The Truth about linking -- Dirk Johnson

I just read this very interesting exchange on the LED Digest. The author is Dirk Johnson a well known expert in the filed of links and linking. He dispells many of the myths that exist around this subject.

 

Very interesting article. I'm not sure anyone can conclusively proclaim the "truth" about any aspect of Google's algo (except Google), however, my own "beliefs" match Dirk's. And my beliefs are based on my own experiences with my own sites, which of course is limited (twenty-some-odd sites). Nevertheless, it's nice to see such a good summation of my own thought process by someone who is respected in his field.

 

Thats a great article, thanks for posting. The one quote that really stood out to me was this:

"If you want a link strategy that works well, then forget all of
gobbledygook on the discussion boards. Success is much more simple
than that. Just set out to link as if your site traffic depended on
it, and that Google did not exist."

I've let the link exchanging slide lately since I usually get a couple requests a week from newer sites. But I think its time to resume some efforts in this direction with the above quote in mind.

 

I like his point of view. Sounds like good advice to me.

Especially the line ... "Just set out to link as if your site traffic depended on
it, and that Google did not exist."

Makes sense.

Google is definitely a big player, but if there was no Google/big search engines what would we depend on?
Inbound links. From anywhere and everywhere.

There are probably little things you can do to help your site out, with Google's SERPs, but the bottom line is traffic, well targeted traffic.

This reminds me ... I need to put more effort into link building.
----
SENewbie beat me to it.

 

I like that fact that he reconginizes that mant seo 'experts' if there is such a thing use forums to spread bad advice

 

It is very difficult to find straight answers. I have seen numerous postings in other forums that indicate outbound links reduce your PageRank(PR).

Great article.

 

I have site drop in pagerank when i added outbound links but they did not drop in rankings

I aslo think i have gotten ranked for a term that i didn't optimize for by my outgoing links

 

good article for sure. I like how he thinks "out of the box" and tries to counter the PR madness... for everybody else it is too hard to resist the magic of the green bar obviously.

 

PR aside, outbound link are of value to your visitors if they present information that may be of use or interest to your visitors.

I have a page on one of my newer sites that I give people links on for posting in my forum. They get an anchortext link with a paragraph of text describing their site. I only accept sites that are well themed with my site. PR is not even a consideration for me in this case, providing links to sites my visitors may enjoy is.

 

Yes and they are from paraniod people who don't really understand what they are talking about. That's the point of the article and why I posted it.

 

I too enjoyed his article. I especially enjoyed the dig at certain fora that have been spreading some of these myths for years. What impressed me was the fact he did not need to name them as most already know which he was referring.

 

It is amazing how much "mis-information" is out there. Google for one likes to keep their solutions/results simple. They have "solve things with an algorithm" and "affect the entire world" mantras. When I see posts that worry me, from other sites, I just think if it fits with the way Google see's things.

Here's an excellent little article about Google's company that I have hanging on the wall of my cube. It would be great if more companies where like this.

The Google Way

 

There's a lot to be said for your outbound links giving you relevance. I also have several sites that I use to link to my main business site ranking higher than I would have expected for the phrase that only appears in the outbound link anchor text on those sites. The moral is don't worry about PR - build good links (both inbound and outbound) that will keep visitors interested in your site.

These days many visitors seem to be too well aware of sites that are playing SEO games to achieve rank and are wary of doing business with them.

Mick

 

Mick, I agree with you. I feel it is more necessary to gain good linking structure than worrying about a leak in PR. I think if you run a site correctly you'll find yourself on the top of the engines with little effort.

 

How did forums.DigitalPoint.com do it? This site is at the top of ALOT of searches.

 

Undoubtedly!

 

Originally Posted by ferret77

Hi ferret77,

There are a number of other reasons you may have lost page rank other than adding outbound links and I would never consider it a cause and effect relation. As an example some of the pages linking to you may have lost rank thus causing your rank to drop. Having out bound links to the best of my knowledge will not cause a dilution in your PR. The key is your rankings did not drop.

 

Is the phrase used loosely or how does google decide this?

 

The term authority sites first showed up in either the Local Rank patent application or in the hilltop paper. I'm not sure which and it may be both. I'll give you the links to these below.

The question is, is Google actually using this technology and declaring sites as authority sites. I'm not sure.

Here are the links:

Hilltop paper: http://www.cs.toronto.edu/~georgem/hilltop/

Loacl Rank Patent: http://patft.uspto.gov/netacgi/nph-...d=ptxt&s1=6,526,440&OS=6,526,440&RS=6,526,440