In a very competitive industry (say Travel), is it possible for a newbie website (2 years old or less) to rank 1st page of Google with normal SEO and regular link building? I mean, all the websites on 1st page have been in the business for many years and have tons of authority backlinks... let's be realistic here... expert advice wanted here...
yeah it is definitely possible provided your SEO/SEM efforts are absolutely in the right direction. buying quality links won't help you. instead showcase yourself as the master of your niche and try to get natural one-way links which are far more helpful
If the segment is highly competitive, one would be requiring to put in lots of effort and time. Since the result would not be instantaneous, you will need to develop a never-say-die attitude to keep working at it....consistently. I would say...it surely would be tough...but still, possible! Regards, RightMan
Ask yourself - what's the difference between paying for advertisement on a site or adsense - and buying links? Does Google penalize every site that advertises?
Travel is pretty competitive. As for buying links, it's against Google Webmaster Guidelines. But they hardly punish people for doing that. Blog commenting is cheaper anyway, and you can get them for free or buy URLs cheaply compare to text links. But it's harder to find related niche blog links to place comments.
Guys... please cut the crap we are talking from SEO to SEO here... so please don't tell me about the Google Guidelines lol Don't be afraid to tell me what you honestly think. If you want to rank top10 for a keyword like "new york hotels", do you honestly think you can get to 1st page with regular link building and on-site SEO? If you answer yes then you live in a wonderland my friend.