Link Relevancy- Does it matter ????

by 61 replies
70
Just got into a Huge argument with an Seo company. This guy was telling me that a link from a hardware store with a PR 4 is worth as much as a Link from a blog or site in my niche which is weddings.

I told him I don't believe that... He insisted I was an idiot.

So who's right ?? Am I the idiot or him ??
#search engine optimization #link #matter #relevancy
  • There are a lot of "it depends" in that argument. You'd need to compare the overall authority of the two pages you'd potentially be getting a link from before that's a fair discussion to have. PR in general is overrated and not a strong indicator of authority by itself.
    • [1] reply
    • I agree.

      However, relevancy is becoming more and more important....and PR less so.

      He's probably the idiot.
  • Banned
    Yes relevancy matters, Google has clearly pointed out that relevancy is important. I'll see If I can find the link/info.

    Besides, relevancy is the easiest way to get double/triple SERP listings per keyword.

    [edit]
    I can't find the link, it's a post where Matt C. or Googles own search blog had a screenshot of irrelevant anchor-text/links on an article.
    • [1] reply
    • I agree bro I had just seen a video with Matt cutts saying it matters!!
  • If the site in your niche also has a PR of 4, then that site trumps the hardware store site. However, if the site in your niche is relatively new, has few backlinks, and a PR less than 2, then the SEO guy is right. It depends on the circumstances...
    • [1] reply
    • Hi thatdude123,

      It sounds like he hasn't heard yet about the Penguin update that specifically targets that type of web spam. But hey, you got to expect a web spammer to try to convince you that his web spam isn't really spam.
  • It's my fault I didn't explain fully. His argument was that both a hardware store and a site revelant to mine has the Same PR. It would make no difference. He has a link from ANY site PR 4 would have as much weight. That link relevancy is the biggest myth in Seo !!! I tried to hold back from telling I think YOUR WRONG !! But I let him finish his all knowing and all powerful Seo speech.
    • [2] replies
    • If you are talking PR, all things equal, yes, it will have the same
      PR link.

      But PR is only half the story, as is relevance. People put way
      too much emphasis on both.

      You need to look at the overall picture. Not just PR. Not just
      relevancy.

      You think Joe Shmuck's no-name blog on blue widgets with
      a link to another site on blue widgets is going to be better
      than a high authority, PR, site's link on horses? You're barking
      up the wrong tree.

      Google chooses to value all links differently, using a variety
      of things.

      The most valuable link is on a page from a website that has PR
      and authority. It's in a relevant article, high up on the page.

      You cannot point to one piece and say that does or does not
      make it better.

      People mistake niche and relevancy to mean other things than
      what it is. What is amazon's niche? Wikipedia? What is the
      relevancy on NYT? Ebay? Craigslist?

      Joe Shmuck's site on horses, and nothing but horses, is not worth
      shinola compared to an article about horses on NYT. Even if that
      article on NYT had PR n/a and zero backlinks.

      So, in different scenarios, a link on a PR4 hardware store would be
      worth more than a link on a wedding site that had zip PR or authority.

      Of course I notice that you couldn't help but spam a link, so I assume
      you even think a link on WF, out of your niche, is golden.

      It is. Meaning you probably already knew the answer, but wanted a link.

      Touche!

      Paul

      Paul
      • [1] reply
    • Given this additional information, he is wrong. Site relevancy is an important contributing factor.
  • The page on which your link is present should have relevant content. The site as a whole need not be relevant.
    • [ 1 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • Key point. I have people wanting relevant domains all the time and in many cases its not an issue (it is in certain niches due to the nature of the niche). Relevancy is based primarily on content of the page not what the domain is or the subject of the entire site.

      Even if Google categorizes websites WebMD can still refer or link to a hardware store (there are things in a hardware store that help health) wedding supplier (doctors get married, blood pressure goes up with anxiety) and toys (some can be hazardous ot health).
      • [1] reply
  • The real question in my mind is "how relative is the word *relevance*"?

    Or, "how does google measure relevance?"

    Something I found interesting, was an accidental ranking I achieved on one of my sites. I had no idea what I was doing at the time. Over the course of about 8 months, I had posted so many threads on marketing forums, asking so many questions about the site, that eventually it hit the top position of page 2. I had also made some blog comments too, as an experiment, but NONE of the blogs were "relevant" to the site. Along with that I had posted some ads on CL, but these ads were made in general sections like the "services" section.

    So there was nothing on the sites themselves, that was relevant to my own site.

    The ONLY RELEVANCE I could find in these links, was the keywords I used. On marketing forums I explained what the site did. On blogs and CL I did the same thing.

    So that changed the way I looked at "relevance". And I began to assume that you can manipulative relevance just with the keywords you use. I also assumed that you don't need links on relevant sites, you just need keywords on those sites with your link, and that makes it relevant.

    This was before I knew anything about SEO. So when people eventually told me "you need relevant links", I heard that as "I need to find sites targeting the same keywords I am". Apparently, that isn't true. So the way I looked at relevance was completely false imo.
    Like if I had a website about carpet cleaning (which I don't), and wanted a link on a forum, I would have looked for a carpet cleaning forum to post my link on. But now I see, you don't need to do that, and its a waste of time imo. I could get a link on any forum, as long as it had my keywords in it, and since those keywords are relevant to my site, that link is also relevant. Regardless of what the forum itself is targeting.

    Someone please correct me if I'm wrong.

    -Red
  • Banned
    I'm sure Google looks at incoming links to the backlink page & the relevancy of those pages content/text.

    If you have a wedding site with a backlink pointing at an external wedding site, the first page with the backlink will have multiple incoming links all relevant to weddings.

    Link flow top to bottom:
    • relevant wedding page on same domain with link pointing at backlink page
    • relevant wedding page on same domain with link pointing at backlink page
    • relevant wedding page on same domain with link pointing at backlink page
    • relevant wedding page on same domain with link pointing at backlink page
      • wedding
      • wedding
    • [ 2 ] Thanks
    • [1] reply
    • That sounds like pure conjecture. Do you have any evidence at all to be so sure?

      Unless I am misunderstanding you thats terribly unlikely. Every new post with a link has zero links to it but instantly has juice from navigation. Google would discount that in terms of relevance because there are no relevant links to the backlink source page?

      This Christmas season sites may link to a page on toys that might harm your kids. In the article the writer may link to webmd for an article on airway obstructions (with no mention of toys). Webmd's suffocation article has no relation to toys on the sites linking to that article that links to webmd and the links to that page would have no necessary mention of suffocation.

      There are literally millions of such kinds of situations where on the surface associations would not seem to be relevant but actually are to humans. If Google went that far then they would end up with everything being associated and relevant
      • [1] reply
  • Thanks for everyone taking time to help and teach me a few things.
  • How can I explain this in plain words.. Hmmm... The thing about "Getting Relevant backlinks" purpose is to drive the same interested audience that is relevant to your niche. So basically getting backlinks from relevant sites is a better idea.

    However, SEO wise getting a backlinks from a PR 0 which is relevant to your site but is buried in SERPs has less impact on your future ranking compared to getting backlinks from PR2 or above that already has a higher authority and popularity compared to that of your backlinks in a PR0 sites that has less chances to be found by anyone.

    To tell you the truth the only reason why you open this thread is to create a backlink for the keyword "weddings" and this forum is not even related to your niche! Get the point?
  • Banned
    Remember the article posted by Google search blog or Matt C. (I can't remember which one) where they pointed out spun irrelevant articles with irrelevant anchor-text on the backlink? They slammed the irrelevant text/anchor-text.

    Why wouldn't they compare incoming links relevancy on the backlink pages incoming links?
    • [1] reply
    • Thats easy. because thats all a part of LSI that we know they use. Thats why all the proof we have points to them analyzing THE PAGE with the CONTENT. We have ZERO evidence that they look at incoming links to the source page.

      It just doesn't work Yuke. I've given you two reasons already. Here is a third. What would google do with blog home page links?

      This week I may write an article on the fiscal cliff and people link to with just my URL = http://www.hisdomain.com

      Next week I may write an article On lady Gaga being over rated as a singer.

      However two years ago I wrote on the Mars mission. A year before that My Honda Civic

      All those links would look just like your example because they were all to the same URL that finally might be about my Friend Yuke's return to WF. The content at the end of links routinely changes. that theory of your s is extremely unlikely but hey Google may be crazy enough I just doubt it.
      • [2] replies
  • I hired results first Seo thinking ... Let me give these guys a shot. They assumed I knew NOTHING. They was sending my site to 100's of crap directories and thinking I would be impressed with that and some GARBAGE social booking sites. So I'm kinda stuck in a contract for a few months. So I have to pay another company to write unique articles and press releases to give them so they won't spin other people's work and I get DINGED for it. Probably worst mistake or one of the worst I've made thus far.
  • The "ONLY" luck I've had with fiverr was prior to penguin and panda and I did link wheels that pointed to Web 2.0 properties ... That pointed then pointed to my money site. But anything else I tried was TRASH. that's just my personal experience.
  • I can prove to anyone here that backlinks are backlinks either they are relevant or irrelevant go ahead check my keyword Filipino SEO if I ain't ranking #1 for almost 5 consecutive months now. No changes in ranking even after Panda and Penguin new updates I still rank #1 not only that I made a client keyword at #1 for his wordpress blog site and his joomla site at #2 for the same keyword.

    If you are aiming for the #1 position create backlinks on high profile with high authority sites and be relevant to the topic on that site even your niche is not relevant to them you will get link juices!

    If you are so bookish stick to your idea, mine was just a thought that I'd like to share.
    • [2] replies
    • What is your site ??
    • Banned

      Sorry, that site gets very little traffic.

      Before you say Feedjit doesn't track all SERP traffic, Feedjit tracks all internal page views, most sites get multiple page views per unique traffic.

      Your data out of the last 50 visits or so is 6 days old, not good unless your selling high end luxury items (doesn't look like that's the case here).

      Not trying to call you out, your the one claiming to rank for keywords for your blog. That's fine that you rank for your keyword, but I seriously doubt it gets much traffic.

      http://live.feedjit.com/live/pinoyseoservices.blogspot.com/0/









      • [1] reply
  • Outsource a Filipino SEO Specialist ???

    Is this it ??
    • [1] reply
    • Yes that's my blog. It has more no follow backlinks than do follow backlinks it has more irrelevant backlinks than relevant backlinks. Yet I manage to rank its keywords at very good position.
  • Based on our research the whole idea of link relevancy is a myth. I'd go with the PR4 link from any site in any niche. There is some relevancy there between hardware stores and weddings:

    hardware store >> outdoor pergola kits >> garden weddings :p

    Consider a fishing blog. I can come up with hundreds of relevant link examples including:

    bait
    sunscreen
    swimming lessons
    fuel
    weather reports
    crab pots
    sports shoes
    knives
    shotguns
    TNT
    fishing rods
    hats
    outboard motors
    4 wheel drives

    the list goes on. What does relevancy really mean and how would Google calculate it and then process billions of web pages for relevancy?
    • [1] reply
    • I've used to think the same thing.

      I mean what the hell is Harvard.edu about? Or what niche is CNN.com in? They have pages about EVERYTHING.

      That being said, I've done testing and sites VERY closely related pass a ton of value...regardless of PR.
      • [ 2 ] Thanks
  • These guys misleading you.
    First step of off page SEO(making links) is relevance the page from where you getting link that must have same theme as your linking page's theme. Google detect it by LSI otherwise it will counted as black hat seo.
  • I didn't read a single post after the OP's question because the answer is clear.

    IT DOES MATTER! GET LINKS FROM RELEVANT SITES
  • According to me PR matters a lot but if you are getting links from irrelevant websites then PR doesn't matter, you need to try to get pr + relevancy both at a same time so that you can get benefited from the link.
    • [1] reply
    • FINALLY .... Someone who knows his shit.

      Thanks. That's what I thought
  • The key to ranking in google is PR + relevance

    That has been the static that hasnt changed in years. Neither of you are technically right.

    The ideal link would obviously be high pr/authority from a relevant site.

    Although links from irreverent sites will help you rank.
    • [1] reply
    • Hi MM Ninja,

      I disagree with your assertion that "site" relevance matters. Search engines do not consider "site" relevancy, they are much more granular than that, they index and rank search results based on page level relevancy factors, not "site" relevancy.

      In the early days of the web there were a lot of website directories that did focus on "site" relevancy. However, over time "search engines" that used a much more granular method, base on page level factors, emerged as the more popular choice for most web users.

      If a "search engine" used site relevancy, rather than page level factors, it would not have the same accuracy of a "true" search engine, and technically would be a website directory with a search feature, not a true search engine.
      • [ 1 ] Thanks
      • [2] replies
  • No link relevance does not matter, The End. No seriously that's the end of it.
  • Now when u say relevant and irrelevant keywords ---- are talking about anchor text and making sure u have some "click here" "visit us" or are u just ranking COMPLETELY IRRELEVANT TERMS for the hell of it. I don't get it.
  • relevancy of page matters not website as a whole. A page about laptops from CNN carries lot more weightage even though CNN is primarily as news broadcaster
  • Ask yourself this, would you turn down a permanent homepage link on ezinearticles.com, what about a permanent homepage link on Adobe.com? I don't think anyone would.

    If you get a chance to get an authority backlink, you take it!
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    Link Relevancy- Does it matter ????

    Just got into a Huge argument with an Seo company. This guy was telling me that a link from a hardware store with a PR 4 is worth as much as a Link from a blog or site in my niche which is weddings. I told him I don't believe that... He insisted I was an idiot.