Q: What SEO metrics should you consider for evaluating unnatural links?
Apart from looking at the LRT Power*Trust, you will also need to look at the DTOXRISK on a link and directory basis.

Q: Are links still important to Google?
“Links, in particular, are really important to Google because that’s how we discover the rest of your website.” - John Müller
The web is content and links. That’s what Google always said. Links are the web. The web consists of hypertexts, hypermedia, and hyperlinks.

Q: Do internal links have any value?
Yes. Internal linking is important and has value. This is why we do have keywords inside our page linking to other pages. You can manipulate the link graph and push rankings by optimizing these internal links as well. But don’t overdo it and have all internal links pointing towards one page.

Q: Is Google still looking into Follow and NoFollow links for ranking?
Yes! Every link you get from Wikipedia, for example, is a NoFollow but will help you big time. This means that NoFollow links can not only help rankings but also hurt rankings. Just because a link is NoFollow does not mean it does not count at all. The link passes trust and traffic, so why should it not count?
Read more about NoFollow links here.

Q: Can too many NoFollow links hurt you?
That depends on the Follow / NoFollow ratio in your market. With the Competitive Landscape Analyzer (CLA), you can see what ratio is natural for your market.


Q: Any change regarding Exact Match Domains (EMD) and Keyword Density in Penguin 4.0?
Keyword stuffing was always bad and it still is. Keyword stuffing makes the text very difficult to read. A very high keyword density makes any piece of content look unnatural.
What’s very important to have in mind in regards to Google Penguin 4.0, is using money keywords anchor text in moderation when it comes to your links. That can get you into trouble.
The Exact Match Domain (EMD) filter launched by Google in 2012 to prevent poor quality sites from ranking well just because they have words that match search terms in their domain names. This update is not connected to Google Penguin or Panda. Having match search terms in a domain name will most likely not hurt the rankings of a website that has high-quality content. But it will not make it rank better either.

Q: If you are in a niche where there are a lot of affiliates, it’s very natural that you have more NoFollow links than in other niches. Why is that?
Affiliates tend to be more aggressive in doing online promotion. That’s why you need to do competitive research. There is no one-size-fits-all, but a natural ratio for your niche.

Q: Is there a minimum amount of backlinks pointing to your URL or folder after which Google starts to consider them toxic or not?
No. The number of links is meaningless. Both a website with millions of backlinks and a website with hundreds of links can trigger a Google Penguin filter.
What’s important is that you always compare your backlink profile to your competitor’s backlink profiles. Every niche is different, and your backlink profile doesn’t need to stand out too much. Learn more about competitive analysis and why it’s important for your SEO work.

Q: Do I need to worry if I get backlinks from websites having high PageRank?
You don’t need to worry about PageRank at all. Since Google officially buried the toolbar in April 2016, no SEO should consider PageRank as a metric any longer. Whenever you get a new backlink, you should check the link’s DTOXRISK. You can receive notifications for new backlinks to your Domain using the Link Alerts (LA).
You should also check your backlinks for good Power*Trust. Links with a Power*Trust near zero are usually not worth keeping. Also, links with very high Power and low Trust could also harm your website.

Q: Are links in catalogs generally bad?
Yes, you should treat them with caution.

Q: Does participating in link or traffic exchange programs affect SEO?
Yes, it does affect SEO in a bad way. If you are doing this now and already dropped in traffic, you probably have a problem. We suggest running a Link Detox as soon as possible and disavowing links from this link exchange program, especially if they have a high DTOXRISK.
EasyMoney Reviewed by EasyMoney on . Penguin 4.0 Questions & Answers What we found out about the Penguin 4.0 https://i.imgur.com/6lAgXsU.png Times just got really exciting with the Penguin 4.0 update, as it is now integrated into Google's Core Algorithm. This is not going to be a Penguin update like the previous ones, where Google will announce a specific number of affected queries after a complete roll out. This update is ongoing and it will affect rankings in real time. Therefore, there will not be a complete roll out like before. Also, this is the Rating: 5