perform are for a website’s traffic and its

backlink profile. Here’s the process in a nutshell: Enter the site in Ahrefs’ Site Explorer Check out the Performance graph in the “Overview” report Filter for referring domains and organic traffic for a TL;DR view Filtering Ahrefs’ Site Explorer performance graph by referring domains and organic traffic Look for any big drops in traffic or any unnatural-looking spikes in referring domains. Both of these can signal either declining performance overall or some shady things going on in the background. For example, if

you notice a lot of links added in a short

period of time, the seller may have purchased links in bulk and there is a risk of the website receiving penalties from Google in future. Example of an abnormal spike in referring domains You can then take a closer look at a site’s link profile in the Backlinks report. Exclude “Best links” to hone in on potentially problematic links. Filter for removing best links from Ahrefs’ backlink reports Paid links usually use the target keyword as the anchor text (the clickable part of the link) and come from poor content on low-

quality sites, so look out for sites with

lots of those. For example, look at this link to a page about sleep apnea: Example of a low quality link Based on this data, we can see that it:  nobody’s ever heard of Comes from a page with zero estimated traffic Has exact-match anchor text (“sleep apnea”) If we look at the referring page itself, we can also see that the content is extremely low quality. The site is plastered in ads and although it’s not visible in the screenshot below (because of all the ads!), it has lots of suspicious outlinks too. Example of Sleep Healthy Club’s page design covered in ads. Conclusion? This is almost

certainly a paid link. If a large percentage

of the links to the site you’re considering Dominica Email List  look like this, that’s a major red flag. Another of my favorite checks to do at this stage is to look at the Site Structure report to get a feel for the information architecture of the website and the traffic distribution across the content. Example of Ahrefs’ Site Structure report showcasing website segments with the most organic traffic Poorly structured websites with decent performance are my favorite kind to work on. Generally, they’re run by people who aren’t

the most SEO savvy, but they have built

a genuine audience who like what they’re putting out there. Implementing some quick and easy SEO best practices can often see major gains on sites like this in a relatively small timeframe. 4. Evaluate the niche and broader market To assess the state of the market, check out Keywords Explorer for the top categories or broad terms and assess the search potential over time. Here are some common patterns you may see: Steady markets are great for consistent, recurring revenue and tend to form the bread and

butter foundation of a website’s performance

. Seasonal markets are great for More from this author Partnering  growing your audience and short injections of new revenue but offer inconsistent income. New and growing markets typically have lower competition levels and offer a great opportunity to become the market leader. Declining markets offer a great opportunity to revolutionize an outdated way of doing things and to absorb an existing, knowledgeable audience. Common keyword patterns and how to evaluate them In short, there are