Hello, I had a music blog with around 60 backlinks (mostly dp and other unrelated sig links but i figured hey, its a start). The PR of the home was a 1. So from all the advice i've been reading, i thought the way to go would be to build many more backlinks. Of course the more relevant the better, but i figured that even unrelated backlinks would not hurt me. So i got around 700 backlinks of varying types and quality but in this last PR update my PR1 went to a PR0. (although some internal pages still have PR1). A second blog that was started two months ago and has only 5 low quality backlinks jumped to a PR4. I've checked out other factors on webmaster tools etc. and I have no spammy stuff-- the only thing that has changed is that the blog got more posts and more backlinks. Could it be that in the last update, google punished blogs that got a large number of backlinks quickly and rewarded blogs with more static backlinks? i know this is all anecdotal but would you advise removing sig links to cut down on low quality backlinks? Thanks
no, removing your sig wouldn't change anything. You might have added 700 links too fast but even 700 links is not that many links. Now you have them, you might as well keep them as they will get more importance as they get older. A few questions: How did you build the 700 links? If it's reciprocal link building, that would do it. How many outbound links do you have on your blog? You might be "spreading the juice" too much. Remember that in a link building strategy, it's always better to focus on quality rather than quantity. I bet you the other blog that jumped to PR4 has links coming from relevant sites. It might also have more links that you don't see.
I agree! I don't think you have anything to gain removing signature links. The fact that one dropped and the other gained needs to be reviewed totally independantly. 700 links isn't really a ton of backlinks, particularly if they are pr 0 . You say they are of "varying types and quality", and that can mean a lot of things. When these types of things happen they drive me crazy but I would look at the 700 links closer and look for how many are reciprocal - which I don't think help much at all, how many are from directories - I again don't think they help much particulary when you consider the pr of the page you are on, how many are from different sources. You may find that 700 links don't count that much. Also have you made any other on site changes that may have also had an impact?
Thank you both for the answers. The 700 backlinks were either high quality from youtube, wikipedia (nofollow of course) but mainly links from many forums (usually seo forums or music forums) None were reciprocal links. i have 47 outbound link on the home, but 3/4ths of them are the links that blogger adds..(comment etc. which leads to blogger.com...) so i guess its just back to the drawing board....i'll concentrate on content and back off a little on the active link building...
I wouldn't back off on the link building - more links can't hurt. Just try and get good links and work on the content. I had strange results in the last PR export. 7 inner pages went to PR 3 but another went to PR 0 from PR 2 and I can't think why since it has been linked in the same way for months.
I would not stop building links either, I have had similar things happen at times. Try to get relevent links though, this does make a big difference - you may also find that some of your links where on the homepage of the blog or forum or a higher ranking page and since have been pushed into the site to pages with lower page rank. I have had this happen with sites who show new posts on the homepage or similar, you get crawled in a high page and then a few months later as a low page. Just stick with it and work on the basics next update things will change with some luck. Also remember PR is not the most important thing, you want traffic. Has your traffic changed much with the PR change?
concentrate on quality back links, Otherwise it's very harmful to site.My site also due lack of quality back links page dropped from PR4 to PR3.
47 out bound links certainly isn't going to help you out as far as keeping your PR unless they have a nofollow tag added. I would try to get it under 30, I only have 20 OBL on our forum, and it's always been close to that is not lower.
Links on blog comments mostly has "no follow", so don't worry about them. Just keep on leaving your links on forums.
Thanks for the tips..Im new in seo and I wanted to learn ....anyway, how can you determine a good backlink?Sorry Im a newbie...