Proof that On Page SEO Doesn't Matter

[JustinPopovic]

This is one of my favorite examples that I like to show when I teach SEO or when I do Internet Marketing consultations.

There are a lot of ebooks and courses that teach you about the importance of having your main keywords on your website. This is NOT true.

In fact, you can get to the top of google for a keyword that doesn't even exist on your website.

How? Why?

Due to link backs with the right anchor text.

My proof...

Think about the millions of sites on the Net that allow you to download Adobe Acrobat Reader. Most of the sites link to Adobe with the anchor text "Click Here".

NOW...go to google and search "Click Here". The first result is the download page for adobe reader!!

Search the on-page text and you will see not 1 single instance of the words "click here".

Now go out and build back links with the proper anchor text to your website!!

See you at the top of search engines

[JustinPopovic]

Let me add one additional comment.

I am not suggesting that you IGNORE on page optimization because I still believe in it. It just has very little importance compared to link building.

The rule I follow for on page optimization is I choose 3 key phrases that I want to optimize for and make sure they exist in my title tag. Then I spend 50% of my time link building for key phrase 1, 30% of my time on key phrase 2 and 20% on key phrase 3.

[The Big D]

I think your advice is right for at least semi-popular keywords.

For unpopular stuff, I think on-page has to be about all google looks at, since all of the top results typically have no incoming links outside their own site.

[JustinPopovic]

I agree. I was mainly thinking about SEO for higher value terms that draw decent traffic.

I have had pages on my site reach #1 for long tail keywords using no link building at all.

But then, I rarely saw any traffic at all despite being at the top of search engines since no one was looking for those keywords.

[The Big D]

I suppose it depends on your application. For example, a site I run has reviews of books on playing poker skillfully. There are probably 20 people a day that search for those reviews, but despite the low traffic I do want those people to find my site. For that, on-page SEO is the correct tool.

[iDreamCatcher]

Backlinks certainly can defy gravity.
As a test I created half-page brand new domain that got on first page above 60M+ competition for $15/click keyphrases above PR8 15yrs old monsters just because of backlink flood. Took about ~10k backlinks though, but nothing else.

Gleb

[David Turnbull]

Just depends on your aims. For a bigger project, such as a blog you plan to leverage in the future, linkbuilding is a must. But I've built plenty of small sites targeting smaller keywords and all I did was onpage optimisation and maybe a couple of backlinks.

[JustinPopovic]

Originally Posted by iDreamCatcher

Backlinks certainly can defy gravity.
As a test I created half-page brand new domain that got on first page above 60M+ competition for $15/click keyphrases above PR8 15yrs old monsters just because of backlink flood. Took about ~10k backlinks though, but nothing else.

Gleb

Wow. Good case study.

10k back links? You are a machine

[KenBWM]

Lots of great advice and examples, but back links inside your site really makes a difference.