And thus did Jeremy speak unto the SEOs, for long had they wandered in the desert of not knowing what the fuck was going on with links. And he sayeth unto them:
Easy = Low value
Hard = Higher valueThere’s a sliding scale of effective vs ethical.
Unfortunately, I have a recent example where someone who bought 50 comment links on supppper spammed out sites…boosted his blog post for a key product line… soooo links work. They do. Even “shitty” links can “work”
But just because that way CAN work… is kinda like saying “You can go to a rest stop and hook up with random truckers” = a healthy s*xual lifestyle
Too easy:
post links in comments, buy links on FivrEasy:
Business fundamentals: Do you REALLY have all your basic links done? Business wikis, basic directories, city directories, submitted ALLLLL 350+ local citation powered directories? found ALL niche business directories?Real world shit: Partners, vendors, friends, family, rotary club friends,
HARDER:Links from stuff you DO: Events (trash cleanups, trainings, etc), sponsoring non=profit stuff locally/nationally
Links from stuff you create: Turned your blog into a slide deck? Link from Slideshare. Image? Pinterest. Video? Vimeo, etc
Hardest:
Get real bloggers, others in your industry to link to your stuff or you
And verily, a figure clothe’d in a black cape, swathed in smarm and clad in the tears of the uneducated, stood forth and spake in reply (with a surprisingly British voice:
All (most) links have value.
So you’re left with 2 questions:
1) How much does G pass through them?
2) What impact will that value have?(1) is determined by:
a) Page value
b) Quantity of links on page
c) Placement/Prominence/Click-likelihood
d) Status (nofollow etc.)
e) Trust of page/site
etc.(2) is determined by:
a) Destinations ranking value
b) Competing pages ranking valueShit links, for low-comp/weak-comp terms,
can/do have some value.
At least, for a little while,
unless you get them from a site marked for untrusted links.Those same links, will do virtually nothing for more competed terms against stronger sites.
Google handle the “link graph” far faster than they used to (my understanding is that it’s not only split into tiers, but segments too – and the make updates per tier/segment, rather than all at once like they originally did).
(This is why some links seem to take longer for G to devalue/ignore … because they are on sites that don’t get processed as often.)But – the basic principles apply.
1) Most links are worth something
Darth Autocrat (Lyndon NA)
2) Strong links are better than Weak links
3) Safe links are better than Spam links
4) Avoid links from non-indexed pages/sites, and/or sites that have indexing/ranking issues
5) In-content links are typically better than comment/footer/aside links
6) If you’re doing spam links, roll/remove them as required
7) Use the boosts/presence of spam links to generate organic ones
8) Hide spam links in organic (if you get a bunch of attention, and earn some organic links – it’s the ideal time to slip in a paid one or two)
9) Depending on the origin site, and how that content get’s treated – it’s worth paying for blocked links (nofollowed/sponsored etc.)