One thing I know for sure about Google search engine rankings is that it is just about impossible to know anything for sure about Google search engine rankings. Sometimes, it’s good to know what you don’t know.
How Google decides what websites appear on the front page for any particular search term is like the formula for Coke or the recipe for Kentucky Fried Chicken — it’s a secret. We know Coke has caramel in it, but the exact recipe is classified. The difference between Coke and Google is that the formula for Coke never changes (they tried that once — what a disaster). In fact, the formula for Google SERPs is changing periodically as Google works to improve the experience for end users.
Of course, what you hear all the time on blogs just like this one are “stories” about what people did on their web site for their keywords that resulted in page one rankings. I call this anecdotal evidence. It’s usually very interesting, but it is almost never conclusive. Just because someone got a page one ranking by including their keywords in the footer of their pages in flashing pink with a blue background, does not mean that you will get the same result.
So, let me tell you an anecdote about Google page rank.
Backlinks Do Seem To Be Important
However, some themes keep coming out. For example, we are pretty sure that Google pays attention to backlinks when determining ranking. We believe this for at least four reasons:
- The Google search engine was originally called “BackRub” (a reference to the use of backlinks in their algorithm).
- Google Page Rank patents discuss backlinks
- Matt Cutts talks about certain backlinks being important in various blog posts and forums
- We see anecdotal evidence of the importance of backlinks
So it’s that last point that I want to talk about today. I have some anecdotal evidence I want to share.
My PR2 Website
Last January I created a site for my wife called PalsLoft.com. My wife was going to blog about our new baby and review various baby products. I got the site up with some bad graphics and posted two sample affilaite landing pages complete with eBay affiliate links and some text. The home page (where the weekly blog posts were going to live) was basically empty.
Note — I plan to work on this site some soon, so by the time you read this, it may have changed. Here is a screen shot of what the site looked line for about nine months between February and October 2008.
To get the site going, I submitted the URL to a directory link submission service. This particular service submitted links to “brand new directories” as they were announced in Digital Point Forums. So the backlinks that were created from this service were pretty crummy. They came from link directories (bad) that had no authority (worse) and were brand spankin’ new (terrible). Basically, they were junk links.
After about a month of that, I forgot about the site. I ended up with about 70 backlinks. I literally never touched the site after January of 2008. Earlier this month, I checked the site and found that the empty home page was PR2 (toolbar PR), and both of the two pages linked from the home page are PR1. Go figure. Here is a site that has little real content and Google is ranking it as PR2. So much for content is King.
So What? Who Cares About A Toolbar PR2 Ranking
So, what is that worth? Who cares about a toolbar PR2 site with no content? Well, as I stated before, it is only anecdotal evidence. But, it suggests that tools like Firepow, 1WayLinks and 3WayLinks that provide quality links might be worth the investment — at least in terms of getting page rank. The problem is, page rank does not convert directly to sales. Traffic converts to sales. Is this page rank converting?
Well, I am embarrassed to say that I never finished adding Google Analytics to the site, or properly set up the Commission Junction ID to track clicks and sales. But, the AWStats seem to suggest that there is some traffic there, and that it has been growing over time.
The Bottom Line on Backlinks
The bottom line — Build Backlinks. But you knew that already. If you are working on sites, your promotion strategy needs to include a backlink plan. Based on this traffic data, I conclude that tools like Firepow, 1WayLinks and 3WayLinks that provide backlinks links might be worth the investment — but you need to evaluate this for yourself on your own site. As I mentioned before, the above evidence is anecdotal, and your mileage may vary.
