How many quality links do make a difference to a sites' SEO?

[traffickitty]

Hi,

I'm starting to build my site from 0, and I have to confess I really got lost on this. How are you guys managing to get those links? To me it feels like a trap, cause the sites are still not ranking well on Google, and is tough to get known when no one knows that your site exists.

[alexcruncha]

Hi,

I'm starting to build my site from 0, and I have to confess I really got lost on this. How are you guys managing to get those links? To me it feels like a trap, cause the sites are still not ranking well on Google, and is tough to get known when no one knows that your site exists.

Hi TrafficKitty,

If you are just starting out you need to be prepared to be in for a long wait to rank well no matter what you do... genuine rankings do take time even with good link building. When I started in 2010 I did everything I could to get links and it took about 1 year before I saw my first payout. TBH I nearly gave up but once I started ranking for money terms (12+ months) I eventually started to get regular monthly payouts and built on it over time, constantly learning and tweaking everything on the way. It is a very steep learning curve.

Before you go about building links you will want to do some keyword research and select a set of keywords to go after. Use Google Adwords Keyword tool to identify good keywords with 3 or more words in them that get 400+ exact match searches. Or better still use Market Samurai to do the keyword research as in addition to the number of monthly searches you will be able to identify what competition there is for various keywords. Once you have identified the keywords you will want to optimise pages on your site to target them. Once this is setup you are then in a position to start building links.

Regarding building links here are a few good ways and tips to do it manually and in a way that will be seen in a positive light by the search engines.

Tip. Always use varied anchor text and descriptions/content in any links you go for (very important) and spread the links between your homepage and other inner pages that you want to promote in the site. You dont need to worry about getting huge volumes of links... it is better to go after high quality manually built links in low volumes.

1. Guest posts - Contact webmasters in your niche and offer to provide them high quality content free of charge for them to publish with your link in it, in return for the same on one of your sites.
2. Leave comments on sites like CAP with your link in (these will often be nofollow so will not add link juice but helps build a natural link profile)
3. Have discussions in forums like GPWA and you can use the odd link in your signature but either constantly change the anchor text in your sig or use your domain as the anchor text.
4. Write articles and submit them in article directories (never submit the same article twice)
5. Write press releases and submit them to press release sites.
6. Offer reciprocal links with other webmasters.. its an old school way but it will get you links.
7. Do some social bookmarking
8. Answer questions in Q&A sites
9. Leave relevant information on Wiki's with a reference link to your site.
10. Submit your links to relevant web directories only (not every web directory)
11. Go to fiverr and get someone to make you a video and submit it to video sites with your links and varied anchor text/descriptions
12. Create a document or pdf and submit it to document sites with your link/description if possible

Note and Warning.
If you are new to this you could very very easily fall into a trap of using cheap SEO services that will submit 100's of articles with backlinks, syndicate 50+ press releases, 100+ bookmarks, 100+ link directories etc etc. I would steer away from these unless you really know what you are doing as these type of activities can easily lead to penalties if not done correctly and there are plenty of so called pros out there that will do it the wrong way. Using these services from the start could mean you will never get good traffic as the site is poisoned to begin with. I would recommend to start by doing all of the above manually yourself in low volumes to see how you go.

More advanced stuff.
Once you have a healthy manually built backlink profile you can build links in volume to the original backlinks you built (but not directly to your site). This will increase the value of the links pointing to your site that you originally built. You dont need to be so careful with varying anchor text/descriptions/content for these links for now but this may change in the future.

Above all, dedicate your time to creating a good site that will engage visitors and actually have information that is useful to someone landing on your pages.

[lots0]

That is good post alexcruncha.

The only thing I would disagree with is your suggestions about link building.
Every time I see a newbie trying to build a "natural" link profile they screw up, because they don't understand what a "natural" link profile truly looks like. I been doing this forever and I still have problems understanding what google considers a "natural" link profile.

But the rest of your suggestions are Brilliant...especially the one about submitting your site to niche directories (See my Signature...)

[Hermski]

Hi alexcruncha and lots0

Thanks for your posts, this great stuff! My approach on how I intend to build links has changed from one to the other day... Let's see, if I'll manage to do it vaguely right.

I agree with lots0 on: "What is considered a natural link profile"? The minute you go out and place a link in a post, write for other people to get a link or publish a press release, it's never really 'natural'. You do it for web presence and as the words suggests, you build links. Building links is not natural in the first place. The guys over at "G" shouldn't even put these words in their mouth as they will contradict themselves right away... This whole thing that has been set in motion is just mental... It's a currency, a counterfeit and dirty one in my opinion and it distracts from what the legit Affiliate wants to do, provide quality.

But of course, that's another story and it just is what it is, so I wish everyone best of luck doing their link building in a way that is "safe".

[edgarf76]

@alexcruncha that was awesome. As far as your advanced advice is concerned, is that what people refer to as buffer sites? For instance if I do to godaddy auction, get the plugin to measure the page rank, age of site, and do some research. At that time find and a bid in on a great pr 4 site in my niche and start adding content to it with just one link pointing to my "money site". Is that what you are refering to in more detail?


I'm not sure if this is a black hat technique or not. Has anyone heard of this technique?

[alexcruncha]

@alexcruncha that was awesome. As far as your advanced advice is concerned, is that what people refer to as buffer sites? For instance if I do to godaddy auction, get the plugin to measure the page rank, age of site, and do some research. At that time find and a bid in on a great pr 4 site in my niche and start adding content to it with just one link pointing to my "money site". Is that what you are refering to in more detail?

I'm not sure if this is a black hat technique or not. Has anyone heard of this technique?

First off one thing I have learned is that anything you do to get links (other than posting decent content) is technically not "white-hat", as Hermski is getting at... the longer I am in the game I realise that most stuff I do in SEO is more grey that white or black. Pure white hat is focusing on on-site SEO factors and waiting for people that like your content to link to it. But in the gambling sector very very few people want to tell the world that they gamble. So this model and ideal of Google doesnt work so well in the gambling sector and we are more or less forced into building unnatural links that look natural if we want to get ahead.

To answer your question specifically about buffer sites... its common practice with SEOs that I know to build links to links that point to your money site. It helps you avoid a penalty while still getting the benefit and if you have control of the primary links that point to your money site you can turn them on, off or redirect them as you like. This is a very broad topic but if you are thinking of buying or building satellite sites to build links to and link to your money site just make sure they are all on separate web hosting accounts, servers or more specifically different IP addresses... otherwise Google will link them all together, see them as a network and everything will be devalued if not penalised.

BTW glad you guys liked my earlier post. It actually reminds me of an old article on SEOBook: 101 ways to build links, it is quite an old article now so some of it might be outdated but there are definitely still a lot of ideas in there.

[edgarf76]

thank u again. that answers my question and leads me to a new question. My sports and poker site are on the same hosting plan. I didn't know that each site should have a seperate webhosting plan. I am thinking of making a UFC/MMA site; if I make that I will make sure that it has a seperate hosting plan. But now I'm not sure if I should get another hosting plan for my poker and sports sites? If G sees it as one IP already, isnt it best to leave it be? I'm just curious if it will make a difference of not since it is linked already? Thanks Guys!

[alexcruncha]

thank u again. that answers my question and leads me to a new question. My sports and poker site are on the same hosting plan. I didn't know that each site should have a seperate webhosting plan. I am thinking of making a UFC/MMA site; if I make that I will make sure that it has a seperate hosting plan. But now I'm not sure if I should get another hosting plan for my poker and sports sites? If G sees it as one IP already, isnt it best to leave it be? I'm just curious if it will make a difference of not since it is linked already? Thanks Guys!

You only need your sites on different IP's if you are planning to benefit from interlinking between them. IMO I would leave them as they are (for convenience) and build links to the sites separately, keeping them independent of each other from a link building perspective since they are all different niches.

[casinorecommender]

Hi Hermski

There is not an exact number. The ratio is important. I mean Incoming/Outgoing ratio within the same time frame.

All the best

[edgarf76]

@tyler i use market samuri. Many people say it is obsolete, for the most part it is besides the new rank tracker. It is still a good tool if you have already bought it, you can use google keywords to check you keywords. You had said something about checking you exact ranking, google webmaster tools is great to see where you stand and they have added a change feature where you can see if you are moving up or down. Best of Luck!

[casinorecommender]

I agree with you mate.it is all about "QUALITY" and "QUALITY" in this world means "BEING ORGANIC NOT PAID"! Spend effort rather than money and share the good results woth us. They will not be a coinsidence... For sure... !

[indika]

The quality of links must be better than the quantity. If you have informational and popular backlinks, chances of your page to be considered by search engines increase automatically.

[Hermski]

Thanks casinorecommender...

...and everyone getting involved in this thread. I suppose it doesn't have to be an exact number of links each month (incoming/outgoing), as that wouldn't look natural either. If for instance there were 5 links created one month and none the next, I guess it 'should' not have too much of an impact. I am currently going along the lines of trying to create 2 to 3 niche, 1 'good' web catalog and 2 relevant blog entry links. May not be much, but let's see how it will go.

[bauss]

My formula...

100% TRULY unique, interesting, focused content + 0 backlinks = rank just fine.

You can control what is done/posted/said on your site. Theoretically, you cannot control what people off your site do.

Forget link building, focus on your own house and you "should" rank just fine (from my personal experiences).

Link building also brings in traffic, AND helps improve your ranks. You can still improve your rankings without link building, but it's definitely making it a lot harder for you to do so. Quality content is great, but both quality content and quality backlinks are better.