Backlinks – Sitewides Beware

In SEO | 4 comments | permalink

There are many times when you will need to research backlinks.

*Looking at your own links
*Researching competitors backlinks
*Considering buying a website

However, most people just look at the PR, some look at PR and the amount of backlinks, but only a handful actually look at the quality of those links.

In a future article I will discuss the different types of links to be aware of (comment spam, buying links, topsites, links pages etc), but today I am going to focus on one area where most webmasters make a crucial error.

Quality v Quantity

Personally I would rather have a link on Google.com than on a million blogs. So you can’t go off PR and quantity of links alone.

The easiest way for the numbers to be dramatically altered is via sitewide or blogroll links.

What is a sitewide link = A link that is placed on a template of a website (often in the footer) and therefore features on EVERY page of a website.

Blogroll link = A link that is often placed in the sidebar/side menu of a blog and is shown on EVERY page of a blog.

So why do you need to be wary of these types of links?

Well mainly because the search engines only count a handful of links from a certain url. So if you have a link on 2,000 pages of a blog, then perhaps 1,500 of those links will show in the Yahoo backlink search (Linkdomain:yourdomain.com)
However, out of those 1,500 links that Yahoo has found, only a handful will actually count towards your rankings and pagerank.

From my research it is capped at roughly 5 pages.
Therefore approx 1,495 of those links are not of any benefit to you.

The same can apply to numerous links from the same C Class, but we will come to that another time.

Please note that some webmasters believe that sitewide links actually HARM your rankings. Personally I think that as long as you don’t go overboard you will be ok.

So why do you have to be aware of sitewide links when doing backlink research?

Well lets take an example:

Site A has 10,000 links according to Yahoo.com

Site B has 100 links

However, Site A has 5 sitewide links on 3 forums and 2 blogs. Site B has 100 main page links on unique URLS.

In this case site B would severely outrank site A. But most webmasters would think that site A is actually more powerful.

So next time you do some research on yours or competitiors sites, make sure you pay attention to the quality of the links, and don’t simply be dazzled by the big numbers.

Dean

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4 COMMENTS

  • http://www.guinchoguy.com Guincho Guy

    You say “From my research it is capped at roughly 5 pages.” What research? How on earth did you find out that there is cap of 5. If you could even work this out with any accuracy how would you know which pages were being chosen, the highest page rank? The most linked to? The most visited by the bot? Most updated?

    I understand what you are saying but without any kind of evidence or proof I will be taking your advice with a pinch of salt.

    I have found things to work in the opposite way. I had a front page link from a site to another of mine. My site had “so so” rankings. I then had that link changed to a site-wide. All those links showed in a yahoo linkdomain: search and they still show in the new site explorer search. Additionally the site the links were going to saw most of its phrases hit numbers 1 and 2 on the search engines (including Google) and it’s PR jump up next time the update happened.

    In short, it’s a nice idea, I would be willing to agree that this may be the case for “some” authority sites, but 9 times out of 10 a link is a link, be it from one page or many. :)

    Guincho Guy

    P.s.
    Feel free to offer evidence to the contrary :)

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Thanks for the reply.

    I think it would have been more suitable if I used the term “My experience” instead of “my research”.

    However, you mis-understood one of my main points. You said: “My site had “so so” rankings. I then had that link changed to a site-wide. All those links showed in a yahoo linkdomain: search and they still show in the new site explorer search”

    I agree that the links WILL show in the search engines. But nofollow links also show in Yahoo, and they don’t count either.

    My point is this: just because a link shows in the linkdomain: search does NOT mean you are getting any credit for that link.

    My experience is based on some sites that I have tested this on, unfortunately like many SEO theories, it is almost impossible to prove something 100%. But it may also be worth noting that many MAJOR brands have asked to buy text links on some of my sites, but the majority of them say that under no conditions do they want the links to be site-wide.

    It is also a case of common sense. Why would someone need to use a sitewide link to promote another site?

    There are two main reasons why people use sitewides: 1) They are buying links 2) They are trying to manipulate the search engines.

    Either of the above are likely to be frowned upon. So it is common sense.

    My points remain valid though:

    1)Don’t just look at the number of links, my example between site A and site B should explain in more detail.

    2) Don’t over use sitewides! at no point did i say NEVER use sitewides, I use them. But as with any SEO technique, do it in moderation. If a high % of your links are from sitewides then it will look un-natural, and you may be penealised.

    Thanks again for your comments.

    Dean

    Current score: 0
  • http://www.guinchoguy.com Guincho Guy

    It helps get more out of a post when you ask for points to be explained. including that lot in your comment into the original post would have made for a better read ;) Top tip for you :)

    Current score: 0
  • http://deanhunt.com Dean Hunt

    Guincho (Dave),

    You mis-read/mis-understood my original post. Your questions were interesting, so I tried to answer them, but you can’t really be giving out too many “top tips” for an article that you failed to understand.

    I will summarise my main point:

    If you are looking at a competitors backlinks (especially when buying a site), don’t be dazzled by the numbers. I have seen pr1 sites that get no search engine traffic that show 50,000+ links in Yahoo.

    Likewise, I have seen pr5 sites with less than 30 links.

    I hope that helps.

    Dean

    Current score: 0