Quality vs Quantity Links

Link building is the most important thing you can do in SEO. Without links, your website will never gain authority and thus never move up in the search rankings. When people go out and get links, they just go get links. They think the more the better. But that is not really true. Yes, you want a lot of links to your site but you also want quality links to your site. For example,

If Site A links to Site B, Site B will out rank Site C. (Site B has 1 link while Site C has 0)

If Site A links to both sites, then a number of other factors like pagerank, domain age, content, and relevancy determine who ranks higher.

If Site A links to Site B and Site D links to Site C, who ranks higher when all links are equal? Whichever linking site has more links to it. If Site A has 2 links to it and Site D has 10, D is a stronger site so passes more authority to Site C which will rank higher.

Additionally, (stick with me here!) if Site B and Site C both have one link, the quality of that link then determines who ranks higher. Site B is linked to by the NYTs and Site C by me. Obviously the NYT is a higher quality site so its link “counts” more.

So not only does quantity matter but so does quality. So what makes a quality link? Here are important factors to consider when getting links.

Anchor Text of Links- When a web page gets linked with anchor text they are trying to rank for, it will help them to move up in Google’s rankings. However, you always want to vary your links. Why variation? Because if you have 100 links and all of them say the same thing, it looks like you are manipulating the search engines. Logic would say that an infinite number of unconnected people would use a variety of different anchor texts to link to your site.

Location on the Page- A contextual link in a post on the topic your link points is worth a lot more than a blogroll, sidebar, or footer link.

Topic Relevance of Linking Sites/Pages- If you’re trying to rank for “red widgets”, the ideal links from other sites that also talk about “red widgets” or “widgets” in general. Links from sites in your niche or the overall niche (i.e. travel) are what you want to go find. Links from non related sites don’t count nearly as much and have a lot weaker value. The further from your niche, the less the link will help you.
This rule also applies to pages linking to you.

Size of Your Site- Bigger sites are better resources. Would a site about travel with two pages cover as much as a site with 200 pages? Probably not. So the more pages you have on your site, the easier it will be to get pages to rank high on Google.

Domain Name Registration Length- This isn’t a big factor but it still is important. Google hates spammers. A spammer just wants to rank high quickly, make quick money, and then run. They don’t want to register domains for a long time because they know their sites will get banned so why waste the money? A legitimate site owner is in for the long haul. If you register your domains for 2 or more years, you’ll see a slight benefit.

Links aren’t always about quantity. Getting one quality link can be worth it’s weight in gold and sometimes enough to move you further up the rankings than a bunch of smaller links.

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Why People Don’t Make It Online

Whenever I tell people that I make money online, they normally don’t believe me. They think the amount I make is made up and I’m really just lying to them or I must be doing something sneaky and slimy. But the truth is that you can make money online. It just requires patience and wadding through the bullshit.

First, if you expect to get rich quick, you’ll never make it. It takes a long time to make a lot of money online. Lots of people peddle the idea that you can make it and get rich quick by following their secret formula…only if you pay lots of money per month to get access to their software. They are scamming you. And because there are so many scammers online, most people think that making money online is a scam and that you must be doing something bad to be doing it.

The truth though is that there are many legit ways to make money but you need to have patience. The legitimate ways take much longer and if you can’t wait at least 6 months, then you won’t make it. And that is another reason why so few people actually make it- most people don’t have the patience to wait that long. They haven’t made a fortune in a few months so they give up. And the more they give, the more it leaves only a few people to make a lot of money. The most successful people online are those who stayed in it and just toughed it out. Some months you may make a lot, some months you might now. Some sites might fail. But over the long term, you make money. The older the sites get, the better they are at earning money. Patience is what wins at this game.

The second reason why people fail is because they listen to the scammers and they don’t use their time wisely. They listen to people who tell them to find do follow blog comments (waste of time), or buy lots of software they don’t need, or think that spending hours searching for blogs on google is the best way to do it. These scammers make money buy selling you crap information. Websites like Digital Point are awash in bad information. People try to sell you complex programs and links on bad websites that will just get you in trouble with the Big G (Google).

SEO is not complicated. It’s simply time consuming. If you want to make money online, it’s pretty easy work, it simply requires a big upfront time commitment. If you want to make money online, you need to know three things:

1. Patience- it’s going to take awhile. Don’t expect anything for 6 months. If you do that, you’ll have realistic expectations and won’t be disappointed when you aren’t a millionaire after a month. But your patience will be rewarded.
2. All you need to know is that links matter. Get links from good sites on the web and you’ll rank high.
3. 90% of seo software is useless. The only two really good ones are Bookmarking Demon and SEO Elite. All the rest are a waste. Save your money!

Stop listening to lots of people and just get out there and find links and partners. The more you read, the more you’ll end up following bad advice!

Filed Under Make Money Online | 3 Comments

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