You have to buy links to get high up in google for popular keywords, sad fact.

[bbonline]

Originally Posted by greekhand

I totally agree with you.

I usually check my competitors links with http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ ...

How do you check the Google links ? What is Google Backlink Checker ??

Regards.

The most reliable tool for checking backlinks http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com/ . Any link from are counted and even reads fast compare to other tool.

[pokertramp]

Can someone explain what a good number of back links would be? How do you rate a site worthwhile to buy links from?

[bbonline]

Originally Posted by pokertramp

Can someone explain what a good number of back links would be? How do you rate a site worthwhile to buy links from?

If you achieved a thousand links maybe less than 10 thousands that is a plus points for you. You will definitely get PR of 2 or 3. If you target a PR of 4 above that would be a very worthwhile to buy or sell a link.

[pokertramp]

thanks bbonline
Sorry I just don't quite understand, 1000 and 10 thousand is a huge difference. Do you mean if I want a PR 4 I need to have more than 10 thousand links to my site?

[POlka]

Originally Posted by bbonline

If you achieved a thousand links maybe less than 10 thousands that is a plus points for you. You will definitely get PR of 2 or 3. If you target a PR of 4 above that would be a very worthwhile to buy or sell a link.

While iam by no means an expert in this Field, i dont think that the number of Backlinks is a really good measurement if your looking to buy links from some one.

Id prefer a backlink from a solid pr 2 site with some good relevant links any day over a backlink from a page with a pr 5 that screams bad neighbourhood.

[Peter Willis]

Given the recent Google "brand" switch, which is placing more weight on what Google defines as being a brand, paid for backlinks are carrying less weight than ever. It's certainly been true to say in order to rank well you have needed to buy links in the past, but over the next year they'll become less and less valuable as Google continues to ramp up their brand favouritism. In order to rank well in the future you'll need to consider ways to get your sites included in outlets like Google News and other authoritive news resources - all with the view to building your brand image.

Long tail traffic shouldn't be as affected, so this only really means anything to you guys who are going after the more hollywood key-terms.

[universal4]

I agree and will take that statement further.

If I have apage with lots of blackjack content on it, I'd take a link from a pr0 page with lots of blackjack content over a pr 4 or pr 5 page that isn't about gambling....and would still prefer the pr0 over a non blackjack gambling page that has a pr2 or pr3.

Relevant links with good anchor text mean more than pr.

I still exchange links but try to do so with relevant pages with matching anchor text. (pm me if interested)

Rick
Universal4

[Peter Willis]

Absolutely right Universal - Relevance > PR juice every time.

The thing with exchanges though is there are so many people trying to give away rubbish links (i.e. on pages clearly set up just to give away juice) and expect quality stuff in exchange (i.e. from REAL sites which have minimal external links). Unfortunately there's a lot of guys in this game who just don't know the value of a link and end up giving it away.

I can't PM anyone on here just yet, but feel free to drop me a line Universal if you're interested in some exchanges and I'll get back to you when I can

[GaryTheScubaGuy]

Originally Posted by alexpratt

There has been a lot of chat that towards the end of this year links will decrease massively in importance and that content will become a lot more significant when it comes to ranking.

Based on that I would continue to look at links but don't forget the content as you may find that this link work will not be as beneficial towards the end of the year.

On a more serious note, I have had numerous people coming to me to either offer them advice on how to get out of a Google penalty as well as wanting services to have it done for them - and in the last 3 months the numbers of these inquiries have at least tripled.

It seems to initially draw a 90-day penalty, which can be reduced in some cases, but if you are seriously abusing t's & c's or do not resolve the issue and request a reinclusion it will fluctuate for 30-60 days then sink like lead.

There needs to be a healthy mix of permanent one-way links, social bookmarking, blog and forums posts, press releases and add a few authority links from Yahoo, BOTW and Alta Vista. All would be under £300 and are permanent, as well as being PR7 links.

Vary your anchor text considerably. Do not overuse any keyword over 20% in the anchor text of your back link.

Niche and Longtail terms as anchor text is best practice because even with buffer words (I.e. adding 'free' to 'online poker') benefits the site residually upwards because the base or 'Hollywood' terms are in the phrase.

Its important to point the right keywords at the right pages as well. I usually build links to the homepage for the initial 30-45 days (depending on the target market) with a huge mix of anchor text and then point 50% of the resources at internal links for the next few months, then eventually (4-6 months) I go back and target the Hollywood terms heavy.

This process has proven to leave a natural footprint to this point - but remember, its a non-stop path because once you start you will need to continue if you want to maintain any rankings.

Its definitely do-able on secondary, niche and long tail terms.

Did you know that 25% of all searches done on a day-to-day basis are kw sets that have never been searched before?

[pokertramp]

I just want to thank everyone for the posts here, I'm learning a bit about this