Backlinks have no bearing on Google Position

After doing case studies, I have come to the conclusion that having back links or any kind of link on another site is only good for traffic. It has no bearing on your Google positioning.

For instance, I have a website design service with over 20 back links to sites ranging from PR4 to PR1. I get little traffic from these sites, but still struggle with gaining position on Google. My position has actually dropped and I have been doing nothing but adding more back links as I get new clients.

So, if you are falling for the old wise tale of having back links to improve your position on Google, think again because it certainly has no bearing on your position whatsoever.

You do not believe me? Well look for yourself:

CASE STUDY www.failingbusinesses.com Here is a site that has absolutely no back links, and is entirely made up of Enzine articles. So that copy scape theory is bullshit as well.

Google rankings -

incorporating failing business: 1st of about 394,000,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ng+failing+business&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

help me out of a failing business: 2nd of about 43,200,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...+a+failing+business&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

get out or stay in a failing business: 4th of about 58,400,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...a+failing+business+&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing businesses in china: 4th of about 66,100,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...usinesses+in+china+&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing business what to do: 1st of about 58,200,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...business+what+to+do&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing business stats: 1st of about 58,400,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ling+business+stats&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing business options: 1st of about 43,600,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ng+business+options&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing business in this economy: 2nd of about 39,000,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...ss+in+this+economy+&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing business in the us: 2nd of about 56,900,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...+business+in+the+us&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing businesses in the uk: 1st of about 76,600,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...usinesses+in+the+uk&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=

failing businesses in the world: 5th of about 67,300,000 http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...nesses+in+the+world&btnG=Search&aq=f&oq=&aqi=


Back links? The only thing I will need back links on this site is to help generate traffic.

 

wow. Thanks for explaining that to us. I guess we can all now rank for 'credit consolidation' and 'mesothelioma' without any backlinks whatsoever.







not.

 

If it's the site in your sig file, it's only a PR1.

Looks to me like you need more relevant back links, rather than footer links from unrelated sites that you have designed.

If 90% for your back links are only site wide footer links yes it will probably not improve your listing at all.

It might also help a lot if those footer links also used a "title" tag in the link structure of "South Florida website design" if what you are wanting to get listed for is South Florida website design.
ie.

<a href="http://www.vpcomp.net/" title="South Florida website design">Website Design And Development by VPCOMP Studios</a>

Code (markup):

 

You can only optimize your page so much and after that Google puts alot of weight on backlinks. The age of your domain is also important but in your industry "Website design" you have extreme competition. You need to have thousands of links to rank high, and you also need anchor links. The long tail keywords are easier to rank high on Google but even then we are talking about website design. A couple of hundred links alone may not do it.

 

Ummmm hey thanks for showing your maturity level as well as sarcastic abilities. You rock!!

 

Thanks for the advice. Maybe this is what I was missing... I will give it a shot

 

This is great information! Thanks for sharing

 

You missing something important. Search your keyword with quotes: "incorporating failing business" and you'll see that you actually have no competitor optimized for those keywords. That's why you have no need of backlinks to be on first page of google. Only your pages are optimized for those keywords. As for the copyscape thing you have right. but only time will show about that.

 

This is not so. I can't yet post links on this forum, so you'll have to do your own googling. The gap in your SEO knowledge is: contextual link

Google this, and you'll see how to make use of backlinks to boost your position in search engine results pages for a particular keyword phrase.

1. 20 backlinks isn't a lot

2. If you did mean to say links to [other] sites, you have it the wrong way around. The links must come back to you.

The site's URL contains the keywords 'failing' and 'businesses'. Any search term that includes these keywords will generally bring up this site, if it has content appropriate to the search, and uses the title tag wisely.

This is a content rich site, and heavily focussed on the topic of failing businesses. It's success for keyword phrases that include 'failing businesses' comes as no surprise.

The other (major) factor in this site's success, is the low number of searches/month for the term "failing businesses". There aren't many, and the keyword phrase is attracting no competition in AdWords (no surprise given the low search interest). So ranking highly for this term with such a domain is no surprise at all.

For the above reasons, I think the assertion in the original post are incorrect.

 

And after reading your reply, I would have to agree with you... Hey, I'm still learning...

Thanks for the reply and breakdown.

 

i dont agree.i completely rely on backlinks for all niche sites.

 

Well it looks like his idea is changing about backlinks..

 

Don't induce noobs in error backlinks count 20 backlinks are way to few for comptitive keyphrases they need 1-10k even more ... i hate when amateurs give "guru advices"

 

I totally agree, backlinks are very important

 

Disagree, how do you know how many backlinks the site has ? Most backlinks does not show up in webmaster tools or Yahoo Site Explorer.

 

According to me Back links gives good PR and this give good position on SERP.. As a support need more months also .. at least will take 6-12 months to get reflected in SERP..even enough BL..

 

Any site can rank at #1 for some long tail keywords. The problem is that are not competitive ones.
According to Alexa that site you are pointing receives almost no traffic, its that right?

If its right, then your study can show us that its not important to get #1 in any phrase, but in competitive ones and for get high in that competitive searches, you need to hava many backlinks with good anchor texts.

 

No. No. No.
I have a site with 2 pages that is a PR4. It has QUALITY backlinks. Heaven only knows, I haven't done a darn thing to it. And, it gets traffic. Scrambling to get articles up now, so I can monetize it.

Again, No!
Footer links to your main page will probably not do a thing. But my new design site went from PR0 to PR2 in one update with site wide footers only, that linked not only design site main page, but also the category of the design site.

Consider everything in bold as a link. Everything in italics is a keyword in your link.

Example of Footers on client site, first link is XYZ.com, second link is XYZ.com/blogging.html:

Site design by XYZ. Categorized under Blogging.
A XYZ Website Design. Listed under Blogging

Page Example on Design Site.

Blogging (H1 phrase and page title)

These are sites about blogging that we've designed. As everyone now knows, blogging - yada yada. 250 word minimum.

Site 1 (H2 OR H3 tags)
150-250 words on site one

Site 2 (H2 OR H3 tags)
150-250 words on site two

All of the site names contain their respective keywords, or I would link from the 150-250 site description.

Two caveats with this - 1. I've owned the design domain name since 2004, registered it for 10 years and never developed it. 2. My sites are spread over 4 servers.

I built this design site for a couple of personal reasons that had nothing to do with making money. (I know, you build sites to make money!) Traffic comes mainly from people checking out footer links, because some of my sites have good niche penetration. Make sure you have a strong About Us page, with your keywords, since a lot of sites seem to be grabbing this, and make sure you rotate copy on this page regularly. (4 articles rotated quarterly should keep this fresh for Google.)

Also, don't get greedy. Add your sites over time. Since this is a vanity site, I don't think my PR4 is listed or links to the design site yet. The big G WILL penalize you for too many links over too short a time.

As I said, I built this site for personal reasons, not for business. I never really optimized or promoted it. Imagine what you can do on purpose.

 

You need related links to your site in order to rank in Google...as well as basic on page SEO. Non related links will mostly be ignored by Google. So focus on getting links from quality sites in your niche.

 

In my experience, Google looks at:

Domain age
Site Content (keywords, relevancy)
Relevant Backlinks
Non-Relevant Backlinks
Internal Links
Outbound Links
Traffic (they don't give Analytics for free for nothing)
...and that is only on even numbered weekdays when the moon is full.

Each of these aspects give a different weight to the final SERP position. I have gotten some good results in the past with high ranking non-relevant backlinks, and also some crappy results with the same thing.

The other posts are correct, and you are right to a degree - You can't gain serps with backlinks alone.