6 replies to this topic

[CurveBall]

Hi All
I have heard alot about the importance of Inbound Links (aka off page opt)...over onpage opt. One commentator has gone as far as saying Inbound Links dwarf the importance of onpage opt. But I have seen sites which rank the no. 1 in Google, and I have looked at them. The number of inbound links and their quality was not all that great...34 in one case, with 15 broken links..ranked no. 1..but what I saw was a HUGE NUMBER OF INTERNAL LINKS..something like 2500 internal links...and I also noticed that in another site also ranked 1 in Google, with huge internal links...So I began to wonder, do internal links have a significant weighing on Ranking?

[torka]

1. If you're checking inbound links in Google, their "link:" function is broken and has been for some time. Well, maybe not broken per se, but they have deliberately set it so that it doesn't show all the links known to Google. So the link counts you're getting from Google (if that's where you're getting them) will be skewed, unreliable and, basically, useless.

2. Inbound links are on a page-by-page basis. So, yes, internal links do count. Maybe (or maybe not) as much as external links. But they're still inbound links to that page whether they come from another page on the same site or a page on another site.

3. In Google, at least, I think it isn't so much the sheer number of links as it is the "importance" of the links and their anchor text. Pages can, indeed, rank for a phrase that doesn't appear anywhere on the page simply by virtue of enough links pointing to that page with the phrase in their anchor text (Googlebombing).

That said, the best results generally come about when you can get links/anchor text and on-page factors working together.

HTH!

--Torka

[CurveBall]

Hi and Thanks
No it was not google, but a Link submission software (SElite)..it showed 39 inbound links and google showed 2190 links into the website, 95% of which are internal links...
I can give you all the stats if you want..

[TopTenOrBust]

If you're checking inbound links in Google, their "link:" function is broken and has been for some time.

Is there a reliable/accurate alternative. I know that there is a similar function in Yahoo, is that an accurate picture of inbound links?

Thanks!

[qwerty]

Welcome to HR, CurveBall

One commentator has gone as far as saying Inbound Links dwarf the importance of onpage opt.

One thing that's sort of true about this content vs. links business is that, logically speaking, there has to be some point at which you've done all you can on the page: you've got the right keyword phrases, your text uses those phrases enough, but not too much, it's written in such a way as to increase conversions, etc etc. But with billions of pages in the indeces of the search engines, there really isn't a limit as to how many links you can get pointing to your page. Sure, some of them will be junk and will count for little or nothing as far as rankings go, and some of them will be very valuable, but just mathematically speaking, there is no point at which there's no way for you to get any more links.

The thing to remember is that it's all circular: good on-page content makes it easier to rank well whether you have links or not (you have to have some, of course, or the engines will completely ignore you), good content makes it easier to get others interested in linking to you, links may improve your rankings and may send people to your page, but without good content on the page, no one's going to buy/subscribe/tell others or do whatever a conversion means to you.

You have to have both.

[CurveBall]

Hi Qwerty
It goes without saying that you absolutely need good content as you have described..it does not mean very much if you get no. 1 ranking and people leave your site as soon as they click in...

[Jill]

Welcome CurveBall!

But I have seen sites which rank the no. 1 in Google, and I have looked at them. The number of inbound links and their quality was not all that great...34 in one case, with 15 broken links..ranked no. 1

That just goes to show you that nobody can make any kind of blanket statements about what gets high rankings more so than another thing. It's going to be different on every site.

It's a question of finding the right mixture for your particular site that matters the most. The good news is that you may be able to find a variety of mixtures that all lead to the same results.

You'll make yourself crazy though, if you try to dissect every top ranking site because each one is there for its own unique reasons. And many times the reason for one page to be there for one phrase, might be at complete odds for why another page is there for another phrase.