Topically irrelevant links underperform relevant ones by 4-6x on ranking lift per link

Topically irrelevant links underperform relevant ones by 4-6x on ranking lift per link

Sample: 310 controlled link placements measured against tracked target keywords (n=310, 2024). The mistake is buying on metrics alone with no topical match.

Median position improvement, 90 days after one link:
— Same-niche host page: +5.8 positions
— Adjacent-niche: +2.1
— Unrelated host (any DR): +0.9

A DR 75 link from an unrelated site moved targets less than a DR 45 link from a same-niche page.

Score every prospect on topical relevance to the linked page first; treat DR as a tiebreaker, not the filter.