Ranking without blog networks?

I've been doing alot of general SEO research lately, and it seems like lots of websites ranking for competitive niches are using very "select" blog networking and not a whole lot of it. Also, I see alot of custom web 2.0 usage, where the web 2.0s are branded for the companies. I see a lot less of massive blog network posts etc. Seems like using niche related domains is where it is at. Some sites I see have tons of blog network back links with domains like wedding guide something pointing to their SEO company. That doesn't make a lot of sense for links when someone manually reviews them. Anyone else noticing these trends?

well most SEO's nowadays are about branding, with less of exact match keyword. The other thing, contextual links is the best way to do.

Blog networks or general outreach is the game today.

Networks are fucking money. Not massive blog spam it till it drops type of networks. But high pagerank homepage style networks.

You are right, it doesn't take a lot of these kinds of links to work wonders.

For all my seo clients I add them to a serviec that Ive been using for a few years, most see massive movements within 30-60 days. Also it doesn't have to be niche related at all to have it work either. These links are from a wide range of very high quality sites that have nothing to do with the client niche.

High PR blog networks on a smaller scale are very effective in today's SEO climate. And google understands that people are figuring this out now. This is why they banned so many of the huge networks. After this ban, many people stopped using blog networks all together, however as long as you are building a private one of high quality, they are still very effective!

Boil it down and what do we have?


High PR Do-Follow links work. Even if not niche related.