Link Building. Is it Really that Important?

by fskcramer

Posted: 15 years ago 51 replies

Hey guys.

I bring this question to you because I've been working on IM for nearly a year now. I always hear backlink backlink backlink. Well Recently I was visiting my grandpa (who has been selling products online since the internet came out) He talked to me about how he learned SEO.

Basically just working with the company the was building his website. He basically said he could get any niche site or more category based site on the top of google in a week or less without any backlinks.

This struck me as interesting. So I took what he told me and applied it to a niche site of mine and within a week. Bam first page of google.

So how important is Backlinking? In my opinion it's going to get you from the top page to the top spot. But what people are missing is there on page SEO.

#building #important #link

rmolina88 15 years ago

I've had badly written articles get on the first page of google with no backlinks, but they were for really low ranking keywords.
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fskcramer 15 years ago

Truthfully in Micro Niche blogging I believe you can get on the first page with just a few steps of on page stuff. Which I'm hoping to release in a new digital download soon. But mainly if you have Your title, header tags, keywords, description, and a few other small things. You chould get a first page spot. Like I said hopefully I will have a new guide on how to do this with wordpress in the coming weeks.
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- simpleonline1234 15 years ago
  
  It really all depends on the level of competition.
  
  Niches that have less competition levels then you can most likely get away with the on page seo factors like url, title, tags, content.
  
  For niches with a higher competition level you will find that a lot of web masters will already have done their on page SEO factors and turn to off page factors to rank their sites higher....this is where the backlinks come into play.
  
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  connorbringas 15 years ago
  
  On page optimization is very important, even more important than backlinking in my opinion. However, it really depends on the competition...on page optimization isnt going to make you first for surfing..
  
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Mike Anthony

15 years ago

Originally Posted by fskcramer

Basically just working with the company the was building his website. He basically said he could get any niche site or more category based site on the top of google in a week or less without any backlinks.

Some niches yes. any niche? Totally bogus. Please don't write things just to promote an upcoming ebook.

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fskcramer 15 years ago

What ways have you had luck with building links? I didn't mind 3 way links program, but spending $50 a month isn't worth it to me.
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Jordan Kovats

15 years ago

I'd be curious what micro niche your grandfather was succeeding in. And no, I have no desire to challenge whatsoever.

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fskcramer

15 years ago

Originally Posted by theseoguys

I'd be curious what micro niche your grandfather was succeeding in. And no, I have no desire to challenge whatsoever.

His sites are not Micro Niche. They are roughly a million dollar per year in sales sites. He has 2 I believe.

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TristanPerry

15 years ago

Originally Posted by fskcramer

His sites are not Micro Niche. They are roughly a million dollar per year in sales sites. He has 2 I believe.

To clarify: (going on what you've said thus far) he can choose any keyword in the World, and without any links at all get to the top of Google within just 1 or 2 weeks?

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fskcramer

15 years ago

Originally Posted by TristanPerry

To clarify: (going on what you've said thus far) he can choose any keyword in the World, and without any links at all get to the top of Google within just 1 or 2 weeks?

Niche Site I said. Not any keyword. I do not by any means think that Link buidling doesn't help. I realize it's huge however. I feel like some people are spending money to build links when in reality there niche isn't always competitive enough that they need a bunch of links. Sometimes you can do some basic Seo on your pages to get you to the top of google instead spending a lot of money on backlinks.

My grandpa is great at SEO and uses back links and all sorts of other means to get his sites in the top of google for hundreds of keywords if not more.

My father runs a company which does muilti millions in sales each year and doesn't know SEO near as well. He has never done any backlinking at all! What he has done is have Top Quality information and products at great prices.

(keep in mind millions in sales is not millions in profit)

So how important is Backlinking? I don't know exactly because those are two examples of people running Extremely profitable websites and using two different methods of online marketing and optimizing their sites.

It seems like people got almost offended by this post and that wasn't the goal. The title is misleading I apologize it was more something to grab attention of newer IM's

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Mike Anthony

15 years ago

Originally Posted by fskcramer

It seems like people got almost offended by this post and that wasn't the goal. The title is misleading I apologize it was more something to grab attention of newer IM's

People are getting offended for a good reason. they understand that this forum has lots of people looking to make some money some even to support their families. You are spreading false information. As sure as the sun coming up tomorrow I will guarantee that if i knew the site I would either find backlinks to your family members websites or it is a low competition niche site. Period.

My bet is that you are either trying to set up yourself to sell an ebook OR your family's sites are getting backlinks naturally from others backlinking to them. either way claiming that you can teach anyone to get on the top of the first page of google for an ultra competitive term with just on page seo and no backlinks is total and absolute hogwash. No offense but I have to put it in strong terms for the people who don't know better and will waste time and hope on your absolutely wrong premise.

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jazbo 15 years ago

Depends on the competition. Some low hanging fruit is crammed full of people pumping content and links at their sites like there is no tomorrow, while other low hanging fruit can be plucked with one well-written article.
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Love_Money 15 years ago

One can get in to first page quickly for low competition keywords, but how long can you sustain high SEPR? Some new entrant with good one page SEO and strong back link juice can beat you in a month.

Back links brings in COMPETITIVE Advantage.
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Georgie593 15 years ago

on page seo is important but in reality link building is more important at least early on.
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JackPowers 15 years ago

Is this serious?
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abarton 15 years ago

don't we still care about getting traffic through links from other sites and not just google??
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ApineMan 15 years ago

Are your chosen keywords competitive? If not, you have a big chance in going on the number 1 spot of SERPs.
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martworld 15 years ago

Dear, Without backlinks you cannot get search engine position neither can get Page rank for your website. And without both of them, you cannot gt natural traffic.
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jcoona 15 years ago

If you're going after competitive keywords then yes it's important to build links. But if you're going after long tail low competition keyword phrases then you can rank well without building backlinks.
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Luke McCormack 15 years ago

As stated in numerous posts above, it all depends on the competition. IMHO there are very few low competition markets that provide long term commercial intent. Keywords with high commercial intent are competitive and hence the need for backlinking.

To sum up yes you can get on page one for low competition keyword but will you be satisfied with the 1 cent adsense clicks?

Regards

Nigel
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izapharry 15 years ago

link building is really important if you want to get rank for your keywords
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webber1 15 years ago

Yes linkbuilding is VERY important depending on how competitive your niche is. Tell him to try to get to page 1 for "jobs" in a month. If he does that I will eat my shorts!!
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Jayson L 15 years ago

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- wsotoolz 15 years ago
  
  Someone has already done an on page SEO plugin for Wordpress... His name is Daniel... Google SEOPressor for more details. I absolutely love this plugin by the way!
  
  Yes it can get you to page one for some niches... but for most competitive ones, like everyone said above, you need to add off page SEO like link building as well.
  
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Rogerboy 15 years ago

Its always a good idea to backlink, I like to post my money site to some forum posts to people with problems related to my niche, this way I get backlinks and some targeted traffic.
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andystealth 15 years ago

Yes, it all comes down to how competitive a KW is. End of story.

And to make it simple and fair, on-page SEO (KWs in title, tags, as well as solid unique content on KW and LSI, etc.) is important in the sense that it's a multiple or variable in the formula of ranking...if you get it good (let's say a higher number in the formula), with all other things being equal, yes, you will rank higher than the other guy with worse on-page SEO given the same links.

And perhaps you can outrank him even if you only have say 20 links, and he has 400. No one knows the exact formula, but it tends to work that way. So if your on-page "multiple" or "variable" is super high, you can definitely get by with a lot less links (of the same quality) than your competitor.

But then again, if your competitors on page 1 already all have a 9/10 on the on-page factors, you definitely need to get more off-page juice to beat them.
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osho3 15 years ago

ya link building is to much impotent for get ranking
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- con.mic 15 years ago
  
  " He basically said he could get any niche site or more category based site on the top of google in a week or less without any backlinks. "
  Hogwash
  
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vectorfrog 15 years ago

I'm guessing if your father's site has top quality information and products at great prices, then he's getting organic backlinks.

It's kinda like if I were giving away a free ipod to everyone who filled out a form on my site with no strings attached. I would get about a MILLION backlinks in no time without doing any "backlinking" on my own.

The problem is, not everyone can give away free ipods, or in your father's case, great products at great prices. Some of us can only offer, great products at fair market value. Link baiting is great, but it is not as easy as so many people imply it to be.
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- simpleonline1234 15 years ago
  
  I can kind of see what you are saying to be able to rank #1 for long term keywords without any links.
  
  This is true for those non competitive long tail keywords. Sounds like grandpa is good at finding low competitive keywords that are based around his products that have no competition levels.well maybe low competition levels that use no on page seo factors.
  
  I might come around those everyone once in a while but the payout isn't normally worth the trouble it takes to create sites around those keywords...the traffic is so little that you almost have to convert on every visitor to make any money.
  
  I mean if it works for your grandpa then more power to him...for me however I am more into targeted high level traffic that has beatable competition levels...and in my arena it takes a heck of a lot more than on page SEO to compete with the bigger dogs in these campaigns.
  
  Me personally I'd rather have a hand few of sites that pull in a boat load of targeted traffic and covert well than hundreds of low volume sites that has a few people every now and then that might convert.
  
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Torontoairport 15 years ago

Link building is extremely important in getting your site ranked high on search engines the process of link building is not just one of numerous SEO strategies that are employed on the World Wide Web today in fact, it is crucial to the success of any website trying to compete in the technological age. Even if you have no other SEO methods in place, your site should at least work on building a reliable base of back links there are few different strategies and techniques to do this.Write articles about your website or ideas.Submit your website for users to review, free,Post Free Classifieds.Social book marking it help us increase ranking.....
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- connorbringas 15 years ago
  
  Its funny because what your father does for example..ISSSS getting backlinks.
  
  Its just a different way of getting them. Creating the buzz gets so many backlinks you wouldnt believe it. For example how many backlinks do you think facebook buys..none..but im sure they get thousands a week. Why? because everyone is talking about facebook! think about it..
  
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jhonsean 15 years ago

In my point of view Link Building is very important from others, this will determine on how your articles works on Search Engines or how strong it will be depending on your titles, contents and the competitive keywords that you have in your story.
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- connorbringas 15 years ago
  
  I do agree that on page is crucial, but off page is just as important as well..
  
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SledgeHammer 15 years ago

Answer: It depends on the competition.
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Elliot Clark 15 years ago

For low competition keywords you can get in the top in a week, but try to do the same with "credit cards", "debt consolidation" or some other niche like that
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HorseStall 15 years ago

Unfortunately if the niche is the least bit competitive you need backlinks. There is no quick way to ranking well without consistent relevant links.
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benjamin1234 Banned 15 years ago

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- riczsabido 15 years ago
  
  If you have a high PR and really good on-page SEO, then Google will most likely rank you high without any backlinks to that new page.
  
  However, getting a high PR needs high quality backlinks as well. And if you don't start building backlinks just because your ranking well now, you'll be easily crushed with a competitor who knows SEO well.
  
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John Williamson 15 years ago

Sure, on-page SEO is an important first step, but on the flip side, I've had sites that, simply because they had so many high-quality backlinks, ranked on the first page for keywords that didn't even appear in the title, h1, h2, or any of the meta tags...

And as a side note, tools like SEnuke wouldn't cost $127/mo. if backlinks weren't important, and they have plenty of subscribers. And that's just one of the hundreds of pieces of software built solely for backlink building.
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rahulr 15 years ago

link building is a must if you want to keep the rank intact for any keyword over 10,000+/month search.
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levmonch 15 years ago

You can't get no where without backlinks.. must have.
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esterdsl Banned 15 years ago

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rypher21 15 years ago

linkbuilding boost your site visibility over the internet...the more quality links you have the better
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- marcushussey 15 years ago
  
  Link building is important for a site to improve rank in search results. You can increase your site's backlinks which are significant factors for increasing keyword rankings in serp, more and more traffic and even page rank. Quantity and quality links together with good content will help your site rank well in serp
  
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blogcommentator 15 years ago

The link building is of top most priority to keep your blog alive.Without that you can be left with left traffic.This is the one of the best ways ever to increase your PR in google.
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- kiksmo.solutions 15 years ago
  
  Back links are vital to increase PR of the but niche back links are not enough back links must be qualitative that will be beneficial for you...........
  
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dipenb 15 years ago

Well, through my experience I have seen miracles in ranking the #1 spot in Google. But maintaining it for long time is a pain in neck without backlink. Good quality backlink will give the power to the website on building trust, authority in the eyes of Google. And you may rank to top for long time no matter how many people are trying to give competition.

I have seen websites ranking for long time just because of the backlinks for the keywords they have not written at all in the page anywhere. But most of the links are pointing to that website with the keyword.

Don't take granted for my word. Type 'click here' in the google. you will see adobe sites ranking for that term. and it is ranking for that keyword for more than 10 years.
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FatKidLovesCake 15 years ago

Building backlinks is important in my opinion especially early on.

You gotta start somewhere. It might not be very important once a site gets established to a certain point.

I would not write off building some links as it is very easy.
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Jordan Kovats 15 years ago

It is my belief that one of the primary building blocks of the search engine algorithm's besides relevant content, is the number of sites linking back to your website. So, think of a house, before the foundation goes up, there is the footing. Therefore, I would consider inbound links part of the foundation to SEO. That's just my opinion though.
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Mike Anthony 15 years ago

oh I forgot "in a week or less as well" LOL. Your grandad is just having fun with you or you need to come up with a better more believable product. This ain't goin fly round these parts.
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SEOArbiter 15 years ago

Wow, a lot of responses to this. Is it important? Is it ever! Quite simply, search engines, like Google®, aren't trusting what you say your website is about, instead they're asking other websites their opinion as to what your website is about. Utilizing off-page search engine optimization includes continuous, ongoing link building from other websites back to your website. When this link-building occurs, it pushes your website to the top of the search engine rankings. Offpage factors are essential and key to getting you ranked at the top.
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bigK 15 years ago

No links only works for really low competition keywords. OK, if you have a really really strong and trusted website, you can get away with a bit more difficult keywords. But otherwise - links are still the thing.
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Link Building. Is it Really that Important?

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