Are Backlinks Really Dead

[TomSEO]

The importance/effects of certain types of backlinks will always change, but overall I don't think they will ever be uttered completely useless for ranking.

 

[KelvyTheBlacky]

You might be surprised by how much damage 2 or 3 good guest posting links can do to your competition if you do it consistently every single month.

 

[KelvyTheBlacky]

Don´t get discouraged whenever you´re doing keyword competition analysis and see a DA70 site with 100,000 links sitting on position 2 of the SERP.

Remember that Google ranks pages NOT domains.

Sure, it helps a lot whenever you´ve gain authority Google will index your content a lot faster but, in the end, it´s all about the page.

Run an SEO audit of that site and, especially, check its backlink profile.

Plenty of times I´ve seen 500 wors articles and most of those backlinks come from web 2.0 properties and .edu/.gov emails.

Whenever I see a result like this on Google I get excited because it can turn out to be a huge opportunity.

I´ve seen it over and over again.

Sites with a DA of 20 outranking a site with a DA of 80.

Just because a much better SEO health and content that best fulfil user´s search intent at the same time it gains the interests of "linkreators" (Brian Dean´s term).

Interesting observation, but that might be a stretch. Care to provide some examples of DA 20 sites that outrank DA 80 sites fpr the same keyword?

 

[Roger Marquez]

I see it all the time with small affiliate niche sites and amazon product pages for example and, I know this might not be what you´re referring to but, I just did a quick search for a commercial intent keyword and I found these results while searching for "Best Electric Scooters"...

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And this is NOT an isolated case, last month or so I´ve been doing a hell lot keyword research for my sites and this is something I see quite often.

 

[Dark Queen]

buy quality links like pbn or guest posts and no they backlinks are not dead

 

[easytutorial]

Do-follow and Nofollow links are both worth it, there are some services that are of good value here in BHW... But think White Hat first, because Google is updating its algorithms and Black Hat is losing the battle in some areas...

 

[Azaan]

Interesting observation, but that might be a stretch. Care to provide some examples of DA 20 sites that outrank DA 80 sites fpr the same keyword?

I’ve got personal experience with this

My DA 16 site ranks over very high DA sites (70-95 region) for a lot of the same keywords. I don’t know whether it’s the content or the 1-2 high quality links I build but whatever it is, it’s possible

 

[jstover77]

I see it all the time with small affiliate niche sites and amazon product pages for example and, I know this might not be what you´re referring to but, I just did a quick search for a commercial intent keyword and I found these results while searching for "Best Electric Scooters"...

​

And this is NOT an isolated case, last month or so I´ve been doing a hell lot keyword research for my sites and this is something I see quite often.

Yes, Google is getting much better at ranking relevancy over authority, but authority still rules the roost. A lot of these results hinder on having better on-page. That is how a lot of these hyper-targeted pages are outranking websites with better authority. Of course, every SERP is different. In general, the higher the search volume for a keyword query, the more you will see higher authority websites (disproportionately) at the top of the SERPs.

 

[liam11paul]

Using botted backlinks can be harmful to the websites. So it is not very wise to do it on valuable websites. But you have the complete freedom to do it on lower tier projects. According to what I have learnt so far, Xrumour is a good tools to create quality web 2.0 backlinks.

 

[cyz]

buy guest post

 

[Jennifer-Kent]

Backlinks will not dead..even it is one of the greatest way to improve your website ranking and power

 

[ArmMeVeteran]

Don´t get discouraged whenever you´re doing keyword competition analysis and see a DA70 site with 100,000 links sitting on position 2 of the SERP.

Remember that Google ranks pages NOT domains.

Sure, it helps a lot whenever you´ve gain authority Google will index your content a lot faster but, in the end, it´s all about the page.

Run an SEO audit of that site and, especially, check its backlink profile.

Plenty of times I´ve seen 500 wors articles and most of those backlinks come from web 2.0 properties and .edu/.gov emails.

Whenever I see a result like this on Google I get excited because it can turn out to be a huge opportunity.

I´ve seen it over and over again.

Sites with a DA of 20 outranking a site with a DA of 80.

Just because a much better SEO health and content that best fulfil user´s search intent at the same time it gains the interests of "linkreators" (Brian Dean´s term).

What is your opinion about ecommerce sites where they literally have 16 million plus backlinks all over the place? How do you compete with that when both sites have great on site seo but one of the companies only has 9k real organic back links? When the real organic ones were built over the course of 4 years and the other one started link building hard last April?

 

[AntiHacker]

Boy, you need to learn a lot about backlinks. Good luck on your journey!

 

[Roger Marquez]

where they literally have 16 million plus backlinks all over the place? How do you compete with that

but one of the companies only has 9k real organic back links?

I don´t think you got the point I was trying to make.

Stop looking at the number of backlinks and referring domains and start looking more about the quality, authoritativeness, and relevancy of those links/domains in relation to the target site.

I can literally go right now into the marketplace here, or to SEOClerks, or even Fiverr and order millions of links.

That doesn´t mean that will automatically rank my site at the top of Google.

It might, for a very short period of time but, eventually, I will most likely get penalized.

Also...

when both sites have great on site seo

By offering better content that fulfills Google user´s search intent a lot better than those competitor's current ranking at the top of the SERP.

This is the main reason why those sites with a much lower DA/UR are able to outrank those with much higher DA/UR

When the real organic ones were built over the course of 4 years and the other one started link building hard last April?

Focus on relevancy first then, you can check into the number of backlinks and referring domains.

This is what is called in SEO a Backlink Profile Analysis and it´s what will determine how strong/quality are the links pointing to a particular site.

What makes a quality link?

• Relevance - The site´s linking to the target page MUST be relevant in regards to the content. You can´t have a link on a technology site while your site is about pet care. It doesn´t matter who authoritative that tech site is. All linking websites MUST be topically related to your business...PERIOD!
• The DA/PA of the site linking to the target page (assuming the relevance checks out) - Obviously, the more authoritative those sites are the better will be for your overall SEO health (especially if those links are mostly ********)
• The placement of the link – natural versus shoe-horned, helpful for the user versus obvious link building, etc.
• The anchor text used - How relevant are they in relation to the target page. Most people will naturally link to you using branded anchor text.

Other stuff you also need to look into whenever running a backlink profile analysis is...

• Backlink acquisition rate over time - This is highly important, especially if you compare this with your competitors. Fast-growing backlink profiles are usually an indication of an unnatural acquire links. Especially, if we´re talking about a relatively new site.
• Check for “spammy” CTLDs - On Ahrefs, you can easily check the number of links pointing to a particular page and filter them by CTLDs.

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I know I might be missing other key elements but this is what I have on my backlink profile analysis notes/checklist.

I hope this helps!

 

[KelvyTheBlacky]

Relevance - The site´s linking to the target page MUST be relevant in regards to the content. You can´t have a link on a technology site while your site is about pet care. It doesn´t matter who authoritative that tech site is. All linking websites MUST be topically related to your business...PERIOD!

Let me get this clear. So, you want to mean that an article on a pet niche can not be relevant on a technology site or vice versa?

 

[splishsplash]

Do backlinks work anymore? How about X-Rummer or SENuke? Looking for opinions on backlinks and if they are worth my time. I am trying to figure out the best way to market my niche garden site - besides blogging and FB Ads? I have read a lot here on BHW about backlinks. Some claim to be able to get DA of 30 or higher. Thoughts?

lol.

I need to run a case study at some point and show people how ridiculous this is. I see so much people trying to do seo without link building.

If you did a side by side comparison, $2k/mo budget per site. One site gets $2k content, the other gets $1k content and $1k links, the one with links would obliterate the pure content one by a factor of 10.

The difference is astounding. If you hit your site with some really high quality contextual backlinks you are going to see everything shoot up up up, and it compounds over time.

What makes a quality link?

• Relevance - The site´s linking to the target page MUST be relevant in regards to the content. You can´t have a link on a technology site while your site is about pet care. It doesn´t matter who authoritative that tech site is. All linking websites MUST be topically related to your business...PERIOD!

This isn't really true. If it was then only tech would be linking to tech.

What matters is the content that links.

If you have an article "The 7 Latest Trends in Technology in 2020" then it suddenly just links to a cat page with the anchor "best cat training" then google will likely see this as being dubious.

If you have an article on a tech blog "The 7 Latest Gadgets for Cats in 2020" that links to your cat page with "best cat training", then it will pass juice and look natural.

 

[Roger Marquez]

If you have an article "The 7 Latest Trends in Technology in 2020" then it suddenly just links to a cat page with the anchor "best cat training" then google will likely see this as being dubious.

If you have an article on a tech blog "The 7 Latest Gadgets for Cats in 2020" that links to your cat page with "best cat training", then it will pass juice and look natural.

Even though the content has nothing to do with the target page´s article?

 

[D Ran]

Is it me or is everyone a doomer these days with the is "X" dead posts? (Not to mention the IM's dead/out of the golden era post).

 

[Justice King]

lol.

I need to run a case study at some point and show people how ridiculous this is. I see so much people trying to do seo without link building.

If you did a side by side comparison, $2k/mo budget per site. One site gets $2k content, the other gets $1k content and $1k links, the one with links would obliterate the pure content one by a factor of 10.

The difference is astounding. If you hit your site with some really high quality contextual backlinks you are going to see everything shoot up up up, and it compounds over time.





This isn't really true. If it was then only tech would be linking to tech.

What matters is the content that links.

If you have an article "The 7 Latest Trends in Technology in 2020" then it suddenly just links to a cat page with the anchor "best cat training" then google will likely see this as being dubious.

If you have an article on a tech blog "The 7 Latest Gadgets for Cats in 2020" that links to your cat page with "best cat training", then it will pass juice and look natural.

Ok so do theses link building softwares work. Or are they just overpriced tech with a lot of features no one would ever use? How do i get backlins and who do i trust

 

[TheNights]

Ok so do theses link building softwares work. Or are they just overpriced tech with a lot of features no one would ever use? How do i get backlins and who do i trust

I don't think he meant using these tools for backlinks. Tools like senuke, xrumer, etc are old and they used to be quite effective, but not anymore. You'd rather be better off with trying outreach to contact websites in your niche asking for guest posts, building web 2.0s, buying links from relevant sites, etc -- mind you, not all of these are equivalent but just what people are doing right now. Once you have a linkbuilding process that works for you, only then look into automating it with tools.