Chapter 24 — Self-Check Quiz

Twenty-five questions mixing multiple choice and short answer. Answer without looking back, then check the key at the bottom. Aim for understanding, not a score.

Multiple choice

  1. Which is the first filter when evaluating a link opportunity? - A. Domain Authority - B. Relevance - C. The anchor text you can get - D. The price

  2. "Domain Authority (DA)" and "Domain Rating (DR)" are: - A. Google's official authority scores - B. Confirmed ranking factors - C. Third-party vendor metrics that model authority - D. The same thing as PageRank

  3. The single-line heuristic that folds the four evaluation questions together is: - A. "How high is the DA?" - B. "Can I get an exact-match anchor?" - C. "Would I want this link even if search engines didn't exist?" - D. "Is it do-follow?"

  4. In his 2014 post, Matt Cutts declared the end of: - A. All guest blogging, forever - B. Guest blogging used as a way to gain links (the spammy, scaled version) - C. Editorial guest contributions - D. Link building of any kind

  5. A link earned by getting your genuinely useful page added to a site's curated "useful links" page is a: - A. Resource-page link - B. Reciprocal link - C. Sponsored link - D. PBN link

  6. Broken-link building works by: - A. Buying expired domains - B. Reporting competitors to Google - C. Finding a dead outbound link on a relevant page and offering your working resource as a replacement - D. Removing your own broken links

  7. An unlinked mention is valuable to reclaim because: - A. It is automatically a do-follow link - B. The publisher already chose to cite you — the hard part is done - C. Google counts mentions as links anyway - D. It guarantees a ranking increase

  8. Which category of link is generally the safest and most durable for a local business? - A. Purchased "high-DA" links - B. Comment links - C. Local relationship links (chambers, sponsorships, suppliers) - D. Automated directory submissions

  9. A private blog network (PBN) is: - A. A social media strategy - B. A network of sites one owner controls solely to link to their own money site and fake endorsement - C. A private Slack for bloggers - D. Google's internal link map

  10. Google's SpamBrain, in the December 2022 link spam update, was used to:

    • A. Reward sites with many links
    • B. Neutralize spammy links so they simply don't count (as well as inform penalties)
    • C. Sell links
    • D. Replace Search Console

  11. Which anchor type is a statistical fingerprint of manipulation when it dominates a profile?

    • A. Branded ("Rivertown Home Services")
    • B. Naked URL
    • C. Exact-match commercial ("furnace repair Cedar Hills")
    • D. Generic ("click here")

  12. Regarding a "safe" anchor-text ratio, Google has:

    • A. Published exact thresholds
    • B. Published no thresholds or safe ratio at all
    • C. Confirmed 20% branded is ideal
    • D. Endorsed the vendor tools' targets

  13. A paid or sponsored placement stays on the right side of Google's guidelines when the link is:

    • A. Do-follow with an exact-match anchor
    • B. Marked rel="sponsored" or nofollow
    • C. Hidden in the footer
    • D. On a DA 60+ site

  14. The 2011 case in which The New York Times exposed a paid-link network and Google applied a manual action was:

    • A. Interflora
    • B. eBay
    • C. JCPenney
    • D. BMW.de

  15. "Competitor link analysis," as taught in this chapter, is best used to:

    • A. Copy every link a competitor has, one for one
    • B. Match a competitor's raw referring-domain count
    • C. Find replicable, relevant link sources open to you
    • D. Report competitors for buying links

  16. Which statement about resource-page and broken-link building is true?

    • A. They scale to hundreds of links a month
    • B. They are high-yield with minimal effort
    • C. They are low-yield, labor-intensive supplements that require a genuinely link-worthy page
    • D. They pass no value at all

  17. A stray reciprocal link (a supplier and a contractor linking to each other) is:

    • A. Always a penalty
    • B. Normal and harmless; only organized, at-scale exchanges are schemes
    • C. A PBN
    • D. Required to be nofollowed by law

  18. The best reason to prefer a relevant DR 24 local association link over an irrelevant DR 78 aggregator link is:

    • A. It is cheaper
    • B. Relevance carries a more meaningful endorsement, and irrelevant-link patterns signal manipulation
    • C. DR 24 links rank you faster
    • D. Google bans all aggregators

Short answer

  1. Name the four evaluation questions from §24.1.

  2. In one sentence each, state what guest posting can do and what it cannot do.

  3. Why is buying links a negative expected value decision even when it occasionally "works" short-term? Use the words survivorship bias and asymmetric downside.

  4. Explain why, for a local business, the safest links and the most effective links are often the same links.

  5. What is the correct move when you can influence a link's anchor text (e.g., a guest post or resource listing) — and what should you avoid?

  6. A colleague wants to hit a specific anchor-text distribution to "look natural." Explain why this mindset is itself the problem.

  7. Name two things this chapter's Rivertown link plan deliberately does not settle, and which chapters handle them.

Answer key 1. **B** — relevance first; an irrelevant link is weak, and irrelevant *patterns* signal manipulation. 2. **C** — third-party vendor metrics (Moz's DA, Ahrefs' DR); not Google's, not confirmed factors. 3. **C** — the "would you want it even without search engines?" heuristic. 4. **B** — guest blogging *for links* at scale; legitimate editorial contribution remains fine. 5. **A** — a resource-page link. 6. **C** — find a dead outbound link and offer a working replacement. 7. **B** — the publisher already chose to cite you; you're just completing the citation. 8. **C** — local relationship links. 9. **B** — one owner's network built to fake independent endorsement. 10. **B** — neutralize spammy links so they don't count (and inform enforcement). 11. **C** — a high share of exact-match commercial anchors. 12. **B** — Google has published no safe ratio; anyone selling exact targets is selling folklore. 13. **B** — marked `sponsored`/`nofollow` (honest advertising, not a scheme). 14. **C** — JCPenney (2011). 15. **C** — find replicable, relevant sources (not copy junk or chase a raw count). 16. **C** — low-yield, labor-intensive supplements needing a genuinely link-worthy page. 17. **B** — harmless as a stray occurrence; only organized, at-scale exchanges are schemes. 18. **B** — relevance is a more meaningful endorsement; irrelevant-link patterns are a manipulation signal. 19. **Relevance, authority, real traffic, editorial standards** (§24.1). 20. **Can:** put your expertise/brand before a relevant new audience, send referral traffic, build a publisher relationship and author authority, and earn one good editorial link. **Cannot:** rescue a weak site, scale safely (industrialized it becomes a link scheme), or substitute for having something worth saying. 21. You never see the sites that were caught and crushed (**survivorship bias**), and the downside is **asymmetric**: a modest, eroding upside (SpamBrain increasingly neutralizes bought links) against the catastrophic loss of your entire organic channel — a bad bet in expectation. 22. Because those links (chambers, sponsorships, suppliers, community) come from *real relationships*, which is exactly what the link graph was built to measure — so they're safe (no footprint to catch) and effective (relevant, and they send real referral traffic and brand value). 23. Prefer your **brand name, URL, or a natural phrase**; **avoid** exact-match commercial keywords, which are the loudest over-optimization signal. 24. Because trying to hit a target distribution *is* the manipulator's mindset — treating your profile as a dial to set rather than a reputation to earn. The healthy distribution is a byproduct of earning links. 25. It does **not** fix the **inherited spammy links** (Chapter 26 — disavow or ignore) and does **not** set up **NAP-consistent citations / Google Business Profile** (Chapter 25). It also promises no ranking.