All About Links Interview With Link Building Ex

All About Links Interview With Link Building Expert , Bob Gladstein

by: Julia Hyde

Julia: Welcome Bob. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions about link building. Iกm going to jump right in ask you why Web sites need links?
Bob: There are a number of reasons to have links pointing to your site. But let’s start with the reason they were created in the first place. The original purpose of the Internet was to enable the sharing of information. For example, if a scholarly paper existed on a server at the University of California, and a professor at Oxford wanted to read it, the Internet made that instantly possible. Now, if the Oxford professor had a paper that referenced information from the UC paper, they could link directly to that other document rather than just quoting from it. So a hyperlink was intended as a way of connecting data, ideas, and references together. It’s like saying, ขif you’d like further information on this topic, here’s a place to find it.ข
When the Google search engine was created, its developers took this into account. And drew the conclusion that a link was an indication that the page being linked to was relevant to some particular subjectmatter.
So that’s a rather long introduction to a short answer to your question. Web sites need links because they send traffic that’s already targeted to their subject matter to other sites, and because they help the search engines determine both their theme and what the web as a community deems their importance to be. Basically (although not absolutely), the more links that point to a page, the more relevant that page is determined to be. In addition, links are now considered the most reliable way (apart from paying) to get a site into the search engines in the first place.
While both Google and Yahoo allow you to submit a site to their index, it’s clear that the best way to get the search engines to pay attention to your site is to get a page that their spiders already know about to link to yours. The spiders then follow that link to your site, and add it to their index.
Julia: Thanks, Bob. But there are different types of links aren’t there? Can you explain differences?
Bob: As we discussed in the previous question, there are text links from other sites. Some of these are reciprocal (that is, they link to you and you link back to them) and others are oneway (the owner of the other site decides, for whatever reason, to link to your site and doesn’t expect you to link back).There are also image links: banners, buttons, etc. These have the advantage of standing out visually from the rest of the page, but many people have become immune to the standard banner ad and just ignore them, because it’s assumed they’re just advertisements, and as such, not necessarily relevant to the page on which they appear.
Then there are directory listings, where a link to your site appears on a page containing links to numerous other sites in what the directory editor has determined to be your particular niche.
An important thing to consider regarding getting a link is the code behind it. If your primary concern is to send traffic to your site, this isn’t important. In that case, what you need to think about is whether the link is going to send the right people to you. But if you want the link to be recognized by the search engines and to contribute to your ranking in searches, you need the link to be in simple HTML, without JavaScript or other code that will hide the link from search engine spiders.
There are also links that won’t help you at all, or will put you in danger of losing your position on the search engines. Guestbook spam, the practice of going to a site’s guest book area and posting a message like ขNice site. Come visit mine, at…ข will do you no good. The search engines know that such links carry no value, and just ignore them. The same is true for freeforall links pages, on which you can immediately add a link to any site, without any editorial oversight.
Link farms are a far more dangerous subject. These are networks of sites that are heavily crosslinked and offer to link to you as long as you link back into the network, or host a page on your site that serves as a directory of sites that the link farm has linked to. The idea here is to abuse the power search engines give to links by exponentially increasing the number of links to your site, without regard for theme or value. You link into the farm, and you have hundreds, perhaps thousands of links pointing back to you. But the links are only there to increase link popularity. The sites on which the links reside are not intended to actually be viewed by people; they’re just intended to give search engine spiders the mistaken impression that your site is extraordinarily popular.
Julia: So, whatกs the best way to get legitimate and relevant sites to link to yours?
Bob: Before you can get a site to link to yours, you first have to find it. You need to do research on the subjectmatter of your site by searching on the keywords you hope people will use to find it. The results of those searches will give you a list of sites that are already performing well for those keywords. You should then study those sites, so that you can write to the webmaster and request a link in such a way that demonstrates that you understand the purpose of their site. And give reasons as to why you think their audience will find your site of interest.
You can buy links from sites as well, sometimes on a single page, and sometimes all across the site. These are just like any other form of advertising. So before you part with your money you need to determine if they’re worth the purchase price by deciding if they’ll send you enough of the right traffic. That’s why sites that offer the opportunity to buy links will make claims about how much traffic they get and how their audience is made up of ขdecision makers.ข
Finally, there are directories, which normally require you to drill down to find the most relevant category for your listing. You can then (depending on the directory) either contact them with your information, or fill out a form on the directory itself and request a listing.
Julia: What would you say to Web site owners who are reluctant to use links because they think it will take people away from their site?
Bob: For one thing, a Web site without any offsite links is a dead end, and there is some evidence to suggest that search engines view sites that don’t link out as being less valuable.
Unless you’re willing to pay, you may have a hard time convincing people to link to you if you’re not planning on linking back to them. But it’s still possible, especially if you’ve got content that’s so good people will want to link to you anyway, but it’s definitely harder to get oneway links than reciprocal ones. I’m not suggesting that people link directly to their competitors. The idea is to link to sites that complement the content that you’re providing. By doing so, you’re contributing to the impression that your site is an authority on your theme: not only do you have great information, but you have links to other sources of information. That’s another reason for people to come back to your site more often. And if you’re still worried about sending people away from your site and never seeing them again, you can set your offsite links to open in a new window, by adding target=ข_blankข to the code for the link. If you do this, however, it’s a good idea for usability purposes to let people know that the link will open in a new window. Otherwise, people who have their browser windows maximized may not realize what’s happened, and should they try to get back to your site by hitting their back button they’re likely to be confused when it fails to take them anywhere.
Julia: We often hear the term กAnchor textก. Can your explain what this means and why itกs important?
Bob: Anchor text is the part of a text link that’s visible on the page. On a Web page, that would look like this: Search Engine Marketing and Copywriting Services. ขSearch Engine Marketing and Copywriting Servicesข is the anchor text. What’s important about it is that it tells both the user and the search engine spider what the page the link points to is about. In a search engine optimization project, getting links to your site that use your keywords in the anchor text helps to get your page to rank higher for those keywords. That’s why it’s important to have something other than ขclick hereข as anchor text.The power of anchor text can be seen by the example of the practice of ขGooglebombing,ข in which numerous sites will link to a particular page using the same anchor text. If enough sites do it, Google will rank that page at the top of its listings for searches on that text. George W. Bush’ biography page on the site of the White House is still number one in Google for the query ขmiserable failureข about half a year after that particular Googlebomb was created. Whether or not you personally agree that those words do a good job of describing Mr. Bush, Google accepts what it sees as the opinion of the general online community. If enough pages tell Google that miserable failure George W. Bush, then as far as Google is concerned, it must be true.
Julia: Another thing we hear a lot about is Pagerank™—a tool webmasters often use to determine whether a site is worth linking to or not. What does this mean?
Bob: PageRank (not to be confused with ขpage rankข) is a part of Google’s algorithm for ranking pages. There are numerous theories as to how it’s calculated, but only Google knows for certain. In any case, that’s not important to this discussion. What matters is that PageRank is a measure of the value of a page based on the links pointing to it, the value of the pages on which those links reside,and the number of other links that are on those pages. It’s strictly numerical, and has absolutely nothing to do with relevance or value to the reader. In other words, if I have a page about Shakespeare, and I link to two pages, one about Shakespeare, and the other about the care and feeding of parakeets, the same amount of PageRank will be passed to both of those pages. The fact that one of those pages is about the same subject as my page does not enter into the calculation.
You can see an estimation of the PageRank of a given page if you have the Google toolbar installed. But it’s important to keep in mind that PageRank is not everything, nor is it the most important thing. It’s one of many factors Google takes into account when it ranks pages for queries, and it’s not at all uncommon to see that a site that ranks on the top of a SERP (search engine results page) has a lower PageRank than the pages below it on the SERP.
One of the reasons people believe that PageRank is important is that if you do a backlink check in Google by typing ขlink:www.site.comข in the search box, you’ll generally (but not absolutely) only see pages that link to the URL in question and have a PageRank of 4/10 or higher. People have taken this to mean that a link from a page with a lower PR doesn’t count, and that simply isn’t true. It’s true that, all other things being equal, the higher the PR of a page linking to yours, the more PR it’s going to pass to your page, but as I said, PR is just one aspect of Google’s algorithm, and every link apart from the troublesome ones we spoke of earlier has some value.
It’s also worth keeping in mind that a page that shows a PR of 2/10 in the toolbar today may have a 5/10 or 6/10 a few months from now.When I’m looking for sites from which I may wish to request links, the only time what I see in the toolbar matters to me is when I see that it has no PageRank at all. Assuming the site isn’t new, that can sometimes be an indication that the site has done something which caused Google to demote it. That is, it may be what Google refers to as a ขbad neighborhood,ข and as such, you should be extra careful in checking it out before you agree to link back to it.
Julia: Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge, Bob! I hope you all will check out Bobกs site at www.raisemyrank.com for more information about his company.

About The Author

Julia is an independent copywriter specializing in advertising and search engine marketing services. To learn more about how Julia can help boost your companyกs profits visit her site at www.juliahyde.com. You may also like to sign up for Marketing Works! Juliaกs monthly ezine. Visit her website or email Julia for details.

[email protected]

This article was posted on June 22, 2004

by Julia Hyde

Make Quality Content Your #1 Priority

Make Quality Content Your #1 Priority

by: John Tulus

It is by now a proven fact that content is the most important element for getting better pagerank and, consequently, more traffic.

Furthermore, the best ranking websites have content that is better written than most other sites.

A common mistake is to think that Google spiders just consider keywords and layout in order to establish pagerank.

If you look at the top ranking pages for the most searched for keywords, you will see that the quality of the content has been essential for getting them better pagerank, not to mention the enormous amount of traffic that Google sends them as a consequence.

Let’s look at some of the key areas that we have to keep in mind when producing content:

1. Updates

If you don’t update your content frequently, your visitors won’t have a reason to come back, and Google will not consider your site for better pagerank. You may get a good initial pagerank, but if Google doesn’t see that the site is updated frequently, pagerank will surely fall as a consequence. The best frequency is once a week, when possible.

2. Grammar and spelling

Sites that are well ranked in Google have little or no spelling and grammar errors. Before uploading content, make sure to check for spelling and grammar mistakes. Microsoft Word’s spellcheck may even be more than enough for this task.

3. Paragraph layout

Not only on websites, but in any type of message that implies text, lengthy paragraphs are difficult to read and readers loose focus on the content. Google is also aware of this fact and prioritizes short 1 to 4 sentence paragraphs.

The same applies to sentence length. Keep sentences brief and to the point with only relevant information. If there is an extensive idea that must be included, you can break it up into two or more sentences.

4. Keywords

On well ranked sites, references are made throughout a page to keywords and variations of the keywords. Always keep content relevant to the keywords that are referenced to your site.

5. Lists

Whenever presenting lists of items, it is better to show them bulleted or numbered and not in paragraph format. This is visually much better for your visitors and Google will also give it better pagerank. For example, see the difference with the text from this section in both formats:

Example 1 – Paragraph format:

When creating content, keep in mind updates, grammar and spelling, paragraph layout, keywords, and lists.

Example 2 – Numbered

When creating content, keep in mind:

Updates

Grammar and spelling

Paragraph layout

Keywords

Lists.

Some final thoughts:

Always make sure that you have quality content on your site.

If you write your own content, try to have an editor or a professional writer look at it before uploading, until you gradually develop your own writing skills.

Make sure you update your content frequently.

Distribute some of your content freely to other websites. This will generate more links to your site and improve your pagerank as well.

If you don’t have writing skills and aren’t willing to pay a professional writer to continuously create content for you, you can opt to acquire content databases that will provide you with extensive content that you can update regularly.

Once you have your site up and running, focus on content from then on. The design and layout of your site may be a one time only process, but content needs to be taken care of and nurtured to generate traffic and keep those visitors coming back for more.

About The Author

John Tulus is Marketing Director at Web Marketing Experts, developer of internet marketing solutions to help companies increase sales and profitability online. If you would like to learn more about Internet Marketing, visit Our Website at http://www.wmxp.com and http://www.webcontents.org or email John at [email protected].

This article was posted on September 08

by John Tulus

Introducing PageRank shattering the myth

Introducing PageRank shattering the myth

by: Dave Collins

One of the most fascinating aspects of the web is its dynamism. We all know that it develops at an astonishing speed yesterdayกs craze is todayกs old news, and bigger and better things seem to be springing up every few days. Some of them crumble quickly into dust, while others seem destined to tower above the rest.

Naturally, search engines also follow this pattern. Some of the early search engine giants remain with us today, but many of them are gone and every so often, a new champion seems to emerge. Recent years have seen the growth and development of a search engine that puts all others to shame. It might have once stood at the same level as its rivals, but there is no doubt that for now at least, Google rules the web.

Many of the companies we work with see more traffic from Google than all the other search engines put together, and there are more than a few Search Engine Optimisation services who focus almost exclusively on this one engine.

What is Googleกs secret?

So why is Google so successful? The answer is simply that when a user goes searching on Google, they’re likely to find what they’re looking for, and more quickly than on any other search engine. Exactly how Google manages to do this is trickier to answer, as they tend to guard their secrets well. They don’t want us to know too much about how they determine their search results, simply because they don’t want anyone to be able to manipulate their own ranking.

Of course, human nature dictates that many of us aren’t satisfied with this. We desperately want to be able to affect the ranking of our sites, and some of us will go to great lengths to do so. We work hard to find the perfect keywords, tweak our meta tags and optimise the content of our site to what we hope is Google perfection.

But recently, a new word has entered our vocabulary, and is surrounded by so much hype that very few people actually have a realistic understanding of what it is or what it isn’t. PageRank is where the attention is focused today, and many companies are determined to find a means of improving their magic number. กI want to be an eight,ก they say, as if PageRank was a dress size that they could grow into with the help of some heavyduty calorie shots. Unfortunately, itกs not quite as easy as that.

So what exactly is PageRank? Thereกs a surprisingly simple answer: it is Googleกs way of estimating how important a web page is. On a basic level, Google decides that if one page links to another, the second page must be considered important. If one page on one site has 15,000 pages linking to it, it must be for a good reason, right?

Page Rank is about pages, not websites

Letกs begin by straightening out a few basic points. First of all, PageRank is assigned on a pagebypage basis. A whole website does not have this score, and different pages within a site can have very different PageRank values assigned. Another important point is that the rating (out of ten) assigned is essentially little more than an approximation of a given pageกs PageRank. The actual values cover a far greater range than zero to ten.

Before going any further, we should take a look at the most important point of all, often overlooked when we get caught up in the PageRank frenzy. PageRank is only one factor that Google takes into account when displaying the results of a search. There are still other factors of equal significance in performing well on Google so don’t make the mistake of thinking that you would live happily ever after if your PageRank was a little bit higher. Other factors include a pageกs title, and the use of keywords within the pageกs text not in the keyword meta tag.

PageRank is still one of Googleกs more ingenious strategies, and is certainly one of the many reasons that it stands head and shoulders above the rest. Partly, this is due to a combination of two factors. Firstly that the very nature of PageRank is difficult (but not impossible) to manipulate, and secondly that the exact details of how the value is assigned is a closely guarded secret.

However, there is one very useful source of data an academic paper detailing the formula used to calculate PageRank from Googleกs early beginnings as a university project. This formula will have certainly been altered and expanded over the years, but it is generally accepted that it still represents the essence of their PageRank system

The Page Rank Formula

The exact details are lengthy, and far beyond what I am capable of dissecting. But the basic formula is as follows:

PR(A) = (1d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + ….. + PR (Tn)/C(Tn))

PR(A) is the PageRank of a particular page (A) not a website as a whole.

1d is the dampening factor, as explained below.

PR(T1) is the PageRank of the page that links to our (A) page, and C(T1) is the number of links contained on that same page.

The formula is repeated throughout every single page that contains a link to this (A) page.

Two important points to take into account. First of all, if you’re thinking that the formula would in practice be an infinite loop, then you’re correct. This is the very nature of the web itself, and is also why Google has introduced the so called dampening factor.

The second point concerns the way that PageRank is awarded by one page to another. The generally accepted means of understanding this is to consider that a given page has, according to its own PageRank, a certain amount of voting power. If the page in question links to five other pages, then each of the pages being linked to receive their PageRank กawardก of one fifth of the original pageกs voting power. Itกs also worth noting that the number of links on a page includes a websiteกs internal links.

Link farms don’t work

This makes it quite obvious that the socalled link farms, where each page of a website contains many hundreds of links in an attempt to artificially boost so called กlink popularityก, are doomed to fail from the start. In addition to this, Google has its own system for not only minimising the effect that these sites have, but eliminating it altogether. As the formula shows, PageRank works as a multiplier of a siteกs overall value, so Google has made sure that link farms have their own value of zero which means that a link from them counts for nothing, quite literally.

There is a scare story doing the rounds which claims that being listed on link popularity sites, or for that matter any site with a large number of links, can get your site penalised or even banned from Google. This is simply not the case. If it were, youกd effectively be able to wipeout your competitionกs Google presence with one afternoonกs work. It doesn’t work that way.

Having links to your web pages on sites with a low page rank and a large number of links means that the benefits are quite effectively minimised to zero. But this will not detract from your current PageRank at all.

Obviously, what people really want to know is whether PageRank can be manipulated. In the past it was often considered impossible to do so, but nowadays this is not always the case. There are two simple factors involved:

Firstly: who links to you, and how they choose to do so. Secondly: your own websiteกs navigation and internal links.

Clearly, the sheer number of pages linking to you will not influence your PageRank. Of far greater importance is the PageRank of each of these pages, and how many links appear on them. Common sense certainly needs to be applied here. In theory, one simple way to improve your PageRank might be to have Microsoft link to you from the front page of their website. In practice, this might be a little difficult to achieve.

It is already quite clear that linking out to another website, even if it opens in a new browser window, actually involves potentially giving away a lot more than a little space on your website. My advice would be to look at your link exchanges as you would your food. You always want to make sure you’re not leaving yourself hungry, and if you do choose to share, be selective. Exchanging a piece of your sirloin steak for a small piece of stale bread, shared between hundreds of people, is far from an even trade. If you’re doing so to help another site, as an act of charity, then this is fine and well, as long as you know what you’re giving away. Choose wisely.

Wellknown websites and their PageRank

Now that we have a basic understanding of how PageRank works, letกs take a look at some of the more wellknown websites on the web today, and see how their main pages perform.

Finding out a pageกs PageRank is couldn’t be simpler. Follow the link to Services and Tools from the Google home page, and find the Google Toolbar. After installing the software, a bar appears at the top of the browser showing a value for each page you’re visiting. Hold the mouse over the bar, and youกll be told the pageกs PageRank a score out of ten. As already mentioned, this figure is little more than a representation of a pageกs actual PageRank.

Not surprisingly, very few pages score ten out of ten, and those that do includes the likes of Microsoft, Yahoo, Google itself, AltaVista, Adobe, AOL, Mozilla.org and others. In other words we’re looking at the biggest of the biggest websites and not something that most of us could ever hope to achieve!

Of course, there is a simple reason that search engines and directories have such a high PageRank. Not only do they link to a huge, evergrowing list of sites and pages, but more importantly, a truly staggering number of these sites and pages link back to them. When you consider the importance of reciprocal linking, you start to understand why they do so well. With Adobe, you only need to consider the sheer number of web pages out there that link to a PDF file (with links to Adobe for their free reader software), and you will see why they have achieved such a high number.

A nine out of ten score still puts you within a very small minority of the web. Should you be able to achieve this high a PageRank, youกll be rubbing shoulders with the likes of MSN, BBC News, Winzip and Internet.com. We’re talking about the webกs upper classes here not really attainable for the majority of normal website owners.

Eight out of ten starts bringing you to the ‘reachableก web. Youกll find sites such as CNN, TuCows, Simtel, the Association of Shareware Professionals, the Shareware Industry Conference site and Lockergnome.

A PageRank of seven is starting to appear reasonably attainable, as long as we’re willing to work hard on the content and reputation of our site. The sevens include companies such as DLink, MSNBC, CNETกs Download.com and our very own SharewarePromotions.com.

Don’t lose your perspective!

At this point, a little perspective might be in order. A critical point to remember is that PageRank only plays a part in performing well in Google. PageRankกs primary aim involves ranking the results of a search but in order to show up in the search to start with, your site needs to be properly optimised and have good, solid content. So contrary to popular belief, the era of Search Engine Optimisation is far from over. Itกs only had a new, interesting factor thrown into it.

Finally, a note of caution. This article has been an attempt to very briefly summarise an enormously complicated subject. Aside from constraints of space, much of the workings of PageRank remain shrouded in mystery. The ideas presented are based on available data, known facts, speculation and my own experience but none of it should be considered as insurmountable fact!

PageRank is undoubtedly an important factor in how much traffic you will receive from Google. It is, however, merely one component in your arsenal of tools to win the battle for one particular search engine. Even with the constantly evolving web, and the evertightening systems employed by the search engines to quantify the usefulness of a website, content is still by far the most important factor, and will invariably form the base on which everything else is built. Be seen, be sold.

Copyright 2005 SharewarePromotions Ltd

About The Author

Dave Collins is the CEO of SharewarePromotions Ltd., a well established UKbased company working with software and shareware marketing activities, utilising all aspects of the internet. http://www.sharewarepromotions.com and http://www.davetalks.com.

This article was posted on March 22, 2005

by Dave Collins

Google PageRank Explained

Google PageRank Explained

by: Tony Zhu

Google PageRank has always been a controvertial issue among us webmasters. There seems to be many questions floating around with suggests that many people are not familier with how PageRank works. Here, I will attempt to answer some of the common questions and discard the rumors.

1. What is PageRank?

Here is what Google says:

กPageRank relies on the uniquely democratic nature of the web by using its vast link structure as an indicator of an individual pageกs value. In essence, Google interprets a link from page A to page B as a vote, by page A, for page B. But, Google looks at more than the sheer volume of votes, or links a page receives; it also analyzes the page that casts the vote. Votes cast by pages that are themselves กimportantก weigh more heavily and help to make other pages กimportant.ก

Click here for more…

In other words, PageRank is simply a mechanical algorithm by Google that attempts to evaluate the importance of your website larged based on the amount and quality of backlinks your website have. For the more intellectual crowds out there, check out The PageRank Citation Ranking: Bringing Order to the Web .

2. How do I check the PR of a webpage?

If you use Internet Explorer, download and install the Google Toolbar. There will be a green indicator on the toolbar that tells the PR of a particular page. Hovering your mouse over the ind icator will give you a numeric value of the PR. In addition, there are numerous tools out there that will check the PR of a page without the toolbar. If you use Mozilla Firefox, you can install the PageRank Checker extention.

3. Why do I want a higher PR?

It used to be believed that a higher PR value will give you a higher position in SERPs (Search Engine Results Pages). However, this is no longer the case. As any experienced webmaster, and even Google themselves, would tell you, there are hundreds of factors that determine where your page is displayed in the results.

Google states that they do not recommend webmasters exchange links to increase their PR. They see it as trying to กgameก their search engine. Lastly, many people believe that a higher PR causes Googlebot to crawl through a page more often.

4. Is it a good idea to buy links for a higher PR?

Websites with higher PR (6, 7, 8) often make money by selling links to sites with lower PR. As Google states, if they are aware that sites are selling PR instead of just advertising space (how they can differ the two I can’t say or if, ind eed, they can), both the buyer and seller may be penalized. The penalty may take the form of a lower position in SERPs and/or a downgrade of PR. Thus, we recommend that you do not buy links simply for a higher PR.

5. But I still would like to improve the PR of my site. What should I do?

First of all, sites don’t have PR, pages do. (hence the name Page Rank) Therefore, it is possible for an internal page to have a higher PR than the homepage. In order to get PR, the only way is to get links to it. Incoming backlink from a page with a higher PR is more valuable than incoming a backlink from a page with a lower PR. In addition, the PageRank that a link กgivesก is spread out between the number of links on the page. For example, a backlink from a PR4 page with only two links on the page can be more valuable than a backlink from a PR7 page with fifty links on the page.

6. How many links would I need to get my homepage to PR7?

The answer to this question varies greatly between different sites. Sometimes a couple links from other PR7 or PR8 pages will do. On the other hand, you may need hundreds of backlinks from PR3 or PR4 pages.

7. Iกve acquired many backlinks to my site. Why isn’t my PR improving?

There are many reasons why you may not be seeing the results. First of all, if you see PR5 for a page, the real PR may be PR5.0000 to PR5.9999. You have no way of knowing the exact PR of your site. Thus, you are simply not seeing the results. Secondly, Google might have done a PR algorithm update. Lastly, the PR of the pages that are giving you incoming backlinks might have changes, thus changing your PR as well.

8. How often do PR change?

Results may vary (a week to six mont hs).

9. Why is my PR in the Google Directory different than my toolbar PR?

Google uses a different scale for measuring PageRank in the Google Directory.

10. Why is it so much harder to go from PR6 to PR7 than from PR5 to PR6?

Google Pa geRank value goes up logarithmically. (i.e. going from PR9 to PR10 may look like the same as going from PR1 to PR2, but is actually 1000 times more difficult). The exact logarithmic scale is unknown, but there has been speculation that it may be around 5. (i.e. going from PR2 to PR3 is 5 times more difficult than going from PR1 to PR2)

11. I just lost all my PR!

Don’t panic just yet! Check to see if your PR is whitebarred or greybarred (white or grey in the PR ind icator). If it is white barred, then your PR will probably come back. However, if your PR is greyed, then it means that Google saw your site as having used unethical SEO techniques (e.g. selling/buying PR, keyword stuffing). Also, Google sees http://example.com/abc.htm and http://www.example.com/abc.htm as two different pages. In this case, the PR of the page is spread between these two UR Ls.

12. If PR is virtually useless, then why is it so expensive to กbuyก?

Over the years there has been many misconcepts about PR. Sites with higher PR claim that PR is valueable so that they can make more money selling links. Gradually, the misconceptions quietly built up.

13. Whatกs up with the PageRank formula I see on the Net?

You may have seen a formula to determine PR. I cannot say that the formula is untrue, but itกs the implementation of the formula that is in question. Just remember, the Internet is NOT all about Pagerank!

About The Author

Tony Zhu is the owner of InaWhim.com, the largest free resource for the new and experienced home business owner. At InaWhim.com, you will find massive listings of paid survey companies, products with free resell rights, exclusive quality articles, friendly community, and much more. All FREE!

This article was posted on March 06

by Tony Zhu

Should Bloggers be Helping Google Fix Their PageRa

Should Bloggers be Helping Google Fix Their PageRank System?

by: Linda J Bruton

By now, most bloggers have heard the announcement that the Big 3 search engines Google, Yahoo, and MSN have united in support of a new tag that will supposedly combat comment spam. The new tag is a nofollow attribute that can be added to links. When added to links in comment tags, the search engines will ignore them.

An excellent discussion of this new tag and how it works can be found at Danny Sullivanกs Search Engine Watch:

http://blog.searchenginewatch.com/blog/050118204728

Google announced the new tag in a 1/18/2005 post to their own blog: http://www.google.com/googleblog/

And Microsoft added their support to the new tag in this post: http://blogs.msdn.com/msnsearch/archive/2005/01/18/nofollow_tags.aspx

At first blush, anything that can help cut down the comment spam that most bloggers are daily subjected to would seem to be a good thing. It can be pretty upsetting to access your blog in the morning and find 50 junk comments with links to casino, adult, and pharmacy sites. If your blog has any PageRank, you can expect to find more of this garbage polluting your site every day. Fighting the spread of comment spam has become a necessity.

But after first cheering the proactiveness of the search engines, many bloggers have stepped back and taken a closer look and they don’t like what they see. You can read a sampling of their thoughts at Search Engine Watch Forum:

http://forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=3797

Brian Turnerกs incisive article กNew Nofollow Tag Cheers Bloggers but Fails Blogsก discusses some of the potential abuses of the new nofollow tag:

http://www.platinax.co.uk/news/archives/2005/01/new_nofollow_ta.html

And Jim Prykeกs article กBloggers Cheer Google As Their Search Rankings Plummetก makes it very clear that not only will this NOT stop comment spam. But it will actually hurt bloggers as a community:

http://netinstitute.com/archives/2005/01/20/bloggerscheergoogleastheirsearchrankingsplummet

For an hilarious take on the new tag and how it will get abused, be sure to take a look at Link Condom: http://www.linkcondom.com

I have to agree with these bloggers that the nofollow tag won’t even put a dent in the problem of comment spam. You have to realize that the comment spammers who cause the most problems are the ones who use automated bots to spread their spam onto every blog they find. The fact that they find a blog using the nofollow tag won’t stop the bot from posting. If you have a popular blog, youกll still wake up every morning to find 50 casino/pharmacy/adult ads on your blog. Youกll still have to spend the time deleting those posts to clean up your blog.

You see, the problem to bloggers isn’t that those comment links pass PR. Itกs the fact that those spam posts make your blog look like garbage. Whether the links pass PR or not isn’t the big issue for bloggers. Itกs the time it takes to get rid of unwanted comments and the detraction to their sites. The nofollow tag won’t do a thing about that problem. Youกll still have the problems, even if you use the tag.

Think about this: how effective have email filters been in stopping email spam? As most of us know, theyกve hardly done any good at all. Email spam becomes a bigger problem every day. Spammers really don’t care if some of their emails are blocked. They just send more of it to compensate. The same will be true of the automated comment spam bots.

The fact of the matter is, there are already much better tools in most blogging software to fight comment spam AND save the time and effort of the blogger at the same time. There are already a number of plugins for WordPress, Moveable Type, and other blogs. There will undoubtedly be more in the future. These tools are already more effective at fighting comment spam than this nofollow tag will ever be.

What is unfortunate is that the people the nofollow tag will really hurt is bloggers themselves. Traditionally, bloggers have read and commented in each otherกs blogs. And these comments have added value. When I write an article for my blog, I love it when other bloggers take the time to add their insights on the topic Iกm discussing. These comments add content to my site and continue the discussion. This is one of the reasons blogs are so easy to grow into topicspecific informationrich sites that are popular with readers. Unlike static sites, they offer twoway communication between reader and blogger. They become communities.

When someone adds this kind of value to my blog, I am more than happy to give them a link to their blog that passes PR. That will help them build the readership of their own blog, grow the community even larger, and add to the richness of the discussion. These are exactly the kinds of links that any webmaster should want on their site!

Adding a nofollow tag to comments can only quash this discussion. It can only discourage commenters with the most to contribute from taking the time to add to the discussion. After all, if the time I spend on another blog doesn’t contribute to the growth of the blogging community as a whole or aid in the visibility of my own blog, am I going to spend as much time and effort doing it?

Anything that decreases the open flow of discussion currently enjoyed in the blogging community is a bad deal for bloggers.

The question that should be asked is this: why is comment spam so profitable? After all, if it weren’t profitable, so many people wouldn’t be going to such ridiculous lengths to do it.

The answer to this is obviously Googleกs linkheavy PageRank algorithm that forces webmasters to get every link they can to get their siteกs indexed and ranked. Most webmasters know that in order to get ranked in Google, they had better have a ton of links to their site.

Thatกs the problem with PageRank as an algorithm. It encourages artificial linking between sites that no longer has any relevance whatsoever to the goal of providing good resources to visitors. Do we really believe that most reciprocal link directories provide a resource to our visitors? Not likely! If websites are real estate, reciprocal link directories are the slums, the seedy bars and tattoo parlors on the edges of polite society.

Whole businesses have sprung up as a reaction to PageRank. Iกm talking about the link auction and link selling sites. Under the PageRank system, sites aren’t being ranked by who provides the best content, but by who has the deepest pockets to buy the most links. Or, in the case of comment spammers, whoever wants to spread their bots all over the internet spamming blogs. This system has over time totally skewed the natural linking between sites that once dominated the internet the very thing that Googleกs PageRank system is supposed to reward.

Ironically, blogs are one of the few places left on the web where linking is actually about providing good content to visitors and rewarding value provided on other sites. Bloggers as a group are the most likely to link to sites because of the content value to their visitors. Their links are very likely to be very topic specific. You don’t find that on other sites. These are the kinds of links that I would assume Google would want to encourage through their PageRank system, not those junky reciprocal link directories or purchased links.

It would seem to me that the only effective way to cut down on comment spam and all the artificial linking techniques Google purportedly wants to thwart is not by making life harder for bloggers the very people who link in the most relevant fashion. But at taking a second look at their own PageRank system and whether it is really serving the usefulness of their own search engine and the whole web in 2005.

About The Author

For more tips and ideas on how to make money blogging, be sure to visit my กWhy Marketers Should Blogก weblog at (what else) http://www.WhyMarketersShouldBlog.com.

This article was posted on January 27, 2005

by Linda J Bruton

Maximising Google’s PageRank of your Website to Ma

Maximising Google’s PageRank of your Website to Maximise Traffic

by: Brian Daniels

Google uses PageRank to rank your pages. To maximize your rank, you must understand how to work with it.

Page rank is defined as follows:

We assume page A has pages T1…Tn which point to it (i.e., are citations). The parameter d is a damping factor which can be set between 0 and 1. We usually set d to 0.85. There are more details about d in the next section. Also C(A) is defined as the number of links going out of page A. The PageRank of a page A is given as follows:

PR(A) = (1d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

Note that the PageRanks form a probability distribution over web pages, so the sum of all web pagesก PageRanks will be one.

The Anatomy of a LargeScale Hypertextual Web Search Engine (Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page, founders of Google)

To conform to the PageRank algorithm follow these steps:

1. Get inbound links to your website

Google ranks your pages according to the number of links pointing at your page. Try to get as many links pointing at your pages as possible.

2. Your Title Tag

The title of your page is important. Place a descriptive title to you HTML tags in the section of your web page. Do not leave it with a title like กNew Pageก, or ขuntitledข.

3. ContentLaden Pages (Keyword Density)

Use more of your keyword on your pages. Be focused on your content. It has often been observed that Google considers keyword density a large factor in ranking pages in search engine results, more so than many other search engines.

4. Keywordladen Links?

Insert more description on links to your website. For example, a link with the text กCheap Medical Storeก pointing at your site will cause your site to be listed earlier if a visitor searches for กcheap medical storeก than if the link simply said กclick hereก.

5. ALT tags on Images

Place description on images. Add ALT tags to achieve this on images. Google indexes the text given in the ALT tags of images.

6. Use the Google Toolbar

The Google Toolbar is an ActiveX control that installs into IE, and shows the Page Rank of any page that you visit. The toolbar can be obtained from http://toolbar.google.com/. If you use Internet Explorer, you can get an idea of what Google thinks of how important your site is in general, by downloading the Google Toolbar.

7. Others

Good Google Search Engine Optimization looks at over 100 items, but here are some of the major items that Google analyses on web pages:

Words in Headings

Words in Bold

More weight is given to first 25 words of text on a page

Words in URL

Having more than 250 words on a page helps.

Phrases used to describe pictures.

Other major items covered on separate pages here. . .

DMOZ listing, PageRank, Back Links.

Google may also penalize for having too much repetition, or by กSpammingก them.

If it looks like you are trying to ‘trickก Google, then there is a chance you may penalized by Google. You must follow good practices.

8. Advice

Concentrate on a niche that isn’t too big.

Think about the keywords that you should use.

Make a site map so that itกs easy to get to all your pages.

Target the audience. Find out who should know about your site.

Be creative in marketing your site. Newsletters are a must.

Steer clear of any tricks like hidden text/links, sneaky redirects, etc.

Add a page of content a day to your site.

About The Author

Brian Daniels ([email protected]) is the founder of http://www.xcelweb.com, a company dedicated to online Internet Marketing and Web Design. He has just released a new Ebook dedicated to Internet Marketing and Search Engine Optimisation.

This article was posted on April 26, 2004

by Brian Daniels

What If You Don’t Want Your Pages To Be Crawled an

What If You Don’t Want Your Pages To Be Crawled and Cached

by: Jerry Yu

Some website owners have pages that they want to hide from general public. The pages meet the following criteria:

Only accessible by trusted users if they know page URLs.
No links on the website that point to these pages.
No username and password are required to gain access as long as you know page URLs.

Letกs see this scenario:
One day you created a page and you didn’t put a link to it on your site. Then you told your family members about the pageกs URL. You thought nobody else would find it. You just made a mistake. Google and Yahoo would find your page if you or any family member ever visited websites with either Google toolbar PageRank enabled or Yahoo Companion Toolbar.
PageRank function
When you use Google toolbar with PageRank enabled, the toolbar automatically sends and records the pageกs URL you visited in Googleกs database. If a page URL is not found in Googleกs database, Googlebot the robot of Google, will visit this page later to index it.
Your surfing activities are tracked whether you use the toolbar to search the web or directly type a pageกs URL in Google search page. Google records your visits anyway.
One day when you check what pages on your site have been indexed by Google, your hidden page comes up and you are worried. Furthermore, this page is cached. Even though you remove that page from your site, it can still be found and viewed from the cached version.
How to check what pages have been indexed?
Go to Google, type in กsite:www.yoursite.comก without quotes. This query will list all the pages that have been indexed but it will only display up to 999 records as this is the limit set by Google for any queries.
How to prevent your hidden pages to be indexed and cached?
One simple but not sound solution is to disable PageRank function on the toolbar. To stop Google automatically track your surfing information, you can uncheck the PageRank checkbox to disable it.
Steps to disable PageRank function:

Click Options button on the toolbar (you can see the word กOptionsก without quotes)
In the popup windowกs Option tab, uncheck the PageRank checkbox.

See Google Toolbar Privacy Policy at http://toolbar.google.com/privacy.html for what information Google is collecting.
Unfortunately, disable the PageRank function is not going to completely solve your problem because, in our example, your other family members could have PageRank enabled.
A sound solution
Your problem can be tackled by using meta robots html tag. The following two tags are what you need to use. Put the tag in the <head> section of your HTML documents.
<meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow">
Search engines will read this page but will not index it and no links on this page will be traversed through to other pages.
<meta name="robots" content="noarchive">
Search engines will not archive/cache the page content.
How to remove an indexed and cached page
If your page has already been indexed and cached, to remove from search engine databases, do this:
1. Add <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow,noarchive"> to your page head tag section. Next time when Googlebot or other robots visit your page, your page will be removed from their index and cache.
2. Do what Google suggests. กIf you believe your request is urgent and cannot wait until the next time Google crawls your site, use our automatic URL removal system. In order for this automated process to work, your webmaster must first insert the appropriate meta tags into the pageกs HTML code.ก
(cited from Google web site Remove Content from Googleกs Index at http://www.google.com/remove.html)
One last note. Is your page now 100% hidden? Not really. If you have outbound links on the hidden page and you click the links and navigate to other websites, your hidden pageกs URL will appear in other sites web traffic log as HTTP referer.
You can remove outbound links from your hidden pages if thatกs suitable.
More resources

All About Robots Meta HTML Tag at http://www.WebActionGuide.com/kb/robotsmetatag.php
Googlebot help page at http://www.google.com/bot.html
Yahoo Slurp help page at http://help.yahoo.com/help/us/ysearch/slurp/index.html
Comments about Google PageRank at http://www.googlewatch.org/outdated/pagerank.html

What If…
Now you know how to safeguard any page on your site. What if you want to keep robots out from visiting all files in a directory? The answer is in my article Robots.txt And Search Engine Robots http://www.WebActionGuide.com/kb/robotstxt.php

About The Author

Jerry Yu is an experienced internet marketer and web developer. Visit his site http://www.WebActionGuide.com for FREE กhowtoก stepbystep action guide, tips, knowledge base articles, and more.

This article was posted on July 14, 2004

by Jerry Yu

What Your Competition Knows About Traffic

What Your Competition Knows About Traffic

by: Kari Freckleton

Need more traffic? Thereกs a lot you can learn from spying on your competition. Your competition has traffic sources that you can easily swipe by following these steps.

Step One: Who should you spy on? You probably can name six to thirty online competitors. If not, you need to go through Google and Yahoo with the key terms you target. Who comes up? Write down everyone who has a business similar to yours, even if they aren’t identical.

Now you need to figure out who you should spy on first. Begin with the most successful websites. How do you find them? Itกs easy with a couple tools.

The Google toolbar (toolbar.google.com) is essential for spying. The Google toolbar features a little bar labeled กPageRank.ก Depending on each site, this bar may be gray, white, or (usually) a combination of green and white. The more green, the higher Google ranks that page. To get an exact PageRank, put your cursor over the PageRank graph and hold it there. Your competitors with the highest PageRank are the ones you want to look at very closely.

You also want to spy on the competitors with the most traffic. To figure out the relative traffic position of your competition (compared to all web sites), go to alexa.com and download their toolbar. The Alexa toolbar will display a number for each website ­ it?s traffic rank. The lower the number, the higher the traffic. (For example, Yahoo?s Alexa rank is 1, while Blockbuster?s is 2,220.)

Step two: Snoop through your competitorกs log files to see which sites and search terms send them the most traffic. Is there a public stats tracker on your competitorกs site? If so, check it out. If not, try typing in your competitorกs URL with /stats.html and /stats/ on the end of it. Often times, web hosts put statistics here without password protection. Still can’t find your competitorกs stats? Try Googling their URL and กstatistics.ก Itกs a long shot, but sometimes statistics pages will turn up this way.

Step three: Look at who is linking to your competitor. The easiest way to do this is to run a backward link search in Google and Altavista. Simply type in link:http://www.yourcompetition.com (using your competitorกs URL). Youกll find most of the pages that link to your competitor this way. How do you know which links are the best? By using the Google toolbar. The pages linking to your competitor with the highest PageRank are the ones you should look to for links of your own.

To steal those links, email all the webmasters that are linking to your competitor without getting a link back in return. Figure out why they link to your competitor (good free content, subject fits site, etc), and give them a better reason to link to you. Chances are, most of these webmasters will give you a link as well.

Once you have these new sites linking to yours, positive changes in your Google ranking are likely. You may even overtake your competitor for your targeted search terms ­ especially if you get links from spying on multiple sites. All from a little reconnaissance work and some emailing!

About The Author

Kari Freckleton, aka Greedy Girl, shares her unconventional ideas for free at http://www.greedygirl.com. Ready to smoke the competition? Email Kari at [email protected] to join her Too Good To Publish marketing club.

This article was posted on November 11, 2002

by Kari Freckleton

Dear Bill Gates, You Clever Fox

Dear Bill Gates, You Clever Fox

by: David Leonhardt

Dear Bill Gates.

You did it. You casually left a live grenade at the Grand Charity Gala and walked out of the room to see if anybody, especially Google, will notice.

Once again, you have created an innovation in marketing that is poised to take the world by storm. What I love about it is how you have just tossed it out into the public for all to see, and yet nobody seems to be noticing it.

Flitting from forum to forum, everyone is talking about your new MSN beta search engine ( http://beta.search.msn.com/ ), but nobody seems to have discovered the secret marketing bomb you left ticking there.

Google sure was clever with its PageRank gimmick. In fairness, PageRank is not just a gimmick, but it was marketed as much more than it is the big kaboom that sets Google apart, despite being only a small part of its algorithm.

But your kaboom will be bigger. You have actually given searchers like me control over my own rankings. While other search engines are talking about กpersonalized searchก, youกve given us the levers to incrementally change rankings in searches themselves.

You are probably aware that webmasters are kicking the tires on your new search engine to see how high they rank. Those who are more adventuresome or who earn their living understanding (or trying to understand) search engines are taking some of your special features for a spin. Most of those features are fairly mundane. Like กlinks toก (although it might just be the most comprehensive listing on the Internet – hint to webmasters) and กlanguageก.

But whatกs this at the very bottom, almost falling off my screen?

Results Ranking.

Hey, this is cool. I can control the results myself. I can give more weight to recentlyupdated sites, which is great when I am following a breaking story (After the Americaกs Cup, I do not want to find all the prerace predictions, for example.). Or I can weight the results in favor of static pages if I am trying to find again the health information I had read last time my daughter broke out in blue and green splotches all over her body.

And you let me decide whether to weigh heavily exact matches, if I know exactly what I am looking for, or approximate matches if I know only that the itchy splotches come from some rare Polar virus transmitted by stampeding transAtlantic penguins.

I even get to choose to boost rankings for popular sites or, if Iกm feeling like a rebel, for less popular sites. Yes, you have even appealed to my deepest psychological mood swings. This is really cool.

But what really counts is this: I control MSN!

I can just imagine the TV ads you have already planned: The ad character (a student, a construction worker, a nurse?) says, กMove over Bill Gates, Iกm in charge now.ก The voiceover says, กSearch MSNก PageRank will taste like yesterdayกs chewing gum.

I decided to find out if I really do control MSN, using one of my client sites. I chose DotcomMonitor Web Site Monitoring ( http://www.dotcommonitor.com ) and the search term กwebsite monitoringก. As I write, the site sits at #3 for that search term.

I turbo charged the popularity lever to 100%. Whoa. DotcomMonitor lost a spot. What does that mean? Somebody who does not rank as highly as my client got a boost by weighing link popularity higher (and, by extension, onpage content lower).

This tells me that my clientกs onpage content is in good shape. It also tells me which competitor has the best backlinks to check out.

PageRank was an effective gimmick for wrapping webmasters and SEO consultants around Googleกs fingers. But this results ranking thingy could wrap both the public and webmasters around MSNกs fingers.

Just one word of advice, Bill. Results Ranking? Is that the catchiest moniker you could give it?

Bill, you are to be congratulated for devising such a clever marketing tool, and for purposefully leaving it right out in the open like a live grenade without even a hint that it is there. That is what you did, isn’t it? You did do it on purpose, didn’t you?

If not, please let me know, so I can send you my invoice for your next great marketing idea.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is an SEO consultant

http://www.seowriter.net/freelance/seoconsultant.html

and a website marketing consultant:

http://www.seowriter.net

Pick up a copy of his SEO ebook:

http://www.thehappyguy.com/SEO.html

[email protected]

This article was posted on November 25, 2004

by David Leonhardt

How to Make Your Site Attractive to Potential Link

How to Make Your Site Attractive to Potential Link Partners

by: TC Thron

Every now and then, I receive a link exchange request from someone who wants a link from my directory (my highranking directory directly accessible from the index page), and in exchange, they’re willing to link to my page from one of their zillions of link pages about 18 jumps away from the home page. Needless to say, the proffered page has a Google PageRank of 0, and chances are itกs not even indexed by any search engines.
What an enticing offer.
If you want people to trade links with you, thus increasing your PageRank and traffic, you must offer them a valuable link in return. Not all links are created equally. Here are some tips for making your site attractive to potential link partners:
Build a directory of links pages sorted by categories that relate to your web site. Avoid putting all of your links on a single page. Avoid putting tons of links on any one page in your directory. Avoid naming your links page กlinks.htm(l)ก.
Put a link to your directory on your index page. Every page in your subdirectory should have a link from that directory page and in turn link to that directory page. This helps spread Google PageRank more evenly to all your links pages and your directory page. Link pages with high PR will attract more link offers.
Avoid impersonal link managing services; give your links directory a personal touch and manage link exchanges inhouse. If cutting and pasting a link onto one of your directory pages takes more than 30 seconds, you need to go back to webmaster school anyway.
Avoid tricks meant to keep from transferring PageRank to other peopleกs sites.
Don’t hide the link to your directory page.
Don’t force links to open in a new window. Most surfers have popup blockers that make this a pain to work around. I know you want to keep visitors from leaving completely, but letกs face it, if they’re browsing a links page, they’re already bored with your site. Get over it. Someone else will come.
Thatกs it. Follow these steps, and not only will people be more willing to link to you, but youกll get a lot of offers as well. Itกs more time efficient if people come to you than to hunt links on your own.

About The Author

TC Thorn wmakes a living from affiliate marketing and advertising. This article first appeared at Webmaster Articles.

This article was posted on June 22, 2004

by TC Thron

Googleกs Next Big Move

Googleกs Next Big Move

by: David Leonhardt

November 2003 might go down in history as the month that Google shook a lot of smug webmasters and search engine optimization (SEO) specialists from the apple tree. But more than likely, it was just a precursor of the BIG shakeup to come.

Google touts highly its secret PageRank algorithm. Although PageRank is just one factor in choosing what sites appear on a specific search, it is the main way that Google determines the กimportanceก of a website.

In recent months, SEO specialists have become expert at manipulating PageRank, particularly through link exchanges.

There is nothing wrong with links. They make the Web a web rather than a series of isolated islands. However, PageRank relies on the naturally กdemocraticก nature of the web, whereby webmasters link to sites they feel are important for their visitors. Google rightly sees link exchanges designed to boost PageRank as stuffing the ballot box.

I was not surprised to see Google try to counter all the SEO efforts. In fact, I have been arguing the case with many nonbelieving SEO specialists over the past couple months. But I was surprised to see the clumsy way in which Google chose to do it.

Google targeted specific search terms, including many of the most competitive and commercial terms. Many websites lost top positions in five or six terms, but maintain their positions in several others. This had never happened before. Give credit to Barry Lloyd of www.SearchEngineGuide.com for cleverly uncovering the process.

For Google, this shakeup is just a temporary fix. It will have to make much bigger changes if it is serious about harnessing the กdemocraticก nature of the Web and neutralizing the artificial results of so many link exchanges.

Here are a few techniques Google might use (remember to think like a search engine):

Google might start valuing inbound links within paragraphs much higher than links that stand on their own. (For all we know, Google is already doing this.) Such links are much less likely to be the product of a link exchange, and therefore more likely to be genuine กdemocraticก votes.

Google might look at the concentration of inbound links across a website. If most inbound links point to the home page, that is another possible indicator of a link exchange, or at least that the siteกs content is not important enough to draw inbound links (and it is content that Google wants to deliver to its searchers).

Google might take a sample of inbound links to a domain, and check to see how many are reciprocated back to the linking domains. If a high percentage are reciprocated, Google might reduce the siteกs PageRank accordingly. Or it might set a cutpoint, dropping from its index any website with too many of its inbound links reciprocated.

Google might start valuing outbound links more highly. Two pages with 100 inbound links are, in theory, valued equally, even if one has 20 outbound links and the other has none. But why should Google send its searchers down a deadend street, when the information highway is paved just as smoothly on a major thoroughfare?

Google might weigh a websiteกs outbound link concentration. A website with most outbound links concentrated on just a few pages is more likely to be a กlinkexchangerก than a site with links spread out across its pages.

Google might use a combination of these techniques and ones not mentioned here. We cannot predict the exact algorithm, nor can we assume that it will remain constant. What we can do is to prepare our websites to look and act like a website would on a กdemocraticก Web as Google would see it.

For Google to hold its own against upstart search engines, it must deliver on its PageRank promise. Its results reflect the กdemocraticก nature of the Web. Its algorithm must prod webmasters to give links on their own merit. That won’t be easy or even completely possible. And people will always find ways to turn Googleกs algorithm to their advantage. But the techniques above can send the Internet a long way back to where Google promises it will be.

The time is now to start preparing your website for the changes to come.

About The Author

David Leonhardt is an online and offline publicity specialist who believes in getting in front of the ball, rather than chasing it downhill. To get your website optimized, email him at [email protected]. For a copy of Don’t Get Banned By The Search Engines: http://thehappyguy.com/SEO.html. For a copy of Get In The News: http://thehappyguy.com/publicityselfpromotionreport.html.

This article was posted on November 27, 2003

by David Leonhardt

The Purpose of PageRank?

The Purpose of PageRank?

by: Michael McLaughlin

I am sure the first thought provoking question that popped into your head would be: what exactly is PageRank? Well PageRank can be summed up as how vital Google considers a particular webpage. Pagerank is a value from 010, zero being the least significant and ten of which few obtain being the most noteworthy. PageRank is often abbreviated as PR and Google determines this PR bye evaluating how many websites link to yours, even though many of these links are missed.

Who says Google gets to play the role of big brother? Google may be the leader that people praise and follow, yet why do webmasters allow themselves to be caught up in this publicity stunt? Sure it is a BASIC measurement of how much publicity a website is getting, but what is its real purpose?

As Pagerank gains ground webmasters loose sight of what they originally intended to accomplish. By writing this article I hope to give webmasters the foresight to distinguish that in the end PageRank won’t be what makes your website a success. Even though hard work and determination may help you achieve this success; skill, luck, and good timing play a bigger roll.

Many adays I am sifting through my vast amount of spam mail and occasionally receive an email entitled ขlink exchange.ข As I am always intrigued by possible link partners I typically read these emails.

When I come to an email that looks generic and has 100 mailers on the list I still give them a chance and then take a look at there website. Upon opening the website I am disgusted by the huge fonts and banners trying to sell me something, as a habit I look up at my toolbar and see that this website has a Pagerank of 6! What a possibility according to many website owners. The only opportunity I see in these types of links are purely PageRank building. On the other hand…

On a rare occurrence I come across an email titled ขour partnershipข as this email is already more intriguing I open it urgently and see a nice layout for this email that is directed towards me and my website. Anyways on with my point, I go to this website and see a terrific design plus they offer a unique service. According to habit and maybe a bit of my obsessive compulsive side I check the Pagerank. Humm, this website hasn’t even been indexed by Google yet? Should I exchange links with this website? I am sure most of you are thinking of course not, it would benefit my website in no way. On the contrary this website has the most potential to flourish and send you quality targeted uniqueกs!

What I am trying to prove is that because of this ขhigher powerข aka Google PageRank people turn down websites that can provoke there own success! Why not put Google PageRank in a state of anarchy and let websites again be judged by there quality content and superior design!

Directly PageRank cannot be bought, though often I see links being sold at outrageous monthly costs on pages with a pr of 6 and up. Many times they will provide minimal traffic. Purchasing one of these links will not bring you any targeted traffic, or any traffic at all for that matter. A site wide link on a high pr website can and will boost your pr, but will it help promote and brand your website?

I am not trying to say boycott Google PageRank and start a protest, just merely use PR as a reference but not enough to influence you’re linking decisions and how much time you spend on link exchanges. I hope you walk away from reading this article with a more open mind towards linking with new websites. Understand that every website has potential there are just different degrees to this. You can’t earn a clients respect my running up to there door and desperately offering them your product, instead let them find you. Your approach to search engines shouldn’t be any different.

Concerned about the next PR update as attempting to get those last minute link partners up and running? Invest this time instead on building up quality content pages and the Google will find you!

About The Author

Written by: Michael McLaughlin at http://www.webmastershed.com – webmaster forum, for more articles by this author please visit: http://www.webmastershed.com/articles

[email protected]

This article was posted on February 17

by Michael McLaughlin