are there people who DONT backlink and still get decent traffic?

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   Thumb86posted 13 years ago

   I published a couple new hubs yesterday and Im going to see if they generate decent traffic without backlinks created by me. I did take care to choose the keywords but I want to see if they get the right sort of traffic without me backlinking.

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      MyPostingIDposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I do ZERO backlinking except for typical OnlyWire-type bookmarking.  Most of my hubs are indexed and ranked in the top 2 pages of Google with 48 hours more often than not.
      
      Now, my hubs are product-based and I target terms I know I can rank for.  With just a basic understanding of SEO and keyword research, your hubs can become VERY profitable.

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         alternate poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         If your hubs are doing so well - how come you don't have any

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            MyPostingIDposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            This is obviously my posting ID.  My hubs, which I spend maybe 2 hours a day on, earn me a significant monthly income.  Why invite competition?
            
            They key to my success is LOW COMPETITION phrases and smart affiliate link placement.  Showing everyone what I'm doing defeats the purpose.

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               alternate poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               I knew that of course - but you say "They key to my success is LOW COMPETITION phrases"  doesn't that agree with what I said "unless they are exceptionally good, in a total niche without competition,"

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                  idreesfarooqposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  I am agreed with you alternate poet. By just simply saying that My hubs are ranked and indexed by Google in first two pages is not enougy mypostingid even you have not any hub on hubpages. Show us how with your work how you do this. Come on hubpages with your writing and see how the whole stuff works.

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                     alternate poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     I am on hubpages or I would not not be here chatting to  you
                     
                     My writing is not commercial or backlinked except for a few tests to see what happens etc.  I have been treating this site as a learning place and the forums to while away a bit too much free time.

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                        PaulaHenry1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

                        I believe he was directing it to the other -

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                     MyPostingIDposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     As I said earlier, this is clearly my posting ID.  There are many here who maintain separate posting ID's for various reasons.
                     
                     Trust me, I am here on HubPages and I am very profitable.  Although I prefer not to reveal my hubs, I am working on a hub that provides a pretty in-depth overview of how I am doing things.
                     
                     I hope to have it done in the next day or so.
                     
                     Feel free to follow me so you know when it's complete.

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      Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It all depends what you mean by "decent traffic". 
      
      If you create a website or blog and do no backlinking, it will likely languish with no traffic forever. The good thing about Hubs is that they will get traffic all by themselves, eventually - but the word is eventually! 
      
      Backlinking will kick-start the traffic much faster, but as far as I'm concerned, the jury is still out on whether your time is better spent on backlinking or just writing more Hubs.

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         Aya Katzposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Marisa, that's good to know. Personally, I'd much rather write than backlink.

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   alternate poetposted 13 years ago

   No they don't - unless they are exceptionally good, in a total niche without competition, and have aged for ever.  Would be my humble opinion.

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      MyPostingIDposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      It's actually quite easy if you target low competition phrases.  Over half of my hubs are all less than a month old and most are in the top 20 in Google.

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   relacheposted 13 years ago

   "are there people who DONT backlink and still get decent traffic?"
   
   yes.

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   MyPostingIDposted 13 years ago

   I agree, absolutely.  Although, I wouldn't say "no competition" because some of my hubs rank on the first page of Google for terms with millions of competing websites.
   
   Knowing how to research the top-10 is key to ranking.

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   thisisoliposted 13 years ago

   You can get traffic without backlinking, however it is harder, and the hub you write will not be reaching it's full potential.

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      Thumb86posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      a few of my hubs that I did virtually no backlinking for are my best performers..So I was just wondering...

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         MyPostingIDposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         Yep.  Totally possible.  I've written about 100 hubs in the 6 weeks I've been here.  I'm already approaching the 10,000 views accolade and have yet to do any backlinking outside of OnlyWire bookmarking.

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            Mark Knowlesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

            Yes, but - as some have mentioned - you are probably not getting your full potential. Second page rankings are all but useless in most niches.
            
            As an example - I have another account that I set up 7 weeks ago and added 98 hubs to. I immediately started actively backlinking and already have had 35,000+ views on that account - which is a commercial subject. I usually find it takes a full year for commercial content to rank well and stay ranked - I expect to see at least 4-5 times that traffic by next year.
            
            Now - I assume you are targeting low volume subjects, so that is not really an accurate comparison to make.
            
            You need to either research and find keywords for which there is low publisher competition - in which case you will rank almost without a single backlink - or actively build links to subjects with more competition. Or both.
            
            Simple fact is - you absolutely will not be able to generate decent traffic to a competitive subject without doing some promotional work, except on the odd occasion you get lucky, so the real answer to the OP's question is - it depends.

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               MyPostingIDposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Well stated Mark!
               
               Yes, I agree that backlinking will greatly improve rankings and that Page 2 is not nearly as effective.  However, that said, I do rank very well on page one for LOTS of LSI keywords even though my main keywords are on page two.
               
               Yes, I do target low competition phrases. 
               
               Regarding backlinking, I also own in excess of 100 niche websites that are monetized with AdSense.  My backlining efforts are consumed by those sites as they belong to me, not HubPages.
               
               It is my personal preference to spend my backlining efforts on my own online real estate rather than HubPages.  Although I will occasionally throw a backlink or two to a hub with promise.
               
               At the urging of a few hubbers, I'm working on a hub that dives into what I do.

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                  thisisoliposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  Just a note, LSI is not long tail keywords.  LSI is regarding how google views the target subject of a keyword and the relevance of a keyword based on the surrounding text.
                  
                  Think of the word orange, the fruit the color, or political? LSI helps google determine which section it belongs in. There is a debate as to whether optimising a page for LSI will affect a ranking factor in the google Algorythm though.

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                     MyPostingIDposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                     Correct.
                     
                     LSI, in the context of my post, refers to optimizing a page using several related keywords and content to make it clear to the search engines what my hubs are about.  This, of course, includes using related long-tails, which I rank very well for.

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               Kangaroo_Jaseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

               Mark,
               
               Correct me if I am wrong, but have you acquired most of the articles with some re-writes for those 98 Hubs? Or have you just simply had the time to write out  2 Hubs a day for that account over 7 weeks?
               
               98 Hubs is such a short span of time is....a very large amount of output.

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                  WryLiltposted 13 years agoin reply to this

                  If I didn't have a baby or a job I could do it.
                  
                  It's completely possible.
                  
                  Although I might bet on the first answer.

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      PR_amposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I agree with thisisoli. "are there people who DONT backlink and still get decent traffic?" Yes, but if you achieve more results with backlinks, it doesn't hurt to explore your Hubs full potentials.

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   Research Analystposted 13 years ago

   I heard that backlinking is a good way to get more traffic to your hubs.

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   habeeposted 13 years ago

   Randy Godwin gets good traffic and does little, if any, backlinking.

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   saleheensblogposted 13 years ago

   some of my hubs have performed extremely well without any back linking.

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   BenjaminBposted 13 years ago

   I believe it's all about keyword choice.I've had a couple of my hubs pop up first page google within 6 hours of release by doing nothing but pinging my RSS. With no backlinking at all though they won't maintain that ranking for long unless your lucky.

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    shazwellynposted 13 years ago

    Ryan Kett does very little backlinking (so he says) and he has over a million views for his hubs and is about to give up work in November because earnings here have been so good! 
    
    Then you have Misha, who says that he searches for loads of traffic - whatever the click value is - even for high competitive terms works for him.  He recons he earns $1000 a day (If I remember rightly... even if this is for a week, it's good eh?).
    
    So, I suppose you have to find the right strategy for you.  Test, test and test again!

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       ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I actually do backlink most of hubs at least twice, and my earnings from Hubpages are not my sole income source.. although they are currently my largest income source.
       
       I actively promote backlinking as a practice which will enhance the performance of your hubpages in the long term, there is no doubt that backlinking will result in higher SERPS rankings. Even moving 1 place from say 3rd to 2nd in Google can almost double your traffic, and sometimes it takes just 3 or 4 backlinks to achieve this.

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          Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          This is really interesting.  Most articles about backlinking talk about getting large numbers of backlinks - article marketing, submitting RSS feeds all over the place, posting on blogs etc etc.  Misha and Mark Knowles are advocates for that kind of strategy, and they invest substantial dollars in monthly subscriptions to achieve it.  I'm not saying that doesn't work - and for your own website or blog, it's probably essential.
          
          Yet there's Ryankett, backlinking TWICE and still making a nice income!
          
          It just goes to show, when we talk about backlinking we need to be clear what we mean.

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             alternate poetposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             I am still working my way through this but if I understand Net Samurai correctly - it is not the numbers but the quality of the backlinks.  If you have a backlink through (say) your own entry in Wicki in an often looked at subject field, or to a government info service,  surely that is more 'valuable' than hundreds to one of the blog site type index type thingys ?

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             sunforgedposted 13 years agoin reply to this

             Not sure of the relevance
             
             "nice" income is rather subjective
             
             Unless, Ive missed some forum activity - Ryan would have recently announced reaching a monetary goal that includes multiple aff networks with 400 hubs that Misha achieved with only one aff with only 20ish hubs. I also believe that income goal is daily SOP for Misha but still cause for celebration for Ryan.
             
             When your pursuing this as a business- its not that hard to actually experiment and make decisions of what is most effective - there is little cause to ponder - just act and see what happens. There is no valid mystery about the effectiveness of backlinking and link diversity in the process of conquering competitive profitable terms, any anecdotal evidence to the contrary is just not fully explained and examined via critical factors.
             
             What is decent traffic? what is a nice income? ..paying your gas bill or rent is nice w/ online income - but are you going on vacation with online income? buying cars? etc.
             
             you get what you give.
             
             and its not either/or! thats such a redundant and dull aspect of the HP forums as of late, its "and" and "and"
             
             quality content AND Proper Targetting via Keyword Research
             
             on page AND offpage optimization
             
             Fun AND profit
             
             backlinks AND backlinks (sorry had to add that)
             
             HP AND your blogs/sites
             
             Quality relevant related backlinks AND Quantity of backlinks
             
             etc.

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       Mishaposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Hey Sharon, actually Misha is all about backlinking, so he may be an example of anything but getting traffic without backlinks.

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    Randy Godwinposted 13 years ago

    I suppose depends on what one considers "decent" traffic!

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    Cordaleposted 13 years ago

    It 100% depends on the topics. I have a hub that was targetted towards a small amount of people and it ranked #1 on google in 24 hours and I have gotten 50+ google views a day on it with absolutely 0 backlinks to it.
    
    Others have started on page 3 and due to baklinking are #3 or 4 on googles main page.
    
    It differs on the topic.

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       gracenotesposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I have to agree with this.  Some of my hubs did better with promotion and backlinking.
       
       However, on the subject of health, with some promotion, I got one of my hubs to the #2 spot on Page 1 of the SERPs.  But it doesn't get as much traffic as another couple of health-related hubs which are only on page 2 of Google for their keywords.
       
       Because I've done so much medical research, I assume that when people are troubled by a medical problem, they search much more deeply and go through two or three pages on Google to find answers.  If it's a commercial hub, like where to find the cheapest pillow pets, the user search experience is different.

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          PurpleOneposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          I think that is an excellent point. Never thought of it that way!

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    money mysteryposted 13 years ago

    It depends on the competition. If there is no competition, it is easy to rank in google without links.

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14. STAFF

    Paul Edmondsonposted 13 years ago

    I think it's a really good discussion on how to effectively backlink.  There are a few things that people should know about backlinks. 
    
    First, they are very important to higher rankings and helping break through competition. 
    
    The second, thing is unnatural backlink growth provides little value.  Ryankett's strategy of a couple of backlinks seems solid.  It gives it a little boost out of the gate, but as organic links grow, the content achieves it's full potential. 
    
    I thought Mark Knowles described his expectations well.  After a full year it will achieve it's full value.
    
    I don't focus on backlinking beyond integrating a few links into my personal blog.  I miay write a blog post about going on vacation and then link to my hub on the vacation destination.  This seems to help the hub quite a bit and it's a nice way to have your blog help your hub.

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    alternate poetposted 13 years ago

    AND if your individual pages are backlinked twice and you have fifty pages this is one hundred links anyway - ?

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    learner.brownposted 13 years ago

    If you are in this to make money, you need to do backlinking,
    
    Yes, you can rank easily on the first or second page for lots of terms, but why would the first or second page be your goal? Make the number one spot be your goal. Get there with backlinks. Even with low competition terms, you will do better with backlinks. Why are so many people wanting to skip this, which is the only step in SEO that actually matters?
    
    As far as people getting traffic without backlinks, if you are in this for income, Hubpages traffic and social traffic doesn't help you much. Hubbers don't click on ads.

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    CYBERSUPEposted 13 years ago

    I am new to HubPages and Backlining and reading all that is being said in this Forum is helping me understand the workings of HubPages and the ways to earn some cash. I am also new to using a computer which is foreign to me, since computers were never in my workplace.

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       sofsposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I am learning too , been following this thread with a lot of interest.. and reading up hubs by these hubbers.

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       BenjaminBposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Cybersupe before I started on hubpages 5 weeks ago if you would have asked me what HTML was I'd a thought you were talking about a new combo at Mcdonalds. All of the hubs based on terminology involved in online marketing have helped me tremendously as I know they have you as well. Good to be on a site where the haves are not stingy with their knowledge for sure.

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    Dr23posted 13 years ago

    I don't do any backlinking and frankly I don't plan on starting.
    
    My results are terrific or even good for that matter, but I do know a few things about SEO. For the most part, the generic link builder sites don't do too much to improve where you are on a search engine.
    
    Keyword research greatly outweighs backlinking, in my opinion, but to each their own.

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