Over the past couple of years, more and more people seem to degrade the value of backlinks in terms of improving search engine rankings. This statement is based on the past Google algorithmic updates which have emphasized high quality and unique content as well as other factors such as social signals. In fact, these updates prompted the rise of SEO agencies offering additional services, most notably building social signals to boost a site’s rankings. Where does this put backlinks in an online marketing campaign? Should you start shifting your attention to content and social signals and just wait for natural backlinks to come?
While there’s a good reason why many people preach high quality content and real social signals, building backlinks should remain a vital part of your ranking strategy. Many people complain about the difficulty involved in building quality links. Not to mention, it’s challenging to find expired domains, bring them back to life, and make sure they last a long time.
In 2015, one tool revolutionized the way people find expired domains. Domain Hunter Gatherer is a software package that enables users to scrape the web and auction sites for expired domains and web 2.0 accounts. But its standout feature is the ability to check the metrics of the domains instantly, allowing users to see whether the domains truly have existing links from relevant and authoritative sources.
Aside from analyzing the site metrics, the DHG Pro Package also makes it easy to find brandable domains or domains with exact or partial match keywords by using the Easy Expired Domains feature. And to speed up the process of re-building these domains, the DomRecovery feature can be used to recover the websites from the Internet Archive. You can set up the domains just as they looked like in the past, making them appear as natural as possible.
You have complete control over these domains, which means you can change the content and links as you wish. And there’s no reason not to add more authority links to these aged domains. Even if DomDetailer already shows that your domains have good site metrics, you can further optimize the domains to bring out their true potential.
Regardless of the niche you’re in, you should definitely add Domain Hunter Gatherer to your list of must-have SEO tools. While the premium plans require an upfront investment, it’s all about making great returns in the long run. By allowing you to register expired domains for less than $10 each, it’s easy to see how this tool can save you heaps of money over the long term.
But even though you have powerful domains, they may prove useless if you don’t know how to build links the right way. Here are three critical factors to keep in mind before you proceed to your next link building campaign.
Link Diversity
Link diversity simply refers to how diverse your link profile is. Are all the links from your site coming from the same domain and IP? Does your site only have links from blog comments? Do Web 2.0 sites comprise most of your link profile? Basically, the more diverse your link profile is, the better it will be in the eyes of the search engines. It is unnatural for a site to only get links from the same source, so you will have to make an effort to create backlinks from as many channels as you can.
Link Velocity
This pertains to the speed with which you build backlinks. Gone are the days when you can blast a site with thousands of backlinks and see its rankings climb within just a few days. If you do this technique now, you can pretty much guarantee that your site will get penalized. These days, patience is key. Avoid the temptation to build hundreds or thousands of links right after setting up a site. It is recommended to wait at least a month before building your first link. And take it slow at first, and then ramp it up later.
Anchor Text Diversity
The anchor text has been abused by SEOs in the past, creating every link with the keyword as the anchor text. This used to pass relevance, allowing the search engines to determine what the page being linked to was about. But recent updates have diminished the significance of exact match anchor text. Think about it: How often do sites link to other sites using exact keywords? A good rule of thumb is to avoid using the same anchor text more than once. Mix it up using related keywords, LSI terms, generic calls-to-action such as “click here,” and brand and naked URLs.
