How Many Backlinks Do the High 10 Websites Have?
If you wish to be on the primary web page of Google for business phrases, do you have to care about backlinks? Do you have to be attempting to get them, or simply ignore backlinks altogether?
Earlier this yr, I heard from each Google and a few SEOs who’re additionally writers that “hyperlinks aren’t as vital as they as soon as have been, and also you don’t even want hyperlinks to rank nowadays.” I by no means seen anybody write a few web site that solely had a number of backlinks that was rating effectively for commericial phrases, so I made a decision to search out a few of these near-mythical websites that don’t have many backlinks however nonetheless rank on the primary web page of Google for phrases the place individuals is perhaps earning profits.
In my earlier examine final month, I selected 200 random business phrases with the assistance of AI. For every of those phrases, I gathered the highest 10 natural URLs on Google. After analyzing them, I discovered 1,113 distinctive web sites. My programmer, Matt, added a number of API calls from sources like Moz, Majestic, Ahrefs, and SEMrush to higher analyze this information.
The most important discovering from my earlier evaluation was that 96% of the web sites had greater than 1,000 distinctive area backlinks. Nevertheless, I solely discovered 3 websites out of 1,113 that had fewer than 100 backlinks.
I had hoped to search out extra than simply 3 such websites, so this time I made a decision to increase that evaluation tenfold. This time we gathered information on 2,000 business phrases which in flip recognized 9,337 distinctive domains that ranked within the prime 10 of Google for these phrases.
The first aim of this information gathering was to reply these three questions:
- What number of backlinks do the web sites that rank within the prime 10 for business intent phrases have?
- What’s the common variety of backlinks that websites within the prime 10 have for every phrase, and which phrases may require fewer or extra hyperlinks to rank?
- For websites with fewer than 100 backlinks that also rank on the primary web page for a business/transactional phrase, is it the hyperlinks, or may different indicators be pushing them to the primary web page?
After digging into this evaluation, I stumbled upon a few different areas of curiosity, which I’ll publish after the primary three gadgets:
- Websites that Google loves and why? It it as a result of they’ve so many backlinks?
- Main websites utilizing area authority to rank excessive with affiliate pages. Is it parasite search engine optimization in the event you’re doing it your self?
Within the coming months, I plan to launch common research much like this one. The following examine will discover “How Many Hyperlinks May It Take to Rank for Informational Phrases,” adopted by “How Many Hyperlinks Does It Absorb 10 Areas for 10 Native Phrases.” Then, I’ll revisit this business phrase examine to see what has modified—figuring out which websites have left or entered the highest 10, what number of hyperlinks the brand new and previous websites have, and the dominant websites within the prime 10 three months from now. There’s rather more to come back, however first, let’s tackle the primary query right now.
Course of to Discover the Variety of Backlinks the High 10 Websites in Google Have
To ideally establish a small handful of web sites with “few” backlinks, I analyzed ten occasions the variety of websites from my earlier examine. This time, I used 2,000 randomly AI-generated business/transactional phrases, all with non-local intent and a minimal search quantity of over 100 searches per thirty days based on SEMrush.
Wanting on the search quantity (SEMrush’s estimates of month-to-month searches in Google) of these 2,000 phrases, we discovered a properly unfold distribution between low search quantity (no less than 100 searches per thirty days) to excessive search quantity.
| Semrush Search Quantity | # Phrases | P.c |
|---|---|---|
| 100-1K | 406 | 20.3% |
| 1K-5K | 580 | 29% |
| 5K-10K | 399 | 20% |
| 10K-50K | 505 | 25.3% |
| 50K+ | 110 | 5.5% |
Information on the two,000 phrases and on the 9,337 domains that ranked within the prime 10.
You possibly can see the uncooked checklist of key phrases right here, or see the checklist of 2000 phrases with different information factors.
With these 2,000 key phrase phrases, we then gathered the highest 10 websites that organically ranked in Google for every phrase. This now gave us 9,337 distinctive domains which we are able to analyze.
Then, utilizing backlink information from Moz, Majestic, Ahrefs, & Semrush, I seemed on the variety of backlinks to every of these 9,337 web sites.
You possibly can see the complete information that we gathered on the 9,337 domains right here.
How Many Distinctive Area Backlinks Do the Web sites within the High 10 of Google Have for Business Phrases?
Right here’s what the brand new evaluation revealed concerning the backlink distribution amongst these top-ranking websites:
| Area Backlinks | # of Websites | P.c |
|---|---|---|
| 0-50 | 42 | 0.4% |
| 50-100 | 50 | 0.5% |
| 100-500 | 468 | 5% |
| 500-1K | 538 | 5.8% |
| 1K-10K | 4078 | 43.7% |
| 10K-100K | 3090 | 33.1% |
| 100K-1M | 887 | 9.5% |
| 1M+ | 184 | 2% |
Key Takeaways
- Over 99% of web sites within the prime 10 have over 100 distinctive domains linking to them.
- 94% of the highest 10 websites have no less than 500 distinctive domains linking to them.
- Almost half (43%) of the websites have between 1,000 and 10,000 distinctive domains linking to them.
- One third (33%) of the websites that rank within the prime 10 have 10,000 to 100,000 distinctive domains linking to them.
It’s potential to rank within the prime 10 of Google with fewer than 100 distinctive area backlinks, however it’s lower than a 1% probability based on this examine of the 9,337 web sites we analyzed that ranked within the prime 10 for business phrases.
Like four-leaf clovers or blue lobsters, websites with few backlinks are fairly uncommon, making up lower than 1% of these websites within the wild. So, I’m undecided I’d need to wager on the “backlinks don’t matter” camp in case your aim is to rank on the primary web page of Google for business phrases. Even the Google leaked information was drenched in backlink evaluation.
In my subsequent evaluation, Half 2, I’ll be exploring deeper into these 2,000 phrases after which making reside extra information that I’ve been analyzing so I can share with you the shocking issues that I found. We’ll even be taking a look at which phrases you “may” have an opportunity to rank on the primary web page for… in case you have lower than 50,000 backlinks… and which phrases, in the event you’re a small web site, you don’t appear to have an opportunity, and which phrases is perhaps “simpler” to rank for, and why. You gained’t consider what I discovered ;)!
Then, Half 3 will dive into the 9,337 URLs, with a give attention to the 92 websites with fewer than 100 backlinks that rank for no less than one business phrase and can see what these small websites have that is perhaps placing them on Web page 1 of Google.
Keep Tuned!
I’m Feeling Fortunate Right now!
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- * Once I say “Backlinks,” I imply “Distinctive Area Backlinks,” which is, for instance, in case you have 5 hyperlinks from bob.com and a pair of hyperlinks from sue.com, we’d solely rely 1 hyperlink for every web site, so 2 hyperlinks complete, one from bob.com and one from sue.com.
- * Once I say “Business Phrases,” I additionally imply what individuals may name “transactional phrases” or “cash phrases.” For instance, phrases like “vintage clocks,” “auto insurance coverage comparability,” or “beard oil for delicate pores and skin.”
- * Once I say “High Ten,” I imply the primary 10 natural ends in Google for that search, as we recorded it in early July 2024.