Rob

This is a good example of Information Overload. I cannot wait for your next article. because this good one makes me see the goodness of the next.

Thanks for sharing this with us!

It is however right (in my view) to look at typical backlink counts by industry (or some other fairly broad category) – clearly there are substantial differences between them as Gab’s research indicates. Some categories are simply much more competitive than others, common knowledge, but this article puts some hard numbers to put this competition into perspective.

No need to do research for me. Point I’m trying to make is that volume, in other words the sheer number of links, isn’t the only factor that determines whether you rank in the top results or not. Of course if in a specific market the top ranking site has a million backlinks, it tells you something. But like your own research shows there are examples of sites with less backlinks ranking higher. And that’s where relevancy becomes a big factor.

So I think the conclusion is: if in a market all top tanked sites have a huge volume of backlinks that is also growing, competition is fierce and it won’t be easy to enter as a new party. But can you beat a site that has more backlinks than you have? Yes you can! (using someone else’s famous phrase here…)

Second, I don’t see why Google wouldn’t count all links to a homepage.

“Secondly real competitive analysis has little to do with links it should be more about how they got the links, links are such a small part of it, though I do admit backlink is part of that discovery but it shouldn’t be the main reason for the competitive analysis”

I think you’re suggesting that I should have told you how to rank in 30 different niches. With all due respect, I think you can either afford to pay for that information, or spend the time to find it yourself.

Second, if you want relevancy of backlinks on this scale, for 30 niches … you’ve got to do that yourself. I want to help, but if you want to do SEO at an advanced level, you can’t expect to have others do all the work for you.

Re: Blue Nile – I suspect their lower rankings are due to poor anchor text since their name doesn’t contain the word jewelry.

As to it not being complete enough to draw major conclusions, I think you’re missing the point about how volume is still a major player.