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High Rankings Advisor: More PageRank Mania - Issue No. 100June 9, 2004 ~~~IN TODAY'S ADVISOR~~~
*Introductory Comments: ----> The 100th Advisor! *Search Engine Marketing: ----> More PageRank Mania *This Week's Sponsors: ----> 2ndSite for Business - Free Invoice Service ----> IBP Award-winning SEO Software *Guest Article: ----> Links Are Good for Business *Stuff You Might Like: ----> Free Google AdWords Teleseminar *High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week: ----> Google Reinclusion Service *This Week's Sound Advice: ----> The Difference Between Search Engines and Directories *Advisor Wrap-up: ----> Mind the Gap ________________________________________________________ ~~~Introductory Comments~~~ Welcome to the 100th High Rankings Advisor! I'd like to thank all 30,725 (oops...that was this morning...now it's 30,747!) of you for opening the newsletter, reading it, learning from it, and sending me your feedback and questions. It's been a great run since March of 2002, and I'm looking forward to the next 100 issues! It's amazing to think that these 100 issues combined with the 80 I did through Rank Write means I've been broadcasting to you on pretty much a weekly basis since June 16, 2000. Come to think of it, next week will be my 4-year anniversary! Join the celebration here: </forum/index.php?showtopic=7005>. Virtual drinks are free until next week! <grin> Also, I just wanted to mention that I'm once again in need of guest articles. They have to be specifically written for this newsletter, not something that you already have hanging around on your site. If you'd like to write one, please pitch me your ideas and approximately when you think you can have it written. If accepted, you'll get exposure to over 30,000 interested Web marketers who will hang on your every word. Are you up for it? Okay, on to the good stuff! - Jill ~~~Search Engine Marketing Issues~~~ ++More PageRank Mania++ Hello, I have a small business and I am trying to increase my Google PageRank on one of my pages in particular. I currently have 4/10 or sometimes 3/10 and I recently submitted a piece of software to 350 or more software archives. Most if not all of these download sites link to the page. Is this a significant amount of links? What should I expect my PageRank to become after this? Also, if there is anything else I should be doing, please let me know. Thanks, David M. ++Jill's Response++ My initial response to David was simply, "Why do you care about your PageRank?" Apparently, Google recently updated the toolbar PageRank on tons of pages and it has put people back in PageRank mania mode. Our forum is full of threads on it, with everyone all in a tizzy. I'd say this is as good a time as any to revisit my "PageRank Mania" article. I've edited it to address today's PageRank concerns. Enjoy! - Jill ++PageRank Mania Revisited++ Every day there are numerous forum posts asking how to increase PageRank, and every day I and the other moderators ask the posters the same questions: Why do you link to the sites you link to? Is it because they're useful and informative and might be worthwhile to your site visitors? Or is it because you hope you'll get a reciprocal link, which just might boost your PageRank? Perhaps it's some combination of these things, or other reasons altogether. Everyone likes having links to their site; that is a given. When they're from appropriate sites, inbound links often bring a lot of high-quality traffic. In fact, the Web was founded on the practice of linking, which is why it's called the "Web." Without linking, I guess it would be just a list. Welcome to the World Wide List. Doesn't have a very good ring to it now, does it? As soon as people realized that search engines such as Google were placing an emphasis on who's linking to whom in their ranking algorithms, all hell broke loose as far as I'm concerned. I'll never forget the feeling of dread I felt when I read the first post in I-Search many, many years ago that went something like, "Hey...I've got a great idea! Since the search engines are counting the number of links to sites in their ranking algorithms, why don't we all link our sites to each other?" Whoohoo! Witness the birth of the link farm. It didn't take "savvy" Webmasters long to realize that they could create whole bunches of sites for one company, and link them all together to *artificially* inflate their link popularity. If there's a way to trick the engines, you betcha plenty of people will figure out how to do it. But this is old news. Google's done its best to put a stop to this sort of manipulation. Many sites that belonged to old-time link farms found their PageRank scores disappearing and their backward links vanishing. Without any real links, rankings in the search results are difficult if not impossible to obtain. For awhile, link farms became a thing of the past. However, the latest craze is to buy "text ads" on any and all sites, regardless of the relevancy of the content. In many cases this works beautifully because it's pretty difficult for Google to figure out the difference between a true link that is a vote for a site and a paid-for ad that is simply there to manipulate PageRank. However, even this house of cards is starting to fall. We're starting to see many of the sites that were successfully selling text-based link ads suddenly not passing any PageRank to the sites they link to. I heartily applaud Google for their efforts on this. I do wish they could move a bit faster though, as it's still working on most sites that use this technique. Unfortunately, the spammers have again ruined things for regular old Webmasters who just want to do the right thing. People are completely confused and dazed as to the best way to obtain links to their sites. Suddenly, there's a mad scramble to try to figure out "safe" linking procedures. Everyone is scared to link or get linked to because of the fear of penalization. More and more people are asking what the criteria are to safely link sites together. The answer is simple -- don't buy or trade links with irrelevant sites just for the PageRank value and don't build bunches of sites for the sole purpose of linking them together. That said, if you already own multiple sites (that weren't created for the purpose of link popularity), of course you can link them together if it makes sense to do so from a usability perspective. In other words, if it adds value to the user to have a link from one of your sites to another of your sites, then of course you should do it. That's what linking is all about. And no, you don't have to pretend that the sites all have different owners by placing them on different servers and obtaining different IP addresses. You only need to do that if you have something to hide, which of course you don't. The search engines understand that regular, normal businesses often have numerous Websites. I refuse to believe that Google or any other search engine is looking for ways to make fewer sites show up in their search results. They're not interested in banning sites that provide great information. They *are* interested in maintaining the integrity of their search results, however. Therefore, I suggest you don't ruin an otherwise great site by attempting to trick the search engines. You may not get caught today; you may not even get caught tomorrow. Heck, you may never get caught. But if you do, you'll have to start over from scratch in order to redeem yourself. Sadly, it appears that PageRank is often the driving factor in how and why people link to each other, and that is just plain wrong. When a site owner refuses to link to a great site that might be useful to their visitors simply because it's only a PR3 or 2 or even zero, then we've got a huge problem. To me, links are not a commodity to be bought, sold and traded, even though I realize that they most definitely are being used this way. I link to other sites and discussions when it's appropriate to do so, and not with the caveat that I get a link back. If it's helpful, it's helpful whether or not they link back to my site. Like I always say, search engine optimization is all about making your site the best it can be. When we become so consumed by what sites we can and can't link to, or even whether we can link at all, then we're not making our site the best it can be. We're letting other factors dictate our site content, and that's just not right. Jill ______________Save Invoicing Time____________________adv. Stay Focused on Your Work & Give Your Clients Better Service! __________________________________________________ Accenture reports that it costs $12 to invoice a client. Save time on invoicing & cut your costs. Free invoice service includes timesheets and is ideal for consultants, freelancers, design firms and suppliers. Comes with plugins for QuickBooks, Simply, PayPal and VeriSign. Sign up for your free (never expires) account here: http://www.online-invoicing.com/hr01June04.php __________________________________________________ ~~~Guest Article~~~ ++Links Are Good for Business++ The following article is another oldie but goody. It was written some time ago by my London roomie, Scottie Claiborne. It's a great follow-up to the PageRank Mania article, because it gives you some great ideas for real-world linking. Scottie is also working on a follow-up to this article, which I'll be publishing in a future newsletter. Take it away, Scottie! - Jill Links Are Good for Business By Scottie Claiborne Read the advice on SEO boards and tutorials these days and you will find a lot of information about linking. There are debates and "facts" on whom you should link to and whether reciprocal links are good or bad. The reality is that the Web is made up of links and you should link to sites that your users will find helpful. Without links, the Web would be a lonely place. Only those that could afford to buy advertising banners and pay for placement in the search engines would ever see any traffic. The Importance of Linking I have a small moonwalk rental business that was a part-time venture until last spring. When I decided to do it full-time, I turned to our Web site to help establish and market the brand. Some attention to search engine optimization paid off, and the site was soon #1 for our local keywords. What I did not expect was the national and international traffic. Before long, I had phone and email inquiries from all over the country. Even though our region is clearly identified, people wanted to know who rented moonwalks in their area. As a service, I started to make a list of rental companies that I could refer others to. In order to lessen the calls and emails I was receiving, I posted my list on the site and invited other companies to send me their information. I started an aggressive search to identify as many companies as I could, and added them to the directory. When I listed them, I emailed the site owners to ask for a link back. Some did, some didn't, but since the focus was to provide a service to users, I did not enforce the reciprocal link. Some of the links are from sites Google isn't aware of, some have a low PageRank (PR), and a few rank well. Some are well designed and some are really ugly. Many listings do not have Web sites at all. I did not take PR criteria into account when building my list. The focus was on creating a comprehensive resource for users. Ranking Highly While the intention of the directory was not to influence my search engine rankings, the site is now #1 on Google for its most important keyword phrases. How did that happen? I believe the site (and the directory page in particular) have been designated as a hub and an authority. An authority is a site with many pages linking to it, and a hub has many similarly themed outbound links. The tight theme of this page and the content that includes both text listings and links have made it spider-friendly as well as user-friendly. The Payoff There are many ways that this directory has helped my business: 1) Not only are local customers able to easily find our site, they are impressed that we offer a national-level service. 2) We don't waste time answering the phone or emails from people who want us to help them find a rental company. And we don't have to say, "No, we can't help you." 3) We have begun a moonwalk sales business as well, and companies who are pleased with the referrals we have been sending them are eager to make their next equipment purchase from us. 4) We are building a reputation as an authority in the industry, and can bank on that in the future -- however we choose to use it. We have even been asked to sell franchises. 5) If we ever decide to implement paid listings, the current members already know that there is excellent value in being listed in our directory. 6) We are building awareness of the moonwalk industry by getting companies noticed who might never have been found on the Internet before. Content Is King Is your site or industry appropriate for a directory of this type? Think about it from a user's standpoint and decide why they are visiting your site. The best way to determine how your site can be improved is to listen to the comments you receive through feedback forms, emails or phone calls. If you don't have a feedback form, you're missing an excellent free market research opportunity. The easiest way to improve your site, traffic, rankings, and business conversions is to simply give people what they are asking for. You don't need a high-priced consultant or an in-depth study. Go find some customers and ask them what they want! Scottie Claiborne http://www.successful-sites.com __________IBP Award-winning SEO Software______________adv. High search engine rankings in Google and the new Yahoo! __________________________________________________ IBP is an award-winning software program that helps your Web pages get top rankings in Google and in Yahoo's new search engine. Reach 94% of all Internet users! Thousands of satisfied Webmasters all over the world swear by IBP. Why? Because it just works. Recommended by many experts. Free trial: <http://www.axandra.com/top-google-and-yahoo.htm> __________________________________________________ ~~~Stuff You Might Like~~~ ++Google AdWords Teleseminar Admission++ Need to boost your paid search results? Buy anything from MarketingSherpa (even a $9 case study or perhaps my SEO Copywriting Kit <grin>) and you'll get a ticket to the "Top 7 Google Adwords Pain Points" teleseminar on June 23rd. You'll also get the teleseminar PDF of the "pain points" along with teleseminar admission (a $129 retail value). For more info, visit MarketingSherpa here: </msoffer> This offer ends at midnight ET on June 22nd, so please check it out now before you forget! ~~~High Rankings Forum Thread of the Week~~~ ++Google Reinclusion Service++ New forum member "T Bill" wants to know why Google has no formal means of getting your site back into the index after it's been banned. Read and participate in this thought-provoking thread here: </forum/index.php?showtopic=6984>. ~~~Sound Advice~~~ ++The Difference Between Search Engines and Directories++ </soundadvice> (This audio recording changes each week.) ~~~Advisor Wrap-up~~~ That's it for today. If this issue helped even just one of you see search engine marketing in a new light, then I am a happy camper! Last week in London was great fun. It was the first time I actually got to do a little bit of sightseeing with friends. I didn't do a whole lot, but I was sure to mind the gap and fear the pie, so all was well! <grin> It was interesting to see how many more people (as compared to last year) in my conference session were newsletter subscribers. At the American conferences, there's usually a good portion of the crowd who read the newsletter, but it took a bit longer to catch on across the pond. It was wonderful to see so many of you there, and I hope to see you again next year! Don't forget to join my 100th issue / 4-year anniversary celebration at the forum: </forum/index.php?showtopic=7005>. See you next week! - Jill    |
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