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Since robosearch’s reply was very long, here’s a brief summary of what he wrote…
Most people have been programmed to either believe that Google hates backlinks, or…
They believe that backlinks used to work in the past, but have stopped working.
Both sets of people are wrong.
The fact is that Google has always loved backlinks and still does.
SEO expert, Nathan Gotch said this as recently as August 2021:
Also, backlinks still work.
Ahrefs published this on its blog in April 2020:
The real problem is that Google has changed the way it evaluates backlinks.
In the past, Google used to make a distinction between white-hat, grey-hat and black-hat backlinks.
Google loved white-hat backlinks but hated the other two types of backlinks.
Now Google has only two categories of backlinks: real or “approved” backlinks and phantom backlinks.
Google loves real backlinks but hates phantom backlinks.
The surprising thing is that many backlinks that were previously considered white-hat are now categorised as phantom backlinks.
Many websites have these dangerous phantom backlinks, and…
The website owners think that they are white-hat backlinks and therefore they are safe.
These website owners don’t know that these phantom backlinks are the reason they can’t rank… just like Seb, who NEVER had a clue that the backlinks Ronda’s colleague used were so dangerous, which is why he blamed Ronda for the problem. 🙁
It wasn’t really Ronda’s fault, because…
Once upon a time, Google classified the backlinks that were used on Seb’s website as white-hat.
The sad fact is that Google penalizes many backlinks that many SEO gurus still call white-hat backlinks.
You can see proof in this article snippet (below) that was published on semrush.com.
For instance, many people think that backlinks from Press Releases and Guest Posts are safe, but…
As you can see from the screenshot above – they are considered as phantom backlinks.
However, it’s not really a black or white issue, and not all phantom backlinks are bad.
There are other nuances that come into it.
The type of anchor text used comes into play. Is it a money anchor or a combined anchor?
The age of the backlink also comes into it.
For instance, older Press Release backlinks are treated more favourably than more recent ones.
Anyway, some phantom backlinks are relatively harmless, while others are extremely dangerous.
The dangerous phantom backlinks are called Silent Killers!
They will kill your website rankings and you won’t even have a clue what is going on.
The solution is obvious.
The solution is simple.
The solution is a two-step process, and…
The first step of the process is the exact opposite of what the SEO Gurus teach their students.