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Backlinks without Traffic as Seen by Google

by Melissa82
17 replies
  • SEO
    • |
Have you ever thought of how Google sees all these backlinks we build to our sites before traffic starts to flow in as we rise in the rankings?

It reminds me of someone building an elaborate stage presentation and the only guest in the audience is Google. Google's eyes dance around the intricate details of this immense stage you've built and then all of a sudden you realize you forgot one key thing. Actors! Google sneers and exits. Your illusion of authority is revealed and your site plummets in the rankings overnight.

I wonder if buying traffic to run around on these stages we built might make a better show for Google to see?

Anyone experimented with this to perhaps prevent sudden drops in your ranking?
#backlinks #google #traffic
  • Profile picture of the author chumpschimps
    Do you mean like having more backlinks than visitors?

    It amazes me how SEO 'experts' advise getting as many backlinks as possible, without making the process look natural.

    It must be a pretty big red flag to google when it sees a blast of whatever-number of backlinks being thrown at a website when the site's never even had 1/10 that number of visitors.
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  • Profile picture of the author RevSEO
    How would Google gauge the traffic anyways?

    If your site has an offline television promotion but zero SEO presence before hand, how would they know about all the traffic that you were receiving?

    Faking traffics the easy part, getting good backlinks is much more difficult. There's a ton of ways to fake traffic keep in mind.

    Which brings me back to my original question.

    How would Google know about the traffic you were receiving OUTSIDE of their search engine results?
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  • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
    I just figured Google knew my traffic stats...and the color of my underwear!
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    • Profile picture of the author JSProjects
      Originally Posted by Melissa82 View Post

      I just figured Google knew my traffic stats...and the color of my underwear!
      I'm pretty sure I saw them across the street in the bushes as I was getting in my car this morning.
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  • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
    But even if Google only can see search engine traffic the same argument still applies. If you have 20,000 backlinks and no search engine traffic that has to raise a red flag.
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  • Profile picture of the author JawadAshraf
    Guys! Google don't see traffic on your site to give you high rankings. There are many different factors which determine Google to give you sweet spots. Like, quality contents on your site, proper on page SEO and then one way authority mixed links. It's that simple.
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    • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
      Originally Posted by JawadAshraf View Post

      Guys! Google don't see traffic on your site to give you high rankings. There are many different factors which determine Google to give you sweet spots. Like, quality contents on your site, proper on page SEO and then one way authority mixed links. It's that simple.
      Yes, this is the recurring thought for getting higher in the rankings I'm not disputing that.

      I'm just trying to figure out that if Google sees 20,000 backlinks with no search engine traffic will that be a red flag? I've heard many stories of people's sites rising in the rankings using all the above techniques, getting to page two or three and then overnight falling to page 180 and staying there for weeks or months until "better quality" backlinks are added. I want to know what caused it to fall in the first place. This would never happen to some site that naturally goes viral. So I ask myself what is the difference; Search traffic vs no search traffic.
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  • Profile picture of the author avatar9812
    Do not over-think about it, google is looking for a balance between quality and quantity.
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  • Profile picture of the author IprovideSEO
    Great metaphor on your original post Melisa, I am not sure if Google crawlers can check traffic through links.

    I wouldn't be surprised if they did know the amount of traffic referred by those links if you have Google Analytics set up on your site. However I doubt they would penalize your site if there was 0 traffic coming from a link because what if some other webmaster posts a link to your site on a PR 0 website with irrelevant content. Most website owners would have no idea and I think Google takes this into account.

    Therefore quality backlinks make more sense to increase your rankings
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    • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
      Originally Posted by IprovideSEO View Post

      Great metaphor on your original post Melisa, I am not sure if Google crawlers can check traffic through links.

      I wouldn't be surprised if they did know the amount of traffic referred by those links if you have Google Analytics set up on your site. However I doubt they would penalize your site if there was 0 traffic coming from a link because what if some other webmaster posts a link to your site on a PR 0 website with irrelevant content. Most website owners would have no idea and I think Google takes this into account.

      Therefore quality backlinks make more sense to increase your rankings
      I meant without Google Analytics but I do see your point about crushing the opposition with PR0 sites. However, the only reason to do that would be if that competition was already high in the search results and receiving plenty of natural traffic so I agree that nothing would happen. I'll bet I could blast 20,000 garbage backlinks at very low traffic/linked page 10 site and demote it to page 100. It would be a cruel experiment though.
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      • Profile picture of the author friedman
        many people use the google toolbar

        it tells google:
        - time on site
        - bounce
        - etc

        So google can and does figure things out as many ways as they can...
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      • Profile picture of the author theverysmartguy
        Originally Posted by Melissa82 View Post

        I meant without Google Analytics but I do see your point about crushing the opposition with PR0 sites. However, the only reason to do that would be if that competition was already high in the search results and receiving plenty of natural traffic so I agree that nothing would happen. I'll bet I could blast 20,000 garbage backlinks at very low traffic/linked page 10 site and demote it to page 100. It would be a cruel experiment though.
        If this could actually happen then why would people work on their own sites; they could just blast links to their competitors and drive them down.

        This is not how it works though. Google will penalize you more for your on page SEO than they will for your off page SEO.

        Google knows that you can't fully control the off page part of SEO, so it doesn't take it into a huge account for when it decides to penalize you.

        People who see a lot of google dancing are the people who are BLASTING links to their own sites trying to drive them up. However, if you would concentrate your efforts on creating quality links over a vast quantity you will see less of a dance and more of an upward rise.

        I used to blast links to my sites, and they would dance all over the place. Then I experimented; using only quality links I built them up, the page would just continue a steady rise in the serps without the dance.

        -- Jeff
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        "Doing nothing is worse than doing it wrong."

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  • Profile picture of the author mrehan
    They can always get traffic data from Alexa
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  • Profile picture of the author Melissa82
    So has anyone experimented with buying traffic to add to all these backlinks being built for a true imitation of a viral site?

    Thanks!
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  • Profile picture of the author warrich
    Having a great number of backlinks is never really harmful. It is the process that lets you down as to how you got there. If you get 3000 backlinks in one day then you will see a red flag. But if you get the same number in say 6 months then that is perfectly OK.
    See the difference?
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  • Profile picture of the author LiftMyRank
    100% agree with everything the smart guy said above.
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