Powerful backlinks - What are powerful backlinks?

[mikepcservice]

Guys, I would like to get into the nitty gritty of this topic as I am getting conflicting info on the net with different opinions from different people so what I am seeking are "facts". I understand about "trade secrets" so I don't expect anyone to share their deep secrets here but any advice/opinion on this would be a big help.

So I am being told anything you find on Fiverr is going to be a waste of time and typically paying anywhere from $150-400 for a single link is what is required.

I am thinking paying for links from sites like Quora, Reddit, Huffington Post, BrightLocal and Whitespark would be the way to go but my main question is first, what exactly determines a link to be a "powerful" link please? I was told that linking from a high DA site does not necessarily mean it's a powerful link so what gives?

 

[Brian Barwig]

This is going to be one of those "it depends" situations for SEO. For one, there is a lot of misinformation and unknown when building links. Second, it depends upon what you are building the links for.

Many of the best links I have built have been free, so paying for links doesn't have to be the only way to go. In my opinion, the best, most powerful links you can build are ones which are relevant to your niche, bring traffic to your/your client's website, and convert the traffic into sales/leads/purchases.

A link from a large news publication will be beneficial for your overall backlink profile, but will it drive the needed traffic to your website which will convert? A link from a small business in your community will be relevant to your business, though won't do as much for your overall link profile. If you are a small or medium-sized business, a handful of links from larger, well-known sites won't provide much of a benefit over the long haul. It would be better to focus on acquiring links which are local and relevant to the business.

Personally, I like to build locally relevant links which point to money pages on my client's sites. Those links provide relevance, traffic, and customers to client sites, and they are cheaper/easier to build. I think that is powerful.

 

[mikepcservice]

Thanks Brian, this is the 2nd time I have heard about linking from a news publication as one of the top options. How does that work though to get a backlink from like the NY Times?

I found this in my searches, is it any good or is there a better way?

How We Got a Link from The New York Times

Link Bait Case Study - Learn how we got a link from the New York Times! Link bait strategies and techniques to make your link bait campaign a success.

www.wordstream.com

 

[Brian Barwig]

I only mention news sources because they are prominent, have a huge following, and get lots of interaction. There are thousands of websites which are similar, you'd just have to find them.

That looks like a solid guideline on how to go about getting links from news sources. Most of the time it is luck, or you know someone who writes there. Journalists are getting pitched hundreds, if not thousands of times per day, so you have to hit them with an intriguing topic at the right time - which I consider luck.

If you are creating a content piece you want to share with them in order to get a link, make it local, relevant, and timely if possible. Try to back it with facts and data. Give them as much info as possible, in a few sentences, so they have everything they need to make a decision.

The times I've landed a link on news sites for my clients have been what I described above. I reached out to local news stations about timely events/reports we had content on. Be sure to reach out to journalists who have covered the topic your content is about.

Getting those links isn't easy, but it is rewarding and the clients love it. Don't be shocked if your first couple of attempts fall flat. It's part of the process.

 

[mikepcservice]

That would only be a temporary link and that's a big "if" to get the link in the first place so not best option I am thinking so I am still stuck what to do for more permanent backlinks aside from local relevant sources which I have already done a lot of.

I had spoken with a guy few years ago who claimed to have some very old and powerful links from the tons of domains he had purchased back when the net was new. Thing is he had wanted a couple thousand dollars up front with a guarantee of getting the kw's on page one inside of 8 days.

If that was accurate, it would mean that yes high DA does work but since I had not trusted in it I will never know I guess.

 

[celina]

Great question! You have some great tips above and I'd love to share my thoughts

I personally don't find forum and user-generated backlinks to be very powerful. Buying links from someone on Fiverr usually isn't a scalable tactic either as the quality is usually lower and it's people just selling links on websites with not much relevancy to your business or organic traffic. In my opinion, a powerful link can be a few different types of links.

A powerful backlink can be an earned backlink where a user is compelled to link to your website because you created a great piece of content, or asset (quiz, calculator, data piece, etc)

A powerful backlink can be a local backlink from another website because you partnered together for a charity or have partnered together on different projects (a realtor and a staging company)

A powerful backlink can be a backlink from the local chamber of commerce. While some are lower in overall website authority they are very strong local backlinks to have in your city and can lead to future networking and partnership opportunities.

A powerful backlink can be from sponsoring a local sports team. Websites of this nature are also usually lower in overall website authority the traffic from those websites is local and relevant. The bonus point with this tactic is the added exposure you usually get offline with banner, jersey and social shout outs and it shows your community support.

A powerful backlink can be another earned backlink by being quoted by a journalist in an article. While most of these backlinks are branded and even nofollow and you may not receive a ton of traffic or leads from these backlinks they are still very strong for thought leadership, social proof and boosting your website's authority as usually, these are from well-known publications.

I would be wary of just focusing solely on DA or DR as a metric. While they can be a helpful baseline those are metrics from software providers and not Google. Google is more focused on the user. So when I'm building a backlink strategy my thoughts are around the user, relevancy to my niche and then SEO metrics like traffic, traffic source, spam and authority.

 

[mikepcservice]

All great tips too, thanks.

There is a local service provider I know whose site is DA 35 only but he has over 20 kw's on Page one in top positioning. Would it be to my advantage to get link from his site please?

 

[celina]

All great tips too, thanks.

There is a local service provider I know whose site is DA 35 only but he has over 20 kw's on Page one in top positioning. Would it be to my advantage to get link from his site please?

Absolutely!

That's a great example where I wouldn't focus on the DA. It's a local business to your business so any traffic from there would be relevant and probably more qualified to take action over some national publication. Their website should be getting decent traffic If they are ranking for over 20 kw's on page one so even though those keywords may not be relevant to your business it's a good indicator of traffic. Bonus points if it costs you nothing!

 

[mikepcservice]

He gets on average 400 targeted hits per month and over 100 calls but since no relevance whatsoever to my business, I have to wonder how or where on his site I can place a link?

 

[mikepcservice]

What about "blog comments" links guys, is this wise and beneficial or avoid please?

 

[mikepcservice]

Thank you! Strange, I had found this article on the net short while ago which shows exactly what you've stated about using the competition links info:

Link Building Prospecting: Never Run Out of Prospects

Link Building Prospecting: Learn the most efficient way to find prospects for link building outreach and land more backlinks.

juliangoldie.com

 

[whitespark]

There are some great replies to this thread already, so I don't have much to add, but here are a couple of additional thoughts:

1) This query will help you find good sponsorship opportunities in your city: https://www.google.com/search?q=intitle:sponsors+chicago&num=100 (just replace Chicago with your city).
Now you'll need to look through the results and see which are decent opportunities that you could get a link from for a reasonable price. A lot of these organizations will come back and tell you about their comprehensive exposure packages that get you listed in their magazine, mentioned multiple times in the event, logos on banners, etc for only $10,000. You want to cut to the chase and let them know you don't have the budget for that, but can offer $250 for a logo and link on their sponsorship page.

2) I have heard from people smarter than me that Google doesn't care about the authority of the domain you're getting a link from, so DA is a useless metric. They only look at page level authority. So, assess your link opportunities based on PA values from the link tools rather than DA.

3) The easiest links to get are links from people you already have a relationship with, so one of the most effective link building strategies I've seen for local businesses is to look through their phone contact list with them. For each person you're asking two questions:

1. Do they have a website?
2. Can we think of an angle where it would make sense for them to link back to our site?

For example, a mortgage broker I worked with was able to find 5 good links out of his contact list. 3 real estate agents that he refers clients back and forth with, and 2 relatives.

Hope this is helpful!

 

[Phil Rozek]

@mikepcservice, I've got a pretty compact definition of that: a link from a site that's relevant to your industry, relevant to your location or area, or both. (Of course, it can't be a nofollow link.) It doesn't need to be on a high-DR/DA site. It may or may not have involved much effort, or money, or cleverness.

Don't bother with the swing-for-the-fences link opps. They usually do not materialize as rankings. Instead, lay down bunts and knock in a bunch of singles.

 

[mikepcservice]

There are some great replies to this thread already, so I don't have much to add, but here are a couple of additional thoughts:

1) This query will help you find good sponsorship opportunities in your city: https://www.google.com/search?q=intitle:sponsors+chicago&num=100 (just replace Chicago with your city).
Now you'll need to look through the results and see which are decent opportunities that you could get a link from for a reasonable price. A lot of these organizations will come back and tell you about their comprehensive exposure packages that get you listed in their magazine, mentioned multiple times in the event, logos on banners, etc for only $10,000. You want to cut to the chase and let them know you don't have the budget for that, but can offer $250 for a logo and link on their sponsorship page.

2) I have heard from people smarter than me that Google doesn't care about the authority of the domain you're getting a link from, so DA is a useless metric. They only look at page level authority. So, assess your link opportunities based on PA values from the link tools rather than DA.

3) The easiest links to get are links from people you already have a relationship with, so one of the most effective link building strategies I've seen for local businesses is to look through their phone contact list with them. For each person you're asking two questions:

1. Do they have a website?
2. Can we think of an angle where it would make sense for them to link back to our site?

For example, a mortgage broker I worked with was able to find 5 good links out of his contact list. 3 real estate agents that he refers clients back and forth with, and 2 relatives.

Hope this is helpful!

Thanks a million for this info and help Whitespark! This was the home run type of links I was looking for. Thanks for the anology Phil .

All great info here all of you guys, I appreciate it. I will try to incorporate ALL advice given here in my campaigns. you know what they say "teach a man to fish....." Blessings all!

 

[cfazio]

High DA (although it's a made-up measure, PA might be a better metric to look at), the backlinking site is relevant to your industry, the page that the backlink is on has content relevant to your website, anchor text of the link has keywords that you are trying to rank for, low external link count on the backlinking page, the backlink being towards the top of the article content, and the backlinking site actually gets real traffic + the traffic being in the right country.

Matt Diggity has an excellent video on link building in general.

 

[mikepcservice]

I am seeing on some sites the webmaster of the site will put a link to his site on the very bottom of the page, does this work or does one need to be mentioned in the page or site's written content in oder to get the link juice from that site please?

 

[mikepcservice]

Oops, sorry my mistake, I had meant if as an example I were to place my site's links on someone else's site, will that be enough to get traffic from that person's site?

 

[whitespark]

Also, I think those "footer links" to the web dev company are devalued by Google with their page segmentation. In-content links are the real links that pass value.

 

[mikepcservice]

Right but better than none at all correct if better can't be done?

 

[mikepcservice]

You could consider asking them for a referral in the form of a write-up and make a page about it - with the link,

Just one of many related ideas. An interview page of sorts would also work

Thanks but not sure any stranger would want an added page on their site just for me?

Also the non Profit sites I look at list their sponsors only in the form of a link and logo, no content text really.