Link Building: Quality over Quantity and Diversification is a Myth

[rafark]

This is kind of obvious but most people go for cheaper links like profiles and web 20s simply because getting strong links is extremely expensive, if done in a regular basis.

 

[llarasati]

If you still think getting 5 links with "best vacuum cleaner" will help you rank for "best vacuum cleaner" then you haven't done any SEO for a very very long time.

That's what worked in 2012. Now, that's not how you rank, and your pbns should be a mixture of brand and phrase. Not naked. Naked is not that natural for contextual links.

I couldn't think of a worst strategy than :-

Get a bunch of naked forum post links, then get 5 exact match links from pbns.

It's no wonder some people struggle to rank sites.

So, what the good anchor text? Could you please give me example? Is it linked to homepage or inner?

Is RD simply a backlink?

Yes, but rd means different domain.. Like you get BL form ebay/phone and ebay/tv it count 2 backlink but 1 rd.

 

[splishsplash]

What you’re saying correlates perfectly with what I’ve been doing for clients recently, and I’ve seen lots of success from it - very low volume, high quality links built regularly - month after month - and deliberately avoiding anything exact match.

Yep. Just a mix of brand and natural phrase that you'd find in content, and also brand phrase, like "some of the latest toasters reviewed at ToasterHeaven".

Is RD simply a backlink?

Nope, the number of unique domains you have at least 1 link from.

This is kind of obvious but most people go for cheaper links like profiles and web 20s simply because getting strong links is extremely expensive, if done in a regular basis.

Yeah, but this is just a waste of money. SEO is expensive. This is why most people have sites that barely make $50/mo. You can't expect to invest $200 and make $50k back in a year from a site as most people think they will in SEO. 10 years ago this was easy.

So, what the good anchor text? Could you please give me example? Is it linked to homepage or inner?

Yes, but rd means different domain.. Like you get BL form ebay/phone and ebay/tv it count 2 backlink but 1 rd.

See above for an example of an anchor text. Basically things what will naturally appear in the article.

Like "best toasters" isn't something a normal blog owner is going to link with. Think how you naturally link when adding in links to other sites that you aren't trying to rank, and that's how you would do your anchors.

 

[seowarrior008]

Will the root domains be a ranking factor?

I mean if the G will punish a site with 5 strong contextual links from the same root domains? doesn't it matter or now?
maybe 5 is a low number, what about 30-50? all from the same root domain?

I am just trying to clarify how important the diversification of the root domains for link building is.

Appreciate a lot if anyone can answer this.

Cheers

 

[simplehuman21]

Yep. Just a mix of brand and natural phrase that you'd find in content, and also brand phrase, like "some of the latest toasters reviewed at ToasterHeaven".

Wow, no wonder those authority sites like neilpate* or backlink* did exactly the same as what you've mentioned. I always thought exact match anchor were the best anchor, but I tried to use synonym ones now for my internal linking

Anyway, could I please ask this questions?
1. Do you contextual profile links from high DA PA domains are any good? I've been building many of those as my tier 1 now
2. Do you think subdomains from high metrix blog such as hatenablog is good to be my tier 1? I mean if I shoot lots of tier 2 links to it?

Thank you!

 

[TheShrewMan]

Yep. Just a mix of brand and natural phrase that you'd find in content, and also brand phrase, like "some of the latest toasters reviewed at ToasterHeaven".

So you do brand, phrase and brand within phrase. Lets say you have 10 backlinks to a particular page, how many of them are brand, phrase and brand within phrase?

Also, what do you think of niche edits? i.e. whats your experience with them

 

[Kaine]

I see this as a semantic cloud ... the more it will be complete and well treated and stronger are the power the link, in this case we can even do without anchor. Google understands alone the weight of this context. Internal links are nothing less than a link wheel, staying in the same theme, it is possible to accumulate more and more power. Useless therefore of over optimized, made the total subject on the whole and filled the missing ones. This will surely give a PBN with low traffic but high power.

 

[blackwalker]

Yep. Consistent monthly building is best. Hammering a site is never good. Just a few links a month is all you need. Pbns are still king. You really can't beat a homepage link. Guest posts are good because you can scale them more, but the key with pbns is not to waste them with weak ones. I'd rather build 2-3 monsters per month than 10-15 average ones. The guest posts are good when you pick the ones that are much more natural looking so it makes your profile look real. Ie, not the generic guest posts, but ones on real, niche-focused blogs.

"but the key with pbns is not to waste them with weak ones" I love that quote. It is the same reason that I do a pay per psot system on mine. Yeah my links arent $1 PBNs but that should mean something honestly. I still think a lot of links are good, but only to T2 sites and it is sad to see tat people are still trying to blast 50000 GSA Ser links at a page because they think 50k is better than 5 Strong links. I almost dont know how to sway buyers opinions on that.

 

[theRevolt]

Is RD simply a backlink?

Um, he literally told you RD = Referring DOMAINS, that could be 1 or 100 links per DOMAIN

 

[Deleted member 1313244]

You can't expect to invest $200 and make $50k back in a year from a site as most people think they will in SEO. 10 years ago this was easy.

Not even with informational searches + writing own content + time?

 

[blueygg]

Awesome post @splishsplash!

Questions...If I got a brand new website, would you create these backlinks to the homepage or inner pages of my site?

Would having just these types of links alone be good in G's eyes or should I have a mix of other links like niche comments, web2.0's, forum links etc? (as high quality and related as possible)

Do you add social signals/shares to your link strategy?

Still learning the SEO game

 

[TheVigilante]

Rad explanation

 

[phoenix9]

Yeah, but this is just a waste of money. SEO is expensive. This is why most people have sites that barely make $50/mo. You can't expect to invest $200 and make $50k back in a year from a site as most people think they will in SEO. 10 years ago this was easy.

Sorry @splishsplash i'm disagree. Realistically, I think no one here target $50K by investing $200. I thought most people here happy enough to make $500 per month website by investing $200. And it's good if you expect $50K by investing $10K.

Afterall it's all about ROI.

As long as you expect reasonable ROI from your investment, it's good. And if you get more than you expect, it's a jackpot.

SEO is not only big boys playground, Seo with small budget can also play. it's all about how you conduct keyword research.

So if you have small budget, don't target hard keyword. Be realistic, man!

 

[Deleted member 1313244]

Sorry @splishsplash i'm disagree. Realistically, I think no one here target $50K by investing $200. I thought most people here happy enough to make $500 per month website by investing $200. And it's good if you expect $50K by investing $10K.

Afterall it's all about ROI.

As long as you expect reasonable ROI from your investment, it's good. And if you get more than you expect, it's a jackpot.

SEO is not only big boys playground, Seo with small budget can also play. it's all about how you conduct keyword research.

So if you have small budget, don't target hard keyword. Be realistic, man!

Thanks for this, do you have any tips for the 500 a month? I'm not in the mood for some Gordon Gekko stuff today (although I usually am)

 

[AngelSeo]

If you still think getting 5 links with "best vacuum cleaner" will help you rank for "best vacuum cleaner" then you haven't done any SEO for a very very long time.

That's what worked in 2012. Now, that's not how you rank, and your pbns should be a mixture of brand and phrase. Not naked. Naked is not that natural for contextual links.

I couldn't think of a worst strategy than :-

Get a bunch of naked forum post links, then get 5 exact match links from pbns.

It's no wonder some people struggle to rank sites.

Yeah go brand with "bestvacuumcleanereviews.com". Now come to tell me how EMD are so 2012. Anyway, sure, whatever.

 

[phoenix9]

Thanks for this, do you have any tips for the 500 a month? I'm not in the mood for some Gordon Gekko stuff today (although I usually am)

It's all about keyword research, mate. Especially how you check competition.

If you can find low competition buying intent keywords, you need few or no backlink to rank.

Is it possible nowadays? Yes. You just need to dig deeper.

 

[laurmat]

Less and quality links are ok, but I don't think pbns are a good idea, so you don't have emotions on every Google update

 

[splishsplash]

Will the root domains be a ranking factor?

I mean if the G will punish a site with 5 strong contextual links from the same root domains? doesn't it matter or now?
maybe 5 is a low number, what about 30-50? all from the same root domain?

I am just trying to clarify how important the diversification of the root domains for link building is.

Appreciate a lot if anyone can answer this.

Cheers

Extrapolations and what-ifs never lead to success. Just an endless train of thought. If you have a specific use-case, that comes up at some point in your SEO career for this then address it then.

But I wouldn't generally look for 30-50 links from 1 domain. That's more of a site-wide link. I've not got so much experience with them, but they appear to work well where the niches are a close match and you stick with a brand anchor or naked. They also work to authority sites, but then almost everything does.

Wow, no wonder those authority sites like neilpate* or backlink* did exactly the same as what you've mentioned. I always thought exact match anchor were the best anchor, but I tried to use synonym ones now for my internal linking

Anyway, could I please ask this questions?
1. Do you contextual profile links from high DA PA domains are any good? I've been building many of those as my tier 1 now
2. Do you think subdomains from high metrix blog such as hatenablog is good to be my tier 1? I mean if I shoot lots of tier 2 links to it?

Thank you!

1. I've already answered this in great detail for both pbns and guest posts. Read up. I specifically even mentioned DA IN GREAT DETAIL. I'm not going to spend time writing all this out only for people to just ask me a question with the very thing I've answered.
2. No, you won't get much strength from web 2's. They're fine to add a few more brand links to your profile though.

So you do brand, phrase and brand within phrase. Lets say you have 10 backlinks to a particular page, how many of them are brand, phrase and brand within phrase?

Also, what do you think of niche edits? i.e. whats your experience with them

Niche edits are fine. Use them sparingly and make sure they're niche relevant.

I don't have a specific formula for ratios. I just use my gut depending on the site.

Depends on how many links they have, how strong it is, what kind of anchors it is..

If you're in doubt, just go with 7 brand, 2 brand phrase and 1 phrase.

You can also have misc brand. Any time I say brand, this includes misc brand. Ie, "visit Brand", "at Brand", "check out Brand", "over on Brand" and so on. Again, don't get too attached to ratios, but for 7 brand I'd do 2-3 misc brand and 3-4 plain brand.

I see this as a semantic cloud ... the more it will be complete and well treated and stronger are the power the link, in this case we can even do without anchor. Google understands alone the weight of this context. Internal links are nothing less than a link wheel, staying in the same theme, it is possible to accumulate more and more power. Useless therefore of over optimized, made the total subject on the whole and filled the missing ones. This will surely give a PBN with low traffic but high power.

Not even with informational searches + writing own content + time?

Time is money, so that's different. I'm talking about just spending a few hundred and expecting the world.

Awesome post @splishsplash!

Questions...If I got a brand new website, would you create these backlinks to the homepage or inner pages of my site?

Would having just these types of links alone be good in G's eyes or should I have a mix of other links like niche comments, web2.0's, forum links etc? (as high quality and related as possible)

Do you add social signals/shares to your link strategy?

Still learning the SEO game

Google doesn't look at a site and determine "Oh, this doesn't have comments/forum links, it's not good enough". These are low quality links that you don't need. A few manual comments is ok, but nothing automated and these things won't rank you.

No, social doesn't do jack shit for SEO. Google will rank you based on strong juice passing links.

Sorry @splishsplash i'm disagree. Realistically, I think no one here target $50K by investing $200. I thought most people here happy enough to make $500 per month website by investing $200. And it's good if you expect $50K by investing $10K.

Afterall it's all about ROI.

As long as you expect reasonable ROI from your investment, it's good. And if you get more than you expect, it's a jackpot.

SEO is not only big boys playground, Seo with small budget can also play. it's all about how you conduct keyword research.

So if you have small budget, don't target hard keyword. Be realistic, man!

There's a million people on the forum.

$500/mo from $200 is an ROI of 30. That's a big ROI. SEO doesn't have a stable ROI like that. Usually if you invest $1k, you'll struggle to turn it into anything, but if you invest $100k you can turn it into $200k relatively easily. Buy a site making $1k/mo for $40k-$50k, pump another $30k of content and $20k private pbns and you'll have a site on its way to $10k-$20k/mo. This is why people buy up sites for 30-40x monthly rev. If you hit a site making $1k/mo that's had a steady growth curve for the past year with even 5 strong pbns you're going to see HUGE growth. Hit it with 20x$1000 pbns and the results will be utterly outstanding. People have no idea what happens when you fire off that level of pbns at a site. Most are still using crappy $20 expired domains or even $50-$70 auction domains and then declaring pbns as nothing special.


SEO is hard without a budget. Very hard. Your options are just so limited. It's not always about just picking easy keywords. Sometimes you pick easy keywords and don't rank. Nothing is THAT easy. Just because a group of keywords don't have a bunch of authority sites on page 1 doesn't mean you can slap up a few articles on a new domain and rank in 3 months. It just doesn't work like that. There are way way better things you can get into other than SEO if you have a low budget. SEO was great in 2010-2013 for people with a low budget. 2013-2016 was still decent. You could build a $5k/mo site with 30k words of content and 10-15 freely available expired domains, a few tumblrs, some web 2's and maybe boost those web 2's with some more $10 registration expired domains and boom you were banking. For all the people who succeed with a low comp site and ranking with no money, there are another 900 who failed, and another 99 who got minor success.

Yeah go brand with "bestvacuumcleanereviews.com". Now come to tell me how EMD are so 2012. Anyway, sure, whatever.

This makes no sense. I don't understand what you're trying to say. Are you saying emds are not dead? I can't remember the last time I saw an emd ranking. Occasionally for some local searches, yes, especially some of the older ones, but beyond that emds are dead, and you can't do brand anchors for an emd.

Less and quality links are ok, but I don't think pbns are a good idea, so you don't have emotions on every Google update

If you say so..

 

[whothefisalex]

Are you saying emds are not dead? I can't remember the last time I saw an emd ranking. Occasionally for some local searches, yes, especially some of the older ones, but beyond that emds are dead, and you can't do brand anchors for an emd.

I'm not sure I would agree with that, these no logical reason why a EMD would be punished let alone "dead". Of course they don't give a positive advantage like they did 10 years ago.

But I see no reason why they would have a negative impact, I'm sure google can determine that EMD brand anchors and main keyword will clash in terms of overoptimizing your keyword anchors, and account for that in the algorithm.


Sidenote, in my experience site-wide links do work despite what gurus say, provided they have relevancy and they don't make up a large portion of your RD's.

 

[varun barve]

great thread mate learning a lot about the current SEO scene! I have been searching and making pbns.

I have a few queries!

how many links do you give to a domain from 1 pbn? also how many total links?

also for content what no of words do you focus on? I am dong around 500-1000

how do you do your content for pbns? order from people? or write on your own? or your own writers?