15 replies to this topic

[weylun]

Hi guys,

I keep getting so many Link Requests from other sites but those sites are not related to my site at all. Some of them have good PR but I thought that Google will ignore the PR from the link exchange site if the site is not related to your site at all.

Is this still true? Or it will be true later on? I see this Link Exchange trend getting stronger and stronger everyday and I am kinda sick of it.

It's like I own a slingshot website and I've got requests from rugs company, jewels company etc. :doh: ????

Can somebody offer some friendly advice?

Jimmy

[Scottie]

My best advice is to hit your delete button.

[weylun]

One thing I want to add is that wouldn't it be TOO EASY to improve PageRanking to just create a Links page for your website and Link Exchange to ANY website that also has a Links page?

I would think Google is more sophisticated than that... but Link Exchange is so popular now. So many sites have Web Directory on their sites and the links are just not related at all.

Should I follow this trend or ....?



Jimmy

[Shane]

Jimmy,

Since Jill's busy talking Black Hat vs. White Hat I'll tell you exactly what her advice would be: only link to the site if it's of value to your users. If it's not, hit delete just like Scottie said.

If your priority is creating the best site possible, that will also lead to great SE rankings. It takes longer, but it's well worth it in the long run.

[Scottie]

Follow the trend if you want, Jimmy. To a certain extent, it does work today.

But in the long run, linking to and from relevant sites will never be discounted or held against you as linking to and from non-relevant sites could be. Both for engines and for visitors.

Does it make sense for your business?

[Randy]

The one that always gets me is when I get a link request from a site where the general subject matter would in fact be beneficial to some of my visitors. But they've managed to muck up their site so much with some automated fakey directory script that is all over the place that I still just hit the old delete key.

That's just sad... For them, since most seem to be newer sites that could benefit both for the visitors I would send them and the PR increase.

[weylun]

The one that always gets me is when I get a link request from a site where the general subject matter would in fact be beneficial to some of my visitors. But they've managed to muck up their site so much with some automated fakey directory script that is all over the place that I still just hit the old delete key.

That's just sad... For them, since most seem to be newer sites that could benefit both for the visitors I would send them and the PR increase.

I was wondering why soooo many sites have very similar Directory Scripts. Those are fake??!!!!

No wonder most of the sites that want me to link back don't even have PR at all. My Links Page has a pathetic PR 2 and I guess they want me to link to them.

I guess I won't follow the trend. I am kinda lazy making new links all the time especially linking to places that have nothing to do with my site.

The sad thing is there are just not many good quality slingshot sites, and the good ones are selling their own slingshots and I doubt if they want to link back to me.

One thing I've learned is that submitting sites to Froogle does give me 1 PR. I should have done it a long time ago then. I am submitting my other sites to Froogle as well. I know I am not getting any traffic from Froogle but at least it gives me PR which I need SOOOO badly.

None of my sites have PR higher than 3 and that's why I want to know if this non-sense Link Exchange can improve my PR.

Anyway, I think I know the answer now and thanks for the friendly advices. You guys rock!



Jimmy

[OldWelshGuy]

Forget about your damn PR it is THAT thing which has caused, and fuelled this whole problem IMO.

If the site is of an acceptable quality, and your visitors will benefit from knowing aboutit, and it is not linking itself to link farms, then go for it. If not then delete it.

[SearchRank]

Forget about your damn PR it is THAT thing which has caused, and fuelled this whole problem IMO.

C'mon, James. Don't hold back. Really speak what is on your mind!

[Randy]

Jimmy: Think any hunting related site or even hunter education if you have some of that info on your site and you'll be rolling in potential linking partners.

[Jill]

Jimmy, you're all mixed up with who you should be getting links from. Of course other sling shot sites (your competitors) aren't going to link to you!

Who else is interested in slingshots?

[Hyperformance]

Laughing at James and SearchRank...

Just left the White Hat Black/Hat Post - feeling I should not have held back!

Staying On Topic here...

On links I think the best advice is clear -

If the site is of an acceptable quality, and your visitors will benefit from knowing aboutit, and it is not linking itself to link farms, then go for it. If not then delete it.

Great Answer OWG! I like it when you don't hold back!

[anthonyparsons.com]

Spam Assassin! That fixes most of your problems. If you host with ipowerweb, it comes with the hosting.

[OldWelshGuy]

I find it funny all this obsession with PR. I have a client who is also a friend, and his site gets about 40,000 visitors a month, at least 25% of which are from on topic links. I bet if we put in place some sort of tracking, that those 25% who surfed in from an on topic link would make up more than 25% of the sales.

Some of the sites, in fact MOST of the sites are PR wasteland sites with little or no PR, who cares? Most surfers havent a clue what PR is anyhow. Traffic comes from many places, from adverts on TV, from printed adverts, from urls scribbled down on the back of a cigarette packet for use later. I really do not know where their search began. I DO know that 25% of his traffic is coming from sites of between PR0 & PR2. Maybe we should email them all asking them to remove the link as it is sucking the PR out of the site

<note> sorry if I appeared harsh earlier on, I was kidding a little, I should have used a smiley

[seafoam]

I see from your links page that you already have some links to jewelry sites. That will be the start of the slippery slope. Link exchange extremists will be looking to see who is linking to their competitors and then requesting links from those sites too. They also trawl through link directories to find sites that are most likely to exchange links.