Google Toolbar PageRank only for entertainment purposes?

PageRank, Tables, and Frames Questions
Link Building 101

Google's new ranking algorithm

Reasons to delete a link exchange request

Don't get scammed when buying links

PageRank Mania Revisited

Link-Building Tip: A Few Tips on Reciprocal Linking

Weekly Quick Tip: High PageRank Links

Weekly Quick Tip: Marketing in Discussion Forums

Google's new ranking algorithm

As mentioned in our last newsletter, Google is currently rebuilding its index. Rumor has it that Google also tries to fight artificial link manipulation with this update.

People with connections to Google developers pointed out that Google was working on better ways to determine the quality of web site links.

Google's problematic ranking algorithm

The problem with Google's current algorithm is that many people don't link to relevant pages anymore. Many people just link to web sites with a special PageRank and they only accept links from pages with a special PageRank. This dilutes the quality of the links and the quality of Google's search results.

Google has recognized the problem. Among other many other things, Google might show bunk back links, it might not update PageRank, or it might manually penalize some sites for buying or selling PageRank links to solve that problem.

What does this mean to you?

We've mentioned it in our newsletter before: it's not important to get as many links as possible. It's important to get links from related web sites. The PageRank of a web page is not important. The content of the other web site is important.

If you see a good web site with good content that has a low PageRank you should trade links with that site if that web site is useful for your visitors. One day, that page might have a higher PageRank and it will still link back to you.

Which links are the right links for your site?

Ask yourself: Is the web site related to your site? Would it make sense for web surfers if they linked to you and you linked to them? Could visitors of the other web site be interested in your site? If you find a web site you would want to visit or your visitors would want to visit then link to it and ask for a link back to your site.

Google changes its rules on a regular basis. Although the rules regularly change, Google always tries to do the same: it tries to find the most relevant pages for a special topic. If you trade links with related pages and if these links are relevant to your web site visitors, your web site will be one of the pages that Google finds relevant because your web site is relevant.

How to find and manage relevant link partners

If you haven't tried it yet, download a copy of our link popularity tool ARELIS now. ARELIS is a software tool that helps you to locate potential link partners. It also helps you to contact these link partners and to manage them in an easy to use program. In addition, ARELIS creates custom link pages in your web page design with a few mouse clicks. You can find further information here.

Link building is an essential part of successful web site promotion. If incoming links didn't have a great impact on search engine results, Google wouldn't put so much effort into making it harder to manipulate them. Download ARELIS now and build real incoming links from related web sites to improve your search engine rankings.

Copyright Axandra.com - Web site promotion software tools   -  Published Oct. 2004

Reasons to delete a link exchange request

Copyright Axandra.com - Web site promotion software tools   -  Published Sep. 2004

Don't get scammed when buying links

Links have been a factor in ranking well in the SERPs for a long time now, but recently they have become much more important, especially when seeking high rankings on Google. Because of this, incoming links have turned into a hot commodity, especially from high PageRank sites.

For a while now websites have been offering paid run-of-site links, the higher the PR, the higher the cost. But now some webmasters may have found a way to essentially steal or borrow PageRank, giving the illusion that their site is much more powerful in order to drive up advertising costs. If you are thinking of purchasing site wide links, this is something of importance to watch out for.

How do they steal PageRank?
The scammer starts off by registering a new domain and placing a 301 permanent redirect to a site with a high PageRank. After Google does its next link and PageRank update, the inbound links and PageRank are applied to the scammer’s site. Once Google has applied the ‘stolen’ PageRank and link counts to the fraudulent site, the Webmaster quickly removes the redirect and posts his or her site in its place leaving the impression of link popularity and PR.

Individuals looking to purchase site wide links see the high PR and make the purchase. Once Google does its next update the scammers site PR and Link counts drop back to 0, exposing to the advertiser that they have wasted their money. By this time the Webmaster is likely nowhere to be found.

How can you tell if the site is a fraud?
There are a few ways to check to see if a sites PageRank is stolen.

• Check the internal pages. If the index page has a PageRank of 8, and the internals have no PageRank, there is a good chance that something is up.

• Do a back link check on the suspect site, and closely look at a few of the pages that show up. If you can’t find any links pointing it, this brings up another flag.

• Perform a WHOIS and check the registration date for the domain. It is highly unlikely that a new site would have a high PageRank. If the site is less than a year old and has a PageRank of 8, this may raise some flags.

• Be weary of webmasters contacting you with sales pitches, in most cases sites offering link spots for sale will not solicit.

If you are careful and take the time to make a few simple checks you can ensure that you won't be scammed by these fraudulent sites. I would suspect that Google will realize that this is happening and take action against it relatively quickly, but until then it is always best to be careful. If you have a bad feeling about a website's credibility, then it is probably best to pass it by and move on.

As scams come and go, there are always new ones just around the corner, so it’s best to take the time and make a few checks before jumping into anything.

Article by Scott Van Achte, PPC Manager, StepForth Search Engine Placement, Inc.  www.stepforth.com  -    Published Mar. 2004

PageRank Mania Revisited

Every day there are numerous forum posts asking how to increase PageRank, and every day I and the other moderators ask the posters the same questions:

Why do you link to the sites you link to? Is it because they're useful and informative and might be worthwhile to your site visitors? Or is it because you hope you'll get a reciprocal link, which just might boost your PageRank? Perhaps it's some combination of these things, or other reasons altogether.

Everyone likes having links to their site; that is a given. When they're from appropriate sites, inbound links often bring a lot of high-quality traffic. In fact, the Web was founded on the practice of linking, which is why it's called the "Web." Without linking, I guess it would be just a list. Welcome to the World Wide List. Doesn't have a very good ring to it now, does it?

As soon as people realized that search engines such as Google were placing an emphasis on who's linking to whom in their ranking algorithms, all hell broke loose as far as I'm concerned. I'll never forget the feeling of dread I felt when I read the first post in I-Search many, many years ago that went something like, "Hey...I've got a great idea! Since the search engines are counting the number of links to sites in their ranking algorithms, why don't we all link our sites to each other?" Whoohoo! Witness the birth of the link farm.

It didn't take "savvy" Webmasters long to realize that they could create whole bunches of sites for one company, and link them all together to *artificially* inflate their link popularity. If there's a way to trick the engines, you betcha plenty of people will figure out how to do it. But this is old news.

Google's done its best to put a stop to this sort of manipulation. Many sites that belonged to old-time link farms found their PageRank scores disappearing and their backward links vanishing. Without any real links, rankings in the search results are difficult if not impossible to obtain.

For awhile, link farms became a thing of the past. However, the latest craze is to buy "text ads" on any and all sites, regardless of the relevancy of the content. In many cases this works beautifully because it's pretty difficult for Google to figure out the difference between a true link that is a vote for a site and a paid-for ad that is simply there to manipulate PageRank. However, even this house of cards is starting to fall. We're starting to see many of the sites that were successfully selling text-based link ads suddenly not passing any PageRank to the sites they link to. I heartily applaud Google for their efforts on this. I do wish they could move a bit faster though, as it's still working on most sites that use this technique.

Unfortunately, the spammers have again ruined things for regular old Webmasters who just want to do the right thing. People are completely confused and dazed as to the best way to obtain links to their sites. Suddenly, there's a mad scramble to try to figure out "safe" linking procedures. Everyone is scared to link or get linked to because of the fear of penalization. More and more people are asking what the criteria are to safely link sites together.

The answer is simple -- don't buy or trade links with irrelevant sites just for the PageRank value and don't build bunches of sites for the sole purpose of linking them together.

That said, if you already own multiple sites (that weren't created for the purpose of link popularity), of course you can link them together if it makes sense to do so from a usability perspective. In other words, if it adds value to the user to have a link from one of your sites to another of your sites, then of course you should do it. That's what linking is all about. And no, you don't have to pretend that the sites all have different owners by placing them on different servers and obtaining different IP addresses. You only need to do that if you have something to hide, which of course you don't. The search engines understand that regular, normal businesses often have numerous Websites.

I refuse to believe that Google or any other search engine is looking for ways to make fewer sites show up in their search results. They're not interested in banning sites that provide great information. They *are* interested in maintaining the integrity of their search results, however. Therefore, I suggest you don't ruin an otherwise great site by attempting to trick the search engines. You may not get caught today; you may not even get caught tomorrow. Heck, you may never get caught. But if you do, you'll have to start over from scratch in order to redeem yourself.

Sadly, it appears that PageRank is often the driving factor in how and why people link to each other, and that is just plain wrong. When a site owner refuses to link to a great site that might be useful to their visitors simply because it's only a PR3 or 2 or even zero, then we've got a huge problem. To me, links are not a commodity to be bought, sold and traded, even though I realize that they most definitely are being used this way. I link to other sites and discussions when it's appropriate to do so, and not with the caveat that I get a link back. If it's helpful, it's helpful whether or not they link back to my site.

Like I always say, search engine optimization is all about making your site the best it can be. When we become so consumed by what sites we can and can't link to, or even whether we can link at all, then we're not making our site the best it can be. We're letting other factors dictate our site content, and that's just not right.

Jill Whalen of High Rankings is an internationally recognized search engine optimization consultant and editor of the free weekly High Rankings Advisor search engine marketing newsletter.

Article by Jill Whalen,   www.searchengineguide.com  -    Published Jun. 2004

Home Page  |  Site Map  |  E-Book  |  Link Directory  |  Submit a Link  |  Article Directory  |  Submit an Article

Resources / Links   Internet Related  /  Business Opportunity  /  Jobs - Employment  /  General Links  /  How to Start an Internet Business

Marketing - Advertising  /  Search Engine Marketing  /  Free Service Links  /  Other Links  /  Work at Home Opportunities