Spammy Link Profile Questions. What do you think?

[858-SEO]

I'm trying to dilute the link profile for a website. But have a couple of questions on the best way to achieve this.

Current link profile, www.mysitename.com

1. Keyword 1
2. Keyword 2
3. Keyword 3
4. Keyword 4
5. Keyword 5
6. Keyword 6
7. Keyword 7
8. Keyword 8
9. Keyword 9
10. Keyword 10
11. Keyword 12
12. Keyword 13
13. Keyword 14
14. Keyword 14
15. Keyword 15
16. mysitename.com

Desired link profile, www.mysitename.com

1. mysitename.com
2. www.mysitename.com
3. http://www. mysitename.com/
4. My Site Name
5. http://mysitename.com
6. Click Here
7. my site name
8. More Info
9. mysitename.com/
10. www.mysitename.com/
11. Keyword 1
12. Keyword 2
13. Keyword 3
14. Keyword 4
15. Keyword 4
16. Keyword 5

Questions

1. Do you think Google looks at this on a domain level? Or do you think this needs to be done with every page on the site?

2. What would be a good way to build links fast to the pages, need to build lots of links to be able to dilute the profile. I was considering Dripable, or a similar service, but decided i really don't want to create more spam.What would you do?

3. What would you say the % threshold for anchor text is, i have read on different sources that at least 40% - 60% of links should be branded, url, or generic anchor links. Do you think this is accurate?

[DesignbysoapLtd]

Hi there!

First of all, you should definitely be aiming for branded anchor text links, as well as generic links such as 'click here', etc. so well done for putting yourself on the right track.

To try and answer your questions:

1. I think it's generally on a domain level, but if you have a specific page that has a particularly high volume of direct match keyword anchor text links, then you may struggle to rank that page, so you should aim for deep-linking and well as home page linking during your link acquisition campaign.

2. I would aim for content-based link building, as this is (in my experience) the best way of building lots of links that are natural, rather than using manipulative methods or adding more crap to the online space. Try using infographics, I push them quite heavily in general as it's my agencies speciality but we have had some phenomenal results in terms of link-building using high quality infographics. Here's two of my SEOMoz posts that might help you in this regard:

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/indepth-guide-to-content-creation-with-infographic

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/getting-the-maximum-number-of-links-from-your-infographic

3. I always aim for at least 50% of a backlink profile being branded, URL and/or generic links, and I would usually want somewhere closer to 60-65%. That's what we aim for with our clients.

All my own opinion and personal experience of course, but hopefully it helps you : )

[HiveDigitalInc]

1. Do you think Google looks at this on a domain level? Or do you think this needs to be done with every page on the site?

Google definitely looks at both URLs and domain as a whole, but more importantly they look at the individual links. You can't simply dilute out bad links except in extreme cases (ie: big brands). Penguin is a machine learning program - it looks at far more signals than just percentages. A combination of enough of these signals can result in lost rankings.

2. What would be a good way to build links fast to the pages, need to build lots of links to be able to dilute the profile. I was considering Dripable, or a similar service, but decided i really don't want to create more spam.What would you do?

You will probably have trouble attracting natural links to the old pages, especially if they are just product or service listings. I would consider creating new pages that have very valuable, evergreen content. Promote those pages via social media, press releases, and more main-stream marketing that builds a healthy link profile. Then 301 redirect your current less-than-savory pages to these.

**3. What would you say the % threshold for anchor text is, i have read on different sources that at least 40% - 60% of links should be branded, url, or generic anchor links. Do you think this is accurate? **

If you really must insist on using a %, then that % should be based on the sites that are already ranking for those terms. Your best bet would be to choose the industry leader in your space and see what their link profile and percentages look like. In most cases, you will be surprised to see that they tend to have much lower thresholds than the others. Bear in mind, though, that your best bet is to probably scrub out bad links wherever as possible - they represent not just potential rankings losses, but a stain on your brand.

At a more general level, you should expect that the majority of your links to any "optimized" page should be greatly varied, brand and navigational heavy, and only use exact anchor text sparingly. Think of anchor text as merely an external validation of your relevance to that term. You don't need to sprinkle many in for Google to get the picture.

Hope that helps!