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What's the Value of a Link to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

January 10, 2010

I have a great example to share that shows just how much a good link is worth.

I spend a lot of time working on SEO (Search Engine Optimization), both for myself and for clients/customers. There're a lot of "standard" questions I get asked, but one of the most common is "just how much do links really count?"

A few months ago, I was helping a client with a blog. I totally restructured and redesigned their blog. Their blog had been around a while, but only had 2 posts. I added 2 or 3 more posts before I started the redesign. Originally the blog had been in the root of the site, however, I changed that and ended up with the blog under a "blog" folder and a few "static" pages in the root of the site. I also changed the page naming scheme the blog was using.

The end result was that the search engines had indexed all 5 of the blog pages, but they were now in a different location with different names. If it was critical, I could have created files that matched those old names with a permanent redirect (301) to the new pages, but it wasn't. I knew we'd take a hit for this, but it should not last long.

What's the Value of a Link to SEO (Search Engine Optimization)?

I tracked the page rankings for a few keywords and we took a major hit (shown as drop "A") in the graph. This occurred because I basically scrambled the site around and didn't tell the search engines what I was doing. Notice that only Google seemed to care. And that we were pretty much ranking #1 or #2 on Yahoo and MSN (Bing) for the keyword phrase I was tracking.

There was another problem. This site was hosted on a Unix box using Apache as the web server (no, that's not the problem). Because the blog was originally in the root of the site and because the blog software is WordPress, the rewrite engine was on for the root. But I had moved the blog from the root to a "blog" folder. So when a search engine spider would crawl the site, trying to locate the old pages with the old names (that no longer exist), they would get a partial, messed up, broken page - Instead of getting a 404 page not found, they were getting junk. Because of this, the old pages were not being removed from the search engine index, AND the search engines thought the site was garbage (but only Google seemed to care). Once I found the source of the problem and turn off the rewrite engine for the root, that problem was solved (somewhere near the end of October on the graph).

Back when I started working on their blog, I added a link to their blog from my blog. My blog has a Google Page Rank of 3, so it has some decent value.

You can see over time and with more SEO effort on my part, such as submitting articles, etc. their ranking in Google improved for the keyword phrase I was tracking.

Toward the end of December that client became a non-client. I was cleaning up my blogroll around the end of the year and decided to remove their link. Look at the drop at "B" on the graph - that is the result. As far as I know, that's the ONLY thing that changed! It's hard to tell from the graph, but the drop occurred on January 5th 2010.

Notice again, Google is the only one that cared. Their blog is still pegged at #1 on Yahoo and MSN(Bing) for the phrase I'm tracking.

Why did Google care when Yahoo and MSN(Bing) did not? I'm not totally sure except that it appears that Google is much more sensate to problems on your site, drastic changes, etc.

But this does show the value, especially on small, fairly new sites with not many inbound links, of good, solid, one-way links from sites with good page rank.

Want to know more about SEO? SEO Secrets Revealed.

Until Next Time,
Fred

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Posted by Fred on January 10, 2010 | Printer-Friendly

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Comments:

From: Gregory E. Nemer

Hi Fred,
This is another excellent artice on what I really see as your main area of expertise-
Like I just commented on my blog- You are the SEO King.
Your SEO Secrets Revealed Course is excellent!

You mentioned that you have a coaching client. I was looking on your blog for a coaching program. Can you share with us the details of how to hire you as a coach.

Thanks,
Greg
Posted by Gregory E. Nemer on January 11, 2010 10:53 AM
From Fred...

Hey Greg;
Thanks for the kind words! No, not a coaching client, but a consulting client... I don't have a coaching program... yet!

Posted by Fred Black on January 11, 2010 11:11 AM
From: Ben

Hi Fred,

I always read your posts as you provide timely, thought-provoking and informative information.

You're not copious or "overwhelming" in terms of how many times you hit my in-box, which adds rather than detracts from the value of your posts.

I sincerely appreciate the consistent quality that you produce... Keep up your consistent and outstanding efforts.

Best Regards,
Benjamin Goss
http://www.benjamingoss.com

Posted by Ben on January 11, 2010 12:27 PM
From: Davor Gasparevic @ Internet marketing ebooks

Of course it does. I've analyzed my inbound links, and I had a few links from a PR 1 and 2 sites, a pretty lot from the deep sites of other blogs and low PR articles, and I got PR1. I guess if only 1 of those higher PR sites cuts the link to my site, I will lose that 1 PR point.

The importance of links from actual high PR pages (home pages mostly) is quite big, it can be more valuable than a hundred of low quality links.
Posted by Davor Gasparevic @ Internet marketing ebooks on January 11, 2010 6:03 PM
From: Jose│Internet Marketing Coach

As a technophobe, SEO used to intimidate me because of the many confusing strategies and tactics I read about it. I have a feeling "experts" are deliberately making it sound complicated to keep them earning off the ignorance of newbies like me.

Thanks for real experts like you and my mentor who keep things simple. You have the right to teach SEO because you have the solid proof, being consistently on top for the highly competitive keyword "internet business".

Thanks Fred for this useful post.

Jose
Posted by Jose│Internet Marketing Coach on January 12, 2010 12:37 AM
From: Copywriting Code

Fred,

I've definitely noticed the impact of inbound links on my rankings -- not just one blog either, but multiple blogs.

Of course, I'm not as detailed as you are when it comes to this stuff.

By the way, are you planning to release that ranking software you talked about months ago? I've always been interested in getting my hands on that. :-)

Ryan Healy
Posted by Copywriting Code on January 12, 2010 1:11 PM
From: Cozmo

I've been having trouble with some of my sites vanishing from the Google index a few months after they're created (presumably due to lack of links). It is very odd. I'm trying to figure out a way to fix that now which is how I ended up here.

Posted by Cozmo on January 13, 2010 12:53 AM
From: What the bleep

I got PR1. I guess if only 1 of those higher PR sites cuts the link to my site, I will lose that 1 PR point. Nice article!
Posted by What the bleep on January 13, 2010 7:34 AM
From Fred...

Cozmo (comment 7)...
Read this post I made a while back: Google Dip

Then get this: SEO Secrets Revealed.

Posted by Fred Black on January 13, 2010 9:42 AM
From: Arcnerva Clearwater

Hey Fred,

Great post and case study, its interesting to see exactly how sensitive Google is compared to the competition. Its understandable though when you think about it. Google is simply the most thorough. I was wondering, what tool is that you are using to track these metrics?

Thanks
Posted by Arcnerva Clearwater on January 14, 2010 7:16 PM
From Fred...

The software I'm using to track the metrics is my own software that I've been developing over the past couple of years.

I've mentioned it before in past blog posts that I intended to release it as a product at some point. I've just not been able to spend the time on programming. I'm meeting with a programmer today to talk about getting it finished so that I can release it...

So hopefully it will be available soon!
Posted by Fred Black on January 15, 2010 10:10 AM
From: Frank Boros

Thanks fred for your excellent atricle. I have got PR 2 in two months but i still dont know why bing doesnt index my site. Few things still beyond my understand. Thanks again.
Posted by Frank Boros on January 15, 2010 2:45 PM
From: Jackson

Hi Fred,
I read your article about your SEO processes & your link to the clients blog & really you showed the perfect results !I am learning the SEO! cause I am still 19 yrs. old guy ,I can say that I am not the one who can discuss about your tasks of SEO as an expert!I keep on searching for the SEO experts like you!thanks for your whole quality post & Your post is going to be one of the main chapter in my knowledge!I want some more articles like this ,in future too!
Posted by Jackson on January 16, 2010 12:01 AM
From: ian

Hi Fred,
Just found your blog..very interesting; I found you by key words .."business internet blogs" on Alexa.com ..Yours is near the top.

I can appreciate your policy comments as blogs are so well received by Google ? That blog posts give good links..It's as you say not abusing this.

I wonder if your visiters would be interested in an article on blog posts to gain high ranking on Google? I would , as it's a mystery to me how it works ..

I know it does because i have a terrible ranking
on Alexa but get high page ranking via blogs with just 12 links ..but your may understand how this works and explain it ...?

How would i know if you do write such an article ? Do you send an email ? Or do we have to keep checking your blog ?

Thank you again for your valuable information
Ian amor UK
Posted by ian on January 16, 2010 1:52 PM
From: Landon S Lang

Wow, this is really good info. Something I've noticed is you link from your blogroll, which is not really a perfect 10 backlinks but still it counts for 60 positions.

Good post, I've bookmarked this post on several sites, tweeted about it and even posted a summary on my blog here.

Posted by Landon S Lang on January 17, 2010 5:28 AM
From: Jeff

Very interesting - I've always noticed that yahoo and google seem to be very isolated in what irks them - make a change and google will freak out while yahoo stays steady, then later vice-versa
Posted by Jeff on January 18, 2010 1:37 PM
From: Peter

I appreciate this detailed post. I just found your blog by searching for Internet Marketing Blog within bing.

One thing I've noticed about the difference between google and bing is that it has been much easier for me to get sites ranked highly without any backlinks with bing rather than google.

For example, I have a site with about 3 backlinks to it for a fairly competitive phrase. The only thing this site has going for it is on site SEO. It is 3 months old.

Google places the site on page 12 while bing puts it on page one at the very top.

The two engines are different for sure.

PS I'd also be interested in hearing about that software once you release it.
Posted by Peter on January 19, 2010 6:46 PM
From: Turning Winds

Nice post Fred. You really worked on this and very well spoken regarding the value of links.

I could get some of your opinions and apply it as well. Thanks for a free consultation. :)
Posted by Turning Winds on January 20, 2010 8:44 PM
From: eMarketingRep

Very interesting and thought provoking article Fred! I think it's extremely useful for people that have blogs on their site and dont understand how they can be hurting if their not in the right place, or updated frequently.

We look forward to reading more of your articles! Thanks.
Posted by eMarketingRep on January 24, 2010 1:19 PM
From: Mara Gold

Thank you for the good information and visual example.
Posted by Mara Gold on January 25, 2010 10:54 PM
From: Cardigan

A link is a basic factor that matters for the SEO, if you have links it means you have gateways to site. It was a nice experience to visit your site.
Posted by Cardigan on January 30, 2010 2:10 PM
From: Vilen

The more backlinks the higher PR. The higher PR the better SERP results...So linkbuilding is the main factor to reach a good result.

Thanks for the post
Posted by Vilen on February 2, 2010 7:48 AM
From: Dennis

Fred,
Thanks for the information and great content. I am always going through the internet searching for good content to get ideas for my easy home based business web sites and Thanks for the information and great content. I am always going through the internet future articles on this general subject.

Posted by Dennis on February 3, 2010 1:37 PM
From: D. Miller

This just further proves why Google is the preferred search engine and why we bust our asses working to get rankings in there. However it's not perfect and there are several areas where it can improve. For instance, all this random crap they are adding like video and news results make SERPs messy and they should just have their own tab.
Posted by D. Miller on February 8, 2010 10:30 PM
From: David

I have a question...If I post a comment that is approved and listed on someones blog that is of relevant topics to my site and I list my url is that considered a "quality" link towards google?

Also, I understand it's a rather unexplainable field but google is just so random for my keyword I will go from the second and third page to the ninth page then the 17th page for my specific keyword then back. I am constantly building links and writing content and I just don't understand how inconsistent Google can be.

Thanks, David
Posted by David on February 13, 2010 8:13 AM
From Fred...

David;
Posting comments on blogs that use "NoFollow" will not do you any SEO good, but they will lead real human readers to your site which is the point of SEO anyway so it's still a good thing. Read this post of mine about the NoFollow tag: http://www.pqinternet.com/41.htm you can use the "view source" command of your browser to see the HTML code of the page and see if the links in the comments of a blog or web site contain the "NoFollow" tag...

As for your second question, I see that movement a lot... the first page of results seems more stable and the deeper pages seem more stable, but there does appear to be a some flux a few pages in... perhaps it's Googles way of sharing the love! Build some links setting up an account with these guys: http://www.pqinternet.com/FreeTrafficSystem it's free and you can get two links in every article you submit... which gets picked up by other blogs...

Posted by Fred Black on February 13, 2010 8:52 PM
From: Rysk

Fred,
I disagree about the value of no follow blog postings, Google values link diversity that is links from multiple sources (blogs, forums, articles, social networking sites) and this also includes a mixture of follow links, obviously the most important, and no follow links. How would it look to Google if a site JUST had follow links. It wouldn't look natural, not 'editorially given' as Matt Cutts would say.
Thanks
Posted by Rysk on February 17, 2010 3:21 PM
From: James

Hey, thanks for the info...I just got PR2 and I will continue the strategy you shared...I like when I got some results.
Posted by James on April 10, 2010 7:19 AM
From: jaqes

If you are doing SEO for your website or blogs then its very important to know what the quality of links as my point of view linking with dofollow relevant website would be better.
Posted by jaqes on June 22, 2010 4:27 AM
From: Uzi

Thanks for sharing this experience. your images matches with the diagram that I had in my mind about the link importance :P No, but seriously it helps a lot to understand the link benefits for new sites.
Posted by Uzi on July 21, 2010 12:15 AM
From: dee oneal

Hi. Thank you for sharing your experienced with us. What you have mentioned here is nice and helpful to those who are struggling so hard to improve their ranking. Links are important in SEO to build your reputation but also we should not forget that content is king all the time. By providing great content to your readers and making some link building in DoFollow sites or forums, then accompanied by article submission in worthy article directories will bring you large followers eventually.
Posted by dee oneal on September 17, 2010 4:36 AM
From: dee oneal

Thanks for sharing these wonderful links. I'm pretty sure they are all helpful in promoting a site the very effective way. As we all know internet marketing nowadays is really essential so you are very generous to share those links.
Posted by dee oneal on September 17, 2010 9:02 AM
From: Subtle Network

Thats what i had figured. I actually did an SEO analysis on a clients page to find them with a hefty PR3 (back when PR meant something). I was really surprised to find that they only had 5 incoming links and only one from a page with a high PR. I think not only the value of a link but the length of time it's in place matters a lot.
Posted by Subtle Network on December 31, 2010 3:08 PM
From: Ahsima

It is a great article with optimum analysis on the search engines and their strategies. Thanks to the article for sharing with an example picture for clear understanding.

Ahsima
Posted by Ahsima on July 31, 2011 2:42 AM