Link Building: Quality Vs. Quantity?

[BlockO]

every SEO tutorial I've ever read or watched have pounded the idea of focusing on obtaining high quality links instead of the quantity of links.

however, when I pull up the links of the top ranking competitors, the results seem to tell a different tale. I'm not exactly seeing inbound links from CNN. what I am seeing is hundreds if not thousands of non-authoritative links (I'm not talking about low-quality garbage links such as link farms, but rather links that seem fairly easy to acquire such as directories and forums).

apparently, these "lesser quality" links add up as well because some of the leaders of the search rankings have tons of them. I am hoping that someone on here could explain how google's algorithm tallys up link building. I'm so confused on the topic that I don't know whether to wind my ass or scratch my watch! some help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Alston]

I've had the same question. I haven't found an answer yet either.

It may be possible that these sites have hundreds of low quality links in addition to a few high quality links.

 

[OKAdvisor]

Both type of links count. Quality links are certainly better than quantity. In my 10+ years of doing SEO I have noticed a trend of about a 10-1 ratio. One good quality, relevant link equals about 10 non relevant links. This of course is rough guide to go by but it usually works out to about this.

Now there is a point at which to many "low quality" links from non relevant sites will get your site penalized by Google. In reality there are no "bad" links unless they are from link farms. Even if you do have "bad" links pointing to your website they will probably not hurt you to much.

Think about it... if i was third in the rankings for X keyword and I wanted to be first, wouldn't it be very easy for me to buy 10k "spam" links and point them all to my competitors site and get them penalized in Google? Of course it would. That's why Google will usually just devaluate certain links. They know for the most part you have no control over which sites link to you.

SO the moral of the story is just keep building as many links to your site as possible. Do they have to be quality links? No, but quality links will get you to where you want to be faster.

Best,
Darren

 

[Alston]

One other factor that means a lot is how many links you have from unique domains.

Ten links from the same site is much less valuable than one link from ten different sites.

 

[STIBROKER]

it weighs the same .....you can have 100 links on the same site but Google still only gives credit for one.....

One other factor that means a lot is how many links you have from unique domains.

Ten links from the same site is much less valuable than one link from ten different sites.

 

[YouGotMyMoney]

it weighs the same .....you can have 100 links on the same site but Google still only gives credit for one.....

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Hey Sti not saying I dont believe you but do you have any links where Google talks about this?

 

[STIBROKER]

not sure were I read that.....but think about....I have 4,805 post with back links in my sig.... there is no way google is going to count them 4,805 times...my site would be on page one just from this site....

 

[BlockO]

actually sti,
from what I've read on here from other posts, this forum is completely "no-follow". if that's true, then it wouldn't matter the post count, whether it was zero or 5000.

 

[Pangaea]

not sure were I read that.....but think about....I have 4,805 post with back links in my sig.... there is no way google is going to count them 4,805 times...my site would be on page one just from this site....

I've bought links from sites w/ scores of pages and G does a decent job of listing every link from that domain in Google Webmaster Tools (GWT); it just doesn't treat them as unique domains. The weight goes down per link for each link from the same domain.

If there was only a way I could join thousands of forums at a time and getting a signature link on every profile using a server in Russia... Hmmm... lol

 

[kheyknee]

not sure were I read that.....but think about....I have 4,805 post with back links in my sig.... there is no way google is going to count them 4,805 times...my site would be on page one just from this site....

This forum shows that I have 101 posts - all with a hyperlink to my site. Google Webmaster tools shows that I have 18 links from this domain. In the past that number was as high as 36. This was during a time when I was posting more frequently.

From this very small sample it appears that forum posts do get counted, but not every post, and recency of the posts may be a factor as to which links Google counts and ignores.