Are all backlinks the same?

by 16 replies
19
If you have 80 back links does it matter if it is in your niche or from all over the place?

I see Terry was doing that experiment but after 8 pages I got lost. Who won I have no clue. Does anyone have REAL proof on if same niche backlinks are better. Thanks
#search engine optimization #backlinks
  • im curious myself, but no one really has proof either way. You'll probably get answers for and against
  • I believe it is desirable to receive them from sites that are related. That's
    an ideal situation and theory, but real life is usually different. It is possible to
    receive penalties based on the origin of your backlinks. So with that in mind,
    backlinks from sites with related content may not be helpful depending on
    a number of factors.

    Also, based on everything I've seen with analyzing sites from an seo standpoint,
    I'd really have to say it's a non-issue. Perhaps someone may disagree with that,
    but it would be a tough sell, I think.
  • A simple answer to this question will answer your question...

    Are digg.com, faves.com, mister-wong.com, twitter.com, clipmarks.com, spotback.com, oneview.com, and etc. related to your site ?

    I could go on and on with that list but fact is they certainly help you gain top listings.... Best thing to do is test for yourself ...

    James
  • All other things being equal, a niche-relevant link will be more valuable than not. However, that does not mean that niche-non-relevant links are useless.
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  • I can tell you right now that a backlink from a niche related site is ALOT more powerful than a backlink from non-related site.

    When you're trying to build quality backlinks try focusing on backlinks form related sites that have a high pagerank of 5+

    To be blunt Google isn't stupid and they smell a rat when they see sites about cars are putting back links for ballet classes on their site... In fact, Google has started punishing people for selling backlinks. If you're site is caught selling backlinks you can get slapped pretty bad (same as the site that's buying the links)
  • Short and clear answer...


    NO


    ...think I'm wrong...that's cool. My response is based on personal experience and some direct guidance from Matt Cutts at a WP/SEO type of speech a few months ago. It's caught on video but let me give you the short version:

    2 sites....one has 80 links....one has 10...which one is more important in Googles eyes?

    The one with ten is a site about wine with 10 links from wine expert sites....the other is also about wine but has 80 links from general 'whatever' sites....

    the one with 10 links is for t3h w1n...as getting 10 relevant links is more important than getting 80 'whatever/generic' links...

    Relevance in content AND links = t3h r0x

    Hope this helps.

    S

    PS: more links are good of course...but relevant links sure help things move up the Google tree...
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  • Results may vary from one person to another, best way is to find it for yourself. Get 1 site and have backlinks from unrelated niches, and do another test with 1 site and build backlinks with related niches.
  • I would love to say relevancy is important, but I can't 100%.

    I think you should build links. If they are relevant then whoopy-do, but I would not stop building them if there were no relevant ones obtainable. Keep the drip feed going.

    To determine what Google sees as relevant you could try using Google Wonder Wheel to see how they link terms together.
  • It helps if the backlinks are in your niche especially if you are trying to create an authority site.
  • Something like that can only be tested. I've seen links with no attachment to my site at all rank me higher for terms so you can take that for what it's worth.
  • Google changes its algorithm from time to time. You maybe right , maybe wrong.
    • [1] reply
    • There are really too many variables(that can change) for a clear answer as every element of SEO has varying degrees of importance.

      For example:

      Relevancy counts but I'll take a link from a PR10 non-related site over a PR1 highly relevant site any day. (and so would everyone else on this thread claiming relevancy is #1)

      Or I'll take a link from a PR3 site if it has a keyword focused anchor tag over a PR6 site that does not have my keyword in the anchor tag. In this case both sites are general but the single element of the anchor tag makes one more attractive than the other.

      All that to say, even if someone tried to conduct a controlled experiment, it would get screwed up as soon as they published it for all to see causing everyone to flock to the site and traffic also affects your rankings.

      I hope that helps.
  • I got a backlink packet here.. I ranked #1 for my keyword several times. HOWEVER! you also have to put in consideration that I put "quality" content.

    I ranked #1 for a niche with only content.
    I also ranked #1 for another niche with a few articles and backlinks
    I also ranked page 1 #9, w/ only wordpress installed but my domain name was my niche

    So what I'm trying to say is it doesn't matter if the backlink is relative. But it never hurts to try. I would do about 70% unrelated and 30% related. I'm no expert but its from experience.Pretty easy to get backlinks for ANY NICHE . Easy put time-consuming. I spent the whole day today making backlinks for myself.
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    • [1] reply
    • Obviously it's desirable to have relevancy but that doesn't mean that links from other sites like social bookmarking sites, forums, blogs, directories are less important! As many backlinks you can get your site will get high importance. But this also true that links should be meaningful. Linking unnecessarily might br treated as spamming and your site can be penalized. Effective linking not only useful for SEO but also help you to get good amount of visits to your site.
  • Terry says that relevance has no influence on the quality of the backlink and I agree. Is it not feasible for a weight loss site to legitimately be pointing to a news site or an internet marketing site and passing reputation?
    • [1] reply
    • Well, the problem with this issue is when people think "site wise"rather than "page wise"

      a respected poster here stated a point about digg and the same sites

      Well, do you really think Google is that dump?

      Digg , EZA and the like are known to be big hubs for hundreds of categories

      But, why do you think EZA has a strict rule regarding the category you're posting your article/link to?

      Because such huge authority sites are not treated like regular site in Google algorithm, Google knows these sites have different categories, and decide on relevancy according to the content on the "page" you put your link on, not the whole site relevancy

      If you are submitting to a general site that covers different categories/niches, your link will be only valuable when it's posted on a page "semantically" related to your site...

      Plz guys don't think about Google as just a dump robot, when you're dealing with a multi billion dollars foundation that has a biz mainly centralized on retrieving relevant content to their users, don't expect to be able to fool them with a bunch of backlinks thrown around

      IT CAN BE FOOLED, but it takes much than what you think to do so

      my 2 cents..
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    Are all backlinks the same?

    If you have 80 back links does it matter if it is in your niche or from all over the place? I see Terry was doing that experiment but after 8 pages I got lost. Who won I have no clue. Does anyone have REAL proof on if same niche backlinks are better. Thanks