How many links is too many?

Discussion in 'Search Engine Optimization' started by activeimedia, Jan 2, 2007.

  1. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #21
    I would never put a sitewide external link on any of my sites.

    If you want to do that its your choice but remember what has been said in this thread if your rankings take a dive.
     
    mad4, Jan 3, 2007 IP
  2. activeimedia

    activeimedia Well-Known Member

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    #22
    I have been doing sitewides on a few of my forums and only noticed higher backlincks and higer predicted google PR for the sites they were directed at. That being said, it was with 3 links, not with 20 like I was contemplating.

    So your saying I should just add a "links page" for each of these sites, then use that area for my niche links or all 20 links?
     
    activeimedia, Jan 3, 2007 IP
  3. Sem-Advance

    Sem-Advance Notable Member

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    #23
    Hehehe

    Youre not being stubborn.....just thinking with one side brain :D

    Two ads on Yahoo home page link to external sites ;)

    And you're right 20 sitewides is useless

    =========================================================

    If all your sites are on the same C class server then this is not going to have the effect you think as far as trusted and valued site is concerned.

    Also linking a PR6 legal resource site (for example) to a myspace resource site is not going to pass the PR as you would hope, they are in no way relevant to each other.

    As I tried to point out earlier Google, would see this as trying to influence things within their index and therefore simply filter out any positive effect these tactics may have had in the past.

    From Adam Lasniks Blog

    Further in another earlier post

    Here is some more information on from seomoz on Googles capability with regards to links

    Link Based Criteria

    Google can measure various linking based factors including:
    • The dates new links appear to a site/page
    • Dates that link or pages linking to a site/page disappeared
    • The time-varying behavior of links to a page and any possible "trends" that are indicated by this, i.e. is the site gaining links overall or losing them? A downward trend might indicate "staleness", while an upward trend would indicate "freshness".
    • Google may check the number of new links to a document over a given time period compared to the new links the document has received since it was first found. They'll also use the "oldest age of the most recent y% of links compared to the age of the first link found."
    • Google gives an example in the patent of two websites that were both found 100 days ago:
      • Site #1 - 10% of the links were found less than 10 days ago
      • Site #2 - 0% of the links were found less than 10 days ago
      • This data might be used to " predict if a particular distribution signifies a particular type of site (e.g., a site that is no longer updated, increasing or decreasing in popularity, superceded, etc.)"
    • Freshness weights assigned to a link can also be used to rank sites/pages. Several factors can influence link freshness:
      • Date of appearance
      • Date of change of anchor text
      • Date of change of the page the link is on
      • Date of appearance of page the link is on
      • Google says they theorize that a page that is updated (significantly) while the link remains the same is a good indicator of a "relevant and good" link.
    • Other weights for links include:
      • How trusted the links are (they specifically mention government documents as being assigned higher trust)
      • How authoritative the websites and pages linking to the page are
      • Freshness of the page/site - they mention the Yahoo! homepage as one where links frequently appear and disappear.
      • The "sum of the weight of the links" pointing to a page/site may be used to raise or lower the scoring in the rankings. Google will measure the freshness of the page based on the freshness of the links to it and the freshness of the pages which the links are on.
      • Age distribution over time will also be measured, i.e. a site/page will be compared against all of its links over time and when it received them.
    • Google may use link date appearance to "detect spam", "where owners of documents or their colleagues create links to their own document for the purpose of boosting the score assigned by a search engine". Google says that legitimate sites/pages "attract back links slowly" and that a "large spike in the quantity of back links" may signal either a "topical phenomenon" or "attempts to spam a search engine."
      • Google gives the example of the CDC website after the outbreak of SARS as an example of a "topical phenomenon".
      • Google gives 3 examples of link spam techniques - "exchanging links", "purchasing links" or "gaining links from documents without editorial discretion on making links".
      • Google also gives examples of "documents that give links without editorial discretion" - including guest books, referrer logs and "free for all pages that let anyone add a link to a document."
    • A decrease over time in the number of links a document has can be used to indicate irrelevance, and Google notes that it will discount the links from these "stale" documents.
    • The "dynamic-ness" of links will also be measured and scored, based on how consistently links are given to a particular page. They use the example of "featured link" of the day and note that they'll use a page score based on the pages that link to the page, "for all versions of the documents within a window of time."
    Hope this helps clear up some issues
     
    Sem-Advance, Jan 3, 2007 IP
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  4. activeimedia

    activeimedia Well-Known Member

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    #24
    wow. a good read, thank you very much
     
    activeimedia, Jan 3, 2007 IP
  5. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #25
    Nobody said that site wide links would be bad for the sites receiving them, they just harm the sites giving them.

    We are definately NOT saying add a links page. Links pages are useless, you should link from the middle of a page of content on your site if you want to pass link juice.

    Putting 20 links next to each other is a quick way to make none of them pass weight.
     
    mad4, Jan 3, 2007 IP
  6. kh7

    kh7 Peon

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    #26
    Actually I don't think sitewides do the site receiving them much good either.

    As for yahoo-ads: they don't count as sitewides because they don't count as links. Those links are javascript. They are also not sitewide because they aren't the same for each page on the yahoo website.

    Personally I would make an 'all my sites' page. I would not count on that page giving much weight to the other sites, but it would pass some weight and it would tell my readers to check out the other sites, if they are interested.

    This is personal preference though. I would not count on those links meaning a lot for google. Still, I would not discount them either.

    Some people keep their sites totally separate, if they are unrelated. That's just not my style.
     
    kh7, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  7. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #27
    Agreed. In most cases they don't do much harm though.
     
    mad4, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  8. onedollar

    onedollar SEO Consultant for Hire

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    #28
    but if the external link is a relevant authority link, it can actually help your site
     
    onedollar, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  9. rosiee007

    rosiee007 Notable Member

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    #29
    Big sites like Yahoo .. who already have PR 9, PR 10 dont need to worry about a few links. :eek: Its the new sites who should be worried about external links and site wide links. :p
     
    rosiee007, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  10. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #30
    I wouldn't think any outgoing sitewide link could help you. Its too hard to prove/test either way though.
     
    mad4, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  11. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #31
    I have no issues interlinking related sites. It makes sense doing it for direct traffic purposes.
     
    dcristo, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  12. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #32
    There are other SE's which still take a liking to sitewides. They serve a purpose still.
     
    dcristo, Jan 4, 2007 IP
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  13. The Evil Penguin

    The Evil Penguin Peon

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    #33
    basically what you guys are saying is:
    dont link websiteA to anotherB website on all of websiteA's pages, an vice versa.
    do i understand this right?
     
    The Evil Penguin, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  14. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #34
    That is the definition of a sitewide link (link on every page of a domain name) If done correctly, there is no problem doing this.
     
    dcristo, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  15. DSB

    DSB Peon

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    #35
    It's not really a good idea if your sites all have the same IP address, but if they have different IP addresses, what I'd do is group sites with the same genre together, and then pick a site that you want to be the lead site within that small group of sites. You should then only link the sites in that group one way towards your 'chosen', most important site.
     
    DSB, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  16. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #36
    If not overdone, even on same ip addresses it's ok.
     
    dcristo, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  17. hextraordinary

    hextraordinary Well-Known Member

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    #37
    That's a myth. There is no harm in giving out sitewide links. It's been pumped so hard, looks like everyone believes. It's simply not true!!!
     
    hextraordinary, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  18. dcristo

    dcristo Illustrious Member

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    #38
    I agree to a certain degree. It appears too many unrelated sitewides can trigger something though.
     
    dcristo, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  19. mad4

    mad4 Peon

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    #39
    Whether its true or not we could debate for ever. I believe that it has affected my sites in the past so I never have sitewide links.

    Other people who have not had any problems will no doubt think otherwise and thats fine. Do whatever works.
     
    mad4, Jan 4, 2007 IP
  20. hextraordinary

    hextraordinary Well-Known Member

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    #40
    Offtopic:

    mad4, any idea where to get the MAXX and not on eBay?
     
    hextraordinary, Jan 4, 2007 IP