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Google in the Real World:

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)

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Google in the Real World:

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  1. Google in the Real World: How Links Boost Your Ranking

  2. 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

  3. 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)

  4. 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)

  5. Yahoo’s Site Explorer

  6. Netconcepts’ Link Checker

  7. WeBuildPages’ Neat-o Tool

  8. SEO-Links Firefox Extension

  9. Thumbshots Ranking tool

  10. TouchGraph GoogleBrowser

  11. 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

  12. 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)

  13. Google Toolbar

  14. 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

  15. Google Directory – listings are organized by PageRank

  16. 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)

  17. SEOChat’s PageRank Lookup The way to check the home page PageRank when a redirect is present

  18. SEOChat’s PageRank Search

  19. SnooPR

  20. 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

  21. 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

  22. 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

  23. “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!

  24. An unintentional “Google bomb”

  25. 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

  26. PageRank Dilution • Example of multiple homes for the same content: Laura Ries’ blog

  27. 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”>

  28. 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

  29. 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>

  30. 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>

  31. 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 neighborhoodson the Web aren’t perfect • Google is looking for “cliques”(graph theory)

  32. Yahoo! Open Directory (DMOZ) GoGuides JoeAnt SearchHippo Skaffe RubberStamped BlueFind Gigablast WebSavvy Zeal etc. Submit to Directories

  33. 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

  34. 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

  35. 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)

  36. 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

  37. Slashdot headlines syndicated on Nanodot.org

  38. The top result was thanks to syndication via RSS

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

  40. 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

  41. 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

  42. 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

  43. 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

  44. 984th most popular website Note: Alexa rankings can be manipulated

  45. 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

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