Backlinks and ranking

[member22]

I have a website with the exact keyword I want to rank for in the web address and last december ( so over 6 months ago ) with about 30 backlinks I was ranking in 10 th position of google for the keyword I am shooting for.

Over the last 6 months the number of my backlinks has increased ( I now have a bout 120 backlinks ) an all the backlinks are nicecly done, there is no error in the way they are done and I am still in 10 th position and I am not moving ( other than one or 2 spots here and there, I switch between 9 th and 11 th position.

My question : I contacted a well know website for backlinks and compared my backlinks the the website that rank in front of me and here is what I find it.

The websites that rank ahead of me don't have the anchor text like I do, don't have the keyword in the web address , don't have as many backlinks as me and rank ahead of me...

I am told that I don't have enough backlinks which I am 100 % sure can't be the case ( because i have another example of a website in the same situation )

I am also sure it is because google has had a major issues with their system over the last 6 months and hasn't done any update of anything !

Could someone confirm that because I am starting to go nuts !

[edited by: tedster at 3:04 pm (utc) on Jun 20, 2010]

[tedster]

Google has certainly had issues over the past half year - but it's not at all accurate to say they haven't updated anything. Just read the threads here for evidence.

Any time you analyze backlinks for an entire page of search results, you'll see evidence that there's more than a simple backlink count at work. There are many other signals that we talk about here - and no doubt we haven't got a clue on what some others are.

[sean22]

It has seemed at times, like it's one big continuous update, especially the past 3-4 months(and as I type this). As Tedster pointed out there are other "signals." I have scoped down a website, as well as better managed internal linking, and that alone has increased traffic.

[member22]

Thank you your replies, i agree with you there are always little factors we don't know about but that still seems strange to me ...

I am starting to thinking that internal linking could be an issue, I was wondering are links from menus on subpages enough for what google considers internal linking or do internal link need to be in the form text on the webpage ?

[Planet13]

Over the last 6 months the number of my backlinks has increased ( I now have a bout 120 backlinks )

Can I ask what you did to get all those backlinks?

did you use a particular software application? Or an SEO service? Or did you find some web sites by yourself and just email them asking them to link to you?

Also, if your ranking hasn't changed, has your traffic at least increased for people searching with that keyword?

[member22]

I have some links naturally either because of press release or websites contacting me because I am already ranked pretty well on a few keywords or because I contacted some sites directly... a little bit of everything.

My traffic is exactly the the same on the keywords I am currently ranking on but for the one I am targeting see that I am lost in the rankinga my traffic hasn't increase and I still get zero visits from the keyword I am targeting.

[tedster]

ALL links matter whether they are internal or from an external site. Google does seem to weight these two much differently these days, however. The days of ranking only because of internal links are pretty much over.

[eric1981]

your rank in google may result from over 200 factors instead of just back links.

if you really want to find out why they are ranking ahead of you, a LOT of work must be done to get a glimpse.

[pontifex]

The days of ranking only because of internal links are pretty much over

IMHO these days are long gone - agreed, but you can still push relevancy into silos just internally...
P!

[martinibuster]

...your rank in google may result from over 200 factors instead of just back links.

Backlinks is not one factor out of 200. Some of those "over 200 factors" relate to backlinks. ;)

Here is an off the top of my head list to give you an idea:

• Where on the page the link is
  
  
• Relevance of the surrounding content to the linked site
  
  
• Title tag of the page that is linking to your site
  
  
• Quality of the site that is linking (i.e. the backlinks of your backlinks)
  
  
• text link or image link?
  
  
• What is the anchor?

[member22]

I think I figured out what the issue is it is internal linking, I have none other than menus...
If someone could explain me how internal linking works that would be great.

Thanks,

[Mark_A]

Hi member22, this is probably stating the obvious but, have you compared on page factors with the sites that are ahead of you. Where does your target key term appear in your page / pages? and where in theirs?

[member22]

On page factors are all good compare to everyone head of me, internal linking structure is what I need to work on...

[eric1981]

Backlinks is not one factor out of 200. Some of those "over 200 factors" relate to backlinks.

hey i didn't say "one" factor~~ though i agree with your list. and there could be more regarding just back links

[eric1981]

On page factors are all good compare to everyone head of me, internal linking structure is what I need to work on...

i have to say on page factors can never be good...you have to continue optimize on it

internal linking structure plays moderate to minor role in seo,as far as i know. and especially, you don't want to abuse internal linking...