This is an evergreen question about backlink velocity that is being asked a lot but even more recently so I decided to share my two cents on it.
I've seen too many starting websites or local business going through the roof with PBN links and getting opposite effect of what they wanted.
First thing I am going to say is that there are no fixed numbers. Sometimes you get away with being super aggressive while other times you trigger a flag for much less. (link sources play a big part of course)
Ideal link velocity is effective and safe. (I do mention risky approaches as well)
Let's look at 4 effective approaches from my experience and you judge what works best for you.
#1 - Do What Has Proven To Work
This is typical approach that has proven to work across multiple niches.
Start slow, increase the pace and keep it steady.
We are working with dozens a month here and few hundreds accumulated over the years.
This is very effective for strong, high quality link types and my personal favorite.
KEY POINTS:
#2 - Mimic Your Competitors
This approach is more about analyzing patterns than getting some magic, average number.
It is important to identify website very similar to yours.
If search results are populated only with authority websites, work with their category and sub-category pages or even pages within those.
a) Pick Your Idols: Search Results
First place to look at is search results themselves.
I'm sure you are well aware of your competition. These are usually websites on the first two result pages for your target search queries.
You might have to narrow down the search to specific queries like "best kitchen appliances" or even more specific like "best kitchen robot" if only big boys are showing up. This will bring up regular affiliate websites.
b) Pick Your Idols: Ahrefs Content Explorer
This is paid option but well worth it.
We want to search through WordPress sites, in English with decent but not too huge traffic and only show one result per domain.
For example:
c) Calculating Link Velocity: Ahrefs Site Explorer
I think the best visual overview on new backlinks added daily is right at the overview screen of the Ahref's Site Explorer.
Make sure to only select Referring Domains, All the time and Monthly view. (you can go by daily or weekly, your choice - depends how accurate you want to be)
Now, slowly hover the mouse over the graph and observe the numbers and pattern.
It is a cumulative view which means difference between current and previous day/week/month is the number you are looking for.
d) Calculating Link Velocity: Ahrefs Legacy Referring Domains
Ahrefs (or favorite tool of your choice) can very easily show us how many backlinks are added or lost every day.
Tool we are going to use is under: Legacy > Referring Domains > New.
You can very easily see, patterns and calculate averages with the backlink Calendar.
This will also only show referring domains, which is more accurate than total backlinks.
At the bottom you can see total number of links built for the selected period.
Use the arrow on the left side to go back in time.
Repeat this for all competitors you found.
However, you can also only follow one.
If they get organic traffic and survive or thrive update after update, they are worth mimicking.
KEY POINTS:
#3 - Do Whatever And Justify With Traffic
This one can be risky but also give very fast results and payouts.
Point is simple: whatever amount of links you do, justify them with incoming traffic. Ideally organic traffic but if you have Analytics installed, it should work with any source.
Very few people in real scenarios actually link-back to your website. It is very rare. For example, if you have 10000 genuine visitors, you might get ~7 backlinks.
Sticking to this ratio artificially could be very hard but even more lenient one like 1:50 is still closer to reality than no traffic.
KEY POINTS:
#4 - Build Only One Time
Don't bother with regular link-building, do it all at once!
This one can be risky as well and is more on the blackhat side.
Point is to build all links in a short period of time and just let them index at their own pace.
KEY POINTS:
How It Looks Like In Real Life
Effective link velocity:
(nice steady growth of backlinks and organic traffic)
Toxic link velocity:
(backlinks keep going up but organic traffic down, webmaster overdid it)
I've seen too many starting websites or local business going through the roof with PBN links and getting opposite effect of what they wanted.
First thing I am going to say is that there are no fixed numbers. Sometimes you get away with being super aggressive while other times you trigger a flag for much less. (link sources play a big part of course)
Ideal link velocity is effective and safe. (I do mention risky approaches as well)
Don't build links too slowly or you won't ever rank.
Don't build them too fast or you might get caught.
Things to keep in mind:- search engines look at overall website link velocity but also individual pages. If your overall link velocity is good but they all point to a single inner page, you might get into trouble.
- crawl and index rate of backlinks is important, non-indexed backlink won't count
- there are usually hidden backlinks like PBN links, remember this when using tools for calculations
- tools are not accurate, consider what you see in tools 80% of reality at best
Let's look at 4 effective approaches from my experience and you judge what works best for you.
#1 - Do What Has Proven To Work
This is typical approach that has proven to work across multiple niches.
Start slow, increase the pace and keep it steady.
We are working with dozens a month here and few hundreds accumulated over the years.
This is very effective for strong, high quality link types and my personal favorite.
KEY POINTS:
- average 1 link every 3-4 days
- average 3-4 links per week
- average 12-15 links per month
- suggested link types: guest posts, niche edits, HARO, editorials
- works well for various website types both informational and commercial
- will not work in aggressive niches
#2 - Mimic Your Competitors
This approach is more about analyzing patterns than getting some magic, average number.
It is important to identify website very similar to yours.
If search results are populated only with authority websites, work with their category and sub-category pages or even pages within those.
a) Pick Your Idols: Search Results
First place to look at is search results themselves.
I'm sure you are well aware of your competition. These are usually websites on the first two result pages for your target search queries.
You might have to narrow down the search to specific queries like "best kitchen appliances" or even more specific like "best kitchen robot" if only big boys are showing up. This will bring up regular affiliate websites.
b) Pick Your Idols: Ahrefs Content Explorer
This is paid option but well worth it.
We want to search through WordPress sites, in English with decent but not too huge traffic and only show one result per domain.
For example:
c) Calculating Link Velocity: Ahrefs Site Explorer
I think the best visual overview on new backlinks added daily is right at the overview screen of the Ahref's Site Explorer.
Make sure to only select Referring Domains, All the time and Monthly view. (you can go by daily or weekly, your choice - depends how accurate you want to be)
Now, slowly hover the mouse over the graph and observe the numbers and pattern.
It is a cumulative view which means difference between current and previous day/week/month is the number you are looking for.
d) Calculating Link Velocity: Ahrefs Legacy Referring Domains
Ahrefs (or favorite tool of your choice) can very easily show us how many backlinks are added or lost every day.
Tool we are going to use is under: Legacy > Referring Domains > New.
You can very easily see, patterns and calculate averages with the backlink Calendar.
This will also only show referring domains, which is more accurate than total backlinks.
At the bottom you can see total number of links built for the selected period.
Use the arrow on the left side to go back in time.
Repeat this for all competitors you found.
However, you can also only follow one.
If they get organic traffic and survive or thrive update after update, they are worth mimicking.
KEY POINTS:
- very safe and effective since we are mimicking what is working in the niche
- works for any backlink amount
- can get very expensive if you want to stick to high quality link sources
- you will likely have to use lower quality link sources
#3 - Do Whatever And Justify With Traffic
This one can be risky but also give very fast results and payouts.
Point is simple: whatever amount of links you do, justify them with incoming traffic. Ideally organic traffic but if you have Analytics installed, it should work with any source.
Very few people in real scenarios actually link-back to your website. It is very rare. For example, if you have 10000 genuine visitors, you might get ~7 backlinks.
Sticking to this ratio artificially could be very hard but even more lenient one like 1:50 is still closer to reality than no traffic.
KEY POINTS:
- you don't have to do this in niches like hazard, it is common there to have thousands of links and no traffic
- can be especially useful in niches where backlink influx is not common, for example local services
- a local service can mimic viral effect this way, getting larger amount of links more safely via press release for example
- traffic must be quality otherwise it will be recognized as artificial and not work
#4 - Build Only One Time
Don't bother with regular link-building, do it all at once!
This one can be risky as well and is more on the blackhat side.
Point is to build all links in a short period of time and just let them index at their own pace.
KEY POINTS:
- blackhat, risky approach
- works well in aggressive niches
- consider doing it for secondary websites, not main one
How It Looks Like In Real Life
Effective link velocity:
(nice steady growth of backlinks and organic traffic)
Toxic link velocity:
(backlinks keep going up but organic traffic down, webmaster overdid it)
What is your approach to link velocity?
Feel free to share below.
Feel free to share below.
