21 replies to this topic

[Debra]

I'm going to the Search Engine Strategies Conference in San Jose next week and will have the opportunity to talk with reps from the search engines during the 5 days we're there.

I have a couple of questions I want clarification on and wondered if maybe you had any - related to link building - that you wanted me to ask.

Now's your chance. Send your questions to me and I'll do my best to get answers. When I get back, I'll post what I have and share the info.

Again - I'm only taking questions related to link building, page rank, link optimization etc. Please don't send me anything else.

And nothing specific to your sites. Remember, chances are I'll be poolside, in a hallway, poolside, at a party, poolside..... when I ask these questions. I won't have a laptop open to look at anything.

Send your questions! :learn:

Edited by magnolia, 07 August 2003 - 11:49 PM.

[Jill]

As luck may have it, the pool at the Doubletree is very close to the conference rooms...you have to walk by it a lot, so you should be in luck!

Jill

[Sharon & Roy]

Now's your chance. Send your questions to me and I'll do my best to get answers. When I get back, I'll post what I have and share the info.

Hi Debra,

Here's a question we'd love to learn what Google has to say about.


Does Google give ranking consideration to the words surrounding a link?

In other words, using Jill's current Signature File as an example ...


.............................
High Rankings® Advisor: Free <a href=http://www.highrankings.com/advisor.htm>Search Engine Optimization</a> Weekly Newsletter Learn <a href=http://www.highrankings.com/seo-writing.htm>SEO Copywriting</a> --The Nitty-gritty of Writing for the Search Engines
.............................


... Would the following questions be true?


1.) Does the Web Page < http://www.highranki...com/advisor.htm > get ranking consideration for the keyword phrase ... Newsletter

2.) Does the Web Page < http://www.highranki...seo-writing.htm > get ranking consideration for the keyword phrase ... Newsletter


Your Friends,

Sharon & Roy

[Jill]

Ahh...the old text near the link debate. You pretty much convinced me awhile ago that the words near the link probably don't get counted. It would be interesting to hear what Google says.

--------

Taking my signature one step further, do they even get considered at all since I'm using tracking links?

I'm not actually using this:

<a href=http://www.highrankings.com/advisor.htm>Search Engine Optimization</a>

But this:

<a href=http://www.highrankings.com/advisor.htm?c1=sig&source=hrforumnews>Search Engine Optimization</a>

[Haystack]

Hi Debra, there is a typo in your sig file worth checking out.

Sharon & Roy's question is a great one. Personally, I don't think search engines have reached the point of giving contextual credit to links based on words surrounding linked text, but look forward to the day when they do.

Since linking clearly helps improve a site's rank, I'd be interested in hearing more from search engines about what they consider to be ethical linking strategies.

[Debra]

In this Search Day article - http://www.searcheng...cle.php/2160981

it was reported that a rep from Google said:

....In addition, Google not only analyzes who is linking to whom, but they also analyze the text in and around the links to help determine the relevance of the pages receiving the links.

It's about half way down the article. Does this help answer your question?

[projectphp]

Taking my signature one step further, do they even get considered at all since I'm using tracking links?

Yas and no, tracking tags will help the page http://www.highranki...rce=hrforumnews but do nothing for the page http://www.highranki...com/advisor.htm.

Every single unique URL is considered a unique page. PageRank basis its algo upon this, upon, and that is what SE decipher on. e.g. http://www.dynamicur...dex.php?a=1&b=2 is different to http://www.dynamicur...dex.php?b=2&a=1. That is why some sites have two entries for their hoem page, i.e. http://www.url.com/ and http://www.url.com/index.aspx. This is particularly true if you use a name for teh home page that is non standard, i.e. not default.htm, index.htm etc.

It is a real quirk of the whole Search Engine world, and an unfortunate side efffect of using automated spiders, the inability to differentiate essentially similiar pages at differing URLs. This is similiar to the problem Session IDs cause.

So, back to Jill's question, no, it wont help

My question is a bit different: Is Google targetting reciprocal links or affiliate style links, or considering doing so?

[Debra]

My question is a bit different: Is Google targetting reciprocal links or affiliate style links, or considering doing so?

What do you mean by targeting?

[Bernard]

Debra, reading this thread prompted a question. My understanding is that Google, et. al. score pages for keywords in an attempt to discern what the page is about (relevancy).

Which is more important for link reputation?

• the proximity of a keyword to a link
• the scoring of that keyword on the page

[compar]

Now's your chance.  Send your questions to me and I'll do my best to get answers.  When I get back, I'll  post what I have and share the info.

My question as you probably know from another thread is why doesn't Google display backlinks in the order of Google's perceived relevance. They display all other search results on this basis. Why not links?

The corollary question is, why doesn't the "Search within results" feature work within a backlinks listing. It is still shown on the bottom of the page.

[Debra]

Bernard -

Before I ask this question, give me your definition of link reputation. That will help. Thanks.

[Debra]

Thanks to all who left questions.

I will check this thread one more time tonight Friday, August 15 (8:00 p.m. EST) and then it will draw to a close.

To all of you traveling to San Jose - safe journey and happy trails.

[compar]

Bernard -

Before I ask this question, give me your definition of link reputation.  That will help.  Thanks.

It's link relevance rather than reputation. While Google uses links as votes indicating a site's popularity or relevance they do not value all links the same. By their own admission they say that they value links from closely related site (in terms or content or subject matter) more highly that links from completely unrelated sites. They also do not publish links in their search results from sites of less then PR4 in value. We aren't sure whether or not that means they place a lesser value on these links or simply don't both to display them in the SERP for the "link:" search.

Most of us on this forum think that they also assign a lesser value to links from "link farms". So it seem obvious to me that they in fact rank links when assessing their importance to the popularity of a web site. Every link is not equal. Therefore I contend that they think that some links are more relevant than others. The question is why doesn't the SERP for the "link:' search indicate this assigned relevance.

All other searches on Google are displayed in order of Google's assigned relevance. Why not backlinks?

I hope this clears the point up. If not let try again. This seems so self evident to me, but I know from the previous thread that other are having trouble with the concept.

[Jill]

We aren't sure whether or not that means they place a lesser value on these links or simply don't both to display them in the SERP for the "link:" search.

The very nature of PageRank tells us that they do place lesser value on lower pageranked sites.

J

[compar]

The very nature of PageRank tells us that they do place lesser value on lower pageranked sites. 

J

But that isn't the question. The question is do they place a lower value on links from a lower ranked site?

In other words is a link from a PR8 given a value of X and a link from a PR3 site a value of (X-5)? Or are all contextual content and theme related links valued the same and they just arbitrarily chose not to display those from pages less than PR4?