Leaving the COOP

Oh right, so PageRank is used. Right-o. So I am better sticking in my sites with pagerank then.

And is it public info how it is scored? Is an exponential measure of pagerank used as most people suspect google uses? eg a pagerank 5 is worth 7 times more than a pagerank 4....

 

The exact equation isn't known, but the general idea is

PR x number of pages (API) x number of ads. so no, it would not be expodential.

The FAQ gives some good info on it.

 

Not sure on precise calculations of the CO OP algo, SlyOldDog, but it's the same across the board for all members. I believe the frequency of your ads being displayed derives directly from your weight. You are correct, no sense starting with a PR 0 domain and no pages indexed, it defeats your purpose.

Here's a concept for you to consider. It sounds like you have a few well ranked domains...so I understand your concerns. Why not try a couple of domains that you aren't so concerned with...join...weigh in...see how it works. When you create ads you can point them to your steamboats or to themselves and keep an eye on stats.

In my experience it takes about 45 days to see results with a steamboat chasing competitive (109,000,000 pages found in my case) terms.

When you see the light, as I did http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=12271 consider bringing in the steamboats which will give you alot more weight to play with. weight=currency


Cheers

 

Hi Homer

Thinking about it. Since digitalpoint started putting the pixel link in the html referring to digitalpoint website it has become a little less attractive now. Dead easy to devalue the links now if google wants to.

 

Its always been dead easy of Google wanted to.

 

Your concerns are valid, SlyOldDog, but it is true what yfs1 says.

Remember while your thinking about it, webmasters are quietly enjoying the obvoius advantages of being a member...Good luck

 

It's always been the case (for the last year anyway) that google devalues some types of links. Hence the sandbox and all that debate.

As has been debated on here many times over - if you have done all of the hard work in SEO terms for several years then the Coop is the icing on the cake. If the links get devalued because they are not permanent then so be it. But they are still extra over your base calculation.

I have pointed Coop weight at sites that I know are sandboxed and nothing has happened in terms of ranking. In fact their rankings have if anything decreased.

Pointing weight at sites that are already well spidered, ranked and have loads of links pointing at them anyway will give a boost to your rankings.

It's certain that the Coop links are devalued because they are not permanent but penalising sites that use the Coop would not make sense - if you wanted to ban the concept of using rotational links then you would have to seek out all of the sites that offer an "advertising network". And I am sure there will be more springing up over the coming months.

Much more reasonable to find a cure for the illness than try to eradicate the spread of the disease.

In addition it means that bigger sites with more pages and pagerank get to display their 'ad more times over the network and that is the only good reason I can see for people to chase PR these days.

My opinion is that the Coop is one of the more ethical search engine optimisation techniques that there is. If you have a big site with big pagerank then it is likely that you worked hard to get it there and it's natural that you should have a bigger piece of the advertising pie. That's how it is in any marketing medium.

Rotational (temporary) links WILL be devalued - the google patent application clearly shows this. So using the Coop as a method of gaining backlinks on it's own is a flawed strategy.

For those with a flourishing site, the ability to be able to better manage which terms you rank for without having to go spending days and weeks getting new links is a godsend. It also means you can test whether that keyword phrase is going to be any good to you before you go off chasing permanent ones or spending a bundle on adwords to find out.

I'm sure there will be people misusing the 'ad network but that's the case of any internet marketing method you can think of. Over time the amount of people using this method of advertising will even out and the sudden benefit will disappear.

If you were worried about the Coop links getting your site penalised then I don't see what you are basing it on. Gaining links using linkmanager, or any of the other automated link applications does far more damage to search engine relevancy than this network ever will.

Once the categories come into play, stats and other niceties then I think this will be a great network to belong to. It is already and my thanks to Shawn for that.

Lastly - this is a way for all of those huge gaming sites and non revenue sites to make some revenue out of their site - by renting out their weight. I can already envisage people offering to buy up ad space on such sites and that would be one good reason to keep the pixel image hidden. But the mod_rewrite solution circumnavigates this nicely anyway.

Coop brokerage anyone?

 

Great intelligent post StoreBuilder, there is intelligent life in the universe, I was losing faith in that belief in the last week or so, thank you for the sane post.

 

Very nice post storebuilder. I question this tough...

I am not sure if I understand this statement. As far as I know the COOP was never designed to influence PR (PageRank). Serps...yes. I may wrong...again VERY nice post

 

What he is saying is that the better your PR is the more the co-op gives back to your pages Homer

 

I see, thanks AC. Now I understand. The other factor that weight is based on is # of pages in Google's index.

 

Thanks for the nice welcome guys.

Which is one reason why it can be easy for webmasters to abuse the network and a good reason for the cap. By capping weight at a limit you ensure that people can't add crap to their site to boost their weight. At least they can't go beyond their cap and get extra benefit.

A big factor for the network should be how many pages are displayed on the originators site. It would seem a bit unfair for someone to gain massive weight even though they have a very lightly trafficked site. I don't know how much 'ad impressions are a factor in this?

 

This program must be hidden to be effective Shawn, please do not advertise it with ADWORDS so it can be kept "under the radar"

 

I can see peoples concern with this as it seems like some magical solution to gaining top rankings - I steered clear for ages until I ran out of arguments not to join which I did a couple of months ago - hence my post.

Remember when all those guys and girls were building "big" sites a few years back and everyone thought they were crazy for it?

Then along came adsense and all of a sudden they had a major revenue stream to tap into. Overnight in fact.

Advancements happen quickly in this biz and if you don't grasp the nettle then you will get left behind.

As I see it the Coop is simply another giant step forward in the evolution of the 'net and will continue to increase the margin between those that have -and those that have not.

 

Sounds like you have a vast knowledge of the COOP. However there is one statement you make that I am unclear about. I was thinking you may be able to elaborate more on...

I don't understand/ agree with this...maybe I am missing something. In my case I have all (Approx 20) domains in the COOP. 2 of them are 'stuck' at precisely at the same weight. These domains are high trafficed, have over 30,000 indexed pages collectively, are intersesting (combinations of images and content relating to print and graphics) and have pagerank between 1-5.

My problem with the is I don't understand to basis of the number. A couple weeks ago I read a thred posted by a newby that weighed in at 200 + k. So it seems the cap is set specifically to each site. In my current case both of my domains are 'stuck' at 67500.

So thanks to your explaination above I can now see part of the puzzle...why there is a cap. But what about the cases where the pages are quality, high trafficed indexed pages?? Do you not become a publisher that is providing more benefit to other members without getting equal back?

The programming for this tool is good and continues to improve. I am pleased with my results as they are. I am just having a little difficulty completely understanding how 'the cap' number is arrived at.


Cheers,

 

>>the ad network uses the Google API to determine the "value" of a site

What gets queried from Google here? Not pagerank surely as that is not available through the API. Pages indexed?

>>Couldn't get any easier for Google considering we are "telling" them

I suppose. You have send the site URL in the API query I guess. However, just because you send a URL it doesn't mean it's a member of your network.

 

Yes I'd agree with you. from what I've read here it means that your domains are PR5 with a high amount of indexed pages.

So in effect you are subsidising others to an extent.

However, if you lifted the cap then straight away I *could* take the php manual and install it on my site. It would add minimal amount of usefulness for my visitors but increase my weight by 50% or more.

There is always going to be an injustice but the easy way to combat it is to

A: Increase your pagerank.

B: Get referrals.

C: Pay a site owner to run Coop ad's on your behalf.

D: Build more useful sites

Which is why I mentioned PR in my first post, because recently it has become a joke with PR obsessed link exchangers refusing to trade links.

Now there is a good reason to gain PR.

In addition I'd say that posters who say "I have 200k weight" have a few PR7,8 or 9 sites in the mix with lots of indexed pages and impressions.

 

>>In addition I'd say that posters who say "I have 200k weight" have a few PR7,8 or 9 sites in the mix with lots of indexed pages and impressions.

And how are impressions measured? Alexa? Nah.

 

No, but advertising the coop in Adwords yes...