Do Relevant Links Matter?

megler

megler

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I see so many threads where people are using Angela's links and other methods where the backlinks aren't relevant to the money site they are pointing to.

How much do links like this make a difference vs links that are directly related to the money site? (ie linkwheels, related blogs, forums, etc)
 
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Here's how I view this issue:

A link from a non-related blog is worth 1 point.
A link from a related blog is worth 5 points.

Multiply the points by the PR and you have a good metric of the value of the link.

I can tell you that it's possible to do well in the serps with ZERO relevant links. About 1000 - 1500 over a period of 3-4 months is what's needed. It will take a further 2 months to get out of the sandbox but it does work.

Relevant links are much harder to find but much more powerful.

If you're a white hat and you're one of those people who want just one site and for that site to be number 1 for ever i.e. a fool who puts all your eggs in one basket, then blasting with irrelevant links is a risk.
 
I guess its hard to tell the quality of the links based on that reason. I mean, if you make a relevant link, but it didnt get any visitors, then its not too useful. And a backlink checker only check the amount, not the content
 
No, revelant backlinks do not matter. That is one of the biggest whitehat myths around.
Look at the backlinks of sites ranking for ringtones, online casinos, and viagra. Those are some of the most competitive keywords to rank for and most of them have majority of unrelated backlinks.
 
If all you have is irrelevant links to your site, you'll probably start ranking in unrelated niches.

Go to google, search for your keyword. Now next to your site you'll see a link that says "Similar" - click it. Now you'll notice what Google thinks your niche is.
 
Micallef said:
Here's how I view this issue:

A link from a non-related blog is worth 1 point.
A link from a related blog is worth 5 points.

Multiply the points by the PR and you have a good metric of the value of the link.

I can tell you that it's possible to do well in the serps with ZERO relevant links. About 1000 - 1500 over a period of 3-4 months is what's needed. It will take a further 2 months to get out of the sandbox but it does work.

Relevant links are much harder to find but much more powerful.

If you're a white hat and you're one of those people who want just one site and for that site to be number 1 for ever i.e. a fool who puts all your eggs in one basket, then blasting with irrelevant links is a risk.
Click to expand...

couldn't say it better myself...
 
I agree with what Micallef, but at the same time I think SEs can only give you so much weight from relevant blogs. Simply because they can not accurately determine what a relevant link is.

Of course a marketing website linking to a marketing website is relevant, but what about linking from a Playstation 3 website to a Call of Duty site? Or a Health blog to an Acne Treatment site? Just because the niches don't include the same keywords and key phrases doesn't mean they're irrelevant. And similarly 'healthy ageing' and 'domain ageing' include two of the same keywords, yet are completely irrelevant. There is no way they can accurately keep track of the relevance of keywords.
 
Micallef said:
Here's how I view this issue:

A link from a non-related blog is worth 1 point.
A link from a related blog is worth 5 points.

Multiply the points by the PR and you have a good metric of the value of the link.

I can tell you that it's possible to do well in the serps with ZERO relevant links. About 1000 - 1500 over a period of 3-4 months is what's needed. It will take a further 2 months to get out of the sandbox but it does work.

Relevant links are much harder to find but much more powerful.

If you're a white hat and you're one of those people who want just one site and for that site to be number 1 for ever i.e. a fool who puts all your eggs in one basket, then blasting with irrelevant links is a risk.
Click to expand...
if we mix them, some relevant and some irrelevant is there a risk?
 
mirrorer said:
if we mix them, some relevant and some irrelevant is there a risk?
Click to expand...

Not at all. It's only natural for a website to gain backlinks from a diverse collection of sites - relevant or not.
 
nryan said:
Not at all. It's only natural for a website to gain backlinks from a diverse collection of sites - relevant or not.
Click to expand...


Yeah, I knew that wouldn't be an issue at all. That just looks like natural growth in the SE's.

Micallef's answer makes total sense and actually fills in a blank in a puzzle I've been trying to piece together in building sites totally for the purpose of supporting my money sites down the road. An "SEO Empire" if you will... (if any of you read Eli over at Bluehatseo, then you know what I'm talking about.)

Thanks much for all the answers.
 
I've heard that relevant backlinks matter but I haven't done the research to know if it's true. I do know that irrelevant links can rank so I usually count on them more as they are easier to get.
 
So this may sound stupid, but let's say you build a large database site about baseball stats. It's 100,000 pages of well put together whitehat, won't get banned baseball crap. Now, you want to use this to push a mass of links to your screwdriver (hell, I don't know) money page.

they're obviously not related, so where are you going to stick this outbound link in the baseball site so that it has the most power, but doesn't totally kill the rep of the baseball site? Obv, the best link would be a contextual one with anchor text, etc. for some reason, I just can't drink enough coffee to figure out how to push a non-related link to a money site and get the most juice from it. (obviously, in this example, I own both sites.)
 
yes, they matter like hell :) but they probably matter more if it's you that's linking out to contextual stuff
well you could make them contextual by putting some snippets of the stuff you're promoting into those about me sections or even the blog posts some angela links have

the same with your screwdriver page there, just create a page that's relevant, heavily interlink it and there it is. Anways, I'm not really absolutely sure about this, I didn't really give it much thought, but I hope I contributed something :)
 
Relevant links do make a difference. If you are linkbuilding with relevant links you will get better search results and rankings. Although if you don't use relevant links you can still get good results, but you'll need a larger quantity of links.

As a good practice it's best to mix it up for best results, since it's not natural for a site to have ONLY relevant links, or ONLY irrelevant links. So mix it up and you'll be fine :)
 
A lot of you seem to be misunderstanding that the anchor text makes the link relevant.
 
TermsB said:
A lot of you seem to be misunderstanding that the anchor text makes the link relevant.
Click to expand...

So you're saying that as long as the anchor text is relevant, then the link is relevant, no matter the subject of the site?
 
Relevant link text is better than irrelevant link text. Relevant content surrounding relevant link text is better than relevant link text alone. PR does not matter one iota.

EDIT: Relevancy isn't binary (either relevant or irrelevant), it is on a spectrum (ranging from very relevant to very irrelevant.)
 
oldenstylehats said:
Relevant link text is better than irrelevant link text. Relevant content surrounding relevant link text is better than relevant link text alone. PR does not matter one iota.

EDIT: Relevancy isn't binary (either relevant or irrelevant), it is on a spectrum (ranging from very relevant to very irrelevant.)
Click to expand...

Makes total sense. So in my example of a baseball stats site linking to a screwdriver money page, depending on how it's linked will place it somewhere on the spectrum...

ie. related anchor text in an unrelated paragraph will put you HERE...

related anchor text in a related paragraph will put you THERE...

random link on the page, will put you somewhere else (on the spectrum of relatedness)

makes sense. And if I'm interpreting this correctly, the more relevant I'm able to make the link, the less links I'll need to overcome the competition. However, if all the links are just randomly pointing to the money page (example 3) then more links will be needed for the same result. correct?
 
There is some confusion about this thread.

Your anchor text should be your keyword or a close variant, with a few random anchors thrown in for good measure.

Having this link on a relevant blog is best. On a non relevant blog, it will still help, but to a lesser extent.

On a non-relevant blog, your keyword anchor should be surrounded by text relevant to your niche if possible.
 
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