I earned some high-quality backlinks, but the target page's ranking is not improving. Why?

[StevenLevine]

Within the last three months, I acquired five .EDU backlinks and two editorial links to a page ranking for a competitive keyword. After the first few links came through, the page jumped from #15 to #7. It stayed there with minor fluctuations for a couple weeks. I earned a couple more good links, and the page fell as far as #44. It has recovered a bit then, but has not returned to the first page.

It is worth noting that the .EDU links were achieved by sponsoring university programs. Could Google possibly be recognizing this as a link scheme? Are the links being earned too quickly? I don't believe it could be either, as the links reside on high quality, trustworthy sites and there wasn't a sudden major influx of them.

Thank you for your insight!

Also, I think my username tricked Moz into thinking I'm a staffer. Not the case!

[dohertyjf]

Hi Steven -

Great question here and one I have heard a lot over the last few years. A few questions for you:

• Are the links indexed?
• Did you make any changes to your site that may have affected your page's ranking (robots.txt, internal linking)?

In the good old days of SEO, it was quite common to see a page jump in rankings (like you seem to have seen) from building some links. I've seen it happen within a matter of hours, actually. But things have changed (probably to keep people from gaming the SERPs too hard) and sometimes it can take weeks or even months for links to have their full effect on your rankings.

So I'd check that the links are indexed and that you didn't change anything on your page to affect your rankings. Then, I'd make sure that your page is structured to meet your user's needs (eg if it's an informational query as evidenced by what else is ranking, don't have a super transactional page). Then, build more links and keep calm and carry on.

I hope that helps!

John

[Tylerj]

Did you check to see if the links are follow or no follow? How old is the domain?

[StevenLevine]

Hi John,

Thank you for the response. Yes, the links are indexed and followed. We have not changed anything on page. Is it possible Penguin is recognizing new link activity and it is causing fluctuations? Maybe I am being impatient and just need to wait a bit for a higher ranking to settle in.

[StevenLevine]

Yes, all the links are followed. My domain is old and trusted, as are the domains linking back to me.

[PatrickDelehanty]

Hi Steven

I would recommend reading through a great Moz article from Kristina Kledzik on How Long Does Link Building Take to Influence Rankings. There are some great studies in this article as well as some tips and resources to help you get a thorough process going to get the most out of the links that you acquire.

Hope this helps! Let me know, thanks!
Patrick

[StevenLevine]

Hey Patrick,

Thanks for your response. I have read Kristina's article before but I'm afraid now it might be a bit irrelevant with the latest Penguin update. Google should be recognizing linkbuilding efforts much faster now that Penguin operates in real-time.