19 replies to this topic

[Scottie]

I don't see how a search engine can tell if a link is relevant to your site, but I know that Teoma uses link networks to determine community relationships, and in doing that, can get a good idea of which sites are most important for a specific industry.

It makes sense for Google to implement something similar- in that sort of a scenario, irrelevant links wouldn't work against you, but they wouldn't help you as much as a link from a site that had links to and from other important sites in the same community.

How they will actually go about determining "relevant" links is up for lot of debate, but I do think it is a natural evolution of finding the best site for a query. Masses of unrelated links don't mean a site is the best, however a bunch of links from important related sites does say a lot about the site.

[exposure]

Relevance is a tough nut to crack. It necessarily includes much that is subjective. I doubt the SE's could ever come up with any kind of algo that does more than make guesses (albeit educated ones). A lot will probably always slip through those cracks. I think, like many here, that your time is best spent accumulating inbound links from related sites. At the very least, it helps as much as a link from an unrelated site from a search engine ranking standpoint, and probably helps more. The kicker is that your links will be on sites where the visitors are already "pre-screened" as having an interest in your topic. Those are always awesome visitors to snag!

[Jill]

Well we've asked  what is a relevant link[/hr] many times before.

To sum up my feelings on it, how does one judge who might be a good target audience for your site?

In another recent thread I asked whether TV commercials are always relevant to the shows they are shown during. IMO, they rarely are. So why do companies "waste" their money on such irrelevant ads?

People who watch The Apprentice buy cars even though that's not what the show is about. Does that mean cars and the Apprentice are relevant? Maybe, maybe not. Should Jaguar not advertise (which is all links are) on the Apprentice site because they might get banned by a search engine?

Now, forgetting about the search engines, yes, I agree that the average website will get more traffic from a link that is well-targeted. That most definitely doesn't have to mean that they trade links with competitors though. There are zillions of ways of reaching your target audience with your links.

People who buy shoes might also buy hats. Are the related to each other? Not really. I suppose they're both articles of clothing. But there are many less obvious, yet still related examples one could give.

This is why no search engine will ever be able to truly determine what a relevant link is, nor should they bother trying. It really doesn't matter to them.

[ewc21]

The ever-changing behaviour of visitors to a site can render a link relevant or not. When links generate enough clicks is proves its relevance to a page, it may also be out of curiosity, so the thought of determining a relevant link is highly subjective.

[Jill]

The ever-changing behaviour of visitors to a site can render a link relevant or not.

Huh? Sorry, I don't really understand at all what you're getting at in your post above.