A deep look at SEO and backlinks of "20 big websites" - These websites GREW in the past 6 months

About me:
I am a lazy person but I know a few things about SEO. I love to do random research on various things on the internet but I mostly keep my findings to myself. This time I have decided to share some of my research with bhw community.

What did I do?
I found 20 big websites those traffic grew by a lot in the past 6 months. These websites traffic TODAY is higher than it was before 6 months. I picked these websites to scan because these websites are definetely doing something right. Most of these websites are alexa 10-60k.
I knowingly did not pick "the biggest website in these niche". I wanted to scan big websites but not "the biggest websites in its niche".
I did pick websites in these niche- Insurance, Automobile, Beauty, Travel, Food.
4 websites from each niche MEANING total 20 websites.
Then I found backlinks- these websites got in the past 6 months and I did scan those backlinks.

Food, beauty - These niche sites are mostly informative.
Insurance, Automobile, Travel- These niche sites are not totally informative. They sell things/services.

4 of my team members have spent a lot of time scanning all these websites. I really hope this article is of some value for some of you.

These are big websites and they acquire many backlinks naturally. I am doing seo since last 10 years and I guess I can recognize if a link is acquired naturally OR it's a link someone did himself. In this article I will talk about SEO efforts those websites did theirselves.

Let's begin:

1. What type of links these websites made in the past 6 months-
These websites mostly did Editorial type sites links, magazine sites links and outreach guest posts.

Insurance, autmobile, travel- these niche websites did a lot of "editorial sites links". They also did some magazine sites links and some outreach guest posts too. These websites did links from EDITORIAL sites MAINLY. (editorial site names: Nytimes, Forbes, UsaToday, INC, Insider, Bloomberg, Time, Washingtonpost and more.)

Food and beauty niche sites- These niche websites mainly did links from Magazine sites. (Magazine sites names: Self, Elle, Vogue, Fortune, SmashingMagazine and more).
They also did editorial and outreach links.

Point to note- Informative niche websites (food, beauty) mostly did links from magazine websites. Service/selling based websites mostly did links from editorial websites.


2. Did these websites do niche relevant links?
They did 50% niche relevant links. Other 50% links from other niche websites.


3. What anchor these websites used for their backlinks?
It looks like that they used most of the LSI keywords for their backlinking purpose.

4. Links to inner page VS homepage?
They did 90% links to inner pages and only 10% links to homepage.

5. How long content these websites have posted on them in the past 6 months?
These websites posted most of the 400-1500 words long new articles on them. Many 700-800 words long content posts.

6. How often these websites update themselves with new content?
Some websites added 5-6 new articles everyday. Some websites did 2-3 new articles a month.


I have a lot of more data but above written points are the only points- I could make with some confidence.
Thank you for reading. Hope this article is of some value for some of you.

very well summarised but not all have the budget to get these links

errr sometimes no need to say right? u already mention those beauty site link with Vogue , fortune , etc
If you have many links they link u , Ur site is no doubt super busy in the sense a lot traffic keep coming in to be honest.
For us, small player we can get decent links and traffic is there already happy .

Trying to get links from Vogue , fortune is " Impossible " unless you maybe blogging about yourself , lifestyle than happen you get Viral online over night
" than " perhaps Vougue editor etc will come interview u etc ask u question how u become viral overnight etc stuffs like that
than write an article about u and link back to your Blog , IG

Great write up but I wish people would optimize for us light themed folks

Google doesn't count link scheming if u get pbnlike links from these 90+da

No rude but I regard these results as common sense lol, anyway still thanks for share and hope you can share with us more interesting stuffs later! Analyze sites with traffic spikes is a good idea.

The Seo Kid said:

Thanks for the share!
I find especially interesting point #3 and #4,
since usually people say to point most links to homepage and to not use too many LSI anchors. So that surely gives more flexibility for the future.
I think a very interesting info would be the amount of links these websites had: You said they had many outreach, editorials and guest post links, but did they have cheaper blackhat links too, or less but high quality links? thanks again!

Click to expand...

These sites did not make cheaper blackhat backlinks theirselve. They r big sites and therefore they naturally attracted many type of links but these sites did not do web2.0s, pbns theirselve.
Many ppl link to various authority sites (like these) in their pbn, web2.0s post too.

terrycody said:

No rude but I regard these results as common sense lol, anyway still thanks for share and hope you can share with us more interesting stuffs later! Analyze sites with traffic spikes is a good idea.

Click to expand...

Common sense. Hmmm
Yes. More case studies are in progress as we speak

terrycody said:

No rude but I regard these results as common sense lol, anyway still thanks for share and hope you can share with us more interesting stuffs later! Analyze sites with traffic spikes is a good idea.

Click to expand...

I for one didn't know that links from sites such as Wapo, NY Times, Forbes etc. had any value? And I am super experienced in SEO, so this is groundbreaking stuff.

And OP even went above and beyond styling it so it is hard to read on the white theme, making sure only true BHatters can read it with the black theme.
/s

theRevolt said:

I for one didn't know that links from sites such as Wapo, NY Times, Forbes etc. had any value?

Click to expand...

I also use white theme, eyes really hurt

Links from those websites will always very helpful, directly and indirectly. The question is those links are too expensive, not suit for 99% people.

So all i need is to get links from forbes and co.? Got It. I just learned SEO

terrycody said:

I also use white theme, eyes really hurt

Links from those websites will always very helpful, directly and indirectly. The question is those links are too expensive, not suit for 99% people.

Click to expand...

In case you missed it --> /s arcasm off...

theRevolt said:

I for one didn't know that links from sites such as Wapo, NY Times, Forbes etc. had any value? And I am super experienced in SEO, so this is groundbreaking stuff.

And OP even went above and beyond styling it so it is hard to read on the white theme, making sure only true BHatters can read it with the black theme.
/s

Click to expand...

I have always used black theme bhw only.
My apologies for making it hard to read for you. In future I will certainly style my thread in a way that both black/white theme users can read it easily.

Links from forbes, nytimes have insane value. But most of us are not doing those links. You dont need those links untill you are in the big league.
Those links come for like $1k a peice. Big guys buy those links mainly for BRAND VISIBILITY. These links add a lot of trust to your website too.

If your website is mentioned on forbes then you can create a wikipedia brand page very very easily. A link from forbes gives instant ranking boost.

terrycody said:

I also use white theme, eyes really hurt

Links from those websites will always very helpful, directly and indirectly. The question is those links are too expensive, not suit for 99% people.

Click to expand...

My apology for making your eyes hurt. Will certainly take care of color thingy with future threads. You are correct. These links are not for 99% people.
Most of the times OUTREACH is the last level of links one need to do for ranking a website.

SunnyLeon said:

So all i need is to get links from forbes and co.? Got It. I just learned SEO

Click to expand...

No. You don't need to buy links from forbes and co.
This tutorial is not about "how to seo a website".
This tutorial is about - how big guys are seoing their website.
Most of us are not big guys And this tutorial DOES NOT tell you something which you can or should do....
BUT- is not it awesome to have the knowledge of "how big guys are doing their seo and that too with success."

Thank you for those shared informations but ye.. Nothing really New or actionable with out High budget.

I wonder what @splishsplash thinks of this

Even though those backlinks are out of reach for most of us, including me, it's a very interesting lecture.

The thread not only talk about backlinks, there is other useful information here

Nice study. I hope to see something like this but for ordinary people.

This is great info. As an advertiser i can see the similarities with a good marketing and advertising strategy. For me SEO is more like another platform-medium on internet than something separate or his own entity. Is always part of the marketing strategy, and should be planed in the same way an ads grid is planed.

Great share, thank you! Please continue your research and sharing the data.