Backlinks... Quantity or Quality?

[InTheMaking]

Originally Posted by hirstmusic

What are your thoughts? What has worked for you?

Update: - Just wanted to thank you all for the brilliant responses. There is definitely a common theme among all your answers :-) I've learned and will put it to good use!

Using backlinks as an example, put yourself in this situation, regarding relevancy, quality, quantity, etc.

If you had a question you needed an answer to, regarding the history of Presidents of the United States - who would you trust more?

1,000 individuals off the street (quantity)
100 individuals off the street who once studied history (relevancy)
1 individual who is the actual President of the United States (quality)

As you can see, the obvious answer would be asking the President. Next, you'd rather trust 100 individuals who actually have some idea about the question. Thirdly, and lastly, I'd go with 1,000 random indivuduals.

Links work the same way. Go quality, relevancy, than quantity.

[Brad Seid]

With Quality Comes Quantity

[dagaul101]

I would go with quality every time, one good backlink from a high PR site is worth more than many from PR 0 or PR N/A sites

[jatinesco]

as per me quality is more important because if we have quality so we increase our quantity

[jekis4sv]

Originally Posted by MikeFriedman

Because you can't control who decides to link to you. In the real world, it is not going to be only "good" sites linking to you. There will probably be some PR 0 and PR n/a sites as well.

PR0 and n/a websites are OK. Really bad sites tend not to link to others at all

[John Hoff]

Yeah, no doubt about it, quality is the key. Google wants to make sure you're reputable and relevant.

You get that through quality backlinks, not quantity.

[Conchita]

I go for both. This brings the best results no matter what people say

[John Hoff]

Originally Posted by Conchita

I go for both. This brings the best results no matter what people say

Of course both is best. But to put it in perspective of which is actually more valuable between the two...

I'd rather have 5 quality backlinks than 10 no-quality backlinks.

Quality and Quantity is of course always desirable.

[Google.me]

Easy both mashed together

[eugeneoconnell]

Originally Posted by strategic seo services

Quality backlinks in high quantity will give the best results.

You hit it julia. But you should also maintain consistency in creating backlinks.

[kairo]

you have this, both.. getting backlinks is not only in the Quality, you have to increase your Quantity too. You have it balance.

[Peter Gehr]

Put it this way, if all you have is quantity, then it's not going to work and you may find that your backlinks are with sites that have no relevance to you or your niche.

In other words, it's a bit like this analogy:

You may have a lot of Facebook friends, but you don't really know a lot of these people (links), and they don't know a lot about you. If you hang out with people you don't know, you start to develop a profile that is irrelevant.
If you ever needed these so-called "friends" most would probably not help you.

However, if you have real friends (links) who share similar interests and genuinely communicate with you and add value to you and you life, then they would be considered quality friends.

All that to say, lets say your niche was religion, and you had backlinks from the Pope, the Dalai Lama, and other top spiritual leaders, then Google would consider these links as pretty powerful.

But, if your niche was fitness, and you had backlinks to a donut factory, a greasy spoon diner, and a bunch of unrelated sites that are the exact opposite of fitness, then Google would consider these links as pretty lame.

I'd rather have 10 solid backlinks with relevant and significant sites, than 100 backlinks to sites that have nothing to do with my niche.

[glennforum]

Quality should be paramount to quantity. Since you only need a few quality backlinks to start seeing improvement in your ranking.

[Rua999]

Thought id chip in here too... i have a few pages that are pr3 and pr4 that are mainly gettin their pr from a relatively low number of high pr unrelated niche forums (about 50 or 60 links to each), but although their pr is higher than a lot of the pr of google's first page competitors, im still on page 2 or 3... so i reckon il have to start beefing up the quantity next. Just goes to show tho, that quality will only get you so far

[JSProjects]

Quality if you're linking directly to your main site.

Quantity if you're trying to get links to your site indexed.

[patriciaevansss]

What is the sense of the number of links you've create if they do not have QUALITY at all??? That's why Search Engine has rules right??? To give the users a QUALITY information they need.

[ephame]

Quantity of Quality

[Aaronhiscock]

I believe to get quality backlinks instead of quantity. if you get large number of backlinks but they are not for long time then it will affect your rankings. for quality and permanent backlinks you can use prlog.org, ezinearticles.com. hubpages.com etc......

[lespritb]

Quality is much better then Quantity. If you are able to do only 1 or 2 high PR do follow with same niche sites, then it's more valuable then 30 links with pr 0 no follow non theme links.

[Kush4242]

Hi hirstmusic,

in my point of view both factor are consider in SERP......

First thing no one back link is percent in web but benefit of quality back link provides some benefit in some good case of limit.

so I only and only preferred quality back links for your Website. Process of generate back link takes long time but it will provide long term benefit in based of your website reputation and quality.

[showkatahmad]

Success does not come in short term it need to wait so always be with long term so Quality matters that will provide you success

[showkatahmad]

success does not come in short term one nneds to wait and comes in long term so it is better to work for quality which can lend you to succeed

[digitalmarketing]

get for both work but most for back link

[TorremochaJ]

Yeah! Go for quality. A backlink with a keyword on anchor text from a relevant site with high pr.

[McCoy]

I think it's quantity, as long as you have a thousand backlinks you're good

[hadden123]

You have to go for good quality links rather than quantity.

[marcell12]

I will say quality. You should focus on quality first rather than quantity.

[juanlawry1]

Originally Posted by rotten72

This topic causes much debate. I will be discussing this very topic on my blog very soon.

yeah rotten, right.

[halfpoint]

Both.

Preferably a high quantity of quality

[seogene]

Hi
What kind of backlinks do made?
And what's the price of such work if you make it for clients?
Thanks

[seogene]

the question was for reqZ

[mosthost]

ProTip: SEOs should study military history, wherein quantity has always defeated quality.

In other words, will 100 mediocre tanks defeat 1 great one in a battle?

[money200]

I think quality is imp. than quantity but for temporal purpose quantity is not bad.

[JSProjects]

Originally Posted by mosthost

ProTip: SEOs should study military history, wherein quantity has always defeated quality.

In other words, will 100 mediocre tanks defeat 1 great one in a battle?

I don't think you can really make that comparison. Personally, I'd much rather take a single PR1 (dofollow) link over 100 PR N/A links.

I basically look at it as "quality" to my main sites and "quantity" to sites that are LINKING to my main sites.

[Kurt]

Originally Posted by mosthost

ProTip: SEOs should study military history, wherein quantity has always defeated quality.

In other words, will 100 mediocre tanks defeat 1 great one in a battle?

Don't tell Hannibal or Alexander that they needed greater numbers...

[phoebeida]

Always go for the quality.

[Assasinday]

Quality of course ..

Relevancy : Link Exchange with the website who is similar to your business. Eg if you have mobile related website, link exchange with the website offering mobile accessories, mobile phone, mobile ring tone etc.

Page Rank : Check the page rank of the website, home page and the page where your link is added.

Quantity do matter but if quality is poor your backlinks are useless nothing else

[suzane]

quality is more important than quantity.

[Charan]

The quantity and quality both links are necessary for web site PR. But the think is that
You should have to make the quantity with the quality links.

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[chandan_dutta]

Both are important. If you have doubt then just PM me and I will show you lot of proof. Of course 1 PR9 backlinks has lot of value than lot of PR0 or PR1 links. But it is easy to say, in reality it's really too tough to get actual PR9 links. So, when I am unable to get PR9 links, definitely I have to go for quantity(PR0 - PR6). It depends..

[mosthost]

Originally Posted by Kurt

Don't tell Hannibal or Alexander that they needed greater numbers...

Hehe

One good high-quality nuclear weapon is always handy.

But there don't seem to be any 'nuclear weapon' backlinks. Even high PR backlinks can't move a web page to top spots alone.

[VASEO]

For those who have attempted your luck with online marketing, blogging, internet affiliate marketing and all sorts of individuals other online income generating techniques i quickly know you've had the knowledge getting back links, am I right? Among the first stuff you hear whenever you find out about getting back links and where you'll get them from is to buy back links from very quality sites because quality back links are superior to quantity, but can you explain that?

The main reason people tell get quality back links happens because each back links is sort of a election and also the more you've from reliable and trustworthy sites the best your website is going to be. This is actually the problem you're putting all of your eggs in a single basket. Consider this, let's say the all mighty Google decides to alter their formula again and ranges from quality to quality plus quantity? I wager lots of people could be battling to obtain more links as opposed to just quality links.

[zacgoossens]

I always go for the quality of my backlinks.

[simonrv]

Why not both? Quantity with Quality also works great!

[wilhouse]

Originally Posted by regZ

Quantity = Short Term
Quality = Long Term

I only do mabey 80-100 manual backlinks per day for my longterm clients.

Results are better than when they buy single packages for 1 run. In this reply by better I mean it lasts longer .

regZ

omg 80-100 a day! thats intense.

[hobokook]

Quality HANDS DOWN.

5 backlinks from sites like Yahho and CNN are going to kill 100 backlinks from random blog network sites

[megawarrior]

I've seen sites with fewer links but of good quality outrank sites with 10x or more crappy backlinks.

[jiyaadnaeem]

Google gets smarter every day, it's better to not just try to game SEs with numbers, quality posts/comments are where the difference is made

[wickedwitch]

I would say quality outshines quantity when it comes to backlinks.

[seolvl1]

Quality with relevant niche,

it looks more natural