How Many Backlinks Do You Need?

by chagen
64 replies
  • SEO
  • |
I know the importance of getting backlinks to help with pagerank. But how many do you need?

I recently got tired of manually submitting my blog to online directories so I used this website here: http://www.submit-a-site.com. For just $12, they submit your website to over a thousand online search engines and directories.

After that, I continued to submit my site to blog directories to get more backlinks. The thing is, it is tedious and time-consuming. There are hundreds of blog directories that I've found, and I've only submitted to about 20 or so. How necessary is this? Should I continue to submit my site to these directories, or is 1,000 enough? I've got statcounter and I'm seeing where my website is coming up in certain search terms. But I'm still not getting much traffic, only 4 hits a day or so.

I'm also doing article marketing, that hasn't been a big hit yet.

Thanks,
Christine
#backlinks
  • Profile picture of the author Andrew Dillon
    Unfortunately it is like asking how long is a piece of string really. Yes back links are great but there is no way to determine how many you need to make a difference. For example I put five hundred articles up and saw little results but on another occasion I put just one article up and got to the number one spot on Google.

    Here is what I do and maybe this might help but bare in mind it does take time to build any decent amount of back links to any site; I split my day into hours and then I allocate a different task to each hour and I do this every day making sure that I spend 90% of my time on advertising and driving traffic to my sign up pages and websites.

    By doing this every day religiously you soon manage to build up a regular stream of traffic but not just from one source but many and as each day passes your back links or traffic increases building and building as each day passes.

    I now have websites that I no longer have to market because they are able to stand on there own two feet and apart from the odd bit of TLC now and again they make reasonable amounts of money and I am able to concentrate on creating other similar sites.
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    • Profile picture of the author chagen
      So maybe I should just keep making backlinks until my site gets a decent amount of traffic?
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      • Profile picture of the author jhongren
        For me, I will rephrase the question to : "How many QUALITY backlinks do I need?"

        As many as you can!

        How do you define quality?

        It depends on some of these factors:
        1. traffic => Alexa the Web Information Company

        2. niche (is it related?) => MyBlogLog

        3. frequency of update for that blog or site => check out the RSS feed or subscribe to it => MyBlogLog

        4. it is based on community (with a lot of discussion and comments going on) => Technorati: Front Page

        5. alexa (which can tell you the traffic) => Alexa the Web Information Company

        6. profile of readers => Quantcast

        My 2 cents,
        John
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        • Profile picture of the author VinceNouvel
          Until you rank no.1 for the keyword that you are targeting..
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          • Profile picture of the author chagen
            Thanks guys. That was helpful!
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            • Profile picture of the author Terry Hatfield
              How many backlinks need?

              Simple answer . . .one more than you competition. Ok, that is over simplifying it a bit.

              But just keep building them. Results will follow eventually and you will be a happy camper.

              Terry
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              • Profile picture of the author logosi
                Geez it tedious isn't it! But you MUST do it, at least in the beginning. I'm currently using a VA (virtual assistant) to help me with the task, takes a load off. But the thing with links is this... if you were to actually get 500 or 1000 links (over time) they wouldn't just stop at that number would they? Of course not, that in itself would be fishy. The more links you get, the more you'll continue to get.

                So how many do you need.... like the previous poster said... "one more than your competition" and I'll add... and one more (or 10 or 100) tomorrow and the next day.

                It will payoff, but 1000 QUALITY links will take some time.
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                • Profile picture of the author Quentin
                  Google says 2,700 quality backlinks will get you almost a permanent no 1 position.

                  Quentin
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                  • Profile picture of the author GaryHarvey
                    One of the faster ways to get back links is via RSS feeds. Assuming you have a blog, that is.

                    The submitter I use posts your RSS feed to around 50 RSS feed directories which feed out to who-knows-how-many other sites.

                    And it only takes a minute to add another site and get it out to the whole 50 or so sites.

                    If you're interested, PM me for the link.

                    Cheers
                    Gary
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                    • Profile picture of the author Simon_Sezs
                      Originally Posted by GaryHarvey View Post

                      One of the faster ways to get back links is via RSS feeds. Assuming you have a blog, that is.

                      The submitter I use posts your RSS feed to around 50 RSS feed directories which feed out to who-knows-how-many other sites.

                      And it only takes a minute to add another site and get it out to the whole 50 or so sites.

                      If you're interested, PM me for the link.

                      Cheers
                      Gary
                      There is actually software that you can use RSS on a static site as well. I use it for backlinks and it does okay, considering that I don't do much to get the backlinks.
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                      • Profile picture of the author GaryHarvey
                        Originally Posted by Simon_Sezs View Post

                        There is actually software that you can use RSS on a static site as well. I use it for backlinks and it does okay, considering that I don't do much to get the backlinks.
                        Simon, I'm interested.

                        Feel free to PM me if you would prefer.

                        Gary
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                        • Profile picture of the author saar2222000
                          Yeah, I checked my competition to see how many backlinks they have. I only have about a year of backlink building to go........until i make a dent.
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                  • Profile picture of the author Uncleflag
                    Originally Posted by Quentin View Post

                    Google says 2,700 quality backlinks will get you almost a permanent no 1 position.

                    Quentin
                    Quentin...can you validate this? Can you site a source?
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              • Profile picture of the author nhoudek
                Originally Posted by Terry Hatfield View Post

                How many backlinks need?

                Simple answer . . .one more than you competition.

                Terry
                How do you find this information out? Number of competitors back links that is.
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            • Profile picture of the author trade queen
              Banned
              Keep going until you are rich enough to retire from online bussines :-)
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  • Profile picture of the author Gunter Eibl
    Submitting your site to thousands of directories is a complete waste of time and only triggers spam filters big time. That's year 2000 marketing.

    Gunter
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  • Profile picture of the author imb
    This simplest way is to determine first the number of backlinks of the competitor you want to defeat have. Then out number their backlinks. But don't forget that your backlinks should come from relevant sites.

    There are lots of tools for determining a site's backlink, one is Yahoo's site explorer.
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  • Profile picture of the author dburk
    Hi Christine,

    When it comes to backlinks ,you should never think of it in terms of quantity, it's quality that counts. One high quality backlink can be worth more than 10,000 of those free-for-all links.

    So you could easily need thousands of links to try to compete with a single link garnered by a savvy competitor. One of you is working hard, the other, smart.

    Another thing to consider is how many natural backlinks you are getting. If your natural backlinks are coming very slow, then your time might be better spent improving your content. With really great content, all you need is a single backlink to get the ball rolling.

    Here's a tip for choosing the best kind of backlinks to go for. Forget what everyone else tells you and focus on a single factor when evaluating a potential link. Focus solely on how much referral traffic that link is likely to send you.

    Don't worry about nofollow attributes or the page rank of the site. Those are just things that will send you down a path of disappointment. What you really want is targeted traffic. Don't get distracted by little green bars and links from pages that aren't likely to send you traffic.

    Backlinks that send you targeted traffic make your site bulletproof from ranking changes due to algorithm updates. Real traffic will get you natural backlinks, the kind the search engines value the most.
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    • Profile picture of the author Terrybear
      That's no use if you get tons of farm backlink and it wouldnt help you much. Always look for the quality backlink, the more quality backlink you have, the better PR / traffic you get.
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      • Profile picture of the author naonline
        Hi Christine,

        Ok, I'm a bit of a newbie but it also has a lot to do with the niche you're in and the keywords you're targeting. If it's a competitive keyword and niche then you can backlink forever and never rank well. I set up 2 blogs last week and submitted them to Digg with no other backlinking. Within 2 hours they were, and still are at #14 and #15 for the search terms I'm targeting.

        I'd like to know Warriors opinions on this. If you have a good description of your site in Digg is it almost as good as having your actual site ranking that high?

        I'm not sure what other tools there are but I'm using Market Samurai and it tells you straight away which niche keywords you haven't got a hope in hell of ranking on page 1 for, saving a great deal of pain and effort.

        it might also be worth running a PPC to actually see if there's traffic at all.

        Nick
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        • Profile picture of the author Ride_the_lightning
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          • Profile picture of the author sriseshan
            The aim should be to collect as many relevant links possible. Try to avoid using automated packages for submission. Howver, manual submission is a tedious procoess,if there is no pain no gain. Even while submitting to directories, make sure the category page of the directory is indexed by google. Every day spend atleast couple of hrs for link campaign. Over a period of time you will the result yourself.
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        • Profile picture of the author cms418
          digg will not last that long from my experience.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jerry Toga
      Dburk is totally on the money. You'll go mad trying to create all your own backlinks. Make the content speak for itself, and everyone will link to it. Use 'google keywords' to work out what kinds of questions people are asking around your topic, then write a page on it. Link to that page on a few sites, be there no follow or do follow, and people will start to come to your page naturally, and link to it naturally.
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  • Profile picture of the author Sirric
    i have been trying to get ranked for like a month now, im on page 5 of google, but still have page rank 0... i think it has to do with the time it takes google to update.
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    • Profile picture of the author dburk
      Originally Posted by Sirric View Post

      i have been trying to get ranked for like a month now, im on page 5 of google, but still have page rank 0... i think it has to do with the time it takes google to update.
      Toolbar pagerank is not important when it comes to SEO. My advice would be to ignore it. The only thing that matters is SERP rankings but even that is secondary to actual targeted traffic.
      • Website A has a Toolbar PR of 5
      • Website B has number 1 listing on certain keywords
      • Website C has tons of targeted traffic that converts to business.
      Now if website A & B have little traffic and website C has 0 PR and doesn't show up #1 for any keyword, which site would you rather own?

      In the end, targeted traffic is the only worthwhile goal. Don't get distracted!
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    • Profile picture of the author Solidsnake
      Banned
      Originally Posted by Sirric View Post

      i have been trying to get ranked for like a month now, im on page 5 of google, but still have page rank 0... i think it has to do with the time it takes google to update.
      Google PR is updated around every quarter so if you are working for more than a month already, you should see the result on next month or around november.
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      • Profile picture of the author countonuspr
        Just keep working at it. Try and get smart backlinks. There is a tool that a friend of mine developed called TrafficMarks.com (no affiliate link) that you can use to track down the links shared by the top 10 websites in any niche. So for example if your website is in sports memorabilia out of the 10 websites in the top 10, 5 of them may share the exact same backlink. This tool will show you where they got the backlink so you can try and go after that link. Basically what it does is track down high quality and relevant backlinks that your competition is getting and you go after those same links so that way you are focusing on links shared by the top websites, meaning more than likely that Google puts more weights on those backlinks. I have used this and it really does work.
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        • Profile picture of the author freeair
          agree with you guys, no one can give the exact number of how many backlinks d you need..just keep building links
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  • Profile picture of the author eukristian
    The more quality links , the better . If you want to be the first in Google , supposing that your site is well optimized and has lots of unique articles , than you would need 10 or maybe more quality links to succeed . If you don't have quality content than you would need a lot more links .
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  • Profile picture of the author kittyluver
    Submitting thousands of directory within a week will ask the Google to smell something fishy. I think it is better enough to build the links slowly than getting millions in minutes...
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  • Profile picture of the author johnymartin11
    Seems to me that you have got only crap backlinks so far and mate if you are into buying and selling backlinks than there is high chances that google penalise your website.

    Just to remind you that there is one box which called SAND BOX.
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    • Profile picture of the author countonuspr
      I personally don't believe in the Google sandbox because I have several niche websites that are brand new and already ranking ahead of much older websites. If you focus on building good links into new websites you don't have to worry about the sandbox.
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  • Profile picture of the author MaxineKelly
    Just build your backlinks with the good and reputed websites and directories. This is the mantras and there is no limit. You just have to judge your competitor backlinks and just try to get that much at least and rest job will be done by your quality contain

    Best of luck
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  • Profile picture of the author Eluku
    You have to do anything and every until you get there. However, you dont need to spend too much to get backlinks, you only need education and action. You can check out, EasyOnlineBiz.

    Lots of luck...
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  • Profile picture of the author Rob Baker
    The amount of backlinks you will need will depend purely on the competition. If you're trying to rank for "biometric roadrunner philosophy," one backlink ought to do just fine. If you're trying to rank high for the search term "porn," you'll probably want somewhere in the neighborhood of 212,000,000 backlinks.
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  • Profile picture of the author devidmark
    HI
    Quality back link are most important rather then quantity back link if u have good quality back link then u get good result and also u get good PR for your web site.
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    • Profile picture of the author bravobolt
      Normally quality over quantity is the best case, but it's difficult for me to say that with full confidence when i see so many spammer make it to the top ten of the big 3 search engines just be spamming blogs and forums. After all this time, you would think they would have a better grip on things like that. Some kind of alarm should go off if all of a sudden a financial website has 50,000+ links from forums and blogs within the span of a week.
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  • Profile picture of the author punksluck
    Lets face it, we are all playing the same guessing games as everyone else when it comes to working out how the search engines index our sites or how the search algorithms rank our backlinks. One thing's for sure though, 'content is king' and any site that has been enriched with relevant content will win in the long run without having to resort to a complex, 'never ending' back link campaign.....just my opinion though.
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    • Profile picture of the author RedEvo
      Originally Posted by punksluck View Post

      Lets face it, we are all playing the same guessing games as everyone else when it comes to working out how the search engines index our sites or how the search algorithms rank our backlinks. One thing's for sure though, 'content is king' and any site that has been enriched with relevant content will win in the long run without having to resort to a complex, 'never ending' back link campaign.....just my opinion though.
      I like your opinion

      d
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    • Profile picture of the author Adarme
      Originally Posted by punksluck View Post

      Lets face it, we are all playing the same guessing games as everyone else when it comes to working out how the search engines index our sites or how the search algorithms rank our backlinks. One thing's for sure though, 'content is king' and any site that has been enriched with relevant content will win in the long run without having to resort to a complex, 'never ending' back link campaign.....just my opinion though.
      You really think content generates traffic?
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  • Profile picture of the author smadso
    I use a programme called market samurai that tells you about your competitors websites if you look at enough sites you will start seeing a pattern, MS creators did this and you can see how many links your competitors has so all you need to do is everything they have done and then do some more.

    so if they have 1000 back link do 1050
    backlinks from .gov sites are like gold

    I think of backlinks like votes and give them values a pr0-1 website back link is worth 1 a pr2 website backlink is worth 2 and so on, so check there links and beat them

    thats my 2 pence worth
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  • Profile picture of the author mccube
    If I have more backlinks, my website will be on the first page of Google???
    How many backlinks do I need?
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    • Profile picture of the author digidoodles
      Originally Posted by mccube View Post

      If I have more backlinks, my website will be on the first page of Google???
      How many backlinks do I need?
      You're kidding, right?

      Warmly,

      Brandi
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      • Profile picture of the author commoditytrainer
        Check your competition on alexa and see how many back links they have and double the amount of links. Make sure to link to related websites.

        As you can see it would be really dumb for us to have a back link to a local flower shop.
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        • Profile picture of the author bradlean
          I think tons of backlink you need to get traffic to your webiste.

          The more backlinks the more traffic you have..

          Try to use twitter...
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  • Profile picture of the author FrankBowman
    How many backlinks do you need?

    ...................too much is never enough
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    • Profile picture of the author boy8888
      what is call quality back-link
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  • Profile picture of the author boy8888
    where to buy directory submission good and cheap
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  • Profile picture of the author Jake Gray
    There is no exact amount of backlinks that guarantees you this page rank.
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  • Profile picture of the author yrafanan
    Thanks for this post. It help me a lot regarding with page rank .Now I know. I have been spending several times searching for this kind of information. Yeah I agree it is quality over quantity. Quality back links helps you increase your page rank. Some of these tips listed above are very helpful. I am happy to be a part of this forum with such member that are willing to share what they knew about to others.
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  • Profile picture of the author warrich
    If you able to make 20 PR 5, PR 6 backlink than you can get easily PR 3 pagerank
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    • Profile picture of the author Elboydny
      Links are necessary you never have enough links. Get as many as you can and keep getting links, the more the better. There are services that will do everything for you like submitting to directories sites, 700 sites for about $60.00 within a period of 14 days.
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  • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
    How many backlinks do you need?

    As many quality backlinks as it takes to beat the competition.
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  • Profile picture of the author dagaul101
    It's not so much the number of backlinks but the quality of them, a backlink from a site with a large PR will do a lot more for your SERPs than many backlinks from sites with PR 0 or undefined
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  • Profile picture of the author prcys
    Banned
    Originally Posted by chagen View Post

    I know the importance of getting backlinks to help with pagerank. But how many do you need?

    I recently got tired of manually submitting my blog to online directories so I used this website here: http://www.submit-a-site.com. For just $12, they submit your website to over a thousand online search engines and directories.

    After that, I continued to submit my site to blog directories to get more backlinks. The thing is, it is tedious and time-consuming. There are hundreds of blog directories that I've found, and I've only submitted to about 20 or so. How necessary is this? Should I continue to submit my site to these directories, or is 1,000 enough? I've got statcounter and I'm seeing where my website is coming up in certain search terms. But I'm still not getting much traffic, only 4 hits a day or so.

    I'm also doing article marketing, that hasn't been a big hit yet.

    Thanks,
    Christine
    Though you used to create more backlinks for your site but what if those backlinks not show any kind of results for your site. So i would advised you to be more focused on getting quality backlinks instead of more backlinks. If you create 1000 backlinks per day and not show the results and if you get 100 quality links so that will provide you the results. so always concentrate more on getting unique and relevant and quality backlinks for your site.
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  • Profile picture of the author transcribing
    hey,
    You need to build more and more high quality backlinks until your site achieves high rankings in the search engine.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ruby Tyagi
    It is all about Quality links....keep trying until your targeted keyword is at d top..
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  • Profile picture of the author aireland
    I would backlink untill you reached the #1 position as well, thats usually the ultimate goal
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  • Profile picture of the author Backlinks Guru
    I'd rather concentrate on quality than quantity as I don't want to put my link building campaign in vain.
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  • Profile picture of the author tamkim
    Valuable article, thank you
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  • Profile picture of the author Beno27
    In my limited experience...a LOT. but I guess its a good thing, like anything I think you hit a tipping point and the backlinks will start to come naturally.
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  • Profile picture of the author online games
    links is my next step but its trying to find good ones
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