SEO Mysteries — Still Uncracked

SEO Mysteries — Still Uncracked

Will the mystery surrounding back linking echoes ever be solved?

What are the effects of removing back links and how does it impact search ranking in Google? For this week’s SEO Mystery, we decided to research how the “backlink echoes” or “backlink ghosts” have been a particularly tricky mystery that no SEO company expert has been able to definitively crack.

In a recent study, Rand Fishkin, the founder of Moz, performed an experiment to tackle Backlinking echo effects. Fishkin chose a website that was ranked #31 on Google and created 22 backlinks pointing to the low ranking site. The original #31 ranked website quickly bumped to #1—he then removed all 22 backlinks. After four and a half months this prior low rank website remained at #1 even after all 22 backlinks were removed. Other similar experiments were performed with the same outcome.

What does this mean for SEO?

Hundreds of spam backlinks pointing to your site will eventually be blocked by Google’s Penguin update—it eliminates spam-like backlink practices. Some spam-like practices include posting your website or blog links to irrelevant pages outside of your industry or practice. There are effective ways of back linking your website and Google Penguin recovery services offers tools and procedures that can be performed to reestablish your website’s Google rank.

Over the past few years, there have been numerous conflicting explanations behind backlink echoes and how they affect search over time. For instance, Google’s algorithm may take into consideration the value behind multiple backlinks to a website, resulting in high click-through rates to a given website after back-links are removed. On the other hand, experts say Google’s algorithm will eventually catch up and realize these backlinks are no longer in place which will result in your website going back to its prior pre-backlink ranking.

How does this feedback affect your SEO strategy?

Since there is no conclusive discovery behind this SEO mystery it is crucial to have relatable and reputable backlinks pointing to your website to drive traffic. Having a strong and updated link building strategy for your website is crucial to increase leads and to grow your business online.

For more information about backlinks, Google Penguin recovery services, website design and development, and other services, give us a shout!