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Do your backlinks have to come from sites in your niche?
bigarsenalbear
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18 Oct 11 1:11 pm

Do your backlinks have to come from sites in your niche?

Hi everyone,

I just read (and commented on) an old post by Mark Ling, in which he shares some very helpful tips about link building.

I had one question though - in that article Ling said you want to get links from sites that are "relevant" - and I'm assuming that means "in the same niche as your own site."

So if you had a dog training site, you wouldn't want a link from a muscle building forum, let's say.

But I was wondering - why not?

As far as the search engines (and "spiders" if that's the right word!) go, does it really matter if the site your link is on is relevant to your own site?

If it's a high page rank, high quality site, won't it pass on "link juice"/PR value no matter what niche it's in?
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mark schaaf
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18 Oct 11 2:54 pm

 Yes you want something relevant to your site because search engines know where the kinks are and where they are going. Not only do you want relevant links but you can also get clicks from the links to your site and if I had a dog training site as you use in your example and you got a link from a building materials site it won't do you any good. They will just click out instantly when they get there because they aren't interested in dog training they want to build something. Where as the person who links from maybe a pet supply site clicking on your dog training site may buy something from you or tell a friend about your site that has a dog that needs training. So yes it does matter.
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Mark
 
bigarsenalbear
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18 Oct 11 3:18 pm

 Thanks for sharing your thoughts Mark - I really appreciate it!
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newstart
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18 Oct 11 4:37 pm

 A backlink that is a quality relevant link passes on more link juice than a link that is not niche related. However a backlink is still a backlink. Any quality backlink is a good link.

With some niches it is difficult to locate and acquire high page rank links. A backlink from a high page rank link from an unrelated niche will still pass on their page ranked link juice to your site.

In the end, a link is a link. I would not concentrate my backlink efforts going after irrelevant high page rank links however a link here or there will not hurt.

Margene
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bigarsenalbear
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18 Oct 11 4:57 pm

 Thanks Margene - is this because Google can actually "see" what the topic of the page you're getting your link from is?

I mean do the spiders or bots or Google people (?!) check out the page you've got the link from and think: "Is the topic of this page similar/the same/relevant to the topic of the page it links to?"

Perhaps it's a bit much to expect you (or anyone outside Google) to be able to say!

Thanks for the helpful advice, though. Much appreciated, as before
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newstart
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18 Oct 11 5:05 pm

 I believe the spider bots are able to grab all pertinent data regarding websites and backlinks. Google will not penalize a site for having a link from an irrelevant site. However, it may look odd if all your links were from irrelevant sites.

The link juice passed along to your site will be the same whether it is from your general niche or not. Since a backlink from a high rank page will have positive effects on your page ranking it makes sense to acquire a good backlink when possible.

If you want information about Google may I suggest checking out PotPieGirl.com. She has some excellent information about SEO and also the Google employment training manual.

Margene
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michellerana
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18 Oct 11 6:51 pm

 Backlinks from non-related websites are not necessarily worthless - they will still count as backlinks - but since the traffic you will get from them are not targeted, you will not be likely to make sales from visitors who click through from those backlinks.

Building backlinks takes a lot of time and effort so I suggest that you focus on building links that would actually help your site and increase your earnings.
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Michelle
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bigarsenalbear
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18 Oct 11 7:26 pm

 Thanks Margene for your follow-up. I will certainly check out potpiegirl!

Thanks too Michelle - yes, I figured that a backlink in a completely unrelated niche might not be much good in terms of the traffic it would generate to your site.

I was just wondering whether there'd be a negative effect on the SEO boost you get/don't get from Google for having that link.

Appreciate your help!
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foreverest1988
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19 Oct 11 6:40 am

 Thanks your sharing. I konw a litte.
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michellerana
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19 Oct 11 3:57 pm
bigarsenalbear wrote:Thanks Margene for your follow-up. I will certainly check out potpiegirl!

Thanks too Michelle - yes, I figured that a backlink in a completely unrelated niche might not be much good in terms of the traffic it would generate to your site.

I was just wondering whether there'd be a negative effect on the SEO boost you get/don't get from Google for having that link.

Appreciate your help!


Backlinks from unrelated sites would not harm your site since we cannot control who links to us. We can only control to which site we link to.

However, if you have a high bounce rate (percentage of people who only visit one page on your site), then unrelated backlinks might affect your ranking. If a lot of people bounce from your page, it will tell search engines that your page is not relevant or isn't what people are looking for and they will move you down the rankings.
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Michelle
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burkhardt5
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20 Oct 11 2:54 pm

 Very good point Michellerana. There are different benefits in link building. Naturally, a link is a way to bring direct traffic to your site which is part of why a link from a relevant page is better than a non relevant page. Also as far as I understand it, the S.E.'s base part of how high your page will rank in the keyword search by how relevant the links going to your page are. This is why article marketing for link building is still valuable as the article that you submit is about the same info as the link that it is pointing to.

Don't forget that the anchor text of the link is one of the most important things as far as making it relevant. Page Rank seems to be much less important than it used to be so I wouldn't let a page with low PR discourage you from putting a backlink on it.

I have a world of warcraft site that I have gotten to #1 in google for the keywords WOW Strategy Guide and World of Warcraft Strategy Guide using mostly article marketing with many of my links on very low PR pages but they are relevant because of there anchor text and the article that they are associated with.

Never Give Up!
Paul
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Paul J. Burkhardt
 
bigarsenalbear
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20 Oct 11 4:08 pm

 Thanks Paul - very helpful and encouraging advice.

It's easy to forget that links can bring traffic as well as improve your SEO. Personally I like the idea of getting traffic from sources other than Google as well. Probably not wise to rely solely on Google for traffic.

Useful point about anchor text too!
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cecille.l
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03 Nov 11 7:13 am

 It's not wise at all to rely on just one search engine for traffic. It's not easy but do your best to make sure all your website/s are optimized in Yahoo and Bing too. Mark interviewed Matt Carter a week or two ago about link building.. It really gives some good pointers on how to build links to your site.
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Cecille

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bigarsenalbear
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03 Nov 11 3:03 pm

 Hi Cecille,

Thanks for posting. I suppose one of the reasons I'm focusing on Google is that I can use the Google keyword tool to see search volume.

If nobody's searching for my keyword in yahoo or bing, there's presumably no point in ranking for it there.

Can you tell me how to find out search volume in yahoo (and bing) for any given keyword?
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michellerana
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03 Nov 11 5:47 pm

 The Keyword Selector Tool in Yahoo was removed and Yahoo stopped updating the Overture Keyword Suggestion tool with search volume data last 2007.

Some say that Yahoo Search Marketing (SM) has a system for it. Create a PPC account and find the tool that could generate search volume results.
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Michelle
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carloaniq
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22 Nov 11 5:31 am

 Anyone heard of this tool or had any experience with it? I would appreciate any input.

Thx,
Brian
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