Link building services - does it work?

[AnonymMoose]

There are dozens of link pyramid, wheels etc. offers, from $200+ to just few dollars per project (you get what you pay for I guess). Does it really work in long term? Some companies advertise link pyramids as white hat technique despite it's obviously just lots of fake social network accounts and few articles submitted.

Have you ever used those techniques? Is it worth spending few a hundred pounds to get better ranking for few keywords using it, or should I better spend it on some good unique articles and upload them to article directories? My website is already optimized, I use keywords in URLs, H1 and META tags contain content-related keywords etc, so there's not much else I can do in-house.

 

[fisicx]

how much effort is someone going to put in for $200? What you are going to get is a bunch of directory submissions, social bookmarks, forum profiles, blog comments, link wheels and farms and all the other detritus used by the link building sausage factories.

You don't need link building, want you need is more customers. Make that your focus and find a company who can make you more money rather than some nebulous promise of improved ranking.

 

[AnonymMoose]

how much effort is someone going to put in for $200? What you are going to get is a bunch of directory submissions, social bookmarks, forum profiles, blog comments, link wheels and farms and all the other detritus used by the link building sausage factories.

Frankly I don't care much how it is done as long as it will rank certain keywords high in google. My question would be - will it do it in long-term or get easily picked up by google and result in a penalty?

You don't need link building, want you need is more customers. Make that your focus and find a company who can make you more money rather than some nebulous promise of improved ranking.

And most customers come from search engines, so frankly I'd rather spend more on search engine ranking than company telling obvious cliches from marketing books and charging for weeks of "optimizing website" that nobody finds anyway.. Backlinks work and that's the fact and let's face it, many SEO companies charge ££££s for basically outsorcing article and directory submissions to indian copywriters working for peanuts..

 

[fisicx]

Paying $200 to an Asian link builder won't improve your ranking. A clever marketeer however will look at a range of options to increase the number of conversions. You might not even need more visitors.

Improved ranking alone doesn't mean more sales. Sometimes all you get is more visitors many of whom may be looking for help, advice or just comparisons. A targeted marketing campaign will bring you visors with their credit cards at the ready.

A bit of cheapo link building won't do this. Find a good uk based SEM company and you will soon realise the folly of the bottom feeder link building approach.

 

[eventdomain]

You don't need link building, want you need is more customers.

Don't discount weblinks, its how those customers find you in the first place. But Fisicx is basically correct, he means avoid the useless sort of links.

Link building consultancy is a con - it fails simply due to lack of control of getting any decent linkspace. High traffic websites wont allow any link-builders to spam their property and 'spamming for fees' is exactly what you'll get.

Besides, how can these links ever be targeted - they wont be... Always buy links yourself, go visit the sites individually and check them out as far as you can.

 

[Clarkjackson]

Link building strategy works but it's depends on what kind of link building strategy you have made

Some don't work and some works perfectly just need to consider latest techniques that follow search engine guidelines. Make your link building strategy according to Panda.

 

[nitro23456]

There is certainly little point paying out to companies from the indian sub continent who solely acquire poor quality link-farm backlinks.

However good quality links do work wonders for helping you rank, this in turn will gain you more visitors and if everything is good on-page (as you say) to achieve a good conversion rate, the increase in visitors will provide more sales provided this is the case.

You site will need a good call to action to convert these visitors to sales and quite often this is over looked, sometimes inadvertently, because the site owner THINKS as it is clear and concise to them it must be to everyone else.

Sometimes a fresh pair of eyes can work wonders and it need not cost a fortune.

 

[zainejazz]

If you analyse last 6 months Algo updates and track the background, then you will find Link Building factors start diminishes, now for my client I Totally empahsis on oniste Factors! And I am doing pretty well with them.
I recently change my policies from Link popularity to Page popularity factors!

 

[eventdomain]

This isnt difficult - place link on target-related website for correct visitors to find you.

Placing is the difficult part, and chasing links to climb rankings is not what advertising portals were built to do in the portal owner's mind - so taking advantage of them will result in the obvious I'm afraid. You arent dealing with the SE's firstly (even though it's the main objective), because to take advantage of the SERPS, you need to get onto the sites that matter - so you are actually using other sites to hopefully, propel yourself into the search engines.

Except the site owners know this, you know the site owners know this, but pretend you dont know, and they know you're pretending you dont know, yet they pretend they dont know, that you know - so basically everybody knows.

But everyone gets it so wrong lol - these sites are not and never will be built to help you get some advantage - I'll tell you why their built though, and its to make money - not to get you some free ride.

The web can be amazing, it can help you, but you take advantage and it'll turn into your worst nightmare. The free links everyone once had, are slowly being deleted, sites going bust like crazy, and those lost links are now so tough to re-build. Trouble was in the mid 1990's, everyone got greedy by spamming, and now their finding out what being bitten is like. Eg: Google devaluing certain sites/links.

Unfortunately, the more people take advantage of websites, the sites will just go paid to protect themselves. There will be less and less free options, thus less links to be had equals no traction, no visitors and no sales. You need links for everything, no links means no business.

I find it amazingly entertaining that everyone think's a couple of hundred free links can launch, propel or get enough clients to sustain a website

 

[OldWelshGuy]

I find it amazingly entertaining that everyone think's a couple of hundred free links can launch, propel or get enough clients to sustain a website

I find it amazingly entertaining that you continuously post this same argument time after time after time. makes me smile every time it does

Link Building and content is what makes a site rank. You are constantly talking about people spamming directories etc, but that might well be what Indian and low level $10 autospammers do, but isn't what SEO's do if they know what they are doing.

YES, the right link in the right place at the right time can get you HUGE amounts of traffic, but that link might well be nofollow, which means it will not help your ranking as much as a dofollow one, so you need both.

Good link building includes a cross section of links, some from high PR sites, on topic off topic socai web links, blog post links, the whole shooting match.

There are also good directories out there that will accept submissions if properly written and submitted, places like Applegate for example, which if done properly will drive traffic and also help a site rank.

But unfortunately Google has created the need for backlinks, and there are so many secret societies, of people who control hundreds of websites, who simply trade real estate with each other in a symbiotic relationship. All underground, all personal referral only, and never ever mentioned openly.

Or people can just go out and buy links, and hope that the network that they have bought into never gets nuked by Google.

 

[nitro23456]

But unfortunately Google has created the need for backlinks, and there are so many secret societies, of people who control hundreds of websites, who simply trade real estate with each other in a symbiotic relationship. All underground, all personal referral only, and never ever mentioned openly.

great isnt it

 

[eventdomain]

YES, the right link in the right place at the right time can get you HUGE amounts of traffic, but that link might well be nofollow, which means it will not help your ranking as much as a dofollow one, so you need both.

But even if its no-follow, the link still works, sending traffic to its destination. Id rather have traffic, than placing on some list. Come-on, everyone knows the ranking stuff is just foreplay, to get people excited so they spend on PPC. Rankings dont mean crap, they dont mean a website is any good whatsoever.

Ive seen sites on page 100, that are goldmines, compared to the garbage sitting on page one these days.

 

[Prestige-SEO]

Choose the wrong package and it won't work, pick a decent one and it will work - simple as that.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[OldWelshGuy]

But even if its no-follow, the link still works, sending traffic to its destination. Id rather have traffic, than placing on some list. Come-on, everyone knows the ranking stuff is just foreplay, to get people excited so they spend on PPC. Rankings dont mean crap, they dont mean a website is any good whatsoever.

Ive seen sites on page 100, that are goldmines, compared to the garbage sitting on page one these days.

So rankings are crap they mean nothing Tell that to those who sit at number 1 for competitive terms and who are raking in the money.

It ius clear that you have some sort of agenda here, either that or you have lost your sanity.

Ranking is foreplay it means nothing, so people use pay per click to rank on page 1 . How does that work then?

I DO agree though that rankings doesn't mean a site is any good, although that depends on how you define 'good'. If I search for 'nikon d70 cameras for sale' and I land on a site that sells nikon 470 cameras, are you saying that is bad?

Sorry but your logic seems completely flawed to me. I am still struggling with rankings mean nothing so people buy rankings???

 

[eventdomain]

Tell that to those who sit at number 1 for competitive terms and who are raking in the money.

The whole talk everywhere is about free this and that eg: how to get higher in the SERPS for free or less cash outlay.

But they are still paying for this via monthy SEO fees. So to get to No1 isnt free at all, thus, getting a hoard of free links isnt going to help anyone in a huge way, as the competition or those who can afford it, simply buy their way to the top.

I DO agree though that rankings doesn't mean a site is any good, although that depends on how you define 'good'. If I search for 'nikon d70 cameras for sale' and I land on a site that sells nikon 470 cameras, are you saying that is bad?

No, I'm saying certain sites with bugger all content are ranking higher than those that are clearly superior in content and links. So, it seems established websites are being beaten, when the lesser sites have no right to sit higher, er, from a quality viewpoint..... I'd have thought the more useful sites should sit higher automatically, as they'd have more content and not gain better positions from a load of cheap links.

With the 'lesser' sites sitting higher - the rankings mean nothing anymore, its like the pure content website is being treated less favourably.

 

[webstore]

Before the advent of Google Analytics, Google Webmaster Tools (for sitemaps) and of recent Google+ Pages, suitable and relevant backlinks were the only means that Google could measure site popularity.

But as I understand these days site metrics are also starting to play an important role in SERPs especially as more and more surfers are knowingly or unknowingly using personalised Google Search results (when logged into their gmail / Google+ account) and as such the +1 button and g+ button (link to Google+ Pages) are a must for every website.

'If you ignore Google+ you are ignoring Google'
.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

The whole talk everywhere is about free this and that eg: how to get higher in the SERPS for free or less cash outlay.

But they are still paying for this via monthy SEO fees. So to get to No1 isnt free at all, thus, getting a hoard of free links isnt going to help anyone in a huge way, as the competition or those who can afford it, simply buy their way to the top.

No, I'm saying certain sites with bugger all content are ranking higher than those that are clearly superior in content and links. So, it seems established websites are being beaten, when the lesser sites have no right to sit higher, er, from a quality viewpoint..... I'd have thought the more useful sites should sit higher automatically, as they'd have more content and not gain better positions from a load of cheap links.

With the 'lesser' sites sitting higher - the rankings mean nothing anymore, its like the pure content website is being treated less favourably.

Who said anything about free? This whole thread is about BUYING link building packages? So how about you don't try yo drag the topic into another direction that is not being discussed. The OP asked if link building is worth it, the discussion progressed, you stated it is crap, links mean nothing, rankings mean nothing and other such. now you have tried to sideline it again by saying that it isn't free because people are paying. When paying has NEVER been out of the frame, the whole thread is about PAYING?

Regarding the 'lesser' sites, in whose mind? 'lesser' is a viewpoint. If I build a site for 'cheap nikon D70 cameras' and THAT is what i put on there, and I appear #1 for that search term, why am I a 'lesser' site than say jessops?

marketing budgets is what decides who sits where with regard commercial exposure. betamax was WAY better than VHS, but VHS won the battle. History is full of instances of the 'lesser' product dominating the marketplace PURELY as a result of expsure.

I Still don't see why you can say 'rankings mean nothing anymore'? I am beginning to think that what you are trying to say is that the order in which sites appear on the google SERP's is no guide with regard the quality of the content. if that is the case then maybe it is true in some search instances. Or are you speaking from personal experience? If so bang us up an instance so we can discuss it.

 

[terryuk]

. Or are you speaking from personal experience? If so bang us up an instance so we can discuss it.

Let's not

I read the last post and agreed. +1 this thread.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Let's not

I read the last post and agreed. +1 this thread.

Good point!

@ED. don't bother with the example, I have better things to waste my time on this week

 

[eventdomain]

Good point!

@ED. don't bother with the example, I have better things to waste my time on this week

Just because your losing You want interesting threads? well, dont complain when they arise then.

Sometimes threads go off into sub-threads, it starts when members drop in a single post about something else - others WILL pick up on this and answer. I think you stop them at a point when you begin to lose or work out that others are far smarter than you.

You clearly know more about SEO than me, but consider what I do and what I own, so have some respect.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Just because your losing You want interesting threads? well, dont complain when they arise then.

Sometimes threads go off into sub-threads, it starts when members drop in a single post about something else - others WILL pick up on this and answer. I think you stop them at a point when you begin to lose or work out that others are far smarter than you.

You clearly know more about SEO than me, but consider what I do and what I own, so have some respect.

If I have offended you I apologise, but the last bit was meant in jest.

Winning losing? if debate runs properly then there should be no losers, I wasn't aware a competion was ongoing, other than a competition to get to the truth of a debate.

Not sure why you feel I have stopped this debate, I have not closed the thread, it is still open, I stop debating when I feel I am unable to communicate with the person I am debating with. I.E. I think ' I am wasting my time here' . Nothing to do with others being smarter than me, most are, as I am Welsh and evveryone knows us Welsh are thick . Truth is i LOVE to debate with people who are smarter than me, I love a challenge, and challenges push us to achieve more.

I stop when it is clear to me, that i am not communicating with the other person for whatever reason. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-572077907195969915

There you go

 

[sess4561]

it is fair to say a lot of seo companies feel the need to put down link building companies purely so they can justify a bigger fee to their clients.

but if i was to disclose the amount of seo companies that approach my company for our services, and then resell it as something ingenious and magnificent to their clients ... it really would shock you!

link building is what it is. it is not a guarantee to the top, but it is a big piece of the puzzle, and whether you do it yourself, hire an SEO or hire a link building company, one thing is for sure, there are only so many ways of building backlinks, and the main thing to look of for is if the seo or link building company has any solid proof they can do what they say they can do and whether it lasts!

just do your homework, research thoroughly and make your own decision on what direction you want to take.

 

[fisicx]

As many people keep saying, it all in the mix. But the OPs question was reference the $200 specials offered but the asian SEO industry. They aren't worth a single dime of your money.

 

[sess4561]

i can't say whether they are worth $200 or $2 - i've never used them!

 

[eventdomain]

How can you possibly win this ‘Google Ranking War’ ? - logic tells you the SERPS fluctuation only serves to hinder this already.

What is it 20 billion pages are now indexed in Google alone? Its obvious the average 20 page built website hasnt enough content to outgun a 10k page portal site - so how the blazes can you beat that.

The SERPs will automatically go with the site that has more links and superior content, ranking it above all others. The examples of this are in abundance and too many to mention.

If there was just 1000 websites that exist, yes, then those thousand would likely make enough sales to be millionaires in a week. Trouble is there's 4.5 million small businesses in the UK right now according to the FSB http://www.fsb.org.uk/stats so its too much of a rankings fight for everyone to win the rankings war - so what if your on page 100'000, so your going to be found are you, when so many wont go beyond page 3 of search results to even find you.

Here's an interesting article about not being found on general search engines http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/the-economic-impact-of-search.html

At most, people will go through three pages of results before giving up, found the survey by Jupiter Research and marketing firm iProspect.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4900742.stm

Its quite scary, and yet ££££ is being spent on useless SEO that can only place you on page 25 or 200 or something - you will not be found as people wont search that deep. How can you win..... thus you must buy links/adverts to just survive er, if the above stats are correct that is, and there's no reason to say they aren't.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

How can you possibly win this ‘Google Ranking War’ ? - logic tells you the SERPS fluctuation only serves to hinder this already.

What is it 20 billion pages are now indexed in Google alone? Its obvious the average 20 page built website hasnt enough content to outgun a 10k page portal site - so how the blazes can you beat that.

The SERPs will automatically go with the site that has more links and superior content, ranking it above all others. The examples of this are in abundance and too many to mention.

If there was just 1000 websites that exist, yes, then those thousand would likely make enough sales to be millionaires in a week. Trouble is there's 4.5 million small businesses in the UK right now according to the FSB http://www.fsb.org.uk/stats so its too much of a rankings fight for everyone to win the rankings war - so what if your on page 100'000, so your going to be found are you, when so many wont go beyond page 3 of search results to even find you.

Here's an interesting article about not being found on general search engines http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/the-economic-impact-of-search.html



Its quite scary, and yet ££££ is being spent on useless SEO that can only place you on page 25 or 200 or something - you will not be found as people wont search that deep. How can you win..... thus you must buy links/adverts to just survive er, if the above stats are correct that is, and there's no reason to say they aren't.

I agree totally, so what about SEO that puts a site at position number 1 then, is that useless SEO? I am struggling to see how you are justifying spending money on PPC to be at the top, yet are saying that being SEO'd to the top is 'useless SEO'?

 

[terryuk]

i can't say whether they are worth $200 or $2 - i've never used them!

Are you mad

How can you possibly win this ‘Google Ranking War’ ? - logic tells you the SERPS fluctuation only serves to hinder this already.

What is it 20 billion pages are now indexed in Google alone? Its obvious the average 20 page built website hasnt enough content to outgun a 10k page portal site - so how the blazes can you beat that.

The SERPs will automatically go with the site that has more links and superior content, ranking it above all others. The examples of this are in abundance and too many to mention.

If there was just 1000 websites that exist, yes, then those thousand would likely make enough sales to be millionaires in a week. Trouble is there's 4.5 million small businesses in the UK right now according to the FSB http://www.fsb.org.uk/stats so its too much of a rankings fight for everyone to win the rankings war - so what if your on page 100'000, so your going to be found are you, when so many wont go beyond page 3 of search results to even find you.

Here's an interesting article about not being found on general search engines http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/the-economic-impact-of-search.html



Its quite scary, and yet ££££ is being spent on useless SEO that can only place you on page 25 or 200 or something - you will not be found as people wont search that deep. How can you win..... thus you must buy links/adverts to just survive er, if the above stats are correct that is, and there's no reason to say they aren't.

I think your mad too.

It's hard to generalise a link building pattern for EVERYONE or every small business in the UK. You could say the same about SEO's. Theres millions of them, but not everyone get's a 10k a month job. Tough ****

I've had plenty of sites with 10 links, competitor having years ahead of me and still #1 now.... explain.....

 

[thelocalbookkeeper]

I agree with this comment above, the secret to good optimisation is the spread of your link-building. Putting all your eggs in one basket so to speak isn't a sound methodology. Having said that on average it takes 3 months for any link-building to work, so keep this in mind when methods aren't returning results.

My advice to you is too get to grips with analytic's and learn the basics so that you have a general understanding of where traffic is coming from before you invest in an SEO company.

 

[eventdomain]

I've had plenty of sites with 10 links, competitor having years ahead of me and still #1 now.... explain.....

Those competitors (whoever they are) at this time, arent worried about you - suspect if their of a size, they have the resources to, at a time of their choosing - can decimate you at will.

Don't underestimate websites, you never fully know who is behind each one.

What may look like a one-man band, can have upto 10 or 20 employees, SEO experts, and other experts to draw on. Some of these websites pull in 1 million plus a year, and you think they cant drop 20k into SEO for a 12 month period?

That aside, SEO works, BUT its not a permanent thing or result. You can be defeated by content, links and other elements, so altering text wont help you.

But links, these are 100% permanent, will without doubt, send a constant flow of visitors depending on traffic of site where link resides - which is the power of links.

Had a great link on the MSN small biz directory - it was £30 or something, and it sent some traffic, boy did it at the time.

Ok, was way back when, and had about 30 or so great links working for me in 2004ish, but its all changed now, and the decent sites all clammed up tight, so everyone has turned to SEO as its supposedly better value. But so many factors involved in a website's success, and one thing is clear - traffic must be targeted, and SEO cant guarantee that, where you can target links precisely for a certain fee.

 

[terryuk]

Hmm I'm not trying to scare anyone, nor is it my main business so if it dropped from #1 then it doesn't matter.

I am simply stating a fact that in this market, 392,000,000 results. I am number one across the board with about 10-20 links. Whilst others have thousands.

You already understand the power of a good link, traffic & SEO wise so I won't bore you with any more interesting facts

Those competitors (whoever they are) at this time, arent worried about you - suspect if their of a size, they have the resources to, at a time of their choosing - can decimate you at will.

Don't underestimate websites, you never fully know who is behind each one.

What may look like a one-man band, can have upto 10 or 20 employees, SEO experts, and other experts to draw on. Some of these websites pull in 1 million plus a year, and you think they cant drop 20k into SEO for a 12 month period?

That aside, SEO works, BUT its not a permanent thing or result. You can be defeated by content, links and other elements, so altering text wont help you.

But links, these are 100% permanent, will without doubt, send a constant flow of visitors depending on traffic of site where link resides - which is the power of links.

Had a great link on the MSN small biz directory - it was £30 or something, and it sent some traffic, boy did it at the time.

Ok, was way back when, and had about 30 or so great links working for me in 2004ish, but its all changed now, and the decent sites all clammed up tight, so everyone has turned to SEO as its supposedly better value. But so many factors involved in a website's success, and one thing is clear - traffic must be targeted, and SEO cant guarantee that, where you can target links precisely for a certain fee.

 

[eventdomain]

I am simply stating a fact that in this market, 392,000,000 results.

I am number one across the board

This is for your SEO site/biz right?

with about 10-20 links. Whilst others have thousands.

That's not possible is it? if so, your links would need to be on such major authority sites, I'm thinking they wont let you on and 20 links wont be enough to scratch the surface of page 50, never mind No1 spot on first page for a top keyword. Congrats if you've done this, and I'll hire you in a second if you managed to rank No1 - for a top keyword.....

 

[Fresco_Creative]

There are dozens of link pyramid, wheels etc. offers, from $200+ to just few dollars per project (you get what you pay for I guess). Does it really work in long term? Some companies advertise link pyramids as white hat technique despite it's obviously just lots of fake social network accounts and few articles submitted.

Have you ever used those techniques? Is it worth spending few a hundred pounds to get better ranking for few keywords using it, or should I better spend it on some good unique articles and upload them to article directories? My website is already optimized, I use keywords in URLs, H1 and META tags contain content-related keywords etc, so there's not much else I can do in-house.

Link building very much works but make sure you have to hand a well trusted and highly reliable link builder who WILL do the work.. make sure they also DO report back on what they are doing for the money you are spending.. this is so so vital..

 

[terryuk]

This is for your SEO site/biz right?




That's not possible is it? if so, your links would need to be on such major authority sites, I'm thinking they wont let you on and 20 links wont be enough to scratch the surface of page 50, never mind No1 spot on first page for a top keyword. Congrats if you've done this, and I'll hire you in a second if you managed to rank No1 - for a top keyword.....

No it's TV industry.

Not saying that every website is the same and 20 links is sufficient although it were the case in this scenario

 

[curd]

I think it is.
You can get backlink that will improve your "value" on google/yahoo (search engine)
So that, if you can get backlint with white-hat method, I guss your web will be easier to detected by google and listed in 1st page

 

[OldWelshGuy]

This is for your SEO site/biz right?

That's not possible is it? if so, your links would need to be on such major authority sites, I'm thinking they wont let you on and 20 links wont be enough to scratch the surface of page 50, never mind No1 spot on first page for a top keyword. Congrats if you've done this, and I'll hire you in a second if you managed to rank No1 - for a top keyword.....

Why would you hire him when SEO is rubbish and doesn't work

 

[crizy]

Boosting free traffic to your site: Ensuring higher ranking on the major search engines such as Google, Yahoo & Bing
Increased Brand Awareness: Achieving prominence within the organic listings
Higher Return on Investment: Increasing organic traffic coming to your site
Long term visibility for your brand and website

 

[I, Brian]

Congrats if you've done this, and I'll hire you in a second if you managed to rank No1 - for a top keyword.....

Awaiting your PM - shall I ready an invoice for you?

 

[kate_r]

Do customers come from search engine or Google Shopping nowadays?

 

[OldWelshGuy]

Do customers come from search engine or Google Shopping nowadays?

Customers come from
PPC
organic
Shopping
Images
Video
Social media (facebook is great for this, plus various other sites)
classifieds
'best deals' sites
shopping comparison sites

there are others, many others, but that is thrown together off the cuff.

 

[WHUK]

Creating backlinks for your website is the most effective way for securing good search engine rankings. However it is essenatial to make sure that the backlinks are from authoritative websites; the domain authority and page rank of such website should be good. Only then the backlinks will be efficient.