A Test - Can a authority link improve your search engine ranking?

This is an interesting one. I've long believed that linking out to authority sites does improve your Trust Rank, but I have no proof. Any experiments on this subject are worth doing, so I'll be keeping an eye on your reported results.

Incidentally, the previous poster is correct. Outbound links can never in crease your PageRank, but if it improves your TrustRank, then you'll reap the benefits in the SERPS. And when it comes to the SERPS, TrustRank is more influential than PageRank.

 

Ranks as of Friday morning:

Homepage 109 <= 104 <= 116
Page1 367 <= 370 <= 360
Page2 751+ unchanged

Today's number for Page1 is accurate. On the two previous days I estimated based on the area in the page. I have been using the DP keyword tracker for the homepage number, but when I did the search on Google the homepage came up as 105.

From my perpective, there is no noticable change. This is what I would expect since it normally takes 5 to 10 days before I see the impact of any changes I make to my website.

 

Nice idea but it's too simple to provide any useful information.

- Keywords that rank in the 100+ area tend to fluctuate every few days depending on data centers etc. How will we know if the change in rank is caused by the new external link?

- You are tracking 1 keyword, what about the other long tail search terms that may generate traffic to your pages?

 

Mistermix,

I certainly agree that there can be a lot of fluctuation in keyword ranking. I have some keywords that I will rank top 15 one day, 200+ the next and then top 15 again. I don't mean to imply a minor change in ranking at the 100 or 300 level is due to any change I made. I am just reporting the numbers so everyone is better able to come to their own conclusions.

In terms of the longer tail, I already rank pretty well (see post #18). My frustration has been that I have been outranked for this one word keyword when my site has way more quality content than most.

I have suspected that this change may also improve the long tail. Maybe I will take a look at those numbers after a week.

 

I would monitor every single search term that lands on those particular pages. Are you using google analytics?

 

I have 24 pages related to this keyword. For the purposes of this test I am tracking 3 of them for this specific keyword.

In the last 3 weeks I have seen well over 100 different keyword combinations including this keyword. That does not include keyword combinations that land on those pages that may not include my targeted keyword. It is not practical to track every term that lands on all those pages.

I am using Google Analytics on this site, but I have found analyzing the access log is a more practical source of information for this test. If you have any suggestions on how Google Analytics would be helpful, I am open to suggestions.

 

U bet it cant, authority links are key man! (you could try http://www.theseokit.com/index.php?act=viewProd&productId=4 )

 

Ranks as of Saturday afternoon:

Homepage 113 <= 109 <= 104 <= 116
Page1 407 <= 367 <= 370 <= 360
Page2 751+ unchanged

Certainly no improvement yet.

 

However I am really sceptical of this test, and am sure that outgoing links will not raise your PR in any way I will be waiting for your results.

 

Ranks as of Sunday morning:

Homepage 99 <= 113 <= 109 <= 104 <= 116
Page1 381 <= 407 <= 367 <= 370 <= 360
Page2 751+ unchanged

That is the best ranking for the homepage that I have seen, but certainly no improvement yet on the pages with the links.

 

"A link from a high traffic industry portal is worth infinitely more that a link from a low-traffic free-for-all site. Concentrate of giving the search engines what they really want - great content, well-organized, well-published and linked to other relevant material. Concentrate on that and you will be rewarded." SEOgeek.com

 

The key there is FROM: a link FROM a high traffic industry portal is worth etc. Not a link TO a high traffic industry portal etc.
People should read the thread before responding.

 

The high value of outbound authority links if site related could be a factor in determining your site's PR. Matt Cutts has addressed this before and stated Google does value site relevant outbound links.

By how much it is valued to sway PR value for your site would be unknown to us minions.

Col

 

Ranks as of Monday afternoon:

Homepage 99 <= 99 <= 113 <= 109 <= 104 <= 116
Page1 379 <= 381 <= 407 <= 367 <= 370 <= 360
Page2 751+ unchanged

In my opinion, having the 99th position on a keyword is hardly worth loosing traffic to an outbound link. If this is as good as it gets, I will definitely be taking out the links. Wednesday I will be 7 days into the test. I will try to report any improvements with longer keyword phrases. Remind me if I forget.

 

a feww short weels is not long enough to test. give it a few months

 

i believe it works..but it doesn't work by just adding the top 10 result in your google.

whenever you link out to quality site in your article, the became more creditable and more likely to get people linking to you. At the same time, you will became a link hub of the niche.

Even it doesn't work, i will still do it because it create value to my site and my visitor (as long as you are not so stupid to use your main keyword when linking out)

 

Generally, changes in my site are reflected in the search engines within two weeks. I am avoiding changes to these pages so that I will be able to identify the impact (if any) of the change. Leaving this area of my website unchanged for months is impractical. If there is improvement after several months, the reasons will be obscured by all the changes I have made in the mean time. I am going to have to see some benefits from the change within 2 weeks to justify the outbound link.

 

As it turns out, I am so stupid as to link out with my keyword. I think it is the most appropriate linking text for the other site, but I certainly see your point.

 

So will you continue the experiment or only change the link text?

 

Keep us updated RomanticGuy but be aware that these days different google datacenters may give you very different results.