Future-Proofing & AI-proofing SEO

Once you get SEO right, you’ve got unprecedented business growth at a relatively low cost. That’s why building a Google-algorithm-friendly SEO campaign that is also future-proof against future algorithm updates, is one of the most challenging tasks in all of digital marketing.

We love, live and breathe SEO! For over 15 years now, we have been passionately spending around 30% of our entire resources in SEO Research and Development, going through and reverse-engineering each of Google’s algorithm updates, of which there are several each year. Besides constantly researching the results of experiments done by other top SEO minds in the world, we test our SEO and link building practice on 125+ websites that we own across multiple industries/regions before we propose them to you.

Google’s algorithm looks at 350+ (yes, 350!) different factors of your web pages, before giving it a particular rank, for a particular keyword, at a particular time, in a particular location. Of all those 350+ factors, about 20 are related to your links, and your overall link power is the most important ranking factor of all.

Google has some of the smartest algorithms, which are programmed to pick up and penalise “unnatural” SEO and links, largely based on these 20 different link metrics. We go several steps further, to ensure that all our links are not only Perfectly Google-compliant but also future-proof, by looking at our constantly-updated-and-growing 50 (yes, five-zero!!) different link metrics of each of your links. That’s more than twice as many link metrics as Google itself and hence why the industry leaders call our links ‘Perfect’!

Our 25 Quantitative Link Metrics

We look into each of these quantitative link metrics to ensure that each of the links we sell you is “perfect” and “natural-looking”, in Google’s eyes.

1. Ahrefs Domain Rating (DR) of Linking Domain

According to many top global SEO experts, the most reliable way of determining the power of a link is by the Domain Rating Score (from 0 to 100, the latter being the best), published by a top SEO tool called Ahref.

2. MOZ Domain Authority (DA) of Linking Domain

For the last 6+ years, the most popular way of determining the power of a link has been by the Domain Authority Score (from 0 to 100, the latter being the best), published by a top SEO tool called MOZ.

3. Google Rank of Linking Domain/Page for Your Keyword

By identifying already high ranking domain keywords on Google, we can then link these to you, making these keywords work to bring you up the ranking system organically.

4. MOZ Page Authority (PA) of Linking Domain’s Home Page

One of the most trusted ways of verifying the power of a link to your home page has been by the Page Authority Score (from 0 to 100, the latter being the best) of the home page of the linking domain, published by a top SEO tool called MOZ.

5. Spam Score Percentage

One of the most reliable ways of ensuring the quality of a website has been by looking at the spam score % (from 0 to 100, the former being the best) of the linking domain, published by a top SEO tool called MOZ.

6. Is The Link In-Content?

Usually, only the links that come from within the text of a piece of writing are considered high value. Any link that comes from an area of the website that is common across multiple URLs is generally considered spam (for example, links from the top, sidebar and footer).

7. Uptime of Linking Domain

No website in the world is considered to be 100% functioning all the time, due to server outages, etc. But, many top Google-trusted websites have an uptime of 99.89% or more.

8. Uptime of Linking Page

In spite of having a 99.99% uptime of the domain, some of its pages may have inferior uptime. But, many top Google-trusted web pages too have an uptime of 99.89% or more.

9. Age of Linking Domain

Generally, the older the domain that links to your website, the more powerful the link is. Old domains that have high uptime tend to provide the most value.

10. Age of Linking Page

Generally, the older the page that links to your website, the more powerful the link is. Old pages that have high uptime tend to provide the most value.

11. Is the Linking Post 100% Unique?

For a link to provide the most power, it has to come from a piece of manually written post that is 100% original, non-plagiarised and unique.

12. Linking Post Length

Measured by the number of words, the longer the piece of writing that carries the link, the more powerful the link will be.

13. Anchor Text Strategy (Brand Vs. Non-brand Keyword Vs. Other Anchors)

Often, Google determines the relevance of each link partly from the text that carries the link, as long as we over-stuff the keywords in the linking text, called “anchor” text. In order to make your link profile look absolutely natural, we combine all different types of anchors, including brand terms, hybrid branded terms with keywords, naked URLs, generic words like “click here”, primary keywords, long-tail keywords, images, and so on.

14. Link Building Rate

The rate at which you build links is very important in making sure your link profile looks natural. Going from 0 to 10 links/month could prove justas catastrophic as totally stopping link building from 10 links/month.

15. Number of Outbound Links (OBL) on the Linking Page

Ideally, you don’t want the linking page to be linking to any external website other than yours. The more the number of links going from the linking page to different websites, the less powerful each of the links will be.

16. Your Unique Links Vs. Total Links Ratio

The number of different domains that link to you is the key factor, and not just the total number of links. In other words, additional links from the same domain/website have diminishing value.

17. Does the linking domain rank on Google page #1 for its title tag ?

A good website will definitely rank on page #1 of Google if you use its home page’s title tag as the search query.

18. C-Class IP Address of Linking Domain

If you have too many links coming from websites that share the same or similar C-Class IP address, your links are automatically devalued. We make sure that each of our Perfect links passes our C-Class IP Address test.

19. Follow Vs No-follow Link Ratio of your Link Profile

Usually, we only build and charge you for “follow” links. However, in order to make your link profile look Perfectly natural and Google-friendly, sometimes we may also recommend a few “no-follow” links. If your link profile is alarmingly in favour of “follow” links, we will alert you.

20. Trust Flow (TF) of Linking Domain’s Homepage

Trust Flow score is a reliable third-party metric representing how trustworthy the link is, based on the quality of backlinks pointing to that site.

21. Citation Flow (CF) of Linking Domain’s Homepage

Citation Flow is a metric representing how influential a link from a site might be, by considering the links pointing to it.

22. Estimated Traffic to Linking Domain

Google does not value websites that are built solely for the purpose of selling links. So, regular human traffic to a website, estimated by several third-party tools is a critical factor in determining the quality of the website before we accept links from them.

23. TLD/Geo-targeting/Geographical relevance of Linking Domain

Google programmatically favours links coming from websites that are based in the same geographical as yours. Google also considers your Top Level Domain (TLD). For example, if your website/business is in the UK, you’re best off getting UK links, all other things being equal. So, we ensure that your links are geographically relevant.

24. Alexa Rank of Linking Domain

Although this is an old metric, still today top websites in the world tend to have top Alexa ranks, which is arrived at by taking into account the usage of the website, amongst other factors. We ensure that the Alexa rank of the website which links to you is high.

25. Canonicalisation of Linking Domain

In order to get the best possible value, we ensure that none of the links we sell you are compromised by the lack of canonicalization of the linking domains.

Our 25 Qualitative Link Metrics

We pay keen attention to each of these qualitative metrics to ensure that every link we acquire is “perfect” and “natural-looking”, in Google’s eyes.

1. Editorial Quality of Linking Article

The better the editorial quality of the piece of writing that carries your links, the more powerful the link is.

2. Niche of the Linking Website

Links that come from your own industry/topical niche carry more value than other links.

3. Google Penalty-proof Link

Our Quality Control team manually scans the linking website for any signs of Google guidelines violation.

4. Google Manual Spam Action-proof Link

An excessive proportion of unnatural links could attract manual spam action from Google. Google’s Manual Spam Action team might go through your website’s links to check for any unnatural links. We ensure that each of the links is protected against unnatural signals.

5. Google Panda-safe Link

First released in February 2011, Google Panda is a part of Google’s search algorithm for identifying and penalising websites that engage in certain, especially content-related, spam techniques. Our Quality Control team also goes through the linking website for any signs of Google Panda violation.

6. Google Penguin-safe Link

First released in April 2012, Google Penguin is a part of Google’s algorithm for identifying and penalising websites that engage in link spam. Our Quality Control team manually scans the linking website for any signs of Google Penguin violation.

7. Link Position on Page

Usually, the higher the link is placed on a webpage, especially in the case of long-form content, the more powerful the link is. We ensure that a good proportion of links we source are above the fold.

8. Link Stability

We manually monitor the stability of every link we source, even long after the link has been delivered to the client.

9. General History of the Linking Site

Our Quality Control team manually checks each linking website for any signs of bad/spammy history.

10. Keyword Optimisation of Linking Content:

Usually the better the post is optimised with the target keywords, the more valuable the link is going to be, in making your website rank for those keywords. We identify areas for keyword optimisation and ensure the best optimisation to boost your search ranks.

11. Topical Relevance of the Linking Website

The more topically relevant the linking website is to yours, the more powerful your link from this website will be.

12. Thematic Relevance of the Linking Web page

The more topically relevant the linking web page is to yours, the more powerful your link from it will be.

13. Language of Linking Website

If the main language of the linking website is the same as your website, it is going to provide you with the most value.

14. Relevance of Link (Link Bait)

Each link should be justified. When Google’s Manual Spam Action team goes through your link profile, they will look for signs of unnatural links, which are usually links built without any obvious reason other than SEO. We ensure that the links we build pass even strict manual reviews.

15. Uniqueness of Linking Website

Each linking website should be unique in terms of content, HTML code, domain name, and IP address. Websites that are duplicated on multiple domains just for the purpose of selling links will attract a Google penalty quickly.

16. Uniqueness of Linking Web Page

Each linking web page should be unique in terms of content, HTML code, domain name, and IP address. Pages that are duplicated on multiple domains just for the purpose of selling links too will attract Google penalty pretty quickly.

17. Linking Website Should be Built for Humans (Not Algorithms)

Google penalises websites that have too many links from websites that are built to trick their SEO algorithms. We only acquire links from websites that have good human traffic and are built for users.

18. Linking Website Should have Content Posted Recently

Websites that were made just for SEO and forgotten will also be forgotten by Google. In addition, too many links from such websites might attract a Google penalty.

19. Linking Website Should Not Explicitly Sell Links

During Google’s manual review, if they spot links coming from websites that explicitly sell links, they tend to take action against it.

20. SERP Reputation of the Linking Website

We ensure that every website that we acquire your links from ranks well for its own keywords and has an excellent amount of authority to pass on to your website.

21. Look and Feel of the Linking Website

Overall the linking website should look good and modern, unlike websites literally built to acquire links.

22. Look and Feel of the Linking Webpage

The availability of main navigation, design and presentation of the web page where we get your link from is important to us.

23. Image Vs. Multimedia Vs. Text Ratio on the Linking Website

Several studies have proven that websites with a good proportion of interactive, non-textual things such as images and other multimedia engage users significantly better than websites that are largely textual. So, we ensure that your links come from engaging websites.

24. Flexibility of Linking Website for Changes

In order for you to be able to change anything related to the links, we only work with websites that allow us a reasonable amount of flexibility.

25. Response from the Linking Website

We only work with websites whose managers respond to us reasonably quickly for us to be able to make any ongoing changes.

As you can see we’re obsessed with the processes behind link building, and this is what makes us…perfect!

If you want us to turn this love of digital marketing to you and your business, contact us anytime.

Here are the most important metrics used for future-proofing & AI-proofing Backlinks

Domain Authority(MOZ)

Domain Rating(Ahrefs)

Traffic (SEMRUSH)

We ensure that the website we get your links from has a minimum amount of traffic

Spam Score

Our links are 100% non-spammy and we test their spam score across multiple tools

Trust Flow

The trust of each of the websites is documented and verified to ensure that your website is in ``good company

Expert-written Content

We employ writers of all languages who are experts in their own areas to ensure thought leadership

Original Writing

Each of the links we provide comes from an originally written piece exclusively for that link

Niche Websites

We get the highest proportion of niche links compared to any SEO provider anywhere in the world

Regional Websites

For the best performance in your chosen region(s) we get a high proportion of local country links

High Editorial Value

We only work with website that demonstrate high editorial value to ensure further quality and power

Google has been frequently updating its policies and enforcing them with its algorithmic updates. Each of Google’s algorithm updates has resulted in two things: 1. Mild to Significant SEO growth for websites with natural-looking and high-quality link profiles; and 2. moderate to severe penalties and loss of SEO ranks for websites with bad links. So, in order to achieve a steady and long-term SEO performance growth, it’s important to ensure that all your SEO work is done with the future in mind. Our UX-first approach to SEO, content and links ensures that all the work is carried out for users, not just for search engines, and in complete accordance with Google’s recommendations and policies. Each of the tasks we carry out is backed by years of technical research data and proven UX principles. From ccTLD and Domain Authority of linking websites, to Trust Flow and Anchor Text, we can design and create the industry-best link profile for you, based on our 50+ metrics. Please see our “Future-proofing SEO” section for more technical link details.

Future-proofing SEO