Backlinks vs onpage optimization

10 replies
  • SEO
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I have noticed on Traffic Travis that it will list some terms as 'relatively easy' to rank for when the average backlinks is quite high...Everytime I view the details of the top 10 I will notice hardly any pages are optimized onsite very well (title, h1 etc).

Traffic Travis obviously puts quite bit of importance to on page, more so then off page going by what I see, do you think that is right? Could you get into top ten for a term where the sites have tons of backlinks but no on page optimization?

And I don't mean in top ten with 3 back links, but with a lot less then the ones already there?

For example, I just put in a term into TT and it came back as relatively easy, but average backlinks is 3200 (which is a lot for a niche site), but none of the sites are optimized at all on the page. TT is saying it would be quite easy, how much on page optimization will counter the backlinks? And if all on page is done how many backlinks on average do you think could compete against an average of 3200?

Whats your opinion/experiences?
#backlinks #onpage #optimization
  • Profile picture of the author hicksdelight
    Also, I notice in TT sites ranking for medium difficulty keywords with no backlinks to the page, but loads to their main site. (root domain).

    They are often above sites with backlinks and better optimization, too and seem to be more branded sites, guess age of domain plays a part in TT, too?

    Are they easy to outrank would you say?

    Edit - Though I am wondering how much to trust the backlinks data as one keyword rich domain I looked up has no backlinks apparently according to TT and ranks highly for a competitive term, lol.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shaolinsteve
    Well...

    Just because a page has a lot of backlinks does not necessarily mean it will be difficult to outrank. If your smart about which backlinks your building and not just pilling on a lot of c**p links, then you will be in a far better position.

    On top of that, on page optimization will help a lot so if you can rank reasonably well with it, then it's just a case of getting important, high quality backlinks for your page.

    Not saying you have to use software but take Scrapebox for example, many people will often get URL's of their competitors (top 100 or 200) for that keyword, get access to all their backlinks and basically follow theirs. There's different ways you can approach this and analyze backlinks though.
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  • Profile picture of the author Shaolinsteve
    I think it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether or not you can outrank someone in particular, but if you know what needs to be done, and your smart about the backlink methods you take on, then all will hopefully pay off.
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    • Profile picture of the author hicksdelight
      Originally Posted by Shaolinsteve View Post

      I think it can sometimes be difficult to determine whether or not you can outrank someone in particular, but if you know what needs to be done, and your smart about the backlink methods you take on, then all will hopefully pay off.
      Thanks for replying, I agree with you.

      Sometimes you gotta take a risk, it will pay off sometimes and other times not, but if a risk is worth taking...

      Basically just trust the software, lol.
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      • Profile picture of the author Shaolinsteve
        lol,

        Well I know what you mean about TT. Not everything they give needs to be 100% done for on page optimization. A lot of software comes down to the creators preference also.

        But it's still worth researching at least some of your competitors backlinks. Just because they have a lot, does not necessarily mean they are all worthless either, they could be someone who a lot of dosh to pay out for an SEO company or SEO'er? lol to do the work for them and provide good results.

        So a little research will help out in the long run, but I am sure after some basic research, you should be fine
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        • Profile picture of the author hicksdelight
          Originally Posted by Shaolinsteve View Post

          lol,

          Well I know what you mean about TT. Not everything they give needs to be 100% done for on page optimization. A lot of software comes down to the creators preference also.

          But it's still worth researching at least some of your competitors backlinks. Just because they have a lot, does not necessarily mean they are all worthless either, they could be someone who a lot of dosh to pay out for an SEO company or SEO'er? lol to do the work for them and provide good results.

          So a little research will help out in the long run, but I am sure after some basic research, you should be fine
          Thanks

          Just quick question.

          If quite a few of the sites have no links pointing to the actual page, but has thousands pointing to other pages on the site, how does that relate?

          Which should we look at? Would it be easy to outrank a site with no backlinks to the actual page but lots to other pages on their site? How important is that in relation to the keyword, if the page has no backlinks but whole domain has a ton? I notice that a lot, too.

          Cheers

          Thanks
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  • Profile picture of the author UMS
    As with most things to do with SEO, quality wins out over quantity (most times).

    You can't really say anything definitive about a site based purely on the number of backlinks. For example, you could find that the majority of backlinks comes from a single site and/or lots of low quality backlinks like forum profiles.

    Traffic Travis is a useful tool for gauging competition, but you are better off interpreting the data yourself rather than relying on TT rating.
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  • Profile picture of the author hicksdelight
    Also, query regarding domain age.

    Say you have a new domain, keyword.com

    The sites in top 10 don't look too hard to beat, but the domains are old, but the urls are like

    nothingtodowithkeyword.com/keyword.html

    Is the importance of the domain age taken into account even though the keyword you are trying for is in a sub page of the main domain?
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    • Profile picture of the author hirithk
      hai
      how backlinks are related to onpage activity?
      thank u
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      • Profile picture of the author record123
        both are very different but related for increasing website rank. on page optimization is used to make your website search engine friendly which will help to crawl your website by crawler. off page is used for increasing back links for website .
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