Why you need link cluster analysis
What is it that one website has and another doesn’t, that allows it to rank on page one? The short answer lies in the quantity, and quality of its backward links. However, the most useful of this information is often hidden, fragmented, and too voluminous to obtain or analyse meaningfully.
As a result, most link-building programmes work in the dark and are slow and inefficient.
Link cluster analysis utilises Greenlight's own compiled index of the web’s many billions of pages, to expose this hard-to-find information. Our proprietary algorithms, developed on the same principles as search engines like Google, automatically identify sites that are most able to drive ranking improvements.
This allows our Link Catalyst link-building programmes to greatly refine their targeting in areas such as solicitation of links, measuring value when buying space, targeting digital PR efforts, partnership efforts and more.
This means that a link-building campaign, driven by link cluster analysis, can identify and obtain significantly higher number of better quality links, in a far shorter space of time than other SEOs are capable of doing manually.
And that means faster, better results for you.
How link cluster analysis works
Link cluster analysis uses an advanced mapping and analysis technique based on very similar principles to those used by search engines such as Google. This allows us to see from which sites the link credibility is flowing to those who are ranking. We call this 'reverse competitive mapping'.
Reverse competitive mapping begins by identifying competitive sites that perform well, and / or are very visible or prevalent in a particular keyword space.
Having identified a competitive set (see blue nodes) the next phase is to mine and map out each one’s immediate back-links, using our proprietary spidering & mapping technology.
This gives us an immediate picture of how sites that are dominant in an industry are achieving their authority (see orange nodes) where that authority appears and is coming from, how high the bar might be set, and how networked they are.
This is, however, only the first step. Next we analyse the back-links of the back-linking sites and catalogue the topic, page rank and authority of each site linking to the linkers
Now we can see those sites (see red nodes), we begin to gain a clearer picture and understanding of the flow of authority and page rank to the dominant sites in the industry. However, not all links will be equal, so we still need to identify which sites are responsible for delivering the most leverage in terms of popularity, context, and authority.
This is where Greenlight’s proprietary algorithms come into effect. By using a multitude of factors, closely modelled on Google and other search engine scoring methods, to identify which links are delivering the lion’s share of the equity to the dominant sites in your industry.
Following this analysis, we can now see which links convey the most trust, authority and context (see green nodes). It is these sites and the sites closely related to them that will deliver the most ranking benefit per link.
We can use this information to develop more effective solicitation, partnership, syndication and Digital PR strategies for gaining links.
This cuts down on wasted, vague and random efforts, reduces time to ranking, and delivers stronger longer lasting results.
With this kind of detailed information at the heart of a link-building programme, it is possible to identify which sites and links are able to most quickly and efficiently propel a site on to page one.
This means that:
- Sites and their link potential can be accurately valued.
- Low value sites can be cut out of the process, preventing time, money and resources wasted by chasing low quality links.
- High value sites can be readily identified and have resources committed to them.
- Bespoke ideas can be created to gain traction with high value sites to, in return, gain links.
- Competitor link strategies can be easily identified and reverse engineered.
