When getting links, assuming I'm sticking to white hat methods, should I even worry about how fast I get links? I know that the consistency of getting links is important which I learned from my failed website. Should I even be worried about the rate at which I get links because the thresholds are high enough for me to be safe if I can maintain consistency? (In other words I can't maintain a rate high enough to take a noticeable penalty.)

I appreciate any feedback or conversation this may generate.

Joe Jensen

It really depends on how google views your website. If you are a new site and you suddenly start getting thousands of links to your site your going to raise a few eye brows at google. You need to find a threshold that you would be comfortable in maintaining and one that will not raise any flags at google. If you aim for x amount per month for your new website, try obtaining the links from related authority sites. Smaller link amounts from quality sites will set you on a good foundation.

After a few months you can up the ante so to speak.

I agree with BuckfastMonk, you want your growth to be as natural as possible.

I wonder if this is still true today though - A brand new site can, and often is, on the front page of Digg and gets tons of links just starting out. Do we have any recent data to support that Google may penalize sites for linkbuilding to quickly?

I don't know about too quickly, but inconsistently is certainly an issue. I relied (almost exclusively) on forum postings and I'd notice a drop in traffic from Google in just over a week of not adding new links.

Links from forum postings dont have much value. To Google a link isnt just a link. A link from a quality site is much much more effective than a link from a forum posting or a forum signature. Plus if you get tons of links from the same forum they wont count as tons of links, but as one link and tons of discounted links.

As for the digg + 1000's of links: I assume Google understands how to associate such links with viral marketing/social media stuff. Stories that spread like that probably have a way different (more natural) link profile than usually possible if youre trying to get a similar amount of links by hand..as that way a large percentage of your links will be of low quality: forum postings, blog posts, directory submissions, etc.. That one is just a guess, though.

Link exchange with related site is a nice technique in getting quality links if you can exchange link that would appear as one way link. This can be done by 3 way link exchange.

Check out this thread. (http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=18601)

If she/he is right you are safe. My personal opinion is the threshold is high. Just keep it natural. All relevant and you should be fine.

I agree with others here. jjensen347, what is your rate of getting links? Have you done other things as well? If you regularly do press releases, digg, etc. - then you might be ok and can tolerate a "higher" threshold than others. There's no real "limit" on links - it's relative. I've been told by others that you can only get 5 links per month (absurd). Other's say you can get 150 links per month. Quality of links is important, for sure - and forum, blog, and PR links aren't worth too much; they fall out quickly and some are not counted very well.

I am going to disagree with others on this one. I think if you acquire links neutrally, it does not matter how fast you get them. If you have something viral, you can get thousands of links in a matter of a week. The guys at blogstorm got 50,000 links in 4 weeks. All done via good social media marketing. Is Google going to punish them? I do not think so.

what do you guys think?

Khalidh, that's not going against what others are saying. What you are talking about is exactly the reason why you can't listen to someone who says "you can only get 5 links a month". That's complete crap. It's RELATIVE to what your site gets. Absolutely - if your site has gotten lots of links fast before, then absolutely, there's no reason for Google to punish you. But the bottom line is, over optimization penalties do occur - and very rapid link building is one reason.

Moderation is the key - but jjensen347 can definitely get links, ramp up, and not get penalized. The trick is to do it without getting penalized.

Kinda like speeding - you can speed and probably get away with it a few times. But speed constantly enough, you'll get caught. If you're taking all this time, pain, and effort to optimize, why risk it with over optimization?