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Here's the thing: it shows only ONE backlink on Google. A few weeks ago it showed over a hundred backlinks, all from irrelevant sites, typical of a fast and dirty link building campaign. Now there is ONE backlink, and it is an internal link from the same site.
It seems that Google has figured out that the links were not relevant.
Here's the question: why is this site still in second place on a competitive term? There are plenty of sites on the first two pages with many, many more links. This site still has a high page rank (6, as high as any site in the industry). Why does it still place highly, and how long will that last?
Any opinions?
It doesn't have one link. It has one VISIBLE back link. The links you don't see explain the ranking.
It is not how big your backlinks are, it is how you use them.
They need to be massaged carefully in just the right positions.
They need to be tended to at every possible opportunity.
Those backlinks need to be considered carefully and caressed accordingly.
A backlink is a relationship that can only exist between two trusting partners with a long-term mutual admiration for each other.
Mrs %%%%
(c) Mills & Boon 1994;)
Why does it still place highly, and how long will that last?Does the site deserve to be there based on its content and usefulness in fulfilling the search query? Does it have a dmoz link in the midst of affiliate sites that don't?
And for the other side,
Does it still have its title and/or snippets in the serps? Do the interior pages still have pr? Also, there doesn't seem to be any correlation between the timing of pr updates and the rest of G's changes.
It may be a matter of waiting for the hammer to fall, or it may just not be showing the backlinks.
That's my first guess. To the OP: did you check for backlinks using other SEs? The Google link: command is totally unreliable. Also, did you check for the possibilities of links to internal pages? At best on Google using the link:www.example.com will show you the backlinks to the home page. If there are hundred of links to www.example.com/something.htm it won't show them. You wrote this site "was built by SEO types and then sold to one of my client's competitors". SEO types most definitely might arrange for lots of links to internal pages.
The reason you're not seeing them is simply because google is not displaying them, as others have said. Either because their PR is too low, or they are very new.
TJ
To the OP: did you check for backlinks using other SEs? The Google link: command is totally unreliable. Also, did you check for the possibilities of links to internal pages?
Oh, sure, Yahoo shows over a hundred links. And Google used to show them, too. But I figured that because Google no longer shows them that Google has figured out they are irrelevant.
And there is no link from ODP, and the competition is not affiliate sites. The top Google results are generally substantial sites that have been around a while and have "real" backlinks. The field is <snip>, and I regard a "real" backlink as anything from a health-related site, not some site that sells cell phones in Hong Kong.
I've seen this happen so many times in this market over the past few years. A site suddenly shows up on the first page at Google, with hundreds of backlinks. You look at the backlinks and they are irrelevant places. Complete trash most of the time. The site lasts a couple weeks in Google and then is gone. Nowhere in the top 200 results. This happens time and time again. I see no reason for this new site to be any different, and I guessed that since Google is apparently discounting the backlinks (or not showing them), this new site should be gone, too. But they are sticking around.
[edited by: Brett_Tabke at 9:15 pm (utc) on July 27, 2004]
[edit reason] please - no keywords or sectors. [/edit]
Try allinanchor:keyword
Do they come up accordingly? Top 5?
How authoratative is the domain as a whole? (not necessarily just in that industry, but is it an authority site in some industry?)
Definitely check other internal pages for backlinks.
