Esther C Kane

So, you may have been reading how creating a links exchange section for your website isn’t going to help or how getting links to your website via articles doesn’t really do much or how submitting your website to small directories is just a waste of time.

Well, I can see how many SEO firms would say these things.  After all, they’ve been around for a very long time and they’re very easy to abuse so it would make sense that SEO webmasters would dismiss them.

But, hold on just a bit.

Do a backlink check on the top websites (I use http://www.backlinkwatch.com) and tell me what you find.  I did just that and I found this…

1) I ran a backlink check on 5 websites (not ones that I do SEO for – other websites in the top 3 of Google search results for highly competitive phrases like name tags, divorce attorney, patent lawyers, digital imaging and seo services.

2) The MOST incoming links on all 5 websites were from links and resources sections of other websites.

3) The SECOND most number of incoming links came from small website directories.

4) The THIRD most number of incoming links came from articles at article submission sites.

5) The FOURTH most number of incoming links came from social media types of sites such as social bookmarking sites, press releases, blogs, etc.

6) And lastly, the FIFTH most number of incoming links came from other websites owned and operated by the client of the original site.  Some companies had up to 5 different websites that they used to interlink with each other.  But again, this was the least type of incoming links.

One factor that was important in each instance was the anchor text link.  The keyword phrases being used to link to the website.

So, the data just doesn’t seem to tell the story that is being told.  The types of incoming links to the top websites on Google seem to be exactly from the sources that SEO firms are saying not to use.  Maybe one hasn’t caught up with the other, I’m not sure but for the time being, as long as top websites are getting in and staying on the top, I say follow their lead!

If you have any thoughts on this subject feel free to share!