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Link Building Strategy

Link types, anchor composition, strategies by site age, and search engine differences. Links are the #1 ranking factor in Google and #3 in Yandex.

  • Acceptor - domain receiving the link
  • Donor - domain providing the link
  • Donor document - specific page where link is placed
  • Anchor - visible text of the link
  • rel attribute - link attribute (nofollow, sponsored, etc.)
  1. Static weight - PageRank and derivatives
  2. Dynamic (anchor) weight - anchor list, monolithic index
  3. BrowseRank - link click-through data
  4. Robot delivery - indexation
  5. Geo-binding - regional signals
Type Examples
Anchor "buy television", "rent apartment"
Non-anchor URL, brand name, "here", "source"
URL links Text to the right counts as anchor
Sitewide Footer/header links on all donor pages
Nofollow Google considers at its discretion
Redirect links /out.php?where=site.ru (counted by Google)
Image links alt attribute goes into anchor list

Easy to obtain; site can receive many quickly; mainly nofollow; purpose = dilution + natural dynamics.

Types: 1. Crowd marketing - forum posts, comments, Q&A 2. Submits - self-placement in directories, catalogs, profiles 3. Press releases - news/PR distribution to media outlets

Hard/expensive to obtain; can't handle many at once; mostly dofollow; purpose = direct ranking push.

Types: outreach, PBN, glue/redirect, dynamic sitewide, link exchanges, multi-tier links.

Important: If query below TOP-50, heavy links won't push to TOP. First: on-page + internal linking + light links. THEN heavy links.

Crowd Marketing Best Practices

  • Only verified contractors
  • Fill brief in maximum detail: platform types, topics
  • Require pre-moderation of platforms, topics, and texts
  • Reject spam-filled forums: zero DR, dead/broken, adult/pharma contaminated
  • Require "survival guarantee" of 2 weeks
  • Monitor link presence (LinkChecker.pro)

Submits Best Practices

  • Unique company descriptions (don't reuse site texts)
  • No logos/images (only logo allowed)
  • Never order automatic mass submissions
  • No anchor links from submits
  • Smooth growth: 10, 20, 30 per month

Press Releases

  • No anchors
  • Test with satellite site first
  • Service: pressfeed.ru
  • Quick nofollow links from authoritative hosts; helps LF rankings start faster

Anchor List Composition

  • 70% - URL variations, company name, brand, images
  • 10% - exact keyword matches
  • 20% - dilution anchors and variations

Process

  1. Analyze competitor anchor lists document-by-document for top-ranking pages
  2. Estimate anchor/dilution/non-anchor ratio
  3. Build your own anchor list based on findings

AI-Assisted Anchor List Construction

Iteration 1: Submit CSV exports from Ahrefs (competitor links+anchors) and semantic core. Analyze anchor patterns.

Iteration 2: Calculate percentage breakdown by type: full URL, URL without protocol, URL with www, brand anchors, image links, exact keyword matches, diluted matches, generic phrases. Exclude irrelevant.

Iteration 3: Create 30 anchors for target page following discovered ratios.

Strategy by Site Age

New Site (First 3 Months)

  • Minimum anchor links
  • Light links only (non-anchor and brand): directories, forums, Q&A, press releases, manufacturer/partner links
  • Glue/301 from drops: 2-3 max, every 2 months
  • After 100 quality donors -> add anchor links
  • Quality > Quantity
  • Find young competitor that grew quickly -> replicate
  1. Find competitors of similar site type
  2. Research fastest-growing ones in detail
  3. Compile plan by types, dynamics, anchors
  4. Improve on competitors' strategies
  5. Use heavy links
  6. Continuously monitor and adjust
  • First 2-3 months: zero link building (focus on technical, content, structure)
  • Month 3-6: 2-3 light links per week
  • No "jagged dynamics" - consistent growth (6->6->6->8->8->8->10)
  • After year 1 with ~100 donors: increase pace per competitor analysis
  • Yandex: results in 2-3 months; Google: ~1 year; 1.5-2 years to equalize both

Search Engine Differences

Yandex

  • Links to documents (internal weight limited)
  • Non-commercial hosts required (otherwise Minusinsk penalty)
  • Yandex has link classifier: ~94% precision, ~99% coverage
  • Links classified as Good (work) or Bad (weight=0)
  • Critical mass of bad links -> Minusinsk

Google

  • Can link to homepage or hub pages
  • Link growth dynamics important
  • Anchor list critically important
  • Diverse link types required
  1. Collect competitors
  2. Identify those actively building links
  3. Compile baseline: donor domains/pages, project age, growth dynamics, anchor ratio, link types
  4. Target average competitor metrics
  5. Map onto your project's current state
  6. Plan smooth systematic growth over 1-2 years
  7. Execute consistently
  • Use test site or weak competitor (TOP-50 for key, page with zero links)
  • Place exact LF anchor and assess effect
  • Don't place many links at once on live site

Gotchas

  • Heavy links won't push below-TOP-50 queries - fix on-page first
  • Yandex knows who buys and sells links - 95% of links from known exchanges are marked as SEO links
  • Even non-anchor links bought on exchanges can count as SEO links - "here", "there" from exchanges are detected
  • Jagged dynamics flag manipulation - smooth consistent growth is critical
  • Avoid using "here/there" as anchors - exposes your link profile to competitor analysis
  • Don't use anchor links from submits - submits are for dilution only

See Also