8 replies to this topic

[Debra]

Hello everyone, hope this finds you well!

It's back to the grind after a week in San Jose! The weather was beautiful in California and we had a super time overall. If you can make the next one in Chicago, I'd urge you to go, it's well worth it.

I managed to attend all the link building sessions (there were 3) and found no new surprises. The Google representative at one session said "link to the page that's relevant to yours" which I've always thought was good advice and “guest books don't offer experience improvement to the Web and are not the best tactic to use".

Sound comments in my *book*.

The questions I took to San Jose are still with the Google public relations office, I need to follow up with them again this week to see if they will allow the Google rep I am acquainted with to provide answers. Be patient, I'll follow through.

One of the questions submitted was on anchor text. This topic came up in each linking session and based on what was discussed I feel reassured that Google does look at and gives weight to the text surrounding a link.

All of the Google reps in attendance used the words "relevant" in their statements regarding anchor text. One Google rep suggested using "descriptive anchor text” to place links "in places to help with navigation" and to "stay away from JavaScript".

Clear enough for me, moving on....

I had an "ah-ha" during the sessions as it related to Teoma. I've never really used this engine in the past, but after this week, I plan to.

Teoma has a really great search reporting process that will help anyone in a link building campaign by providing alternate keywords and relevant communities to search in. They've done a lot of the brainstorming work for you....... I like that!!

Simply search on your keyword phrase and Teoma brings back a list of results, refined searches and resources/link collections for you to browse through.

I used Teoma this morning and was pleasantly surprised at the results. It came back with a couple keywords I never thought of! This is going to make the research portion of my link building a whole lot easier.

I have several other items I picked up at the conference to share and will do so throughout the week. Right now I'm trying to wade out from the zillions of emails that came in while I was gone.

'Bye!

[Haystack]

Teoma does offer a nice search product. I wouldn't be surprised to see MSN buy it (ASKJ) and FindWhat (FWHT) now that Yahoo owns both Overture and Inktomi.

[compar]

The Google representative at one session said ...... “guest books don't offer experience improvement to the Web and are not the best tactic to use".

Magnolia,

What does the quoted part of your message mean? What is an "experience improvement"?

[qwerty]

I take that to mean that a link in a guestbook is not an indication to Google of the value of the page that is the destination of that link. As such, they don't do you much good, if any.

[Matt B]

Experience Improvement.

Well, think about it in an overall sense . . . what good is a guestbook link? Or even a guestbook for that matter? It is not a editorial-based link - there is no opinion given other than someone adding their own link. It's not even a commerce-based link.

IMO, (and Google agrees with me on this point) guestbooks are web graffitti. You could get just as much lack of content and enjoyment by reading the guestbook from a wedding.

[compar]

I take that to mean that a link in a guestbook is not an indication to Google of the value of the page that is the destination of that link. As such, they don't do you much good, if any.

It would never have occurred to me that a signature in a guest book would be valuable as a backlink. Even if they did have value that is surely a small segment of the potential link domain. How many PR4 and above web sites have guest books?

[Bernard]

LOL! Do some link: checking on gambling and pr0n sites and you will probably be amazed.

[qwerty]

The practice of stuffing links into guest books goes way back to a time before PR. Not only that, but I've heard of people sticking links to competitor's sites into guestbooks as a way of making them look spammy.

[Debra]

During Q&A someone asked about guest book links, I don't remember ( or wrote down) the exact question but - the point the Google rep was making is that guest book links aren't worth the time it takes to find them.

Again, it comes back to a point of relevance. Link to pages that are relevant to your content.

How many PR4 and above web sites have guest books?

I've never paid attention to these guest books so I couldn't tell you. Will say that it's a passe practice and people who look for guest book links are searching for an easy way to get links.