The Value of Backlinks - Blog posts
-
Alright,
So I'm trying to understand the value of a backlink from a blogger/site owner. Now, as I know, (let's use fashion industry), there are thousands of fashion bloggers with good metrics... Domain Authority 40+ Page Authority 40+ etc. etc. for their home page. And there are THOUSANDS of fashion bloggers that link back to ecommerce sites (backlinks).
My question is, is there really much of a value with these backlinks? Sure, the domain authority and page authority is high ( for the given example), BUT wouldn't the page authority automatically be a 1 for a "post" ?
Le'ts say one blogger writes a new blog for July 14th and dedicates that blog post about the awesome shoes they have and it links back to an ecommerce site; well, what impact does that make in regards to SEO? And if it does, how long would that take?
The biggest issue I see is the ROI. You link build, you get links - and then ....you wait. Or you hope that you'll move up in rankings, but yet they can take months for it to even move the needle. Especially the fact that if it's not a HOME PAGE link...there isn't that "much" of a boost compared to an internal page?
So then the NEXT question I have too, wouldn't influencer outreach be the same as far as getting a PBN link, creating web 2.0's, etc.? Let's think about it. You're outreaching to someone so you can benefit something back. It's all unnatural at the end of the day.
Would love to discuss.
So in summary
1 - Value of influencer outreach links - especially if the post is a brand new content piece.. (page authority being automatically 1)
2- - What exactly IS white hat when really any type of link building is mimicking?
-
Thanks Mike!
-
Paul, I hear you brother. Nobody enjoys link building. It takes what it takes. Evidently, in fashion it takes free stuff and gift cards. Yes, kind of hard to explain to others.
-
Right, and I'm sure you know that too, across other industries whatever it might be, that CEO's think the way every channel works is similar.
As we all know, SEO changes (although the core stays the same, title tags, h1, canonical tags, duplicate content, href lang tags, site architecture, etc.).
I just think that the link building portion has been evolving too. But I did wanted to bring up the conversation in regards to my initial question -
The issue is that those that are not well versed in SEO (whether it be the CMO, CEO, etc.), will scratch their heads when they see that having a new link from site x , or site y, didn't even move the needle yet they were provided with "metrics". For ex: We target sites with DA of minimum 20, with low outbound links etc. etc., but yet they're still going to ask "Well, why are we not moving?"
So - to your point, I do agree that we have to educate them and especially on how SEO worked and now works.
And yes, I'm sure you also know that ;).
But that's my thing, I just don't think linkbuilding is as effective as it once was. Going back to fashion industry though, dishing out "great" content isn't going to be the best approach. I know this, because I've been dealing with it for the past 4 years. Fashion bloggers know their value, they're not going to link to sites unless they get a product for free PLUS a gift card / $$. The only time they'll link to sites is if they just feel like it (natural links). But to outreach "grey hat" and to say "Hey look, we have some awesome content that we think you'd love to put on your site," just isn't cutting it. Especially if we're going for top tier bloggers.
-
Well, of course that linkbuilding is a blackbox. SEO is all about strategy and long term thinking. Sure you do know that.
The problem that rises here, as you pointerd about the ROIs and the CEO's asking about results, is that there is a common way of seeing SEO and strategies just as PPC. That is terrible wrong, sure you also know that.
My personal way of dealing with that is teaching them what SEO is about and talk some sense into them. I like to use the frase: "SEO is, in a great manner, making google to love our site and content"
-
Hey @Gaston,
First - thanks for the response. Second, I know linkbuilding is NOT the only reason why we get better SERPs.
- I know not getting ONE link will gain better positions .But that's the issue that I'm experiencing in the industry. SEO is such a blackbox, and doing link building is a blackbox within a blackbox. Let's think about it. With SEM - if I were to propose let's say, "increase bids to X dollars" we'd expect "X amount of clicks." It doesn't work that way with SEO. And I feel like this is a challenge for SEO.
Everyone keeps saying "create awesome content." There's going to be industries or even companies that will not allow "providing content" just the way of how things work. Which is another issue and I'm sure you see it where content team doesn't meet half way with the SEO team and that too is a roadblock.
Now let's say we do "content", CEO's / higher ups will ask "Okay what are the resources, and the time spent. With that time spent, what's our expectation?"
And what would be our response? Obviously they're not going to want to hear "Well, there's so many factors in SEO we can't just say providing content outreach for links will boost rankings".
-
Hi,
Not sure I fully understand the question as you intend it, but here goes...
Net/net, quality links from authoritative sites to your site will greatly help your site/pages rank.
On your automatic page authority of 1 point, that just means that Moz says it's indexed. It's not visibility into Google's love for your page.
On white hat link building as a philosophical issue, I agree with you AND it is beside the point. Backlinks are important to achieving search rank and will evidently continue to be. If Google, in all it's A/I wisdom, suddenly decided that sites with a purple color scheme would rank batter, you would quickly see a lot of purple sites. It's just the way it is. Whatever Google values, competitive site owners will find a way to deliver.
Best... Mike
-
Hi Paul,
-
the fact that a brand new piece of information gets PA1 doesnt mean that after some time it will get better metrics and get some linkjuice passed to your site. The answer is yes, they do affect SERPs.
You must take special care to those links. Just getting one link will not make you to gain instantly better positions. -
White hat in linkbuilding is getting links without paying for them or pushing to get that link. (its sort of a grey line here actually).
Your main focus should be in creating awesome content, so as those influences want to link you.
As shown in:
You also should inderstand that linkbuilding is not the only reason why we get better SERPs.
Hope it helps.
GR. -
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Is a page with links to all posts okay?
Hi folks. Instead of an archive page template in my theme (I have my reasons), I am thinking of simply typing the post title as and when I publish a post, and linking to the post from there. Any SEO issues that you can think of? Thanks in advance!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Nobody16165422281340 -
Value of EDU Links?
Greetings: We are considering hiring a firm specializes in developing .EDU links. Is the ROI on EDU links better than non EDU backlinks from reputable domains? Will obtaining EDU links results in greater domain authority and improved ranking for search engine results? Thanks, Alan
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | Kingalan10 -
Do you outreach to blogs with no recent activity?
I have been doing outreach to blogs with some good success. My question (problem) is that many blogs do not update regularly and they may not have a new post within the past year or so. Is it best to pass on sending them an email or is it worth the time to do it? What is your cutoff point? Thanks!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | TimShank0 -
Should I delete 100s of weak posts from my website?
I run this website: http://knowledgeweighsnothing.com/ It was initially built to get traffic from Facebook. The vast majority of the 1300+ posts are shorter curation style posts. Basically I would find excellent sources of information and then do a short post highlighting the information and then link to the original source (and then post to FB and hey presto 1000s of visitors going through my website). Traffic was so amazing from FB at the time, that 'really stupidly' these posts were written with no regard for search engine rankings. When Facebook reach etc dropped right off, I started writing full original content posts to gain more traffic from search engines. I am starting to get more and more traffic now from Google etc, but there's still lots to improve. I am concerned that the shortest/weakest posts on the website are holding things back to some degree. I am considering going through the website and deleting the very weakest older posts based on their quality/backlinks and PA. This will probably run into 100s of posts. Is it detrimental to delete so weak many posts from a website? Any and all advice on how to proceed would be greatly recieved.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | xpers1 -
Does linking to a div pass value to the base url?
hi, because of how my site is laid out, in many cases, it makes sense from a user experience standpoint to link to a specific id rather than to the base url (and the top of the page). for internal links on my site, will linking to http://domain.com/page/#div pass the same link value as linking to http://domain.com/page/ ? or am i shooting myself in the foot with this approach? thanks, Moz buddies!
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | RGS_Energy0 -
Building "keyword" backlinks
Looking for some opinions here please. Been involved in seo for a couple of years mainly working on my websites and picking up the odd client here and there through word of mouth. I must admit that up until a few months back I was guilty of using some grey methods of link building - linkvana, unique article wizard and the such. While no penalties were handed out to my domains and some decent rankings gained, I got tired of always being on the lookout for what the next Google update will do to my results and which networks were being hit, and so I moved a lot more into the 'proper' way of seoing. These days my primary sources for backlinks are much more respectable... myblogguest bloggerlinkup postjoint Guest Blog Finder http://ultramarketer.com/guest-blogger-finder/ - not sure where i came across this resource but it's very handy I use these sources alongside industry only directories and general word of mouth. Ironically I have found that doing the word by hand not only leads to results I can happyily show people (content wise) but also it's much quicker and cheaper. The increased authority of the sites means far fewer links are needed. The one area I still am having a little issue with is that of building keyword based backlinks. I now find it fairly easy to get my content on a reasonable quality site - DA to 40 and above, however the vast majority of these sites will allow the backlink only as the company name or as a generic read more type thing. This is fine and it is improving my website performance and authority. The trouble I am finding is that while i am ranking for the title tag and some keywords in the page, I am struggling to get backlinks for other keywords. In an ideal world every page on the site would be optimised for a different keyword and you could then just the site name as anchor text to build the authority of that page and make it rank for it's content, but what about when you (or the client) wants to rank the home for a number of different keywords, some not featured on the page. The keywords are too similar to go to the trouble of making unique pages for, and that would also add no value to the site. My question really then, after a very long winded way of getting there, is are others finding it much more difficult to gain keyword based backlinks these days? The great thing about the grey seo tools, as mentioned above, is that it was super easy to get the backlinks with whatever anchor text you wanted - even if you needed hundreds of the thing to compensate for the low value of each!! Thanks Carl
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | GrumpyCarl0 -
Guest Posting Good or Too Spammed in 2013
Hi, Some of the Gurus and Associates have indicated that guest posting is the "Directories of today." There are some posts from last year about this in the Q&A, but what is the most recent thought if guest posting on quality sites should be avoided? Thanks.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | BobGW0 -
Your Top 5 Backlink Types for 2013
Hi, Share your thoughts about Your Top 5 Backlink Types for 2013, what's the best this year and what will be worthless.
Intermediate & Advanced SEO | | aivaras0