Comments on: Go Green, Recyle Old Links – SEO Tip 50

By: Hello

Hello — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:30:45 +0000

This is one thing they talked about at SMX also. Going to old links and re-engineering them for better keywords.

By: Steve

Steve — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:38:15 +0000

This is an excellent tactic that is not in use by many SEO’ers, including agencies! I was surprised to learn that I was the first person to go through this process at the firm I work at, if you do this you will be ahead of the game. I’ve found hidden gems in the backlinks of every single site I’ve worked on – spend the time and analyze those links for sure.

By: Feng Shui

Feng Shui — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 20:38:35 +0000

Based on your experience in SEO, how long will it take for a new link with a keyword as anchor to weight on a site’s rankings for that keyword?
Right after the page with the link was re-indexed?

By: DNL

DNL — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 10:49:05 +0000

@Shell: Don’t get me wrong..I never said you are wrong or right. I just pointed out a few potential problems with your method which is great anyway.
Maybe I am too cautious but those were the problems that I thought should be taken in consideration.
And you didn’t mention that client had already 90% links with the domain name in it
Marius,

By: Shell Harris

Shell Harris — Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:30:22 +0000

I still stand by my tip especially when the client in question has such a high number of links with the url already. Almost 90%, so they have plenty of domain name links. We targeted links on high authority pages and we have seen great improvement with this strategy for highly competitive terms involving search terms for “job search”.

We haven’t had anyone remove the link yet.

We have many examples of link building in our link building category: http://www.bigoakinc.com/blog/category/linking-building/

Thanks for all your comments.

Shell

By: DNL

DNL — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 22:26:51 +0000

I must disagree and here is why:
1. Changing an old link on an old domain and old page doesn’t make sense in the eyes of a search engine. Why would do that? – would be their question.
2. Any link passes link juice and you can always use internal links to have the desired keyword targeted on each page.
3. If I offer a clean link to a site that I like and appreciate and I receive this kind of mail-please use a keyword for my links- I would remove the link, not changing the anchor text.
4. Having backlinks with the domain name in it is very natural for search engines so we need those too.
5. Great posts on your blog-hope you will add some real life examples on old classical link building methods.
Thanks,
Marius

By: Local SEO Specialist - Terry Reeves

Local SEO Specialist - Terry Reeves — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 13:33:26 +0000

Furthermore, it is Google who rewards sites with targeted search results based on the anchor text of the links pointing to the site. If this was a “bad” thing, it would not work the way it does.

I have found this process to be much more effective that simply starting a new link building campaign for an established website.

By: Shell Harris

Shell Harris — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 15:15:49 +0000

J.J.
I really try to take everything Matt says with a grain of salt. You must remember that Matt still works for Google and therefore has Google’s best interests at heart, which he should.

On the other hand making sure your links are descriptive is also a good thing that Google likes so why wouldn’t you go back and change the links to make a better user experience. It wouldn’t make sense for Google to penalize the rewriting of a link to help users know what they are click towards.

By: J.J. White

J.J. White — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 14:23:38 +0000

This is still considered to be unnatural in Matt Cutt’s America.