Are backlinks REALLY important???

[imaginemn]

For a while there has been countless discussions about how backlinks are very important to boost your PageRank in Google. Are they really that important or has the PageRank game changed?

I have a site www.cltsloyalty.com that has NO backlinks to the site. The main page only has a PR of 3 but all the inner pages has a PR of 5. Is this a fluke that has inherited PR by mistake or has the the value of backlinks gone away?

imaginemn

[sem4u]

It does have links...

http://search.msn.com/results.aspx?F...loyalty.com%2F

[UKZJ007]

Originally Posted by imaginemn

For a while there has been countless discussions about how backlinks are very important to boost your PageRank in Google. Are they really that important or has the PageRank game changed?

I have a site www.cltsloyalty.com that has NO backlinks to the site. The main page only has a PR of 3 but all the inner pages has a PR of 5. Is this a fluke that has inherited PR by mistake or has the the value of backlinks gone away?

imaginemn

Your not alone, my homepage for one of my sites has a PR2, yet some inner pages have PR4 where NO LINKS are pointing to apart from internally.

Pagerank doesn't matter anymore - or atleast - not as much as it used to.

The value of backlinks has not gone away, but relevancy and sandbox are important factors.

[jg_v7n]

Backlinks are important for anchor text keywords and not so much Pagerank.

[awall19s brother]

Originally Posted by imaginemn

For a while there has been countless discussions about how backlinks are very important to boost your PageRank in Google. Are they really that important or has the PageRank game changed?

Yes they are. How important im not sure. But since backlinks are the main thing that determine PR and PR is 1 factor in Googles algorythm determining your SERP. So yes dont think they're not.

[UKZJ007]

Backlinks are the most important factor.

[CTABUK]

There has been a massive amount of work done in dozens of forums, the general consensus of opion is that there are two distinct levels of 'backlinks' - if you use widexl it will tell you which SE's have backlinks that they consider to have importance to your site and you can click on and search. The other is the good old "mysite" which can show thousands of backlinks and make you feel 'great I've cracked it' - these are Directory listings, forum postings, all sorts, but they are generally considered to be like the effect of throwing a flat stone over a pond. The SE's have spidered you, found you and made reference to you, they are a reflection of where you have been, ripples on water. I would love to say that they count as genuine links to your site, but do they? Well you decide.

[eCommando]

backlinks and the anchor text combo are very important

[Buskerdoo]

jeez,

backlinks are NOT the most important fact for PR (at least not the number). I can get one back link from a pr 7 page and get a 7. I can so ssome internal linking and get one or two back links and get a 5....easy.

You do need good backlinks for SERP. I think PR is still important, you just need to look at it a little different.

[CTABUK]

Ok, this is a difficult forum in which to get questions answered, you seem to have a club feeling - that's cool. I have 500 top page one listings for my site and it generates £55millions per annum in NEW business (Mortgage Lending) and apart from a few paid for submissions and a tiny ppc on www.find.co.uk, which I only do to annoy my competitors.I spend peanuts, I don't even advertise. I do my own updates, I have one guy submitting to Directories and I get rewards by helping others to do the same. My site has made me a millionaire several times over. So would someone just do me a favour, there are 2 forms of backlinks - one helps you the other does not. Any questions?

[jg_v7n]

Yes, how do you differentiate between to two?

[jwalsh]

CTABK -

I'm sure everyone here is curious how you make 55 Million + Annually without advertising? Surely you dont get all that from a few directory listings, and minimal PPC?

Share your secrets with us..

Josh

[jstcrzyengh]

Originally Posted by jwalsh

CTABK -

I'm sure everyone here is curious how you make 55 Million + Annually without advertising? Surely you dont get all that from a few directory listings, and minimal PPC?

Share your secrets with us..

Josh

When he says 55million annually I believe he means in actual loan values. IR if you buy a house worth $500k, he gets 100 of those loans per year, etc... He isn't MAKING 55 million. He probably makes 1-4 points per loan.

[CTABUK]

Hi, our average loan is around the £60,000 mark, and thanks for visiting my website. I am most active over in www.webproworld.com we have a very lively debate daily on promotions. Basically I have achieved our positioning by Content and constant updates to the site. Directory submissions are an everyday feature of life. I have posted this tip here before but I use the Google Tool Bar 'Google Alerts' I put in my keyword which is Right to Buy and everyday I get at least one news story on that subject. I contact the writer or his editor and I add my views, I've been in the Industry for 30 years, so what I say (be it crap or truth) gets picked up on, sometimes you have to be a little contencious, but the minute it is in print, people search either the Company name or it's initials CTAB - we get found. The secret of real success is to read threads in forums, pay us a visit, we have some guro's over
there. I have worked on just the initials for about a year now, when I started we were not in the top 1,000, now we are everywhere. I had a real argument with a guy in Warriors about this, but I was proven right. Google loves the word 'Facts' so if you put up a site with 'Facts about your product' and then start feeding 'We give you Facts about 'your product', into your Directory submissions - try it on my site, go to Big G and type in 'Facts about the Right to Buy' or Right to Buy Facts - Look at your stats daily and see what keyword searches people use to find your site and put them in your description tags.

[awall19]

30 years of history is certainly a nice competitive advantage.

personal experience tells me that those 30 years shouldnt be discounted. I have two years web experience and right now my life might be somewhat harder if that number was 0.

your statements also seem to point to you being somewhat well known in your industry. you cant discount that.

I think I am starting to get a little bit known, but I still spend money on advertising though because no matter how well I am known, no matter how many articles I write, no matter how many friends I may make, no matter how many posts I make, no matter how many on topic and off topic newsletters and websites mention me, I know there is still a huge amount of additional audience that could be reached through advertising.

to say that you do something and are content with where you are is fine. the real question though is where would you be if you did a bit more advertising?

[CTABUK]

That's a good question, your publications are well known in the www, you get mentioned in warriors. I don't advertise because as a Company we are luckier than most, about 5 years a new Right to Buy Company set up in the UK, City Morgtage Corporation - American! Smooth marketting, big mail outs, 400 staff recruited in weeks, they were very, very switched on, the only problem was the mortgage product they were selling were basically 'crap' rule of 78 (still used in credit deals, but not ideal for mortgages) We gave the story to Peter Prendergast at the News of the World (6 million sales every Sunday) he picked up on it. He named us, then the fun really started, we started faxing every Local Authority in the UK featuring the News of the World articles - then the News of the World sent a team to our offices, my photo went out, all the Nationals picked up on it and the rest as they say is history. We are the only Right to Buy Company that is recognised and used by Councils. If you visit our site and look at the PRC page, I own the Intellectual Property Rights to the warranty used, it's made me worth a few shillings.

[Atom]

Soak Up The Sun.

[imaginemn]

And all this has WHAT to do with BACKLINKS???

imaginemn

[awall19]

Originally Posted by imaginemn

And all this has WHAT to do with BACKLINKS???

nothing really. or maybe a bunch.

if you are well branded as an "official" resource or solution backlinks come easier.

of course that does not mean that other sites do not need to work on link building, and it doesnt mean that the site in question would not do any better if it spent more on advertising.

[Affiliate Boss]

relevancy and anchor text..