Do backlinking strategies still work? (9/5/2011)

[Afheyne]

Hey there --

So a few months back there was quite a buzz about back linking or spinning articles in order to get inbound links to your website. It was believed that that is the main method Google's analytics software use to rank your website popularity.

It makes sense, the more people that link to your site, the more popular, thus more deserving of being high on the results list.

However, does anyone know if that is still true? Has anyone used that strategy?

Curious little bee,

Alex over at Milkthepigeon.com

[BarbaraKParker]

I hoping I can find an answer to this too.

[johnmiller48]

Google doesn't really penalize entire websites if you spam links to a page regardless of PR. It tends to just penalize the page for the particular keyword that you're spamming. For example, if I blasted 50,000 links at a Hub with one keyword, the hub will most likely get dropped for that keyword.

Also, page rank is just that: page rank. Hubs can have high PRs, but not all of them do. I've gotten hubs up to PR4, but most of them (especially if of only mediocre quality) are PR0-2. If you want real PR5+ backlinks, you better be ready to pay for them, network, or do some serious linkbaiting. Those sort of links don't come around often unless you're a really well established brand.

[rogercbryan]

@johnmiller48 not sure what a hub is?

To answer the question.. yes... links are extremely important! Currently they are the largest weighted item in any of our campaigns. The trick is finding a balance between low PR junk links, content related links, and high PR anchor links... Links are very important is the bottom line.

[chuff1026]

my website is ranked pretty high for a few key terms in google(well one of my sites), and we did the seo before the whole google panda..we had many junk links and a few quality ones, BUT, my website may have the most relevant information in my niche on the internet. That is a HUGE key.

[bluestellar]

yes, relevant and helpful information is important to stay on the top.

[jrockfl]

Yes, back link strategies are very important and if done correctly will improve your rankings. Here is what has worked well for me.
A great written press release focusing on 3 keyword phrases with those phrases being linked back to my web site.
Then release this on PR Web.

[daveb1]

Backlinks are still wildly important to web marketing and search engine optimization. The best backlinking strategies I have seen revolve around high quality article/content writing. Then it is just a matter of knowing which sites to post those articles too. Avoiding posting duplicate content and bad content is a key to this process as well.

[BarbaraKParker]

Google doesn't really penalize entire websites if you spam links to a page regardless of PR. It tends to just penalize the page for the particular keyword that you're spamming. For example, if I blasted 50,000 links at a Hub with one keyword, the hub will most likely get dropped for that keyword.

I get your point. Thank you.

[bluestellar]

Better be careful when using automated method when promoting.

[my_misyel]

Not really, I often tried spinning the content through automated but I found awful results and ended up rewriting each topic all over myself.

[BarbaraKParker]

Take caution when spinning though. I make sure that articles do not sound like trash after being spun.

[mornpine]

Backlink is still the most signals.

But Google is putting more and more emphasis on social signals, because it is less likely to be fake or bought.

[leejackson011]

Back links really work in SEO but you must consider the good content for your website too. being informative, you are actually imposing the visitors to stay on the page and navigate through website. What i believe is that you will not only need to focus on better back linking strategy but you will also have to put quality in information your are adding in your website.

[Babymama]

Yes of course backlinks still work! They can help to make your site rank well in the search engines and bring targeted traffic to your site. Just make sure they are targeted backlinks and not just any old blog comments, or spammy.