
Social Media: witness the Trending Topics on Twitter and the Digg
Homepage for two good examples. These are especially easily
manipulated, as we saw recently with the Jeff Goldblum death rumors
<http://searchengineland.com/jeff-goldblum-is-not-dead-despite-what-google-says-21588>
.
PR: whether it's a new bakery opening in town, the hottest new kids'
movie, or anything else that generates buzz, whether it be big or
small, PR of any sort can be expected to produce some link spikes.
Many times, these three will overlap. So what types of link spikes
are red flags?
Ones that correspond with nothing of note. These basically look a bit
dodgy. Without any other corresponding trends, they really stand out.
See above for the animatronic "Don't Worry, Be Happy" fish.
Linkbait is commonly thought to create link spikes, which can be a
bad thing. This is why, when reading about linkbait creation and
execution, you will see loads of advice about how it should never be a
one-time only event. If you're going to do some linkbait, planning to
do more than one piece is critical in avoiding link spikes that don't
look natural. Spikes on a regular basis are usually ok, though, as
they form their own sort of expected trend. If a company does loads of
PR at the beginning of each month, over time you'd expect to see a
trend of link spikes corresponding (roughly) to those periods.
Determining whether a link spike is organic or non-organic is
difficult, which is an issue. How can you tell them apart? I'm not
sure that you truly can, actually, which is part of the problem, and
yet another reason to always plan out a long-term link development
strategy. You can't think of link building as something that goes on
for a few weeks then stops, although plenty of people do. If you do,
you could see improved rankings for a period but then they'll most
likely fall back if you don't keep moving forward.
Opinions expressed in the article are those of the author, and not
necessarily Search Engine Land.
Julie Joyce <http://searchengineland.com/author/julie-joyce/>
owns the link development firm Link Fish Media
<http://www.linkfishmedia.com/>
and is one of the founding members of the SEO Chicks
<http://www.seo-chicks.com/>
blog.
<font size="-1">
Upcoming Search Marketing Expo events you won't want to miss:<ul><li><a
href="http://www.searchmarketingexposingapore.com.sg/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BSingapore%2B2009">SMX
Singapore</a> - July 2-3</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingexpo.es/smx-saopaulo/2009/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BSao%2BPaulo%2B2009">SMX
Sao Paulo</a> - August 4</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/east/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BEast%2B2009">SMX
East - New York City</a> - Oct. 5-7</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingexpo.com/stockholm?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2Bstockholm%2B2009">SMX
Stockholm</a> - Oct. 12-13</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingexpo.es/smx-mexico/2009/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=text&utm_content=footertext&utm_campaign=SMX%2BMexiso%2B2009">SMX
Mexico</a> - November 11</li></ul>Attend a <a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_campaign=SMN%2Bgeneral">Search
Marketing Now</a> Webcast - it's free! Upcoming webcasts:<ul><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com">How Large Offline Marketers Drive
Superior Search Marketing Results</a> - July 21</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com/">Trademarks, Brand Terms and PPC
Advertising: Updates You Must Know</a> - July
22, 2009</li><li><a
href="http://searchmarketingnow.com/webcasts/wc090728">Attribution
Management Buyers Guide</a> - July 28</li></ul>Interested in advertising or
sponsoring Search Marketing Expo or Search Marketing Now webcasts? <a
href="http://thirddoormedia.com/contact/sales.shtml?utm_source=searchcap&utm_medium=email&utm_content=textlink&utm_campaign=General%2BSales">Contact
us</a>.
<div><a href="http://www.superbhosting.net/"><img
src="http://www.searchmarketingnow.com/_images/superb.gif"
border="0"></a></div>
You are receiving this email because you subscribed to a Search Engine
Land, Search Marketing Now or Search Marketing Expo newsletter. To update
your subscriptions or unsubscribe, use your newsletter preferences page at
http://third.thirddoormedia.com/lists/?p=preferences&id=2&uid=f9779113b77d03598707df46ae032f9b.
Or send your written request to: 279 Newtown Tpke., Redding, CT
06896</font>
--
Powered by PHPlist, www.phplist.com --
0 comments:
Post a Comment