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Glad I Never Did Linking

by TZ
17 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Our sites that earn our living we launched back in 2005 and they were blogs. I focused only on deep content. 2000-6000 words posts with a lot of info, details, images, videos, etc. We took the Google Guidelines seriously.

However, I always felt like I was dropping the ball when it came to link building. For some reason I hated link building and I was very skeptical of the practice. I was worried that Google would change their mind on what a "good link" was at any time and it could sink our sites altogether.

Looking back now I'm glad we never got wrapped up with link building. I've had MANY people tell me that I should be link building because we could get a lot more traffic. I believed they were right, but I was happy to slowly let natural links happen on their own.

As long as the bills were being paid I didn't want to take chances with risky links.

So all these years later it seems to have been the right thing to do.

We started with making 1500 a month for a long while, then 4000, then 6K-7K. Then a few years back we hit 10k. Last two months we hit a milestone we never even imagined. Over 20k.

We never did linking. Just really strong content. I know that some people don't want to wait for natural linking to occur, but it does happen. It takes a long time, but at least if you just focus on content, you are safer that way.

There were times when our traffic got hammered because of Google's changes in their algo, but over time it always rebounded as the cleared out the competition from the SERPS.

I know we were just lucky because we chose the right niche (finance) and we started early.

So to those of you who want to take it slow and not take chances - it can work over time.

T
#glad #linking
  • Profile picture of the author nettiapina
    Congrats!

    So I guess the solution is to purchase a time machine, and travel back to the days when Google was fresh, there wasn't as much competition as there is today, and there certainly wasn't as much noise around. That's the major problem with this kind of approach as the only strategy.

    Of course it's possible that you'll get somewhere by great content only, and even the rate for such success stories has probably gone up. There's a lot of aggregators, content curators and crowd sourcing sites that weren't around 10 years ago.
    Signature
    Links in signature will not help your SEO. Not on this site, and not on any other forum.
    Who told me this? An ex Google web spam engineer.

    What's your excuse?
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    • Profile picture of the author hipeopo02
      If you know what you are doing and don't chase the fly by night linkbuilding trends you can expedite the process a great deal. Over the last 2 years I have manually added a few hundred high quality links to my site profiles and have seen a dramatic increase in rank/traffic. Maybe with 5-10 years of waiting I could have gotten the same quality of links naturally but, again, if you truly know what you are doing and don't follow the herd you will see a much faster progression letting you open up new projects with earlier earnings.
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  • Profile picture of the author patco
    This is one of the best strategies. I also like building quality websites with great content. Just keep up the good work!
    Signature

    A blog that will show you How to Lose Weight with a cool Quick Weight Loss guide...
    Also enjoy some of my favorite Funny pictures and photos that will make you smile :)

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  • Profile picture of the author PBMax
    I assume you make your money off ads and product/company banners? Or do you sell something?
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    • Profile picture of the author stolf
      Great story!


      But how are you gonna get people to link naturally if your website is not even in top 100 (which will happened if your in a competitive niche)?


      Then it dossen't matter if you so write 20.000 Word articles that would be good enough to be written by Earnest Fxxxing Hemmingway.
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      • Profile picture of the author yukon
        Banned
        Originally Posted by stolf View Post

        Great story!


        But how are you gonna get people to link naturally if your website is not even in top 100 (which will happened if your in a competitive niche)?


        Then it dossen't matter if you so write 20.000 Word articles that would be good enough to be written by Earnest Fxxxing Hemmingway.
        Top 100 what?

        There's tons of traffic on the web besides search traffic. Just about every niche has somewhere where traffic hangs out online.

        Trust me, articles aren't the only traffic lure.
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        • Profile picture of the author stolf
          Originally Posted by yukon View Post

          Top 100 what?

          There's tons of traffic on the web besides search traffic. Just about every niche has somewhere where traffic hangs out online.

          Trust me, articles aren't the only traffic lure.


          But then you are building links, right? OP said he never built any links for the site.
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          • Profile picture of the author yukon
            Banned
            Originally Posted by stolf View Post

            But then you are building links, right? OP said he never built any links for the site.
            Sure I do link building, why sit in the corner waiting for miracles when I'm part of one of the largest niche forums on the net (not IM related).

            I interact with traffic like I'm doing right now, I don't do spammy link building. I'm also a mod on that same largest niche forum.

            Not building legit links or advertising a site is silly.
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            • Profile picture of the author TZ
              Originally Posted by yukon View Post

              Not building legit links or advertising a site is silly.




              Perhaps, but I was a real green newbie back then and I could have destroyed my sites' rankings if I didn't know how to link safely and properly.


              Even after all this time I still don't know enough about safe link creation to be 100% sure the links I create won't someday tank our rankings if Google changes their minds on their algo.


              If creating link bait articles is considered "link creation" then I suppose I DID to linking. But link bait content has to be safe because you're getting links naturally.
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  • Profile picture of the author Improbable
    Originally Posted by TZ View Post

    Our sites that earn our living we launched back in 2005 and they were blogs. I focused only on deep content. 2000-6000 words posts with a lot of info, details, images, videos, etc. We took the Google Guidelines seriously.

    However, I always felt like I was dropping the ball when it came to link building. For some reason I hated link building and I was very skeptical of the practice. I was worried that Google would change their mind on what a "good link" was at any time and it could sink our sites altogether.

    Looking back now I'm glad we never got wrapped up with link building. I've had MANY people tell me that I should be link building because we could get a lot more traffic. I believed they were right, but I was happy to slowly let natural links happen on their own.

    As long as the bills were being paid I didn't want to take chances with risky links....

    Way to go! You're a natural for the long game!
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  • Profile picture of the author FreedomBlogger
    That's awesome!

    Thanks for the advice man!

    And yeah, that is a great thing that you cared more about delivering the best content. Because you never know right!

    Plus, concentrating on the best content you can deliver to the people in your niche, is the best way to build a successful blog online. The backlinks will always come naturally, AND they always were meant to be acquired naturally!

    Keep up the great work!

    Thanks for the inspiration as well!
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    At the beginning, I thought making money online with a blog was super super hard. Not anymore. Learn the art of making money online blogging - step by step - HERE.
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  • Profile picture of the author sparrow
    do what works for you

    it appears this is working for you

    at this point your snowball is getting bigger and bigger

    in the beginning link building might of got you to where you are now faster

    but it appears your the authority in your keyword group so don't fix it if it's not broken
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  • Profile picture of the author alvinchua91
    Of course it can work over time... but time's a constraint for most businesses and companies <I'm not referring to blogs and 'sole proprietors', but companies who want to quickly grow to at least millions in revenue a year>

    Writing only good content without making any efforts to market it in terms of SEO is a silly mistake because you're not looking at the opportunity costs you've incurred as a result of not having marketed your website more successfully earlier.
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    • Profile picture of the author dezignmywebsite
      Congrats! This is very inspirational.

      I've heard John Mueller from Google say that they are going to be placing less emphasis on backlinks, due to how much people take advantage of that practice. We'll see if that's true or not!

      For non competitive niches, this is the way to go. For more competitive niches, I would say you are going to have to obtain some links, especially starting out since you are already dealing with the google sandbox.
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  • Profile picture of the author ahmed150
    Congrats. That is really great. Building your own quality resources is one of the best strategy.
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  • Profile picture of the author Dokemion
    If you build links you could've earned 20k earlier.

    My previous client was earning $3k for a year (Weight Loss blogger). 3 months after I started working with her she started earning at $7k. Within 6 months she was earning $16k within 2 years she was earning $27k in 1 of her 4 affiliates more or less at $40k+/month for 4 affiliates..

    You could've earned more but you were too cautious. Anyway, you still did a good job.
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    Contact me for any SEO Services you need I'm glad to be of your service.

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  • Profile picture of the author chrisathome
    Very inspirational! It's good to see that writing quality content will provide good income if you keep it up. I do believe there is benefits to link building to make the process faster, I hope one day I can make as much as you!
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