I've recently begun questioning link development altogether. So for a while, I was getting lists of sites with high PR that you can add your links on and lists of high PR auto approving blogs. So I build up about 800 or more links in site explorer but just recently somebody told me I only have 1 link that actually is counting and passing on page rank. Are these other 800 links worthless (except for the fact that some random person might click them despite them not exactly being visible)? Is a link that doesn't pass on Page Rank worthless is terms of SEO?
I checked in Site Explorer. The person who told me I only had like 1 legit link was using some program.
Google only shows a fraction of backlinks. Google does not consider the vast majority of free directory type links to be "quality links" and discount or ignore them. Some links are no-follow which means they pass no PR and will not help you with google SERPS. You are going to need links from sites relevant to your niche - and the best links are from sites already ranking well for the keyword(s) you are targeting.
Pretty much. That's why I tell people (and have told you) to go after merit-based links. In other words, just ask for someone to link to you.
I've never actually tried asking people for links. I'm not too sure how well it would work based on the keyword I'm trying to get, (and not offering a link back in return) but it's worth a shot.
It's always difficult to tell how much a link matters. In my experience, one good link from a trusted, high PR source can make a site and is worth more than 200 random links.
I am in the process of finishing off a website for car accessory and service parts. I have read a lot up and spoken to various companies regarding SEO, it all sounds simple, link build link build and more link build, Some say to Rank well it is to do with onpage seo, some say onpage does not matter and its off page. Every person seems to tell a different tale? the whole concept seems to be really confusing. Also as for link building, if you are going to be selling or running a ecommerce shop and if google ignores "irrelevant" back links that are not from similar related "niche" websites that are in authority and have status. Which company in the right mind truthfully and honestly with a hig PR is going to let a nobody with no online status link to them ? They would benefit you, and you would not benefit tham at all ? Also realistically speaking, someone in a similar market who you could class as competition is not going to accept your request for a link if you contact them?
Hi Irfan, and welcome to the forums! I always tell people to start by optimizing the content on their Web sites - typically with a competitive keyword research and analysis process to determine what keywords people really are searching with and how many other Web sites are actively optimizing their pages for those keywords. Once they've done that, and optimized the code and content of those pages, then I let them loose on building links. Is there anything in particular you need help with by any chance? Oh, as for your example of competitors linking to each other, one way to do it would be to write an article that features your competitor in a positive light or that your competitor's users will find useful, and then ask them to link to it. It can be tricky to pull off, but it's usually well worth the effort if successful.
Hello Dan thank you for the reply, Where would be the best place to intially start off keyword research and analysis? I have been using the Google keyword tool from the adword campaign and for all the keywords in my website categories it brings up not enough number of searches. Is there a better tool? Also an example category on my website if it was to be " Toyota service parts" how could i optimise this keyword onto my webpage?
Google keyword is good for doing research. Why would you want to optimize for a keyword phrase that no one searches for? With a global search of 91, you would be lucky to get one visitor a day even if you ranked #1.
I think that phrase was a mere example, not something he actually planned on using. Plus, that keyword estimate is off by so much. I get more clicks to my site from a page 2 result than the keyword search says the entire term gets daily.
It's highly unusual to get significant traffic from a ranking on page two - even for highly competitive terms. I have quite a few rankings page two rankings for keywords with a couple hundred thousand searches a month and the traffic is negligible. The top ten results get 90% of all click throughs, with only 10% going to results 11 and further.
That's the tool you want to use. Make sure you have it set to show "Exact" searches instead of "Broad" searches.
What i am intending to achieve is to get any product i list on my website to be optimised correctly that when it is searched for, it hopefully appears within the search results on page1, like many others that is my aim. As a example, if i stocked a "VW GOLF OIL FILTER" on my website and those words were also contained in the item title as well as the item description, i would expect my item to appear up within the search results if somebody searched for that phrase. I know that phrase is specific, but i have found that the majority of people out there search for the broad term OIL FILTER, which obviously is a more competitive word. Even though some may say that the keywords i need to optimise for is " OIL FILTER" or maybe "VW OIL FILTER", but would this not bring traffic for people searching for any oil filter? as i do not want traffic for products that i do not stock. A better example to understand would be for the term " CAR PARTS" which is a very competitive keyword / phrase ,if you had a website selling various car parts, for different manufacturers e.g. VW POLO ENGINE, VW POLO GEARBOX, if you was to go for the phrase CAR PARTS, would that not drive customers that maybe were looking for parts for a manufacture of vehicle that you did not have any parts for ?
Google doesn't show you all the backlinks it reads, it will only show select backlinks. I would recommend download "SEO" firefox plugin to get an accurate count of your backlinks from Yahoo
Can I get a link for that? If you're talking about the SEO For Firefox like on your blog, then I don't see how that works? If now, can I get a link for it?