Cristian
Level X3
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Backlinks have been at the core of Search Engine's ranking algorithms right from the early days of search engines. Google, as well as the other big search engines, had a problem with this for years, Google tried to fix everything with the Panda update and began to penalize domains that used unlawful techniques to gain backlinks and overall link authority.
In fact, to this day, backlinks remain one of the most important ranking factors in any search engine, including Google.
Shady tactics of gaining backlinks as well as plenty of abuse are still happening in the SEO community. This is why prominent publications started to implement the nofollow tag to their overall outgoing website's links, transferring zero link authority by doing so and ensuring spam and low-quality content is filtered out.
There is a massive industry behind backlink building, and a lot of people are willing to pay big bucks to gain those precious backlinks from trusted sources.
What is Google's answer to this problem?
Brand Mentions.
Both Google and Bing are currently taking into consideration brand mentions when it comes to rankings. Brand name mentions on websites as well as social media is noticed by Google and may result in a short-period rank spike to test your site on a certain number of queries.
This, combined with artificial intelligence learning machines like RankBrain will ensure the future of search engines results, especially Google.
How does SEO fit into this story?
Well, SEO specialists around the world will have an additional task: tracking brand mentions over the web. Why? Because it gives you the perfect opportunity to contact those mentions and ask for backlinks, that's why!
"Again with the backlinks?" - YES!
Backlinks aren't dead and buried just yet. Brand mentions may equal in a positive buzz that your domain may benefit from in the future, but for now, backlinks are still highly valuable and will generate a buzz on steroids.
I don't know precisely when backlinks will stop being a ranking factor, maybe in a couple of years, perhaps never. But what I'm sure about is that Google will eventually crack down on Black Had SEO and everything related to non-natural authority building.
Brand mentions vs. Backlinks - Which one is the most important?
I would say backlinks. Even more, I suggest you do your best and apply your best outreach techniques into transforming as many organic mentions as possible into dofollow backlinks.
How can you increase the number of brand mentions?
- Encourage reviews as much as you can, especially on the third-party website and social media. Make sure you remain active and respond to negative reviews whenever they appear, but it may also be good to answer with thanks as well as information to the positive reviews.
- Social media content and ads. Brand exposure is good, use every tool at your disposal to improve your social media exposure. Respond to people mentioning your brand and try clearing out stuff when you have the chance.
- Influencers. A growing trend nowadays, influencers marketing is perfectly designed to increase your band mentions. Contact influencers in your niche and start those mentions flowing.
- Learn from your competitors. Track their movements and campaigns. Copy everything they are doing right and keep away from stuff that had negatively influenced them.
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| Match | Count | SQL | Script |
| SELECT * FROM `questions` as q JOIN categories_faq as c ON q.catid=c.CATID WHERE (q.status=1 OR (q.status=2 AND userid='') ) AND q.quesid='25529' | 1 | SELECT q.*, c.seo as CatSEO, c.name as CatName, c.parentid
FROM `questions` as q
JOIN categories_faq as c ON q.catid=c.CATID
WHERE (q.status=1 OR
(q.status=2 AND userid='')
)
AND q.quesid='25529' | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php 496 () () |
| SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='134' | 1 | SELECT * FROM seoclerks.members WHERE USERID='134' | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/includes/member.php 445 GetAllUserDetails() () |
| SELECT * FROM categories_faq WHERE CATID='30' | 1 | SELECT CATID, seo, name, metatitle, h2header, metakeywords, metadescription, metaheader, parentid, image_name FROM categories_faq WHERE CATID='30' | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/libraries/adodb5/adodb.inc.php 1899 CacheExecute() GetCategorySeoFromType() |
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| SELECT * FROM ratings_faq as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=25529 LIMIT 5 | 1 | SELECT m.username FROM
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b.username, b.userlevel, b.profilepicture FROM answers a, seoclerks.members b
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ORDER BY a.combined_votes DESC, a.date_answered asc | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/viewfaq.php 1245 () () |
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| SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=149270 LIMIT 5 | 1 | SELECT m.username FROM
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LIMIT 5 | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() () |
| SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=149759 LIMIT 5 | 1 | SELECT m.username FROM
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LIMIT 5 | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() () |
| SELECT * FROM ratings_faqanswers as r, seoclerks.members as m WHERE r.USERID=m.USERID AND r.upvote=1 AND r.PID=150032 LIMIT 5 | 1 | SELECT m.username FROM
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LIMIT 5 | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 17159 GetVoters() () |
| UPDATE questions SET total_views = total_views + 1 WHERE quesid='25529' | 1 | UPDATE questions SET total_views = total_views + 1 WHERE quesid='25529' | /opt/clerks-staging/docroot/include/functions/main.php 1765 update_Faqviewcount() () |
| SELECT * FROM questions WHERE quesid!='25529' AND status='1' AND (question like '%Brand mentions Backlinks SEO%' OR question like '%Brand%' OR question like '%mentions%' OR question like '%Backlinks%') -- ORDER BY RAND() LIMIT 15 | 1 | SELECT quesid, question, seo, userid
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TommyCarey
I don't think backlinks will be going anywhere soon, but they could all be devalued over time, which would give birth to a more natural branding optimization method that would be difficult to cut corners with. I'm sure Google and Bing already have a multi-step plan to devalue all the crumby websites, and the major algorithm updates, as well as RankBrain, are just the first few steps.
The search engines will always be evolving, just like our SEO techniques, and it's being pushed towards a more natural way to obtain links and less software built ones. I should know, I use to run software all the time and get top rankings, but then I stopped when I noticed it wasn't getting me to #1 anymore lol
The point you hit on "Encourage reviews as much as you can" is a great way to boost your brand mentions
Great post, Cristian
- Tommy Whenever I do a consulting gig, I always talk to the owners about brand mentions as well as backlinks. They always ask for backlinks, because they brought me on to do SEO, but most of them don't really think about brand mentions in plain text form. Rankbrain will change everything online when it's tweaked just a few times, just like the normal algorithm, it will only get more specific to weed out all the websites that are using simple SEO software to build backlinks. I don't think backlinks will be going anywhere soon, but they could all be devalued over time, which would give birth to a more natural branding optimization method that would be difficult to cut corners with. I'm sure Google and Bing already have a multi-step plan to devalue all the crumby websites, and the major algorithm updates, as well as RankBrain, are just the first few steps. The search engines will always be evolving, just like our SEO techniques, and it's being pushed towards a more natural way to obtain links and less software built ones. I should know, I use to run software all the time and get top rankings, but then I stopped when I noticed it wasn't getting me to #1 anymore lol :D I have a decent amount of SEO clients, so I have to make sure they have the best campaigns possible, so just like you, that's why I'm always testing and reading the updates that will affect my techniques and methods :D The point you hit on "Encourage reviews as much as you can" is a great way to boost your brand mentions :D Since I work with a lot of websites, I always ask them to blog about their experience with our services, which usually gets me a backlink, but it also gets my domain name in the titles and gets me a brand mention for later on when it's more of a ranking factor :D If we put in the work now, and get plenty of brand mentions, we will see a nice little spike in traffic when the algorithm begins to be tweaked and RankBrain starts to kick in a little more to follow mentions and not just time on site, click throughs, and backlink lol :D Great post, Cristian :) - Tommy
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