How many descent links do I need?

[S_G_Parkinson]

Our ecommerce needs seo but we cant afford the prices so we are thinking of buying a monthly link building package for around £200/month. The problem is, we dont really have any idea how long it will take before we start to see results.

Our store is <link removed>http://www.vapourmate.co.uk and we are an online e-cigarette seller. The competiton for all the top keywords is marked on google adwords as low. we are looking to target around 5 main keywords at first: electronic cigarette, e-liquid, e-cig, stop smoking, e-cigarette. the links should target sites like casinos, poker, bingo, health and money saving ideas.

can anyone tell us roughly how many good quality keywords we woyld need and how long it would take to reach top 2 pages?

Thanks!

 

[S_G_Parkinson]

sorry, i mean how many good quality backlinks, not keywords!

 

[mugatea]

that might be impossible to answer. There are some great experts on here. Hang around and you'll soon figure who they are.

 

[Mark Walters]

The competiton for all the top keywords is marked on google adwords as low.

The competition level stated in Adwords is pretty much irrelevant for organic search rankings. The competition that matters are the sites that are currently ranking on the first page for the keywords that you want to rank for. I wrote an article about this a few days ago - http://www.seomark.co.uk/keyword-competition-analysis/

We are looking to target around 5 main keywords at first: electronic cigarette, e-liquid, e-cig, stop smoking, e-cigarette.

Those keyword will be really hard to rank for. For 200 a month you essentially have no chance of ranking well for those keywords, unless you're prepared to wait a long while for results and constantly produce and promote first rate content.

can anyone tell us roughly how many good quality backlinks we would need and how long it would take to reach top 2 pages?

It's impossible to say. It depends on the quality and existing authority of your website and the strength of the competition. As I've said, based on your budget and the keywords you want to target, you might never get the success you're hoping for. A better approach would be to target less competitive keywords, which are still relevant and profitable to your business. You'll need to spend less, you'll rank faster, and the conversion rates will be better.

 

[clara_butler]

Google never describe or tell us the exact number of backlinks to reach top 2 pages in SERPs. It is up to you that the maximum number of quality back-links you have then maximum chances are that your website will be in the top searches. Don't forget other factors are also matter like content and site-structure.

 

[fisicx]

can anyone tell us roughly how many good quality keywords we woyld need and how long it would take to reach top 2 pages?

In theory, just one link would be enough. Getting that link however could take months of negotiation and an awful lot of dosh.

Don't even go for the £200/month linkbuilders. All you are going to get is a lot of bottom feeding junk links.

If you can't afford to pay the required fees then find something less competitive to sell. Or use adwords. Sorry to be so negative but people woefully underestimate the cost of online marketing for anything remotely competitive.

...reach top 2 pages?

And if you are on page 2 then your sales will be zero. Even being on the bottom of page 1 isn't going to make things much better.

 

[DPOM]

^^ As he says.

The link building packages are likely to land you in hot water - especially if they are total junk. Don't even risk a unnatural links penalty - no matter how small the perceived risk is.

Concentrate instead on getting some good regular content on there and links from good sources (that would be willing to link to your good content) - a few links of some very selective websites would potentially be worth many more than the rubbish spammy links you'll probably get from a link package.

Reach out to relevant websites to your industry (like editorial based sites) - expect it to be hard work but the reward is good quality natural and relevant links that you probably won't get with a link building package.

Page 2 - Forget it - varying reports suggest that clicks to page 2 are around 1.5% and sometimes a lot less.

 

[eventdomain]

We are talking about 'link power' eg: a link sits on a some highly ranked site with link value and traffic.

Such sites want feeding (paying) and they hold the link space in those competitive keyword markets - so save yourself the months of silly negotiating and pay up, as such sites don't have to even tell you to bugger off as websites are designed to filter out spam period.

They get hoards of stupid emails from desperate low-value sites, blogs etc, so nothing irritates them more than to get low-level businesses/start-ups begging too.

An older agency website of ours got roughly 50-100 begging emails per month, we got sick of it - and they never, ever got links from us that way. Next we removed our links page, then added various charges for the link space and finally removed all non-essential sign-up forms to eventually finish off the spammers.

That's why this link begging nonsense will never work, but then its only SEO's who sell this stuff anyway. The sites are onto those guys so fast you won't believe it

 

[Deleted member 157854]

The link building packages are likely to land you in hot water - especially if they are total junk. Don't even risk a unnatural links penalty - no matter how small the perceived risk is.

Absolutely agree, if you buy a package it will be out of your control and multiple identical links using the same keywords will raise a flag, especially if they're linked to irrelevant sites. Better to spend that money doing your own research and more importantly improving your site so that like-minded sites will want to link to it.

 

[Alan]

I have one site that has zero reported backlinks that is position 1 on the money keyword, and has several other keywords on page 1. OK it is pretty niche but there are more than 30 UK businesses selling the product.

The point I am making is that backlinks are no guarantee of sucess and maybe in some cases just the opposite, and onpage SEO can pay dividends.

 

[terryuk]

I would expect a few months at least > year but depending upon the quality on the SEO's work and you will need backlinks in this market, regardless of on-site.

 

[Ali-v-8]

Depends on who delivers the goods - what someone classes as quality link building someone else may class that as bad.

 

[DPA PPI Claims]

Do not go anywhere near any link 'deals', people selling this 'dream' are using automated software packages that in the long run will be more harmful than advantageous.

Invest your £200 in time, think of why people would like your site and create a hook based on that, don't buy or manufacture links, breed them!

Maybe create an info-graphic based on whats good about smoking! The inquisitiveness of people thinking "there is no good" would get them to click, create something for them to take-away (facts, stats, research) and they will share, like and link to it.

 

[eventdomain]

Do not go anywhere near any link 'deals', people selling this 'dream' are using automated software packages

Yes, agreed.

What you need to do is Natural - hand-built links, but this only comes with a website that's worth linking to.

The 30 page off-line biz site with some add-on blog content ain't going to get many link offers from anything of quality or traffic en-mass.