Are Back Links King

[Palmbourne]

We have worked as closely as possible to the guidelines and advice on this forum, if we compare our on page Analsis with other companies in the same field as ours we have a far better site as far as SEO is concerned, our DA authority is higher and most of our page authority is higher but we just cannot seem to get up to their level in the search engines, one site that is in competiton with us do not use Facebook and also they do not use Twitter very much, I looked at some of their backlinks and their top one which was a blog had not been updated since 2011, over the years we have amassed far more what I would call worthless links as this was the done thing then, how can I get on the right track, are there any companies who could assess our site for a reasonable cost to point us in the right direction, we are doing our own blog, Facebook, Twitter, Onlywire?

[KillAccountPlease]

Hi John,

well that is exactly the topic most of the SEO's are fighting about: But in all honesty nobody really found the holy grail yet. If it's backlinks, content, likes on Facebook or whatever every so called expert swears in his methods.

So, I just come round and share my experience with you and what works best for me and my clients. That doesn't mean that it'll work for you at all;

On-Page

I think content is king No keyword stuffing, just a text which is full of information for the visitor and easy to read AND understand. Google (as you can measure on Analytics) recognises and records the time a visitor spends on your page. This is an important factor in my eyes as a visitor who is not interested in your information/services etc. won't spend 5+ Minutes on your page, would he?

Furthermore, good quality content shares easy. Interested visitors are sharing good stuff, logical. And visitors turn into buying customers if you convince them from your expertise and quality.

Off-Page

It's no secret that in regard to backlinks the factor quality counts way way more than quantity. When I create backlinks I take care that they are organic and from a blog, directory, website etc. from the same business branch as the website I am optimizing.

A website with an anchor backlink in a blog post of a high PR and High DA blog counts thousandd times better than 10.000 bought backlinks for whatever $ 29.99

Bottom Line

So my opinion is that ranking builds on logical factors. Google measures the quality which comes in (backlinks), how it comes in and what is in it at the end (content). If it's all on a high level it returns into sales/leads or whatever aswell as higher rankings.

Hope I could give you an idea and it helps,

Mickey

[simon_realbuzz]

Back links are just one part of a very big equation. Try to look at it from the standpoint of the quality of your content. Is your content better than your competition? Would people be more inclined to share your content and perhaps link to it than your competitor's page? Would a user clicking on your page actually hang round long enough to view your content instead of clicking on the back browser button?

As Highland rightly says 'build quality content first' and this is good solid advice. Getting hung up on DA and PA isn't where you should be concentrating your attention - instead you should concentrate on good quality unique content and the links should naturally follow.

[Highland]

In all honesty, SEOMOZ's DA hasn't been a good indicator since Penguin and based on the hints they're dropping about upcoming changes, i wouldn't surprise me if it went away until they can tweak it back in line with what actual results are. Then again, with Penguin 2.0 due out right around the corner, it might be made correct again.

That having been said, Open Site Explorer is still a superb tool for analyzing your own backlinks. Something that might ding you is a lack of diversity of anchor text. Also, look for sites that are clearly spammy. They aren't going to count towards your ranking but they count towards DA (which is one reason why it's not accurate).

Lastly, have you looked at your on-page optimization? Content is King. Links aren't queen, they're more like the King's court: the more high quality they are, the better it reflects on the King. Don't obsess about links. Build quality content first. make sure people who find your site appreciate your hard work and the links tend to follow.