© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts sspencer@netconcepts.com Google in the Real World: How Links Boost Your Ranking.

Google in the Real World:

How Links Boost Your Ranking

Link Popularity Inbound links play a key role in determining rankings It’s not just about quantity (“link popularity”); it’s about

quality (importance of the page, topically relevant/authoritative)

This has been the cornerstone of Google’s ranking algorithm since Day 1

Comes from the Google founders’ fascination with citation analysis

Checking Link Popularity

To a page– Google’s and MSN Search’s link: query operator

To your site– Yahoo’s linkdomain: query operator

Subtract your site from the results (MSN & Yahoo only)– E.g. link:www.yoursite.com -site:yoursite.com

Google displays only a sampling of backlinks (to foil SEOs)

Checking Link Popularity Free tools

– Yahoo’s Site Explorer (siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com)– Netconcepts’ Link Checker (www.netconcepts.com/linkcheck) – WeBuildPages’ Neat-o Tool (www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/)– SEO-Links Firefox extension (www.webmasterbrain.com/seo-

tools/firefox-extensions/seo-links/)– Thumbshots Ranking tool (ranking.thumbshots.com)– TouchGraph GoogleBrowser

(www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html)

Yahoo’s Site Explorer

Netconcepts’ Link Checker

WeBuildPages’ Neat-o Tool

SEO-Links Firefox Extension

Thumbshots Ranking tool

TouchGraph GoogleBrowser

PageRank PageRank™ – Google’s algorithm for measuring a

page’s importance; Yahoo & MSN have similar measures

Each web page (not site) has its own PageRank score PageRank scores from 0 to 10; logarithmic scale Who’s at the top of the PageRank food chain?

– 10: Google, Apple, NSF, FirstGov; 9: Yahoo, MSN, Stanford Sites with higher PageRank get crawled earlier, faster,

and deeper by Googlebot

Checking PageRank Google Toolbar for IE or Firefox

– Download it from toolbar.google.com Google Directory (directory.google.com)

– Only works for pages that are listed in DMOZ (e.g. your home page)

– Listings are ranked in order of PageRank– Makes it possible to see your site make small PageRank

shifts relative to other sites in your category– Get historical PageRank scores w/ Wayback Machine

(www.archive.org)

Google Toolbar

Problems with the PageRank Meter Take the PageRank scores with a grain of salt PageRank scores are merely indicative Scores displayed in the PageRank meter are:

– Months old– Imprecise– Not the same as the PageRank as what is used in Google’s

ranking algorithm– Not representative of the home page PageRank when a

redirect is present

Google Directory – listings are organized by PageRank

Checking PageRank

More free tools– SEOChat PageRank Lookup

(www.seochat.com/seo-tools/pagerank-lookup/)– SEOChat PageRank Search

(www.seochat.com/seo-tools/pagerank-search/)– SnooPR (www.tartools.com)

SEOChat’s PageRank Lookup

The way to check the home page PageRank when a redirect is present

SEOChat’s PageRank Search

SnooPR

Find Link Targets

Review links of competitive sites, sites in your keyword market– Use the tools just mentioned– Check sites with high rankings for relevant keywords– The fewer the number of links on their page, the better

Review links to your site; look for opportunities to get the link text revised

Competitive Intelligence

These tools aren’t just good for finding link targets They’re invaluable for uncovering competitors’ dodgy

practices– E.g. Unraveling the mystery of Findgiftcards.com

commanding the #1 spot for “gift certificates” It’s also just good to know where they’re getting the bulk

of their PageRank from

Watch Out For…

Types of links that are likely to get discounted:– Reciprocal links– Affiliated sites (on the same IP range or hostname)– Footer links (at the bottom of the page)– Site-wide links– Links contained on a page called links.htm / links.asp – Remember: the more links on the linking page, the less

PageRank you’ll get

“Google Bombing”

Inbound contextual links alone can drive a site to the top of Google (e.g. “miserable failure”)

Also works on Yahoo, MSN Search, etc. THE LESSON: Link text is your secret weapon!

An unintentional “Google bomb”

PageRank Dilution Careful about having multiple URLs serving up the same content

– Multiple homes for your content– Multiple domains registered and resolving to your site – abccompany.com vs. www.abccompany.com– https:// version of your site– Session IDs or User IDs in the URL– 301 redirect them all to the definitive version of the page

Removed pages– 301 redirect rather than 404

PageRank Dilution

Example of multiple homes for the same content: Laura Ries’ blog

Best Practices

Try to get good keywords in the hyperlink text Offer link-worthy content. Keep it fresh. Provide RSS feeds Simple keyword-rich links encourage deep linking When you redesign your site, keep your old URLs or

301 redirect them to the new URLs “Nofollow” any links you don’t vouch for

– <a href=“/privacy-policy.htm” rel=“nofollow”>

Worst Practices

Participating in “link farms” or FFA (“Free For All”) sites– Hallmarks of a link farm = more urls per page & less

organization Splogging, comment spamming, guestbook spamming Linking to “bad neighborhoods” Hiding links Hoarding all your PageRank Unnatural link structures

Link Hiding Example 1

SubscriberMail.com embeds an invisible image linked to their home page into their customers’ enewsletter signup forms

E.g. on www.ocharleydavidson.com/guest.html look for:<a href="http://www.subscribermail.com"><img src="http://tr1.subscribermail.com/bt/wbtr.cfm?ppid=ORANADFE6858" alt="Email Marketing" border=0></a>

Link Hiding Example 2

PRNewswire.co.uk embeds keyword-rich text links within a <noframes> tag on their home page that not visible to ordinary users:– <a href="http://www.icrossing.com">Search Engine

Marketing</a><a href="http://sev.prnewswire.com">Search Engine News Release Optimization</a>

Unnatural Link Structures

Google suspects unnatural-looking neighborhoods Don’t link to every single node in your network of sites;

it’ll get flagged. Naturally occurring neighborhoods

on the Web aren’t perfect Google is looking for “cliques”

(graph theory)

Submit to Directories Yahoo! Open Directory (DMOZ) GoGuides JoeAnt SearchHippo Skaffe

RubberStamped BlueFind Gigablast WebSavvy Zeal etc.

Submit to Directories

Do your homework:– www.stuntdubl.com/2005/09/26/directories/– www.searchengineguide.com/wallace/2005/0407_dw1.html– www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html – forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=6505

Submit to Verticals, Topical Guides

e.g. Yahooligans if it’s of interest to kids e.g. BestHistorySites.net if you’ve got good historical

content e.g. FMLink.com if it’s relevant to facilities managers etc. Lots of work here to uncover the niche sites! Create a linking plan

Blogs Search engines – and Google in particular – love blogs Inherently link-rich

– “Hat tips” – part of blog etiquette– Blogrolls– RSS feeds– Trackbacks– Comments

The dark side of the blogosphere:– Blog comment spam– Splogs (spam blogs)

RSS Feeds

Not only an unspammable content delivery channel to your consumers, but also…

A powerful way to syndicate your content to other web sites– Propagate deep links that drive traffic and PageRank– Careful! Some spammers lift your content from your RSS

feeds, strip out the links, and use as keyword-rich content

SlashdotheadlinessyndicatedonNanodot.org

The top result was thanks to syndication via RSS

Blog software like WordPress creates an RSS feed automatically, even embedding audio/video as podcasts too!

RSS Feeds Facilitate propagation of your feeds across the web:

– Set up feed “autodiscovery”• e.g. <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3"

href="http://feeds.stephanspencer.com/scatterings" />– Make your search listings in Yahoo! display the “Add to My Yahoo!” link

• Instructions here: http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers.html– Send out “pings” (to Technorati, My Yahoo, Pingomatic, etc.)– Make sure “trackbacks” are enabled

Submit to RSS directories & search engines– List at www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/

Pay attention to each item title; it’ll become link text

Buying Text Links What is a Yahoo directory listing but a paid text link!

– Ok by Google because of the “editorial review” Brokers like Text-Link-Ads.com and can help Google’s perspective:

– “Selling links muddies the quality of the web and makes it harder for many search engines (not just Google) to return relevant results. The rel=nofollow attribute is the correct answer: any site can sell links, but a search engine will be able to tell that the source site is not vouching for the destination page” -- Matt Cutts, Google engineer

Buying Text Links

Google discounts the voting power of sites that it knows are selling text links:– “…parts of perl.com, xml.com, etc. have not been trusted in

terms of linkage for months and months. Remember that just because a site shows up for a “link:” command on Google does not mean that it passes PageRank, reputation, or anchortext” -- Matt Cutts, Google engineer

Evaluating a Text Ad Opportunity Good

– High rankings for the search terms targeted with the existing ads’ link text– Stats showing the page you’ll be on gets good traffic numbers– Stats showing a respectable amount of traffic is sent to the advertisers– Site is topically relevant to your business– Site is likely to be considered an authority site– Inbound links from .gov, .edu, .mil sites – Good Alexa rank– Extra good if the site you’re placed on is a .gov, .edu, or .mil– Reasonably good PageRank score on the page you’ll be on– Reasonably few other links on the page you’ll be on– Link is within the main body of the page

984th most popular website

Note: Alexa rankings can be manipulated

Evaluating a Text Ad Opportunity Bad

– Sitewide link– Site has been greybarred (i.e. banned)– Neighboring ads are of dubious nature (casinos, Hoodia, Viagra, etc.)– Acquired PageRank through dubious means (e.g. hidden or obscured

links)– Advertisers have left in droves (evidenced by Wayback Machine archives)– “Advertisers”, “Sponsors”, or “Sponsored” closely associated with the ads– No visibility in top 10 pages in Google for advertisers’ targeted keywords

A year ago (was a PR8)

Today(now a PR7)

Advertiser is not in the first 10 pages in Google for “college football”

Get Creative

Give awards / recognition– Badges with link text underneath

Allow webmasters to republish your articles– Require a link in your byline

Publish unique content– Podcasts (e.g. SteveSpangler.com)– Screencasts (use TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio)– Wikis (e.g. SEOGlossary.com)

Get Creative

Offer useful tools for webmasters, such as…– Hit counters

• E.g. NOT 123counters.com

– Weather stickers• E.g. Wunderground.com, SuperPages.com

– RSS feeds• Lottery winning numbers from SuperPages.com

Get Creative Start a blog Give testimonials

– E.g. www.wordpress.org/about/testimonials– E.g. www.keyworddiscovery.com/testimonials.html

Sponsor a nonprofit– E.g. Kohl’s supports the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association

Leverage your affiliates– Get a straight link (e.g. from Legal Notices page)– 301 redirect

In Summary

Best links are:– Topically relevant– One way (not reciprocated)– Not in footer and not site-wide– Earned by merit, rather than bought, bartered or stolen– Not crowded with many other links on the page– On a high PageRank-endowed, high Alexa-

ranked, .edu/.gov/.mil authority site

Wouldn’t it be nice to have a link on here?…;-)

In Summary

Get creative– With your content, functionality, free tools, your budget– Think “Web 2.0” (blogs, RSS, tagging, etc.)

Measure success not by fixating on the PageRank meter, but by measuring the rankings lift

Don’t hamper the PageRank flow within your site

Thank You! Time now for some Q & A! Also, feel free to email me: sspencer@netconcepts.com Email seo@netconcepts.com for my Best & Worst

Practices in SEO whitepaper, free

© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts sspencer@netconcepts.com Google in the Real World: How Links Boost Your Ranking.

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