Backlinks: Keep an Eye on Them or Disregard?
Posted by Mike | Filed under Link BuildingBig Realizations
Now that the PageRank update is over and most people have realized that it’s (PR) not important and it’s just overrated. It used to be some kind of “measurement” for trustworthiness of sites, but now that people were able to think about it and understand that people can just buy links for PR, it can not be used as a measurement of a site’s reputation.
Now, some of you might ask: “What’s the connection of this to link building?” You’ll find out… 
The Connection to Link Development
As I mentioned, people used to buy links for PageRank. But now that PR has a much lesser value (or maybe… no value at all), webmasters won’t be buying tons of links for the sole purpose of increasing their sites’ PR. Now think… will still be there a reason to build heaps and heaps of links? Of course, but I don’t think people will be so active in link building, especially in purchasing links.
Backlinks: Keep an Eye on Them or Disregard?
Since people won’t be interested in purchasing links for PageRank as they used to, you won’t be able to sell much of your link spaces because of it. Thus, you won’t have to watch your backlink count as far as PR and link selling are concerned. But…
Backlinks ARE significant! Well, they’re still important because of their big role in search engine optimization. With a big number of backlinks (with the proper anchor text), your rankings will surely boost. If you ask me, I’d say that I will keep an eye on my backlink count but not be obsessed so much. I will wait for natural backlinks to come… or maybe build them gradually (for SEO), but I would most certainly NOT purchase them.
Your Thoughts…
I’d like to know your thoughts on this. Will you still actively build links for PR (and hope that people will buy links for the PR juice), or will you just be relaxed and wait for the natural links to come (for SEO purposes)? I will appreciate if you guys share your opinions.
P.S. If this article wasn’t crystal clear to you, please read it again. I’m too sleepy and I don’t think that I was able to write a detailed and in-depth article so that you can understand the topic better.
I think it is a good thing that people get away from PR madness, including myself.
Still it is true, that a high PR will not be of damage, or said vice versa, most pages with high SERP do have a certain PR.
But now there is a realistic chance even you don´t have the highest PR …
In real life, PR is still some sort of help when deciding whether to put work (or money) in a link. Easier than checking all backlinks of eahc site you see …
Got your point, but what’s the use of buying high PR links these days? I’d rather buy a link from a PR1 site with 1,000 unique visitors per day than a PR5 site with roughly 100 visits per day.
I don’t think PR is going anywhere for the foreseeable future. Google has started the crackdown on the obvious link sellers/buyers in an effort to make PR more meaningful again.
Do you think that sites like TLA will be out of business or something because of this?
With the downfall of PR, it leaves room for a newcomer to take the king of the hill with a new ranking algorithm.
As someone with a new site I plan to actively build links. Not sure what Google’s going to do though - I’ve seen lots of traffic about them changing the algorithm they use since so many people have scammed the system. Unfortunately, there are still ad companies out there that won’t even talk to you unless you have a PR of 3 of higher.