Ahrefs Cancels Study After Disavowing Disaster

Summary

In this week's Authority Hacker News, the spotlight is on Ahrefs' experiment questioning the SEO value of toxic backlinks. Contrary to popular belief, disavowing such links led to a drop in rankings, challenging the conventional wisdom. The episode also covers Glen Allsopp's SERP analysis, revealing a dominance of major media in Google's Top Stories feature and the impact of Google's August core update on various websites. Additionally, Google faces a lawsuit from Yelp over alleged anti-competitive practices, highlighting the ongoing legal challenges for the tech giant.

Takeaways

• 🔍 Ahrefs conducted an experiment to test the impact of disavowing 'toxic backlinks' on SEO rankings.
• ⬇️ The experiment showed a 7.1% drop in organic traffic after disavowing links, according to Google Search Console.
• 📊 There was a discrepancy between Google Search Console and Ahrefs data, with Ahrefs suggesting a stabilization after disavowal.
• 🤔 The study suggests that the impact of disavowing low-quality links is minimal and may not be worth the effort for most sites.
• 📈 Glen Allsopp's quarterly SERP analysis revealed that large media conglomerates dominate Google's Top Stories feature.
• 🏢 Smaller independent sites make up 14.7% of the top 1,000 domains in Top Stories but only account for 3.3% of the market share.
• 📅 Newer sites face an uphill battle to appear in Top Stories, with only a few exceptions breaking through.
• ⚖️ Google faces a lawsuit from Yelp over alleged anti-competitive practices, specifically the use of Yelp content in SERP features.
• 📉 SERP features are found to be significant click drainers, reducing the click-through rate on organic results.
• 🔝 The presence of SERP features, particularly knowledge graphs, often pushes organic results down the search page, affecting visibility.

Q & A

What was the main focus of Ahrefs' backlink experiment?

The main focus of Ahrefs' backlink experiment was to test the impact of disavowing so-called toxic backlinks on search engine rankings and to evaluate the effectiveness of a popular SEO tool's toxic backlink functionality.

How many URLs did Joshua Hardwick select for the experiment, and how many toxic backlinks did he disavow?

Joshua Hardwick selected three URLs from the Ahrefs blog and disavowed 129 backlinks flagged as toxic.

What was the unexpected event that affected the duration of the experiment?

The unexpected event that affected the duration of the experiment was Google's rollout of the August core update, which led Joshua to end the experiment after 20 days instead of the planned full month.

What was the overall impact on organic traffic for the posts after disavowing toxic backlinks, according to Google Search Console?

According to Google Search Console, the overall organic traffic for the posts dropped by 7.1% after disavowing toxic backlinks.

What was the difference in the data reported by Google Search Console and Ahrefs' tool regarding the impact of disavowing links?

Google Search Console data showed a slight upward trend before disavowing and a dip afterwards, suggesting harm. In contrast, Ahrefs' tool indicated that visibility was already trending backwards before disavowing and flat-lined after, suggesting it might have helped.

Which data source did Patrick Stox, Ahrefs product advisor, suggest was more relevant for measuring ranking, and why?

Patrick Stox suggested that Ahrefs data was more relevant for measuring ranking because the average search volume is a better measure of ranking than GSC data, which can be influenced by factors like seasonality and luck.

What was the outcome for the SEO pricing guide page after disavowing toxic backlinks?

The SEO pricing guide page saw a decrease in organic visits from 574 to 505 after disavowing toxic backlinks, which is a 12% decrease.

How did the top YouTube searches page perform after the disavowal of toxic backlinks?

The top YouTube searches page experienced a decrease in organic visits from 291 to 267 after the disavowal, which is an 8.25% drop.

What was the conclusion drawn by Ahrefs regarding the effectiveness of disavowing toxic backlinks?

Ahrefs concluded that disavowing toxic backlinks basically did nothing significant. It hurt one page a bit, slightly helped another, and had no impact on the site overall, suggesting that blindly disavowing toxic backlinks reported by SEO tools is unlikely to have much positive impact.

What was the main finding of Glen Allsopp's quarterly SERP analysis report regarding Top Stories?

Glen Allsopp's report found that Top Stories is dominated by large media conglomerates, with only a small percentage of independent sites making it into the feature, suggesting that it's difficult for smaller sites to compete in this area.

What was the impact of the Google core update on House Fresh's organic traffic?

The Google core update positively impacted House Fresh, with their organic traffic increasing from practically zero to an estimated 30,000 monthly visits according to Ahrefs.