Module 3 — Reading the link graph

A tier 1 link means nothing until you know what links to it. Six lessons on reading a profile at depth.

 Checklist

-   Record Fresh and Historic link and referring-domain counts separately, and never quote one as if it were the other
-   Compute the Fresh-to-Historic referring-domain ratio before drawing any conclusion about decay
-   Report referring domains, not links; note the distinct-versus-duplicate split if you must report links
-   Run the Link Graph at all tiers and record domains, links and links per domain
-   Repeat at tier 1, tier 2, tier 3 and tier 4 and put the four readings in one table
-   Flag any tier where links per domain is exactly 1.0, or above roughly 3
-   Scan each tier for runs of domains with near-identical Trust Flow and Citation Flow
-   Check whether Citation Flow sits consistently above Trust Flow by a similar margin across a cluster
-   Sort Topical Trust Flow by TTF value, never by referring domains
-   Read Flow Metric History for a decade of context before treating any single reading as a change
-   Compare the backlink-history curve against the referring-domain curve to catch one-domain spikes
-   Resolve the domain's IP addresses, check every one, and discount the result entirely if it is behind a CDN
-   Compute referring domains per Class C subnet rather than trusting a neighborhood list
-   Read Related Sites with a human filter for string-similarity false positives
-   Run Clique Hunter against a known-unrelated site to calibrate what a null result looks like
-   Separate findings you control (your tier 1) from findings you do not (everything from tier 2 outward)
-   Write the disavow recommendation last, and default to recommending nothing

 Lessons

3.1. What the link graph is — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/link-graph/what-the-link-graph-is/
3.2. Tiers two through five — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/link-graph/tiers-two-through-five/
3.3. Trust Flow, Citation Flow and Topical Trust Flow — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/link-graph/majestic-trust-flow-and-topical-trust-flow/
3.4. Detecting link networks and footprints — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/link-graph/detecting-link-networks-and-footprints/
3.5. Related sites and co-citation — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/link-graph/related-sites-and-co-citation/
3.6. Running a tiered link audit — https://www.advancedlinktraining.com/course/link-graph/running-a-tiered-link-audit/

AdvancedLinkTraining.com — a resource by Hartzer.com