Link value in algo

This is a rhetorical question:

As far as Google's ranking algorithm is concerned, do identically structured inbound links carry equal weight irrespective of:

1. the page they are on

2. where the link is situated on the page

3. how many other links on the page

4. text immediately before and after the link

I am interested in other peoples views based on experience rather than speculation or theory.

- Michael

 

HI Michael,

is this a question? or os it rhetorical? as a rhetorical question does not require an answer it is a statement.? I will assume it requires an answer so I will give one.

I am not sure if you are talking about pure page rank, or if you are talking about search relevance. so I will answer both.

1) the page they are on. = PR of course it is relevant to the PR of the page
relevance. If the page is part of a hub or authority site it is seen as more important a link.

2) where the link is on the page. PR = no relevance = possibly. Google tends to devalue small text at the foot of a page, as it is seen to be unimportant my findings anyhow). The exception to this is if it appears to link internally within the site, when it is seen as a site map of sorts.

3 how many links, PR yes as outgoing transferred PR is directly related to the number of links on the page. Relevance = NO

4) links surrounding. PR =NO, relevance =Debatable ;-) Personally I feeel that there is some sort of semantic relationship thing going on in Google, although I am not sure if it is page wide, or local to the link.

I know you said you are not interested in speculation or threory, but I think I should point out that specualtion and theory is the very way in which we progress with this regard. I have posted from experience unless I have commented it as theory. Hope this helps

OWG

 

OWG touched on this, but let me be more specific. What do you mean by "Google's ranking algorithm". I see people asking this question all the time and it is impossible to answer.

I like to differentiate PageRank from SERP placement. Now I suppose that you can argue that PageRank is calculated by an "algo" of some type, albeit it is a simple mathematical calculation. However SERP placement, which is what many people are referring to when the talk about "ranking", is a much more complex calculation which does attempt to factor in relevance measurements.

So the first thing you need to do is tell us what "ranking" you are talking about.

 

my experience is that the number of links on a page is decreased important in the past few months.

even link pages with 100 links and 200 words in total, still have much influence as long as you make sure you have keywords in your link on them.

anyone agrees / disagrees?

 

It's a rhetorical question and I used it in the loose sense of 'a question asked to induce thought' not as 'a question for which no answer is required'. As I said "I am interested in other peoples views" I am not expecting the questions to be answered definitively. Unless of course someone here works at the 'plex in which case would they please PM me their opinions

Google's ranking algorithm - the algorithm that Google uses to rank pages in the SERPs.

- Michael