How to find the relevance gap between your site & its link profile - Liv Day, Brighton SEO October 24

This talk, titled How to find the relevance gap between your site & its link profile, was first delivered at BrightonSEO in October 2024.

Transcript

1. How to find the relevance gap between your site & its link profile. Liv Day DIGITALOFT speakerdeck.com/livdayseo /in/olivia-day-seo/ @oliviaday__
2. GOOGLE IS IGNORING LOTS OF THE LINKS YOU’VE EARNED. *
3. GOOGLE IS IGNORING LOTS OF THE LINKS YOU’VE EARNED. * *paid an agency to earn for you
4. MAY’S GOOGLE LEAK REVEALED THAT ‘MISMATCHED’ LINKS ARE BEING IGNORED. ✅ Google is likely ignoring links that come from within content that’s not relevant, according to the ‘anchorMismatchDemotion.’ ✅ This attribute is intended to ‘demote’ (ignore) anchors (links) where there is a mismatch between the source and the target. ✅ Cross-referencing with other modules and attributes strongly indicates this is a relevance mismatch.
5. IN RARE CASES, IRRELEVANT LINKS CAN HARM YOUR SITE’S VISIBILITY. Unexplained visibility losses in 2018 & 2019.
6. LOTS OF LINKS FROM QUESTIONABLE TOPICS. TOPIC LINK PROFILE FREQUENCY SITE CONTENT FREQUENCY GAP woman 174 7 +167 sexual intercourse 108 56 +52 medicine 93 299 -206 health 92 58 +34 vagina 88 55 +33 science 88 1 +87 infection 75 86 -11 human sexual activity 74 16 +58 disease 71 80 -9 health care 59 85 -26 penis 56 17 +39 orgasm 56 2 +54 sexually transmitted infection 56 70 -14 pregnancy 50 121 -71 male 43 6 +37
7. NOT ENOUGH LINKS FROM TOPICS THE SITE COVERS. TOPIC LINK PROFILE FREQUENCY SITE CONTENT FREQUENCY GAP woman 174 7 +167 sexual intercourse 108 56 +52 medicine 93 299 -206 health 92 58 +34 vagina 88 55 +33 science 88 1 +87 infection 75 86 -11 human sexual activity 74 16 +58 disease 71 80 -9 health care 59 85 -26 penis 56 17 +39 orgasm 56 2 +54 sexually transmitted infection 56 70 -14 pregnancy 50 121 -71 male 43 6 +37
8. Irrelevant links are skewing the topicality of your link profile. They’re suggesting your site is relevant for things it’s not.
9. REVERSING VISIBILITY DROPS BY REMOVING IRRELEVANT LINKS. Irrelevant links ‘removed’ by 404’ing the pages they linked to. August ‘24 Core Update.
10. WORK HARDER TO INFLUENCE SEO YOU CAN PULL TO MAKE DIGITAL PR RELEVANCE IS THE BEST LEVER THAT SUCCESS.
11. WORK HARDER TO INFLUENCE SEO YOU CAN PULL TO MAKE DIGITAL PR RELEVANCE IS THE BEST LEVER THAT SUCCESS. You should care more about link relevance than any other ‘link metric’.
12. The problem with relevance is that it’s usually measured subjectively.
13. BEING RELEVANT MEANS BEING CLOSELY CONNECTED.
14. A brand needs to create content that’s relevant to its audience, its products and/or its services, then amplify this content with PR.
15. A LINK IS RELEVANT WHEN THE TOPICS THE PAGE THAT LINKS TALKS ABOUT MATCH ONE OR MORE TOPICS THAT THE SITE’S CONTENT TALKS ABOUT. TOPIC A TOPIC B TOPIC C The topics the site’s content is about. The topics a linking page is about. TOPIC A TOPIC D
16. A LINK IS RELEVANT WHEN THE TOPICS THE PAGE THAT LINKS TALKS ABOUT MATCH ONE OR MORE TOPICS THAT THE SITE’S CONTENT TALKS ABOUT. TOPIC A The topics the site’s content is about. The topics a linking page is about. TOPIC A TOPIC D ✓ ✗
17. TO RANK ON GOOGLE IN 2024, LINK RELEVANCE NEEDS TO BE OUR #1 PRIORITY AS SEOS AND DIGITAL PRS. A site’s content must be relevant to the query being searched for.
18. TO RANK ON GOOGLE IN 2024, LINK RELEVANCE NEEDS TO BE OUR #1 PRIORITY AS SEOS AND DIGITAL PRS. A site’s content must be relevant to the query being searched for. A site’s link profile must be relevant to the content on the site.
19. Why would Google reward links that come from topics that have nothing to do with the site?! That’s link spam.
20. WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT RELEVANCE REALLY MEANS & HOW TO MEASURE IT, YOU’RE ABLE TO… ✅ Use data to inform digital PR ideation. Plan PR activity around closing relevance gaps.
21. WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT RELEVANCE REALLY MEANS & HOW TO MEASURE IT, YOU’RE ABLE TO… ✅ Use data to inform digital PR ideation. Plan PR activity around closing relevance gaps. ✅ Identify a relevance mismatch between the topics your site is actually about and the topics your link profile suggests it’s about.
22. WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT RELEVANCE REALLY MEANS & HOW TO MEASURE IT, YOU’RE ABLE TO… ✅ Use data to inform digital PR ideation. Plan PR activity around closing relevance gaps. ✅ Identify a relevance mismatch between the topics your site is actually about and the topics your link profile suggests it’s about. ✅ Move beyond reporting on the DA/DR of links and focus on metrics that matter the most.
23. WHEN YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT RELEVANCE REALLY MEANS & HOW TO MEASURE IT, YOU’RE ABLE TO… ✅ Use data to inform digital PR ideation. Plan PR activity around closing relevance gaps. ✅ Identify a relevance mismatch between the topics your site is actually about and the topics your link profile suggests it’s about. ✅ Move beyond reporting on the DA/DR of links and focus on metrics that matter the most. ✅ Redefine digital PR & link building KPIs. Do you want 50 ‘not really relevant’ links or 20 ‘hyper relevant’ links? When you’ve got an objective measure, these discussions are easier…
24. People will tell you there’s no way to objectively measure link relevance. That’s bullshit.
25. EXISTING ATTEMPTS TO MEASURE RELEVANCE ONLY LOOK AT THE LINK PROFILE… TOPIC A TOPIC B TOPIC C The topics the site’s content is about. The topics a linking page is about. TOPIC A TOPIC D
26. A link profile’s relevance is meaningless in isolation. How do you compare to competitors?
27. HOW CAN YOU ACTUALLY MEASURE LINK RELEVANCE?
31. WHAT TOPICS IS A SITE’S CONTENT RELEVANT TO? Concepts = topics
33. WHAT TOPICS IS A SITE’S LINK PROFILE RELEVANT TO?
34. IS THERE A MATCH BETWEEN THE TOPICS THE SITE’S CONTENT AND LINK PROFILE ARE RELEVANT TO? 0.99 0.99
35. TOPICS ON THE LINKING PAGE SHOULD MATCH THE SITE’S. SITE TOPIC SCORE Boiler 0.847139 HVAC 0.784032 House 0.702957 Expert 0.669617 Price 0.667007 Central Heating 0.460897 Trade 0.460897 Brand 0.445336 Sales 0.421369 Time 0.410568 LINKING PAGE TOPIC SCORE Pressure 0.991295 Boiler 0.985711 Leak 0.985324 Relief Valve 0.98377 Pump 0.940785 Heat Exchanger 0.880588 HVAC 0.87446 Radiator 0.855695 Valve 0.846426 Noise 0.795141
36. This works at single page-level, but that doesn’t look at the topics an entire site or link profile is relevant to.
37. + Site crawl. Link profile.
38. RELEVANCE: DIGITALOFT’S SOLUTION TO SEO & DIGITAL PR’S RELEVANCE PROBLEM.
48. USING RELEVANCE INSIGHTS TO SHAPE YOUR SEO STRATEGY.
49. 1. IF THERE’S A RELEVANCE GAP FOR A TOPIC, YOU NEED TO EARN MORE LINKS FROM IT… OR REMOVE IRRELEVANT ONES.
50. 1. IF THERE’S A RELEVANCE GAP FOR A TOPIC, YOU NEED TO EARN MORE LINKS FROM IT… OR REMOVE IRRELEVANT ONES. 2. IF YOU’VE NO RELEVANCE GAP FOR A TOPIC, KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING; DEFEND YOUR MOAT.
51. 1. IF THERE’S A RELEVANCE GAP FOR A TOPIC, YOU NEED TO EARN MORE LINKS FROM IT… OR REMOVE IRRELEVANT ONES. 2. IF YOU’VE NO RELEVANCE GAP FOR A TOPIC, KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING; DEFEND YOUR MOAT. 3. OPEN UP DISCUSSIONS ABOUT WHAT A ‘GOOD LINK’ ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE FOR A SITE.
52. 1. IF THERE’S A RELEVANCE GAP FOR A TOPIC, YOU NEED TO EARN MORE LINKS FROM IT… OR REMOVE IRRELEVANT ONES. 2. IF YOU’VE NO RELEVANCE GAP FOR A TOPIC, KEEP DOING WHAT YOU’RE DOING; DEFEND YOUR MOAT. 3. OPEN UP DISCUSSIONS ABOUT WHAT A ‘GOOD LINK’ ACTUALLY LOOKS LIKE FOR A SITE. 4. IDENTIFY WHETHER YOUR PRIORITY FOCUS SHOULD BE CONTENT OR LINKS.
53. WORK HARDER TO INFLUENCE SEO YOU CAN PULL TO MAKE DIGITAL PR RELEVANCE IS THE BEST LEVER THAT SUCCESS.
54. THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN E-E-A-T & RELEVANCE.
55. EXPERIENCE. EXPERTISE. AUTHORITATIVENESS. TRUSTWORTHINESS. The extent to which the content creator has the necessary first-hand or life experience for the topic. The extent to which the content creator has the necessary knowledge or skill for the topic. The extent to which the content creator or the website is known as a go-to source. The extent to which the page is accurate, honest, safe, and reliable.
56. Start thinking about E-E-A-T like your reputation, and it very quickly starts to make a lot more sense… especially when you consider that reputation is one of the main things that influences trust. After all, you’re far more likely to trust a person or brand with a great reputation, right? “ ”
57. Page 27, Google Quality Rater Guidelines: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf
58. Page 27, Google Quality Rater Guidelines: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf CONTENT.
59. Page 27, Google Quality Rater Guidelines: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf CONTENT. AUTHOR.
60. Page 27, Google Quality Rater Guidelines: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf CONTENT. AUTHOR. BRAND.
61. Page 27, Google Quality Rater Guidelines: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf CONTENT. AUTHOR. BRAND. ON-PAGE.
62. Page 27, Google Quality Rater Guidelines: https://static.googleusercontent.com/media/guidelines.raterhub.com/en//searchqualityevaluatorguidelines.pdf CONTENT. AUTHOR. BRAND. ON-PAGE. OFF-PAGE.
63. Link relevance matters…but to understand it, you need to measure it.
64. /digitaloftuk /digitaloftuk @digitaloftuk digitaloft.co.uk