For this case, let's presume that I only get links from relevant websites with relevant and varied, natural anchor texts in a natural content. Can I mess something up by posting my link on too many forums, as long as they are posted in relevant threads? Should I have to keep some ratio in mind between, say forum posts and guest posts? Bottom line is, as long as the link is relevant in terms of contect and anchor, can I still mess up by getting too many links from specific sources? If I manage to get 200 backlinks and 20 guest posting links, will Google want to see some completely different kinds of links too for it to look natural?
Hey Drewsome, Great question and I think this is one that's commonly misunderstood. It used to be thought that you need a huge variety of backlink source types to rank in Google. And before November 2013, thats what most SEOs would do. They'd either manually, or use software, to create links from article directories, PDFs, web 2.0, comments, forum sigs, bios, etc. Then Penguin 2.1 came, and all the software link builders got slammed. Everyone went way conservative and were only linking from the highest quality sources: namely high PR/PA/DA contextual blog posts (PBNs). Sites would still rank and they didn't have a huge diversity. Actually they had no diversity. Would I only get my links from one source? No. But simply because PBNs are expensive, not because it wouldnt work. For the non-critical links, I would still utilize Web 2.0 and social bookmarks are great for anchor text diversity. Hope this helps, Diggity
Thanks for your reply Diggity! I understand, so diversity isn't critical today. I'm promoting a guide on my site (high quality, low bounce rate, long time on page) and so far I've created: 5 relevant forum comment backlinks (Forum PR3/4, not signature/profile) 10 of those high PR/PA/DA relevant contextual blog post you're mentioning Several inbound links from my existing blog (only DA 20 though, 300 daily visitors) It's a medium competitive niche (quite easy until the top three results which are all Wikihow) But the guide is comprehensive so there's a lot of long tail potential Now after 1 month, I only have a few organic visitors per week for the guide. And here's where I'm feeling a bit lost. What links should I build now and how many? Are the poor results telling me: a) I'm doing something wrong with the backlink type? b) I just need more backlinks? c) It will take several months to rank?
It's really hard for my to be able to help you without knowing the specifics. But if you truly have 10 "high PR/PA/DA relevant contextual blog posts" and its a medium competition niche, then something is wrong. Your niche is harder than you think Your on-site is over or underoptimized Something is wrong with the links youre getting Maybe send me the details and I can take a look.
As I followed up on all outreach and turns out that only one of my articles have actually been published so far, so it looks like I've deceived myself. So far I've got 1 article published and 2 dofollow forum backlinks + 2 nofollow. Forum posts seem to be the most effective way for me to get backlinks. Would it be clever of me to continue building, say 10 relevant forum backlinks per week? Is 10 a reasonable number and is forums a reasonable focus?
Don't forget to mix your anchor text... domain.com, domain, main keyword, secondary keyword, generic words, etc...