SEMrush investigated 830 backlink profiles for websites subject to link penalties. They have discovered insights that can influence the way we think about link building. Not a ranking correlation study Ranking Correlation Studies seeks to understand what ranking factors are by studying millions of Google Search Results Pages (SERPs). These types of research lead to unreliable results that should not be taken seriously. This survey by SEMrush is not a rank correlation survey. That's why I'm writing about it. Studies like this show some interesting insights. However,
Google's process has not been openly ghost mannequin effect service discussed by Google, so we cannot be 100% sure that a particular pattern led to a link penalty. However, since this is not a rank-correlation study, what is seen may still be noticed and discussed. 1. Guest post penalty pattern A SEMrush study found that many sites that manually took action on guest posts had a specific pattern. SEMrush has observed that sites with certain linking features tend to be suffering from link penalties. advertisement Continue reading below Notable patterns were guest articles that were clearly labeled as sponsors and anchor text that was rich in positive keywords on the links that were being followed (that is, the links that weren't modified by the nofollow HTML link attribute).
In my observations of sites that have been penalized for links, aggressively adding keyword-rich anchor text to links has tended to be a factor in link penalties. It is arguable whether the label indicating that the guest article was "sponsored" played a role. However, most experienced search marketers can agree that aggressive anchor text optimization can be a problem. The combination of two elements: sponsored labels and keyword-optimized anchor text can make it easier for Google to red flag these links. According to SEMrush, the common phrases for sponsor labels are: "This article is Information provided by Advertorial content Posting a proxy article advertorial " I need multiple bad links. " Another interesting pattern that SEMrush discovered was that multiple links were needed to trigger the penalty. advertisement Continue reading below According to SEMrush,