Can free backlinks still get you to PR5 or do you have to fork out thousands to buy backlinks?
Google's Page Rank algorithm is getting harder to crack by the day. It seems like every niche online is getting more competitive and grabbing those key page 1 rankings in Google is getting tougher and more competitive. Page 1 rankings in Google and even Yahoo and MSN basically boils down to backlinks.
It really is as simple (and as complicated) as that. A couple of years ago you could easily get your website to PR5 by just building free backlinks. In the last 2 years however the buying and selling of high PR links has taken over the world of SEO. Yes,
you can buy your way to the top, but is it worth it and is it a sustainable solution?
As I said before, the only thing worse than not having a high Page Rank is losing your high Page Rank. This is common for lazy marketers who only rely on buying links. See, most of those (really expensive) high PR links are like a hungry monster and you will be charged a monthly or annual fee to keep the link. At $90 a link you can see how quickly it can add up to become a very expensive solution.
So, the real question is whether you can still get a new site up to PR5 by using only free links?
Some of my recent experiments confirms that it is still possible and that it is not nearly as hard as most marketers make it out to be. When I say building free links it does not mean that it's all manual links. This is where most marketers gets scared. When they hear the words building 'free backlinks' the first thing they think is 'hard work' so they avoid it and go looking for the next quick fix.
In my experiments with building high Page Rank mini-sites I simply did not have the budget to go and buy $1000 worth of links. Instead, I used as many tools as I can get my hands on to help me automate as much of the process as possible. I've now narrowed it down to 7 sources that gets me tons of high quality and relevant links. It takes me about 15 minutes a day per site and that's it.
It's important not to lose sight of what back links are really about. It's simply a way for Google to determine how 'important' your site is. When it comes to Page Rank there are 3 aspects that determines it's value:
1. Quality
The higher the PR of the page linking to you, the more valuable it is to your PR
2. Relevancy
The more relevant and 'on topic' the site linking to you is, the more valuable the links will be to your PR
3. Quantity
The more links you get, the more 'authoritative' Google will see your site. Be careful with quantity though as it can work against you.
If you combine these 3 factors you can have a very powerful formula for building free back links. If you can find sites with a high PR, in your niche and find a lot of them you can increase your Page Rank faster than anything else. And it will be free.
So, the short answer is 'yes' you can still get to PR5 by getting only free backlinks, but you will need to be consistent in your link building. The Linkbuilding Blueprint is just that. I use it every day to help me follow a no-brainer formula. In the end getting a high page rank boils down to the marketer who is the most consistent and persistent in building links every day.
