John Hargrave: A 10,000% Increase in Backlinks is yours – By Doing Nothing

Everybody can use more links. Now John Hargrave, writing for Search Engine Journal, explains “How to Get 10,000% More Backlinks in Google, Without Doing Anything.” The secret, he says, is Google Caffeine, the search giant’s latest indexing system. Available since June, Google calls it the “largest collection of web content” it has ever offered. Caffeine exercises deeper and more frequent indexing in an effort to provide more up-to-date, real-time results. The backlink increases can be seen in the “Links to Your Site” section in Google Webmaster Tools.

Using his own clients as an example, Hargrave reports an average 10,000% increase in Google-reported backlinks. While this is an average, he provides a partial list of sites surveyed and the changes in backlinks recorded. Increases range from 394% to over 56,000%. This particular instance showed an increase from 5,900 backlinks to nearly 3.5 million backlinks, all in a little over a month.

The real secret here is that previously, Google admitted that it displayed only a fraction of indexed backlinks with Webmaster Tools. Now, with Caffeine, they are able to show a nearly complete list of backlinks. Not surprisingly, Hargrave says, Bing has increased the number of links it reveals to site owners to the 1,000 most high quality links leading to your site. This is a clear step above Google, which includes literally all sites (including spammers) that may be linking to you.

Let’s Talk Dirty: Van Iderstyne Lists the Five Dirty Words of Link Building

Debra Van Iderstyne, writing for Search Engine Journal, says that while there are a lot of dirty words use to describe people in the SEO business, there are 5 dirty words in link building that she hears all the time– that is, they’re words that should never be used or said in polite company when discussing link building. The first one is “Hundreds” – as in buying hundreds of non-relevant links at once. Or “signing up for a few hundred links on ‘book marking’ sites.” “Hundreds” of links is a sure way to raise suspicion about your site.

Another dirty word is “Exchange – as in “link exchange.” The very phrase implies underhanded doings. The third dirty word is “Worthless.” Collecting “worthless” links on the gamble that they’ll be worth something to you in the future is a waste of money.

The fourth word is “perfect.” If it’s “the perfect site” to link to, there’s probably something wrong with it. Links can always be made better. Or as Van Iderstyne says, “Anyone who promises perfect links is perfectly full of crap.” The final dirty word in the list is “guarantee,“ for many of the same reasons that “perfect” is on the list. It can’t be guaranteed. No one can guarantee that any link building strategy will work.