Aaron Wall wrote up a great post about Google and shopping comparison websites. In his post, he also mentions the current drop in traffic/ rankings of BizRate.com.

“I am uncertain if the drop in Google was algorithmic or editorial, but BizRate’s Alexa ranking is off sharply over the past couple weeks, and if you look at top keywords they ranked for on Google (via Compete.com, SEO Digger, or SpyFu), their site is no longer ranking for many of them.”

While I believe that this drop was caused by a mix of both algorithmic and editorial influence, most of BizRate’s top rankings seem to be coming back already. At least, the stuff that I have been tracking and from where I can see it…

BizRate, BizRate…
BizRate happens to be one of those sites that I have been tracking for a while now, mainly because of their aggressive link buying tactics. They used to have tens of thousands of anchor text optimized links pointing to almost every page on their website. The majority of these links was paid for; footer links, sidebar links and numerous ad box links. You name it, they had it. As you can see, BizRate was (and still is) a great example to keep an eye on.
Aaron’s post inspired me to dive into BizRate’s backlinks once again. I have been doing this in more than one occasion, but this time it was different than before. Lots of the news websites, that were selling direct links to make up for the ongoing drop in news paper subscriptions, have been removing, altering or nofollowing their sponsored links. What used to be a block with irrelevant text links, turned into a Google AdSense Ad. Complete footers went pink because of all the nofollows and direct links suddenly turned into redirects. Even several of the famous BizRate link blocks got slapped with rel=”nofollow”.

Mission accomplished
Google’s October FUD Campaign seems to be working out exactly as planned. More and more ad publishers are complying with Google’s rules and advertisers are backing out of renting links because of their fear for a penalty. Only a few will go underground and some will remain to use the same strategy. However, this will be resulting in fewer direct, paid, anchor text rich links, what will lead to multiple shifts in highly competitive SERPs.

And this is, in my opinion, one of the things that happened with BizRate. Publishers got scared and nofollowed or removed the sponsored links, what resulted in a huge drop in anchor text rich links. This, combined with a little touch of human influence, lead to these changes and a near zero visibility in Google for at least a few days.
BizRate will probably alter their link tactics and choose for something safer, which means that Google got what it wanted.

Building links can be a quite intensive and time consuming process. Because emailing with webmasters, negotiating terms of link placements and monitoring the progress of your campaign takes such an amount of time, you barely have time to build content. In stead of creating some excellent, in depth articles, you’ll settle with writing multiple articles of reasonably good quality.

Below is what the process of an average link negotiation looks like. When you send out a link request email, the recipient of this email will usually evaluate this request based on both the quality of your email and the quality of your website or web page.

So what’s up with the big ass flow chart? Build excellent content in stead of settling with ok or just good content. This not only increases the speed of your link process, but it also saves you from the hassle of lots of negotiating correspondence and will result in more and better links. It also saves you time to write or design even more excellent stuff. Optimizing your link building process starts with improving the quality of your website.

A Google PageRank update (a bigger one than earlier this month) has punished large scale blog networks and similar heavy cross linking sites by cutting their PageRank scores. The update also hit several sites that sell (or sold) direct links.

Some of the large sites that got hit:
Engadget.com (both network and selling links)
Joystiq.com (same network)
Space.com (network)
Problogger (network)
SearchEngineGuide.com (selling links?)
SearchEngineJournal.com (selling links?)
NewScientist.com (selling links)
WashingtonPost.com (selling links)
Forbes.com (selling links)

Not only big websites have been hit, I’ve seen multiple examples of small websites that got hit. Some for using TLA, but not every website selling TLA links got hit. Some for selling regular links, but not every website that sells links got hit. Some for being in a network, but, well, you get the point. It’s too much penalties for a hand job, but too little for an algorithmic change. Patrick Altoft has an interesting view on this, I think it’s a mix of all these things.

Andy Beard has listed several other websites that got hit, more coverage about this subject can be found at SearchEngineLand.

But what about the rankings?
Two comments in the enormous amount of discussions caught my attention, Jill Whalen’s comment at Sphinn and g1smd’s comment at SEO Scoop. They immediately focused their attention on where everything is happening: the SERPs.

Most of the websites that got hit didn’t see major changes in Google referers or in rankings in general. But rankings go further than that, especially when you investigate the link selling websites. Let’s take a look at how the advertisers rank.

If you take a closer look at the NewScientist, WashingtonPost.com and Forbes.com, you’ll notice that these websites obviously got hit for selling links. Direct text links in “sponsored links” blocks aren’t that hard to spot.

Forbes.com
Advertiser 1 (virus related keyword) ranks #4 in Google, competition 12,000,000
Advertiser 2 (printing related keyword) ranks #23 in Google, competition 88,000,000
Advertiser 3 (credit card related keyword) ranks #10 in Google, competition 2,000,000
Advertiser 4 (printing related keyword) ranks #4 in Google, competition 2,900,000

WashingtonPost.com
Advertiser 1 (attorney related keyword) ranks #1 in Google, competition 2,000,000
Advertiser 2 (retail related keyword) ranks #8 in Google, competition 3,900,000
Advertiser 3 (drug related keyword) ranks #9 in Google, competition 2,300,000
Advertiser 4 (debt related keyword) ranks #1 in Google, competition 125,000,000

NewScientist.com
Advertiser 1 (camera related keyword) ranks #1 in Google (UK), competition 102,000,000
Advertiser 2 (moving related keyword) ranks #1 in Google, competition 2,000,000
Advertiser 3 (moving related keyword) ranks #25 in Google, competition 58,000,000
Advertiser 4 (tv related keyword) ranks #6 in Google, competition 404,000,000

While these results aren’t stunningly high, some of the rankings of the advertisers on the anchor texts used are quite impressive. On the other hand, not every advertiser ranks for the anchor text they used.

So who got hit then?
This PageRank update seems like yet another example of FUD. The only thing that has changed, is the TBPR. The PR-punished websites don’t see changes in rankings and the text link buyers also rank pretty high in most cases. So, what kind of penalty is this?

The only ones that got hit are PageRank sellers. Their only selling point is PageRank, because they most often have a poor website with crappy backlinks. And with that PageRank sliced from 6 to 3, they have even less to offer to possible advertisers.

And let’s be honest, is that really a bad thing?

Today, I realized, that in stead of writing about When to Stop Your Link Building Activities, I should have been discussing where to start your link building activities first. So let’s discuss an example of really easy-to-access data you can use while starting up your link building campaign.

The starting point of your link building campaign depends on the phase of your website. There are two possible phases where your website can be at; phase 1 and phase 2.

Phase 1: Your website is less than one year old.
Phase 2: Your website is older than one year.

If your website is still in phase one; build content first (and try to create some buzz while you’re at it). While Jim Boykin puts the bar at two years, I tend to believe that it should be possible to target those mid- to high competition keywords when your website is around a year to a year and a half old.

Hopefully, you’re already in phase two. In that case, valuable info that you can use for your link building campaign is closer than you think; it’s in the 404 error page statistics of the Google Webmaster Tools console.

Especially larger websites, or websites that have already gathered a substantial amount of (natural) links, tend to have at least a few URLs that couldn’t be found by Google.

If you let Yahoo’s SiteExplorer check which pages link to these Not Found URLs (thank you Google for not updating your backlink data), you’re not only able to fix a few broken internal links, but it also might show you several websites that link to obsolete or non existing URLs.

Contacting these webmasters and asking them to change the link is like stealing candy from a baby. They have already linked to you and will appreciate it even more if you let them know that you visit their website and show your dedication.

And while your at it, you can also ask them to change the link text slightly by adding a keyword relevant to your web page ;)

Several clients have asked this in the past and Vinny Goldsmith got me thinking about this subject as well, by writing about What to do when you’re already ranking #1 in SEOmoz’ UGC section; When can I end my link marketing activities?

Well, you can’t pull the plug from link marketing. Ever.

Link marketing is, like most other activities, an on going process in stead of a temporary campaign. Although it may seem like you should reach a finish line somewhere, your link race track is evolving continuously.
Not only do new websites -and thus new linking opportunities- show up, but you also have to keep an eye on your competitors and on the changing needs and habits of your visitors.

Content creation
Unlike you might expect, content creation is key in the process of link marketing. How on earth are you going to attract links if you don’t have sufficient or satisfying content? Sure, you can buy dozens of links (although Google doesn’t like that), but you’ll need good content eventually. The fact that you bought some links, managed to stay under Google’s radar and got some rankings, doesn’t necessarily mean that your visitors like your website and find what they are looking for. You need good, quality content if you want to breach that Link Wall (source) someday.

Link Marketing
Once you have created some content that is both relevant to your website and interesting to (potential) visitors, you can start your link marketing efforts.
This does not mean that you have to start submitting each and every single page to any free directory out there. Contacting bloggers, talking with your communication department about the PR (as in Press Release) planning, sponsoring a relevant conference or adding your company to a local business guide is link marketing as well. It’s a lot more (and a lot more fun!) than you’d expect.

Evaluation
Once you’ve come to one of those dead points (we all come to one of those points someday), it’s time to evaluate. It’s even better to plan evaluation moments in advance. During an evaluation, you (of course) evaluate your steps and plan on future ones. What have you done, what is the distance to the next check point (there is no finish) and what do you need to get there. Answering these questions can only result in two new options;

Broaden or sharpen your focus
One strategy is to broaden your focus. Why focusing on blue widgets only, when you can expand to gray widgets, pink widgets or even regular widgets? If you’ve reached your widget goal, you can try to reach other audiences as well by targeting on gadgets.

You can also sharpen your focus. Light blue widgets, dark blue widgets, marine widgets, you know what I mean. But also, try to get more out of your existing members, visitors or clients. Focus on their habits or needs and try to make a profit out of it.

In both cases, you’ll have to go back to the Content Creation Drawing Board again for new material. Content created specifically for your target audience is the best material if you want to attract those links and reach your new goals.

Link Building strategies are like cars; you have cheap ones and expensive types, there are fast ones and slow examples and while some are built to run just a few miles, others have an enormous stamina. So, what kind of car do you drive?

Yugo a.k.a. The Link Neglecter
Cheap, old and unreliable. While a car like this might be suitable for some, most of us wouldn’t like to be seen in one of these. On the other hand, a Yugo might be just enough to get where you want to go, in some occasions.

Pros: They move forward, apparently…
Cons: Can’t figure this one out on your own?

Volvo Station a.k.a. The Average Joe
Reliable, but boring. The typical soccer mom car. Build to last a lifetime, but (just like with people) those last years won’t be their best years.

Pros: You can hit a moose with a Volvo and still be able to get out without a scratch.
Cons: Do you know the feeling when someone drives past you when you’re driving 45 mph on the highway? That sucks, doesn’t it?

Toyota Prius a.k.a. The Whiter Than White Hat
By driving a Toyota Prius, you kind of help out the environment. This hybrid car has an enormous stamina (34 miles per gallon!) and a high safety level. Maximum endurance, but a slow starter.

Pros: A Prius is good for the environment and will run thousands of miles on a tank of gas
Cons: Although it really is a very good car, is it fun to drive a Prius?

Drag racer a.k.a. The Link Spammer
These cars are built to only last a few hundred yards. You can’t drive a dragster for a long time, they’re built for sprinting only. While might be a lot of fun to drive these types of cars (man, these things are fast!), making it to the next gas station is out of the question. You’ll never make it.

Pros: It’s fun, it’s fast and if you’re good at drag racing, you might earn a few bucks with it.
Cons: Stamina. You can’t even make it around the corner.

Formula 1 car a.k.a The Link Buyer
The car amongst cars. Formula One is the race amongst races. Twelve teams compete for the ultimate prize: The Formula 1 Championship Title. And the team with the richest sponsors wins almost every time.

Pros: It’s fast and you’ve got a whole team working just for you, while millions are watching.
Cons: What happens if someone takes away your sponsors?

Mitsubishi Evo Wagon a.k.a. The Sweet Spot
Enough space for the daily groceries and enough safety to transport your kids without having to worry. A Japanese model (which means: built to last a century) with the looks of an Italian sports car. The ultimate all-in-one package.

Pros: What kind of car has a killer design and can bring home your kids safely at the same time?
Cons: High maintenance.

So what’s up with the cars?
The cars are meant to illustrate that, although it can be fun to drive one of those fast cars sometimes, most people will choose for endurance and safety and end up in a Toyota Prius or a Volvo.
If you’re one of those lucky bastards, you might even drive a Mitubishi Evo Wagon some day. Or have multiple cars.

So, what kind of car do you drive?