Do back links work at all?

by 26 replies
30
I've been starting to wonder if building back links is even a good idea at all, and whether you should spend your time doing something else, like publishing quality content, making social connections, and building a list, perhaps buying cheap traffic.

I've come to what I think is a conclusion, I don't know how Google works, and I don't need to know. I get ninety percent of my traffic from Twitter, and the rest is other social sites, like this one, and a tiny bit of traffic from Google for very specific searches.

If anyone has any really great tips on how to use back links to get tons of traffic I'd like to hear it, but if it takes time, I'm probably better off spending the same amount of time building my social connections and building my list.

It seems to me that social promotion is easier to do, if you want to steadily increase your traffic, but I could be wrong.
#search engine optimization #back #links #work
  • OMG social promotion can get you 90% of your traffic!! Let me check your sig out since you're doing so well with this social promotion!

    /sarcasm
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
  • Yes, it's work. But don't expect the result within a few days, 1-3 months you will see the results. For instant traffic, we can use social traffic, but for long term, it's better from search engine traffic.
    • [1] reply
    • Backlinks is king! Well, thats not entirely true but it is extremely important and is one of the biggest strategies that is essential for getting highly targeted traffic. Not only that... we are talking about getting essentially FREE traffic. As Conello states, don't expect resultso overnight, but instead link building should be a long term strategy that is well worth any investment you put into it, whether it is your own time or if you hire someone to do it-- just make sure you are getting quality links that have targeted anchor texts pointing to your site.
  • Ok, I wrote another 400 word Ezine article today, and it bothers me that I get no advertising revenue from that, and it will probably get syndicated, and then that site will beat my article in a Google search, so they will have to click through two different pages before I make anything, and I don't think it even works for ranking me. I should have written that article on my site, am I wrong?
  • The problem I can see is Google doesn't like you buying links, they don't like you spamming links, and they don't like content farms. Given all of that, what is a quality back link these days? I would have to spend hours trying to get a high authority, high PR back link, and I think I would have to keep doing it, just to maintain my ranking. I have a feeling that nobody really knows how it works, and by the time they figure it out, the algorithms will change again. That's why I'm going to focus on writing on my site, and building my social connections, which is also an asset I can sell. My site is new, but it's PR 3, and I tried hard enough to build back links, now I'm forgetting about it. We'll see what happens.
    • [1] reply
    • So someone that sells social media as a traffic generating source starts a thread suggesting that backlinks do not work.

      Wow, that hardly seems like a conflict of interest at all.


      However, I hope tons of people believe you and give up backlinking and SEO efforts in general. That will make my life a lot easier.
  • It's the same conflict of interest when people selling back links say they work. You have to admit, it's not the same as it once was, and I think my money and time is better spent on other things than making useless pages which don't make me any money. Spam, that's all it is.
    • [1] reply
    • No, I won't admit to information that is untrue.

      Also, I have never found someone selling backlinks say that social promotion doesn't work in order to scare people into trying their method instead.

      The only thing that has been discounted somewhat is spammy crap like profile backlinks.

      Backlinking is alive and well when done right.
  • Ok, well I am interested in ranking for my keyword, can you make a suggestion for what I should do? I've made back links from Ezine, HubPages, Squidoo, Go Articles, Associated Content, Factoidz, prlog.org, DMOZ, Triond, Blogger, Typepad, The warrior forum, webmasterforums.com, geekpoint, and even more than that. Are you suggesting I keep doing that amount of work constantly, to rank for a keyword phrase with 10,000 monthly searches? I can do the same amount of writing on my blog, and build up the same amount of traffic for specific searches, while also improving the SEO of my site.
  • fail thread
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Wow.

      So you created backlinks from a mere 14 sources and then rushed on here to start a thread claiming backlinking doesn't work anymore. You are right. SEO is dead.

      Look, it is obvious you are just trying to promote your social media services.

      I'm not going to argue with you. I just believe your thread could be very misleading to someone new to internet marketing and SEO.
  • Hey, it's not just me, Ezine lost more than half it's traffic with the Panda algorithm update, I've been learning SEO for over two years, and I've noticed the difference with the content farm thing. I was asking for suggestions, but I doubt anyone can say anything that will definitely work. I'm ranking for social promotion pros and cons, and many other specific titles that I made no back links to. If you can give me a suggestion of what might work, I'm open to suggestions...
    • [1] reply
    • Ezine and other content farms getting hit with the Panda update has NOTHING to do with whether backlinks work or not, so I'm not sure why you would bring that up.

      There are tons of things that work just fine.

      Guest blogging, link exchanges, private networks, blog commenting, and article marketing are a things that work extremely well.

      And you are ranking for "social promotion pros and cons" with no backlinks because nobody else wants to rank for that. It gets a mere 140 searches a month. Nobody is trying to optimize a page on their site for that keyword other than you. So that is not really much of an argument against backlinks.
  • NO, they don't!
    Are you kidding me?
  • I'm not kidding, I'm not saying back links don't work, but it's hard to find quality places to link from, and the amount of work involved, or money could be better spent in other ways. Still not getting anyone telling me the magic bullet answer. Let's say I paid an SEO company a hundred bucks a month, to make back links that may, or may not even work. I could spend the same money, and get 10,000 Twitter followers, or 1,000 targeted email subscribers, and some of them would keep coming back, over and over again.
    • [1] reply

    • I don't think you are going to find any decent SEO company that would work for only $100/month. If that is all you are spending... well, you get what you pay for.

      I would love to hear how with just $100 you can get 1000 targeted email subscribers or 10,000 Twitter followers (that are real and actualy use Twitter, not crap you buy from a fiverr gig).
  • Boy what are you talking about. Offcourse they don't work !

    Is that a joke really ?
  • Well, for example, and I'm giving away something here, on Sponsored Tweets, you can offer an amount per click on a tweet, like one or two cents. They click on it, it's targeted. If you have a good squeeze page, with a good opt-in rate, you get a subscriber. I get my followers from Twiends, and I know that there is a lot of fake accounts there, or people who don't look at their dashboards, but I still get two hundred unique views a day, more in actual hits and growing, and I'm making sales.
  • If one owns a website he needs backlinks and there is no debate over it if one needs backlinks or not they definietly do. High PR baklinks or Low Pr backlinks all will do as long as one can get eyeballs to his site...backlinks help two ways 1 is search engine traffic and the second is traffic from the place where you left your link. So make good use of both
  • backlinks is part of your overall traffic generation...but of cos it takes time...
  • Short Answer: Yes
    Proof: My Sites

    Btw, you seem to be promoting your site/service much more stealthily than most other marketers. For that I tip my hat to you.
  • This entire thread is just laughable. I can't believe people even respond to these claims.
  • Check out some other threads, and what people are saying about how frustrated they are with Google. In about six months, I will be getting more targeted traffic from Twitter than if I was on the first page for my keyword, in a year double the amount. I don't have a big budget, and I'm not a real hard worker. I'm doing it though, while watching TV in bed on my iPad. I appreciate the compliment on the stealthy marketing of my service.
  • Banned
    Yes back links are good but quality back links. If you get many back links but they are not quality then there is no benefit of creating back links but if you create quality back links then it is good for your site ranking.
    • [1] reply
    • when you submitting articles, commenting blogs, commenting on forums search dofollow site for them because you find nofollow backlinks from them, dofollow backlinks provides more help to increasing your websites page rank.
  • Yes, it still works..
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    Do back links work at all?

    I've been starting to wonder if building back links is even a good idea at all, and whether you should spend your time doing something else, like publishing quality content, making social connections, and building a list, perhaps buying cheap traffic. I've come to what I think is a conclusion, I don't know how Google works, and I don't need to know. I get ninety percent of my traffic from Twitter, and the rest is other social sites, like this one, and a tiny bit of traffic from Google for very specific searches.