My friend is sharing a SEO method with me that he's building back links with only raw URL (no anchors) and he got keywords in first page of Google results.
Does any one use this method? and it works?
There is much more to G's algo than creating backlinks, especially in reference to only using raw URLs (no anchors).... So my answer is a resounding NO on that very specific point!
However that said I can see why such as statement would be presented with regards to your backlinking profile as over use of commercial anchors can raise an unnatural backlinking profile... Just look at sites hit by penguin and you'll understand why...
Hence in my opinion if a site only had a backlinking profile of raw URLs and lets say it was in the hundreds to thousands - then my reaction would be that too raises a flag for further investigation with regards to G's spamming algo... For me its about getting the balance right - especially if you are using tools like GSA, SENuke, Xrumer etc.. as well as manual creation...
So my point here is that at some point with creating raw URLs for backlinks it too will raise an algo flag...
My approach is to keep commercial anchors (competitive keywords to be approx 10-15%) with the rest consisting of variations, generic text, brand, raw urls etc... Further you should also consider velocity of backlinking creation should you also wish to stay under G's radar e.g. keep your newly created backlinks to be around 10% of traffic stats on SERPs as G has some idea of traffic based on SERP results... That's assuming your site is not a massive brand and has many other signals which could corroborate a massive velocity of backlink creation..
That aside you should also be aware that other factors are hugely important... Mainly that's your internal linking structure e.g. silos etc, outbound links and also hugely important is your bounce rates on the SERPs...
To simply attribute raw URLs as backlinks as being the reason for ranking on the first page of G is just absurd, especially when you consider the many other factors G takes in account with its ranking algo...
With all of that said - I really do wish it was that simple ;-)
