I earned some high-quality backlinks, but the target page's ranking is not improving. Why?
-
Within the last three months, I acquired five .EDU backlinks and two editorial links to a page ranking for a competitive keyword. After the first few links came through, the page jumped from #15 to #7. It stayed there with minor fluctuations for a couple weeks. I earned a couple more good links, and the page fell as far as #44. It has recovered a bit then, but has not returned to the first page.
It is worth noting that the .EDU links were achieved by sponsoring university programs. Could Google possibly be recognizing this as a link scheme? Are the links being earned too quickly? I don't believe it could be either, as the links reside on high quality, trustworthy sites and there wasn't a sudden major influx of them.
Thank you for your insight!
Also, I think my username tricked Moz into thinking I'm a staffer. Not the case!
-
Hey Patrick,
Thanks for your response. I have read Kristina's article before but I'm afraid now it might be a bit irrelevant with the latest Penguin update. Google should be recognizing linkbuilding efforts much faster now that Penguin operates in real-time.
-
Hi Steven
I would recommend reading through a great Moz article from Kristina Kledzik on How Long Does Link Building Take to Influence Rankings. There are some great studies in this article as well as some tips and resources to help you get a thorough process going to get the most out of the links that you acquire.
Hope this helps! Let me know, thanks!
Patrick -
Yes, all the links are followed. My domain is old and trusted, as are the domains linking back to me.
-
Hi John,
Thank you for the response. Yes, the links are indexed and followed. We have not changed anything on page. Is it possible Penguin is recognizing new link activity and it is causing fluctuations? Maybe I am being impatient and just need to wait a bit for a higher ranking to settle in.
-
Did you check to see if the links are follow or no follow? How old is the domain?
-
Hi Steven -
Great question here and one I have heard a lot over the last few years. A few questions for you:
- Are the links indexed?
- Did you make any changes to your site that may have affected your page's ranking (robots.txt, internal linking)?
In the good old days of SEO, it was quite common to see a page jump in rankings (like you seem to have seen) from building some links. I've seen it happen within a matter of hours, actually. But things have changed (probably to keep people from gaming the SERPs too hard) and sometimes it can take weeks or even months for links to have their full effect on your rankings.
So I'd check that the links are indexed and that you didn't change anything on your page to affect your rankings. Then, I'd make sure that your page is structured to meet your user's needs (eg if it's an informational query as evidenced by what else is ranking, don't have a super transactional page). Then, build more links and keep calm and carry on.
I hope that helps!
John
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Page not Ranking I feel helpless!
Hi there 🙂 I have been working at SEO for quite some time and I am such a noob. I have even done an online course. I am at my wits end. My website is https://www.urbani.com.au. I changed to https about 1 month ago. I want to rank for "outdoor furniture perth". Recently my homepage has stopped ranking for this keyword, and a useless blog page started ranking instead (www.urbani.com.au/tag/outdoor-furniture-perth/), on page 5 of google. I got rid of that page and redirected it to my homepage. Do you know what the problem is? Why won't google rank my homepage for "outdoor furniture perth"? It is ranking for "outdoor wicker furniture perth", but for "outdoor furniture perth" it has disappeared from the face of this earth. Thank you so much, if I can get help for this it would save my business! Whitney
Link Building | | vhitnah0 -
Requesting udpate's from old domain to new domain
Hey guys, We had a domain change three years ago now which was redirected. Many of the old domains have not been updated to the new domain. The redirect is in place. I'm just wondering if there would it be a worthwhile exercise to reach out to sites to request an update of the URL link from an SEO perspective? Many thanks Rob
Link Building | | Griffith0 -
Using Bing's linkfromdomain: operator I'm finding spam links
Hi I've recently discovered Bing's linkfromdomain: operator and have been testing it on a few of my wordpress sites which are running the DIVI theme from elegant themes These are new sites with little or no content yet I was a bit alarmed when the results showed site I definitely had not linked to eg slickdeals dot net
Link Building | | briandee
2521.gen778 dot com
9gag dot com
flowers.ftd dot com
www.jmldirect dot com
pubs.rsna dot org is this an error from the Bing linkfromdomain: operaror because when I run the domains through xenu these sites do not show Hope someone can help0 -
What's Your #1 High Authority Backlink Strategy For 2015?
Hey everyone, I am gathering responses from the SEO community regarding the two questions below. I will feature your (legitmate) responses as part of a study for current SEO backlink methods being used by the SEO community. There are no wrong answers. I look forward to seeing your responses and make sure to add your social profile details. 1. What is your number 1 method of acquiring high authority backlinks?
Link Building | | kirkbowlen
2. What platforms/ software do you use or recommend as part of your method? Thanks, Kirk Bowlen0 -
Link to page in SERP or page with good on-page optimisation
Hi, Some friends are happy to link to my site. As I am focusing on a particular search term is it best to have them link to the page that already appears in the SERP for that term or the one with better on page optimisation? Thanks Billy
Link Building | | Brighton-Soundsystem0 -
Google is no longer ranking home page but sub page lower, why?
We were ranking on page 2 and number 4 for the key word motorcycle tires. Google was ranking our home page jakewilson.com; however, we have been adding new content to our site and doing some internal linking. We pointed some links about motorcycle tires to http://www.jakewilson.com/cl/52/Motorcycle-Tires and now that page ranks but on page 3 not 2. Any thoughts?
Link Building | | DoRM0 -
Build My Rank ?
What are your thoughts on using a service like Build My Rank for backlinks?
Link Building | | CalgaryRealtor390 -
Youtube Backlink
We've had our Youtube Channel fairly optimized for several months now. Part of that effort includes the link back to our site which is allowed on Youtube. When doing link research I see Youtube links being given credit to competitors but haven't seen Youtube show up in backlinks reports for our site yet. Is there any way to speed this up? Our Youtube page with the link has been indexed and a cached version of the page is in Google's SERPs. If there are any tricks to getting this going that anyone is aware of I'd like to hear it. *The link on Youtube returns a 200 and is followable. I'm using the SEOMOZ tool and Open Site Explorer to do backlinking research.
Link Building | | dgmiles0