If you run a search engine such as Google, Bing or Baidu and would like assistance zeroing in on bad guys manipulating search results feel free to email me today. I see spam daily and have since the mid 1990s and would be happy to consult with you and identify tactics which have been around for ages which are still undetected.
Let’s be honest.
I don’t know a single attorney in the United States of America on page 1 who hasn’t given their links a helping hand. That would be like trying to find a waiter or waitress who reports every cent of their cash tips to the IRS. They just don’t exist. They’ve all sponsored an event, issues a press release, donated to cancer research or done something to get a link. Many of these areas are GREY as it is impossible to tell if they’re intentionally manipulating search results or not. But as long as links are a ranking factor, this is how the game will be played. And in all fairness, the best law firms in the world hire SEO gurus (they have to, since all of their competitors are).
But, every day I see sites which are deep in black hat waters. Today I saw a really good one. The site had some great links. By using Semrush and doing some Google-Fu I was able to get a glimpse into how they ranked their site. This was not your average spammer. These people are good. They have a total of ZERO natural links, so they are technically violating the search gods guidelines. And, they goofed by using spun articles. They were so close, but, I believe they will be penalized within 90 days.
No matter how good the SEOs are they almost always use the same anchor text for their backlinks. In this particular case they used a wide variety of anchor text.
This is smart, because any true natural link portfolio does indeed have many variations to their links. In fact, most of the time when I get a link it is for the article title or the text “here“.
Here is the anchor text
Below is the anchor text for the page “car accident lawyer”. As a note, I have eliminated the city name so that I do not “out” the website. But I will say that the site does not belong to any firm in particular, rather some marketing people. I will continue to study this site as time goes on and see if it gets penalized or not. Their links are very creative. It looks to me like this was done by someone who has a great understanding of SEO and little patience for white hat tactics. Heck, if you are the talented SEO that is ranking this site and have a minute I’d love to talk to you.
Ok, enough with my ramblings, here is the varied anchor text:
- legal protection
- experienced law firm
- CITY car accident lawyer
- lacaccidentpros.org
- discuss your case with them
- get a car accident attorney in CITY
- http://*******.org
- hiring a car accident attorney CITY
- this CITY car accident attorney firm
- car accident attorney in CITY
- a car accident lawyer in CITY
- on the *******.org website
- car accident lawyer in CITY area
- CITY car accident lawyer
- this CITY based firm
- go to ******.org
- on this page
- click here
- this CITY car accident lawyer
- their CITY car accident lawyers
- a car accident lawyer CITY
- website
- the best car accident lawyer in CITY
- learn more
- an affordable CITY car accident attorneys
- high powered attorneys
- get legal help today
- car accident lawyer
- CITY car accident attorney
- very good CITY car accident attorneys
- highly recommended
- CITY car accident lawyer for legal representation
- here
- CITY car accident lawyers at ******.org
- CITY car accident lawyer
- contact the team at *****.org
- hiring the best car accident attorney CITY
- info on car accident lawyers in CITY
- at la car accident lawyer pros
- excellent car accident attorney CITY
- helpful information on this site
- lawyer
- a car accident attorney in CITY, ST
- CITY accident pros
- view fullscreen
- lawyers you can trust
- car accident lawyer CITY
- CITY car accident attorney that helps you
An actionable takeaway
About 10 years ago Google started devaluing the actual anchor text (ref: Google bombing). I believe they look at the context of a link in great detail. If there is a good takeaway here it is to reiterate that in 2016 links are still a vital ranking factor and that Google does indeed like anchor text variations.
- Google “Pure Spam” Penalty Deindexes Sites March 6 2024 - March 12, 2024
- What Happened to ChicagoNow.com? - August 30, 2022
- The December 2021 Google Local Pack Algorithm Update - December 17, 2021
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