Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Who has it happened to and over what time period?
That's scary, to think it takes years to get a surge of links. I've seen sites like Gimpsy, JoeAnt etc and they seem to have managed it. Uncovertheweb did well, so what's their secret?
They can't have done link exchanges, it would take them too long to get the kind of numbers of links they have just by sending link swap emails...
so what's their secret?
Do your research, do your research...
Massive link increases can happen when you have something novel or topical. A steady buildup of links seems more usual, and is something you can cultivate on a regular basis.
Getting the word out through news pieces and tell a friend scripts are one way to keep your site in people's minds, and eventually pick up links. Same with an adwords campaign.
One of my sites was recently sent over fifty thousand visitors when a radio personality featured it in their newsletter, plus gave me a link from their website. How'd they hear of me? Just getting the word out on radio, donating unique articles to industry newsletters and websites that target my demographic, etc.
What is your association with them?<<<< None, I'm just interested in how sites that are a couple of years old, seem to get all this amazing traffic.
People that say "do link swaps" and that will take care of it, won't - as I've done it previously. My site's old domain had 43'000 backlinks pointing to it, and that took me over 2 years to get to that level, yet some of these directories have been on the web just an extra 2 years compared to mine and some have over 500'000 links pointing to them.
From experience I can't see how that's possible, unless there's something I'm doing wrong. The only explanation other than my lack of knowledge has to be some illegal practise.. It's incredibly difficult to get link exchanges on high ranked sites, and I don't believe getting even 10'000 links is that easy. Maybe I'm doing it the long way, I mean I understand how press releases work, but I can't see one suddenly making 100's of thousands of sites suddenly want to link to me, just because I sent one out.
I've exhausted the usual link building methods like submitting to SE's and directories, Link swap emails are too slow and SEO is too expensive and lengthy for me.
Articles - done that lol, and it's just useless and slow.
People are bookmarking my site (which is good), it's too slow though. 2 years later and only 43'000 to show for it?
So I thought my domain name was wrong, then changed it to something more memorable, and it's like I'm starting from scratch again. I wish I left the domain as it was. Press release will go out this year without fail, but it's once that 'rush' of interest has gone that worries me.
What am I doing wrong guys?
So, you've gotten a link from a story on a mega news site that gets millions of page views a month? You've been featured in newspapers across the country in an article here, an article there? Does your company name show up regularly in news engines? Even small articles can provide good backlinks - provided the article itself is good.
Is your site as big as these sites - since some of their backlinks are likely internal - are?
>>>has to be some illegal practise
That is definitely not a smart or fair assumption to make.
Google has 134 million backlinks. And you think it's somehow impossible for a directory site to get 500K?
>>>just an extra 2 years compared to mine
That's a long time in the Internet industry.
I'm talking about silly article directories - not the major news sites, and I think you knew that anyway. And seeing as I've written articles and posted them to these article banks, I think I know the kind of traffic that derives from them. Useless and slow.
Is your site as big as these sites - since some of their backlinks are likely internal - are?
I dunno, is 700 sub-categories small?
That is definitely not a smart or fair assumption to make
Not so sure about that remark. We know how shady and corrupt the web is,and let's face it, if you found a way of mass advertising that wasn't quite on the level, yet it could put you ahead of the game, are you seriously telling me you wouldn't be tempted. You don't know what these websites are upto, and having worked for a number of businesses I'm telling you that most of them are at it some way or another as businesses wouldn't make any serious headway without it. You sound a little naive if you think that everybody plays by the rules. I've seen and been involved with shady practises, so my comments are more than valid.
And you think it's somehow impossible for a directory site to get 500K?
If you mean by direct mail and not paying for email ads then Yeah, I do! Certainly a start-up, with no advertising whatsoever.
Doing link exchanges will take you forever - can you just imagine the number of emails you'd need to send out to achieve 500'000 links... And I want to know where you're going to extract 500k email addresses from too.
So you not only have to get these emails, you then have to send them all out. Your going to do all that work, for a measly maybe 3% success rate. It would take you years just to data input all those addresses into a database for later use. Plus the fact you'll lose 20% of those contacts through faulty emails, bouncing and false email addresses.
That's a long time in the Internet industry
Maybe 2 years is. But it will take you longer to contact all those companies to arrange link exchanges. And ofcourse that's assuming a 3 or 4 day delay, waiting for replies and confirmations of all these exchanges.
Where did traffic come from? We were talking about backlinks. Articles are articles - from news sites or directories. One provides quality, the other can provide quantity.
>>>I dunno, is 700 sub-categories small
No idea. Check your competitors page index count against yours and find out.
>>>are you seriously telling me you wouldn't be tempted
LOL, I'm not the topic. Most anyone who knows me probably got a chuckle out of that though. My point was not to assume mega directories do it simply because they have a high backlink count. If you find proof that they do, that is when you start accusing.
>>>You sound a little naive if you think that everybody plays by the rules. I've seen and been involved with shady practises, so my comments are more than valid.
I certainly do not. Again, thanks for the chuckle. ;)
>>>Doing link exchanges will take you forever
So, you've analyzed their backlinks and have determined that all 500,000 of them are link exchanges? The point was never about "exchanges" but rather links - exchanges are only one type of link. They probably do end up with exchanges from sites they are listing who end up linking back to them, but I'd guess the mega portion of their links come from other types.
>>>Maybe 2 years is. But it will take you longer to contact all those companies to arrange link exchanges
Again, you seem stuck on exchanges. 2 years is a mass amount of time in this industry - to get links in a mass variety of ways.
Webmasterworld.com has over 800,000 backlinks. Are you saying the only way Brett could have gotten there was shady practices or from the sweatshop in his basement using 100 child reciprocal link farmers? ;) After all, not many SEO forums come close to his link count.
This thread is about a massive surge of links - preferably one-ways!
Link swaps are just one way of getting links, but seems the main way it's done. One way links can just appear and hopefully the idea is for others to pick up on this, then 1 link leads to a domino effect and hey presto 500'000 of them. Na - I don't think so lol. If that were true, then every site on the web would have millions of links pointing to them. That isn't true, so why do people go on about claiming otherwise - and a simple check on strongest links or marketleap will show who the players are. Game Over.
If getting links were that easy then how come the top 100'000 sites all do PPC on Google. Na, free advertising stopped when Overture etc came along. There aren't any secrets or free advertising anymore and the sooner people stop spouting this crap, the better for all.
Build content, do link exchanges and everyone will give you a free one-way link on their homepage and PR 8, 9 and 10 sites. Content will fix the world and we'll all retire as millionaires. Got to be realistic here, and the link swap, surge boom stopped years ago, when businesses realised they could charge for links instead of giving them away.
I'm not saying it's impossible, just impossible for most.
2 years later and only 43'000 to show for it?
I really, truly find it incomprehensible that the word only can be used in relation to 43K backlinks in a two year period.
Maybe your expectations are well above mine, but to me that number in itself is astounding. I have no idea how you managed it. Care to share some secrets?
No where did I say one way links drop from the sky or anything else in the rant you just posted. If you're going to direct a debate at me, at least make it over something actually stated and not what you imagine I think in my head.
Gaining a crapload of legit backlinks in a four to five year time period is doable for the right type of sites with the right type of marketing. It's doable. It's been done. It's being done. And it will be done again.
Maybe your competitors have better sites, maybe they just had a great head start, maybe they have more employees working on getting inbound links, maybe they got lucky. And maybe some of them do things that you have self declared to be shady.
You obviously feel that there is no way they could be simply doing a better job than you at link development and your certainly entitled to that opinion. But, slanting a thread to how others must be playing unfair because they're beating you (with no real proof that you've mentioned) isn't going to help *you* at all.
>>>I'm not saying it's impossible, just impossible for most.
Then apparently some competitors are above average. So, you have two choices. You can complain that it isn't fair and twist my words to suit what makes you feel better, or you can take tips from this thread, this board and the tons of other resources out there and make yourself above average too. It is your choice.
Switch to a different subject area.
I'm not sure anyone can attract 10,000's of real inbound links in a few years' time, but my impression it is generally impossible for the typical site -- and even harder for newcomers. There's just too much work required.
The number of links going to the sites at the top of the SERPs varies widely, depending on the keywords involved, the intensity of the competition, and many other factors.
In the area we are targeting, the real number of IBLs going to the sites near the top of the SERPs is often less than 1,000. That's still a challenging goal, but not an impossibly daunting one.
Maybe your expectations are well above mine, but to me that number in itself is astounding. I have no idea how you managed it. Care to share some secrets?
There are no secrets. I can't remember for the life of me how I got even the first 10,000 links. Maybe 5,000 were these triple link things, but the other 38,000 was from just using the SE's, perhaps 50 to 100 proper links swaps and that's about it. I guess people just liked my site - I dunno.
I still own the domain that had the 43'000 links to it, although this reduced to 2000 links, when I took the domain off my site. (I should have left it on there lol) See I changed the site quite a lot, as it was slow. And now I've got to build it up again oops. Maybe I was lucky to get that many links - but I don't consider that good, when you see sites with 100'000 plus links pointing to them.
I never used links farms, as I understand the SE's don't like them and may penalize a site for using them? And I wouldn't use any autogenerating or replicating systems anyway. Just not my thing, as I want to do this properly without cheating.
I know you never said that, at no time did I say you did, or even mention your name in that post, and the post wasn't specifically directed at you anyway. Your misinterpretation of the posts direction is not my mistake.
:)
How long did it take you to get those?
I want my links back... sob sniff.
have over 144,000 links and i have never used a poor quality link farm approach
Lets compare apples with apples.
Are those links topical?
On unique ips?
1 way/non recipricol/3way?
Less than 50 links per page where the inbound comes from?
Certain industries have a limited amount of links. I know some industries where 10000 good quality links can make you earn a 6 figure income.
Maybe you should change industries and retire?
We can all post how many links we have, but it's all about quality.
One industry I am in, I have only a few thousand links. But they are all one way, I did not pay a cent for them. And they all done according to a strict policy.
As I say, compare apples with apples.
Surely this is about sending traffic rather than going for PageRank. Big pagerank can't guarantee tons of visitors, or does it.
I try to get links on relevant pages that have been cached by Google within the last month or so. I don't even look at PR anymore. For what it's worth. One guy's opinion.
The key is natural linking characteristics. Would it be likely that a site would have nothing but links from PR3 or higher pages? Nope. I think that is increasingly a red flag to Google (and maybe the other big engines).
I said "look", when you embark on a massive campiagn with teams, and your are usuing various sources, such as articles/press releases, they have zero PR to start and they will build up. When looking for pr3+ sites, you will also find a fortune of pr3 -, and you will find that those get submitted too.
Relevance is key and quality.
I'd forgotten how long it takes to get a new site 'going'.
To tell it like it is, gradual steady links take forever to have any major effect, I don't think it's worth it anymore, so I'll probably get a certain amount of links and stop. I'll just wait for others to link to me and that'll be that.
Asking for recip links takes up much of my time and few link anyway - except the desperate and untargeted sites that is. You know the "Please link with my illegal drug site" or "We like your site and we've linked to you from our poker site".
I know why they are desperate - desperate to get more adsense clicks. Sad and slow me thinks.
I'll probably get a certain amount of links and stop. I'll just wait for others to link to me and that'll be that.
That's actually not a bad approach - it's what I tend to do. If you have one big site that you can devote all your time to, then an on-going linking strategy is feasible. But, for those of us who manage several sites, with new ones coming online every year, I've found that getting some good links at first will get your sites spidered and indexed. Then, I move on and eventually every site I've built develops enough PR to become attractive to others to come asking me for links. Then you can pick and choose and the links build up without nearly the time investment on your part.
I suppose for some, it would depend on PR....
I'll see how much traffic it sends.
