Effectiveness of Backlinks Since Panda

Just a quick observation, if I may ...

We're not completely comparing "items on the same level", here. Because "link wheels", for example, can include almost any/all of the other things on the list: link-wheels refers to a backlinking method, rather than to a backlink location?

My impression, anyway, is that the relative order/positions of most/all of these is entirely unchanged by the Panda update, which was about content anyway. It's just that the "good" ones have got better, and the "bad" ones have got even worse.

Article syndication backlinks are about the very best (both pre- and post-Panda) because by definition, they're going to be from relevant sites, which is what any backlink's link-juice primarily rests on. Links you get naturally from other relevant sites are always the best.

Blog comments (like forum comments) depend on relevance. If they're relevant places, very good; otherwise no good.

Web directories, forum profiles and article directories have been about the "lowest of the low" for two to three years that I know of, anyway, and have become even worse, now (article directory backlinks are close-to-useless, on content grounds, and those others unaffected by Panda, I think?).

Web 2.0 sites, of course, like linkwheels, vary enormously: it depends on what/where they are and their degree of relevance. I think they're generally overrated, though, myself: places like HubPages, Squidoo and Blogger can't really give you anything you can't get free of charge, and much more safely and securely, elsewhere.

Just my perspective.

I try not to be dependent on Google for building my business. As Bill Platt eloquently pointed out a day or so ago, if you depend entirely on SEO for your traffic, then you're "just one algorithm-change away from a disaster". But I happen to get most of my own traffic by article syndication, and you can't really avoid eventually ending up with some pretty hot off-page SEO that way, as observed above.

The Panda update was hugely beneficial for article marketers, collectively, as it turned out (as so many of us have been saying, of course): getting all those article directories out of the way and almost out of the SERP's made it a lot easier for us to rank our own sites.

Hi Of The Mix,

Panda is NOT about links but rather content. Panda is a periodic filter Google rolls out and looks more at content than shady links.

I think all those types of links work fine. The best links are the ones you get naturally from other websites.

I would also mix up your anchor text and do not use the same anchor text over and over. I would mix in some "click Here's" or " visit" and your url.

Remember, Panda is about content, not links.

As far as I know, he main impact of Panda on backlink effectiveness is the serious drop in traffic to many of the article directory sites. So for the time being, article backlinking might be down a notch.

Backlinks are still very powerful and Always will be. Whoever said profile links are useless - you havent done it right - or the person who did them didn't do them right - as profile links can be extremely powerful (got to manually submit - pr5-pr9)

I wouldn't rely too heavily on any backlinking strategy that can be so easily manipulated and abused (like mass blog comment campaigns, etc.). These methods may still be useful for SEO today, but Google is a long way from finishing their "refinements" for separating the wheat from the chaff.

What cannot be faked is good, relevant unique content. Syndicating really good articles seems to me a fail-safe long-term strategy that will never get "The Panda".

Natural editorial links from real sites are what will cement your rankings.

Everything else is mostly a simulation/catalyst that you'll have to maintain.

Panda effected how Google values content. A lot of ecommerce vendors with legit stuff got wiped out. Doesn't have much to do with backlinks, unless your links are now on devalued content.

-Chris

Many people reckon that the algorithm doesn't know how to determine good content. Of course it can detect LSI keywords, good grammar, keyword density, etc.. but how can it detect if someone is posting a crappy article or an informative one?

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