All I ever hear is numbers numbers numbers,Everyone jumping at every little opportunity presented to them wothout even thinking about So and So has this many links, we need this many links, how many links can you get us, buy 100’s of links cheap, get your link on 100 pages, ahhhhhhh. The numbers game died a few years ago. There’s another line of thinking out there that you might not know about….. It’s not always "He with the most links" who wins the game……often, "He with the right links" can win the game as well. Really, very often, he with the right 10 links can beat the guy with 1000 of the wrong links - I see it all the time. I’m sure most of us have looked at search results, and followed it up by checking the backlinks of the top 10 sites….and then scratched our heads and said "Hum….why is that site in the top 10? It only has X amount of links….hum…doesn’t make sense."….I know I used to do that a lot. Upon closer inspection I’ll usually find that the sites with fewer backlinks that rank on the first page of search results have links that are more relevant, or more trusted, or seem to come from the "right places" (trusted industry related sites). Sure, there’s different ways to play the game of SEO….go for volume of links……or go for Trusted links…..but few go on the angle of "get the right links" and you might not need as many links as you thought you did. See, a problem with going for volume is that you can’t stop…you and your competitors might be running in a dogs race always trying to get one more link than the other guys….you buy ‘em in volumes…you trade ‘em in volumes, you 3 way ‘em, you site-wide ‘em….you do what ever you can to get your total backlinks up, up, and away….problem with that is, is that you often get links from non-trusted sites (artificial backlink sites), you get them on "links" pages (tossing a sign on your site saying "Google, kick me, I’m an SEO trying to artificially inflate my backlinks), you get them for 200 directories (another Google kick me, I’m an SEO sign), and the more you get, the more you fall, and the more you fall, the more you cry "I must need more, more, more", and the further you slip…..it’s really a bad SEO trap that’s been laid out for you. Now, getting trusted backlinks is way better….finding sites that have "Real backlinks" (not SEO’d sites)…and getting your links on real pages is really cool….and winning by trust can be done…..until the engines start to say "here’s the neighborhood, but you’re not in it" and wa-la, yea, you’re trusted too….just not by your peers.
Funny that you bring up this point because I only days ago was thinking about this very issue. Instead of trying to understand it, I'm trying to figure out how these sites with a lot less backlinks are doing it especially when I'm jumping through the same loops I'm sure they are yet their efforts seem minute compared to mine and they're still a few spots above me. However, I'm still scratching my head as some of my competitor sites have backlinks that aren't that relevant, plus they're using strategies such as using free and paid domains and writing relevant content on them just so they can add more backlinks to their main site. I hesitate to call many of these links I've found trusted backlinks, yet they're always on top. And I'm pretty much doing exactly what you're saying, but so far it's not working. Perhaps it just hasn't kicked in yet, but I am desperate to find out what my competitors know that I don't because it's starting to get aggravating.
You really hit the nail on the head with this part of your statement. It's funny when some SEO's think they are gaining big because they are going the whole "get a few really GOOD pagerank links vs. hundreds of low quality links and I will be set" route. However, most of them get lost in their own egos before realizing that they placed their links in sites that are off topic and have nothing to do with their subject matter. It's all about relativity these days, and even a few nice links from relevant sites and even relevant local sites can rocket you to the front of the pack because you stayed away from the lure of high PR sites without relevancy. Nice post!
yeh it is and i see people going down the wrong path all the time i have put another thread in backlinks 18 Top Tips For Backlinks - All You Need To Know this contains all i have learnt the hard way about building backlinks
yeah agreed. I used to think like this I must admit. Its easy initially when you have little SEO experience to think that its all about quantity and not quality. I, like others, do lots of research and monitor the competition and its common to find a competitor who is ranking well who have a lot less links than the rest of the sites. This must ring a bell. As an SEO you MUST ask that question "Why?". Why are they ranking higher? Personally when link building I would rather trawl the web for a whole day and get 1 or 2 great, relevant and trusted links than spend all my time in forums and getting dozens of worthless directory links. I still say(and most agree) that its what you have to offer that counts. If you have a rich site with lots of great content, link building becomes far easier.