Live SEO Support 11/16/22 – Full Episode

Welcome to another episode of Live SEO Support!

Live SEO Support is an hour-long Weekly Livestream where our founders, Nicholas Altimore and Chris Tzitzis, take questions from the audience on anything related to SEO.

It’s 100% free, and anyone can join us weekly in our Facebook Group or on Youtube.

But in case you missed us live this week, here’s the full episode:

This Week’s Archived Livestream:

Summary:

[07:12] Could we apply for Google News with a website that has medical content?

We’re not experts at Google News. At a glance, it doesn’t seem acceptable.

[10:31] Could really great content beat other websites’ authority and outrank it?

When we say that a website has “high authority”, it comes down to the power of the backlinks behind the website. But there’s something to be said about really good content. Now, “content” in this case involves covering everything in your niche—boosting your topical authority, basically. Ultimately, top-tier content is great; but outranking other websites is a matter of building a well-rounded SEO campaign.

[16:48] I have a competitor that has used only Blogspot backlinks, and they’re at the top of Google results. How likely is it that they will get penalized?

We would bet that they’re not using Blogspot backlinks at all. They probably just got hit by this random spam that a bunch of sites pick up. For whatever reason, it’s always Blogspot. Google tends to ignore Web 2.0 spam.

[21:36] Do you think using AI content for backlinks is a good practice?

Nope. Google is keeping an eye out for that. Unnatural link-building is a no-no. You’re only adding something on top of that which is even more unnatural.

[24:26] Is it possible to rank a new site for long-tail keywords by using forum backlinks?

Yeah, if they’re truly long-tail keywords for low-competition niches. A forum link is a type of pillow link. Don’t rely solely on it. Always use a diversity of links to look more natural.

[28:46] Do you think profile backlinks have any value?

Yes. Profile backlinks are probably the single most important kind of pillow link. They’re the first backlinks we do on any website. Google even determines the legitimacy of your site largely on your profile backlinks.

[33:06] I’m in a situation where my health-aged domain loses (in all of these updates) a lot of positions on a lot of pages that bring 90% of the revenue in favor of authority sites (very high DR) that do not even have the exact keyword on the title or in the body and/or are spammed PBN pharma-type sites. Now, I want to boost these pages with some guest posts (maybe my own PBN) and niche edits (if I found relevant pages). How can I decide on the level of DR guest post sites I need if I do not have references? In fact, almost all the results are there because of very high DR with no backlinks on the URLs and PBN-spammed sites that are for sure hiding their links from Ahrefs.

In the health niche, you need as much authority as you can get. Every now and then, Google completely overhauls its standards, and you’ll find yourself outdated overnight. Everyone needs more authority now, especially in big niches like health. 36+ is recommended. That said, it’s in your interest to build lower-authority stuff as far as building a natural-looking link profile goes. But I’d put as much focus as possible on higher authority and diversification. You have to have a well-rounded SEO campaign that ticks all the boxes.

[43:10] Could inserting numbers on a domain name affect SEO negatively? Example: 1001dogtoys.com

Nope. That’s perfectly fine.

[43:42] Can an affiliate niche site beat online stores (such as Amazon, BestBuy, Walmart, etc.) on the first page by becoming an authority on a specific product? If so, what would the overall strategy be to accomplish it?

In some cases, yes. It depends on the niche. In any case, it’s hard to tell when it’s going to work. The best thing to do is to look at page one, check for smaller sites that are actually competing with the big guys, and see what they’re doing. The basic strategy is to niche down as much as possible and write a bunch of articles hitting this niche from every single angle. Still, it’s not guaranteed. You’d still need to build up your topical authority and a diversified backlink profile.

[46:42] Doesn’t Google rank some online stores on the first page, not because of the intent, but only because of the lack of authoritative niche sites?

Yes. But, in general, it’s a much safer bet to count on them getting the intent to write eventually. Google’s business is to serve up the best possible answer to a question or any kind of query.

[49:12] (site audit) We got a massive hit with the recent core update.

DR 40 with 290 referring domains—that’s pretty good. You have 237 pages indexed, so it’s not the biggest site. You’re down to 300 traffic from 10k, which really is a big hit. We’re seeing a lot of really unnatural anchors being used 12, 13, 14 times. You have a lot of weird-looking symbols on your URL. You have an extremely unnatural backlink profile: Your inner pages have a lot of spammy, low-quality links. Your homepage links are crawlable, but they’re hidden on the page. You need more guest posting and niche edits, which are the two main types of links we look at for backlink profiles.

[1:08:04] My traffic fell off a cliff, impressions and hits down to nothing, SERPs are all gone. I suspect toxic backlinks. Should I panic or wait and see if it’s something else? All I can think of is to either buy a new domain and 301 the pages or disavow the links. Should I wait?

Typically, if you get into a position where you get really frantic about stuff, take a step back and don’t do anything, and come back to it with a fresh head. Now, you’re definitely getting spammed (or you did a lot of spamming). DR 2 with 363 referring domains means your backlinks aren’t that great. Only 25 of these links are not Web 2.0s. If you continue to decline even after prodding at it with higher-authority stuff, I’d go ahead and disavow them. Stay away from PBN links for now.

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