Backlinks: Which is true? Which is myth?

The better the pagerank the more value the backlink. If you go crazy with a brand new website using an automated backlink program you will get the Google slap.

If you post an identical article to dozens of directories, Google will ignore most of them because they are duplicate content.

If building links can get you sanboxed then every affiliate marketer would be building links to their competitiors' website hoping that one day only theirs will remain "unslapped"....

Get real. Do you think that a billion dollar company (Google) would employ some of the brightest minds in computing and algorithms to come up with a ranking algorithm which would have an Achilles heel called "number of back links"?

That same people who preach "backlink voodoo" will say your landing page MUST have your keyword that us used as anchor text to rank well for it and I'm going to tell them type "click here" in google and look at the #1 spot Adobe's landing page and be astonished that the words "click here" do not even appear on it! Hmmm....

Here's some free advice. Pick a cheap domain and TEST out theories before you swallow other people's advice. If you're still affraid to build backlinks then put up web 2.0 pages at established sites like ezinearticles etc and build links to that page. You think google's gonna slap that?

That's my $0.02 for the day.

I throw 1000+ at newly created sites. Doing just fine.

I agree with fernando, it is almost impossible for any backlinks to actually hurt. That being said I do believe that In general google rewards natural growth. So it only makes since that you may be better off creating links that look natural. Just my opnion.

For want of trying to look for a get rich quick scheme try instead to actually build quality backlinks to your site.

The first question you need to answer is "what am I building backlinks for?"

There are two main reasons..

1) To get traffic (priority)
2) To try to build PR

That is it. It really is that simple. The rest of the answers come from these two questions.

1) If you want traffic what do you want it to acheive. Well presumably conversions for whatever is on the site. Therefore you need quality backlinks that are target related to your content.

I see it time and time again on sites.. "I've got 10 million back links da da da..." It's complete nonsense. If you had 10 million backlinks (ok or whatever figure) and had a 5% conversion rate at $1 dollar, then you wouldn't be posting on these forums looking for advice... FACT!

Yes you do need backlinks but they have to drive quality content to your site and actually make conversions to make you money. Therefore target quality links, relevant keyword terms in the links and go for links from sites where visitors might actually be interested in what you are trying to put in front of them.

2) Target links to build PR. This is an even more absurd belief.

PR means pretty much nothing to the end game of converting visitors. Again people concentrate too much on this. "PR is vanity, targetted traffic is sanity" is the mantra that most website owners would do well to heed. Why? I have seen sites in niches with zilch traffic (ever!) with a high PR simply because they dominate their niche and have a few good links. Converesly there are sites that are performing way better (1000% more traffic and revenue) with low PR. Again it means nothing to the end game.

If you do feel the need to get a high PR then yes you will need backlinks but its the age old adage, that you need quality.

How many times have I seen sites with PR5 links from a do follow blog thinking that their comment among the 500 other comments is actually benefiting their site(!) when in fact a link from a relevant PR1 site with only a handful of outbound links will do their site far more benefit, both in terms of traffic AND link juice.

So to answer the original point. You should build quality links - for traffic first and PR second. If your content is good enough and the right visitors come you will build authority anyway.

Yes it's hard. Yes it's thankless and yes it's dull. But that is the whole point. Othewise it would be too easy to dislodge quality sites at the top of the search engines just by cranking up thousands of low quality backlinks.

If you follow the quality path then you won't be able to build backlinks quick enough to worry what google is thinking because it will be slow and hard work.... but ultimately both your site and your wallet will benefit from it long term.

If you're intending to compete in the same niches that I'm working in, yes, backlinking too fast will hurt you. Only get one link a week, or better yet, per month, and ask people who link to you without your permission to remove their link. You wouldn't want to get slapped by "The Big G" now would you?

Two basic reasons, direct traffic and better syndication of the articles. You can mass submit, nothing wrong with that, it's just you'll get about the same results on average. Most smaller directories don't have the link juice, the traffic or the level of syndication of the big sites. Also, many of them are essentially left on auto-pilot and either aren't publishing new submissions or been spammed into oblivion.

Content matters a lot so if you are going for an article backlink then make sure you post original content there..and about other backlinks,I would say..have links from high pr pages.