Profile backlinks vs real content backlinks...

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As posted previously, since mid January I've managed to get my site to page 4 of Google. I am doing multiple things every day to try and get the site to page one. I'm writing articles, blogging, sending out press releases, and building profile backlinks using Paul's BLs and another provider. I check my backlinks and all other changes every single day in an effort to identify the stuff that is working.

That said, I'm starting to lean toward the "profile links are worthless" camp. Of all the links I've created through the various methods mentioned above only one profile link is listed for my site. This is despite pinging, rss feed, and other "boosting" of every single profile link. That's a little disappointing to me since I've spent so much time building them.

That said, I'm going to stick with my profile link subscriptions for another month or so and see what happens. I'll re-evaluate and then decide whether to continue with them or not.

I'm in no way saying that profile links don't work. I'm simply stating that they don't appear to be working for me. Is there something else I should be doing with them that I've missed somewhere along the way?

-Tom
#search engine optimization #backlinks #content #profile #real
  • Profile links work.

    You can't say "it's not working for you", search engines aren't choosy. They are robots that literally go by the rules. If it works for one, it works for everyone.

    Therefore, one of the possible reasons that profile links "aren't working for you" is that the competition is too tough.

    -Shaun
    • [1] reply
    • Shaun,

      Thanks for the reply. I guess my assessment is based on the fact that only one of the hundreds of profile backlinks I've created actually shows up in my stats. This is despite the fact I think I've done everything possible to have them indexed and counted. Maybe it takes longer than 3 or 4 months, and that's fine. However, the links built into blog comments, articles, press releases, etc. are all usually indexed within a week. So, wouldn't it make more sense for me to take the time I use building profile links and instead use that time to write additional articles, blog posts, PRs, etc.?

      Again, I haven't given up on profile links and I'll continue to build them for another month or two. After that, if I don't start seeing them indexed and counted (even the ones I built back in January), I'll have to conclude that my time is better spent on other methods.

      -Tom
      • [1] reply
  • If they aren't showing up then your probably creating links on bad/low traffic forums.
    • [1] reply
    • This is a high traffic forum (or is it?) and I can't see my profile page indexed

      • [2] replies
  • In my experience, only a small fraction of the backlinks you toss out there will ever stick.

    There a way to submit those pages to Google directly for indexing? Would sure increase efficiency.
  • Sorry to sound stupid, but when you say "Of all the links I've created through the various methods mentioned above only one profile link is listed for my site" does that mean that when you search Google for some keyword phrase that you put in your profile links that only 1 of them shows up?

    Or is it that when you search the backlinks to your site with some tool, that you only see one of them as a back link.

    I'm confused because you say only 1 shows up in your stats - are you talking about your referrer stats?

    Lee
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Profile backlinks work.

    Not all backlinks show up in Yahoo Sitexplorer and almost none in Google.
  • I think it depends on what forum you are creating profile links to...I did around 35-40 last week through roboform and about 10 of them are showing up as backlinks already in yahoo site explorer...and all i did was ping them....i dont bother doing rss or whatever backlink booster there is...i just leave it as it is and hope for the best....i dont want to make things any more complicated...well, thats just me...
  • As Jack said, most of the links you build will never show up in Google. Google knows they are there and you will get credit for them, but they will not reveal the existence of them because they don't want anyone to reverse engineer their algorithm.

    Just keep building them and eventually it should pay off, depending on the strength of the first page results and how many back links they have.

    I don't know were backlinkwatch.com gets their data from, but try them and see if you find more of your links. They probably get it from the search engines, so probably will not show anything different. But it is worth a try, just in case.
    • [1] reply
    • SEO is not something that you can see it by rough eyes, what timpears said is true. as me, i do makes a lot of backlinks towards my site. unfortunately, when i check by yahoo and google, there is only a few backlinks. in the beginning, i started to give up because it is useless to make such huge backlinks but there are no results found.

      but a few day later, my site have spotted in 2nd page in google and that gives me an inspire to improve my effort to increase the backlink.
      • [1] reply
  • Have you considered maybe some of the profile links are no follow?
  • I had a case study detailed how I mix profile links and other automated backlinks to rank on almost all my targeted keywords, this might be a good reference for you. Check out here <=.

    Kok Choon
    • [1] reply
  • don't make profiles for the sake of back links only. If you are making profile by the name of your company than why limit yourself up to back linking and seo only. Look what lies ahead may be it is more fruitful than one back link with a very little Link Juice in it.

    If you are active and participating well in the forums or any other site and sharing good knowledge than you are boosting your brand image, and people will take you more seriously, which is worth far more than just making profile juts for the sake of a back link.
  • Yeah, like Tom Goodwin says above, the tools don't always show all the back links. His advice is probably about the best you will get - sounds like he knows a lot about these types of links from his own testing (as opposed to a lot of advice that you will get from people who just repeat what they have heard in some other forum!).

    Lee
  • There are Warriors offering profile link services. I tested Jeremy Kellsal's service and it definetly gave my site a boost.

    These links should be outsorced imo.
  • You are right. They do NOT work. Others are right that they DO work.
    the problem is you may be talking about two different things.

    I have seen profile sites push pages to the top of Google for long tail well researched terms. I have not seen any very competitive term rank just on profile backlinks.

    You see a lot of people say that this or that backlink service gave them a boost. What you seldom see is anyone say they are ranked number one for a compettive search term. Oh they claim it but when they finally give you the term isn't really competitive.

    So if you are planning to JUST use profile backlinks and you intend to use them on a very compettive term then good luck. IN my eperience Profile backlinks are there to get you up the ranks to get noticed and as a little booster after that.

    The long term use of thousands of profile backlinks i s garbage for an established website in a competitive niche.
    • [1] reply
    • I am 100% against creating profiles just to create profiles.
      It is useless to create hundreds of profiles. You are never
      going to be an active member, so all those profiles will either
      never count, or get deleted before they do.

      The profiles that work are on high profile forums that you
      remain active.

      What is the sense in spamming, er, joining a forum just for a
      link? Why should google choose a site based on a bunch of
      profile links?

      If people keep preaching about spamming profile links, even
      publishing a list of hundreds to spam, eventually google will
      devalue the whole lot of you.

      Forum owners should not have to be subject to spam based on
      someone's list. Unfortunately, we keep getting people who say,
      "who does it hurt? So what?" It does hurt. It hurts people by
      promoting a bad way of getting links. It hurts forums by turning
      them into profile link farms.

      Paul
      • [1] reply
  • JackPowers is right, profile links can get you quite a good amount of traffic
    • [1] reply
    • Last year profile links worked incredibly well, not any more at least for me.

      I could throw 50 profile links at a page last year and see it go in the top 3. This year i could throw a 1000 at a page and see very little movement. I have done all the boosting, publicly viewable profiles, dofollow etc. Don't give me any guff about competition strength or anything else either as I've tested all types. Profile links will still benefit but nowhere near what they used to.
  • When you all are talking about back links I'm wondering how many of you are posting yourself vs hiring a company to do it. Which way do you all feel is better. Is it even possible for a person posting themselves to compete
    • [1] reply
    • Bill,

      I post all of them myself. When I hit a page that appears to be related or that offers an open forum or personal blog, I post an article in addition to the profile links.

      -Tom
  • Banned
    [DELETED]
  • It's a combination of factors more than likely. As some people have said, not all backlinks you build will show up, but Google should still be indexing them. High PR backlinks do work better because they give your site better authority. As for profile links vs. content links, I mostly stick with content links. The majority of mine show up when I view them on SEO Quake. Good luck, whatever route you decide to take!
  • How'd you know my niche!

    so, not exactly what you are saying but... one could buy 10 - 100 fresh domain plus something like say... backlinks goldmine and use it to boost those domains up to PR 3-4 range and by doing such be creating their own little PR backlink network to in turn boost up their real money sites?

    What a crazy idea

    Wait, nevermind... I'm already doing this.
  • Just a thought, but have you thought about checking the robots file to see if the profiles are even allowed to be crawled by the juicy search bots?

    I've never actually tried it or actually know if it stops the profiles being indexed, even if they're publicly viewable. But if a webmaster sets a no go in the robot file for forum profiles, even if they appear to be dofollow, then surely even pinging or socially bookmarking it would have little / no value once the bots get there. Thoughts?
  • Can I ask a question? Sorry if it may sound stupid. Are these profile links are also the links in the signature in a forum?
    • [1] reply
  • Hey,


    Shaun Lee is right that profile link works and you can't say that they don't work. so i think you have to use them also.you will definitely get advantage of that.
  • I've found Profile links to be worthless.

    The best bet is to actually post a few threads on a high PR forum. Those stick all the time. Spend an extra 20 minutes and write a couple responses or posts after you create your profile. Carefully use your link in your signature.

    However, I've found 2.0 profile creation to be WAY more effective, web 2.0 properties like Weebly, Squidoo, Webs, etc. You can make highly relevant backlinks very quickly on these sites.

    Right now my entire strategy is blog commenting (bots), link systems like 1waylinks, bookmarkwiz, and link builder pro. I consistently hit top 5 for almost everything I go after, including very highly competitive keywords.

    One way to build high quality, relevant links is to quickly build a ton of web 2.0 properties, just use spun content. Then build a ton of quick backlinks to those (blog commenting bots, bookmarking, 1waylinks, etc.) - thse web 2.0 links will give you a lot of boost as they are highly relevant with relevant backlinks.

    Depending on what you are promoting, I do "real" business sites as opposed to adsense/affiliate stuff. So I tend to do mini-site strategies and auto-blogs as well.

    These strategies work. And I completely stopped doing profile backlinks as they are time consuming, ineffective, and there are WAY faster ways to build quality links.

    You can always automate forum profile making too: http://www.warriorforum.com/warrior-...ly-easily.html

    I just would highly recommend against counting on it for much of anything.
  • They are worthless on all forums where I am an administrator. You can register, but there is not going to be a link on my forum until you have been a member for a while, and the post count reaches a set minimum. I did not build me site to be junked up with stuff like this, and I'm sure 99.9% of other forum owners feel the same way.
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    Profile backlinks vs real content backlinks...

    As posted previously, since mid January I've managed to get my site to page 4 of Google. I am doing multiple things every day to try and get the site to page one. I'm writing articles, blogging, sending out press releases, and building profile backlinks using Paul's BLs and another provider. I check my backlinks and all other changes every single day in an effort to identify the stuff that is working. That said, I'm starting to lean toward the "profile links are worthless" camp. Of all the links I've created through the various methods mentioned above only one profile link is listed for my site. This is despite pinging, rss feed, and other "boosting" of every single profile link. That's a little disappointing to me since I've spent so much time building them.