Google Page Rank and Linking - an Alternative
View
Written
for LinksManager.com
by Dirk
Johnson, LinkStrategy.com
We
all know the old clichˇs of "putting the
cart before the horse", or "which
comes first, the chicken or the egg". Yada
yada. Well, it's descended on the world of linking,
too. For years, reciprocal linking was the backwater
of web marketing. Everyone talked about it,
but few people actually did much of it. Now,
because of Google, linking is now the "front
and center" subject of the search engine
mythologists. Google is now driving linking,
not the other way around.
The current search-engine fad of the moment
(and this, too, will change, to use another
cliche) is to achieve a high Google Page Rank
(GPR) through careful management of the links
coming in and going out of a website. The concept
is that, with exactly the right link partners
who each have the right GPR, lightning strikes
and Google will send you to the top for your
keywords. Maybe so. Maybe not. But it is no
longer linking for the sake of linking. It is
linking for the sole purpose of GPR.
While a high GPR is a worthy goal, earning it
through complex link practices is not only very
difficult and time-consuming (after all, linking
is hard enough on it's own), but it can also
be misguided, costly, and very detrimental to
the overall site traffic. What's more, abbreviated
linking might very well thwart the goal of a
high GPR.
Since every article about linking these days
seems to mention some sort of Google PR-boosting
strategy, I'd like to take the time to present
counter-arguments to this approach toward linking.
Am I 100% right? Probably not. But neither are
the so-called GPR pundits, who rely on their
own speculation, as well as rumors extracted
from highly questionable discussion board postings
to arrive at their "facts". Google
itself provides very little factual guidance
on the subject.
Instead of speculation, I'd just like to present
some alternative ways to think about the situation,
using some common sense arguments. Then I'll
leave it to you to decide.
1)
Many of these GPR articles are outright contradictory.
How can that be? Who's right?
2)
Linking was around long before Google. Many
of the sites I work with enjoy excellent Google
rankings, but have links (both in and out)
from all across the spectrum. Yes, most of
these links are in the same general category
of interest, but many are not. The so-called
"penalty" for linking to sites outside
of a "theme" appears to be nothing
more than "boogie-man under the bed"
chatter. I've learned to ignore it all.
3)
Many pundits say that links to and from sites
with a low GPR will hurt you. Some experts
claim that a link to a GPR=0 site will send
your own site headed toward a GPR=0. Where
is the proof of this? A "balanced load"
of GPR is all that is needed. Good Google
results are quite possible with all kinds
of sites coming in and out. Even high numbers
of low GPR sites may actually help, not hurt.
An excellent discussion of the math behind
GPR can be found at http://www.iprcom.com/papers/pagerank/.
I seriously doubt that many of people who
write about GPR have even read this page,
let alone understand it. It's a bit heavy
on the math.
4)
Many sites now use a robot.txt file to limit
search engine indexing, for whatever reason.
Google may not even index these sites, but
they could very well be high-traffic sites
that would provide good, free traffic to your
site. Even low traffic sites can provide
good traffic, if yours is one of only a few
links on their links page, or your link is
prominent.
5)
All search engines change their criteria constantly,
including Google. Do you optimize for Google,
at the expense of the others? What if Google
does change? Then what? Some of the experts
now say that linking is now out of favor at
Google. Again, who to believe?
6)
Google Page Ranks for individual sites change
quite often. What is low today could be high
next month, and vice versa. There is no way
to manage it. Denying links to appropriate
sites only because they currently have a low
GPR is not only rude, it is extremely shortsighted.
Since the person making the request is actively
seeking links, their own GPR is probably on
the rise, and quickly. Turning them down is
simply "cutting off one's own nose",
as the clichˇ goes.
7)
Alternatively, sites do temporarily lose their
ranking, all the way to GPR=0. If one of them
happens to link to you, and you to them, should
you then hunt them down and ask them to remove
your link from their site, since they are
now "penalizing" you? I have read
where some people are actually doing this.
I think it's a great way to waste time being
obnoxious. If their rank shoots back up again
(and it can), then what? Ask for the link
back? Right.
8)
If your site shows up on nearly every significant
links page in your realm of interest, then
there is a definite "branding" effect
from this much exposure. Limiting your linking
to a handful of high page rank sites in a
narrow category does not achieve this saturation
effect. GPR is a calculation. Real people
surf with their eyes. The more places that
you're linked in a category, the better the
chance that people will see it and click it.
Let's use the "no brainer" clichˇ
here.
9)
Your own links pages are keyword-rich resources.
Make them as extensive as possible. Again,
limiting your links page listings to just
a few high page rank sites limits your own
keyword density and the textual info on your
own site.
I
have read many of these "GPR-enhancement
via links" articles, and I have yet to
see factual proof of any of these theories.
It is just a whole lot of speculation. In the
meantime, I have simply continued to pursue
as many appropriate links as possible, both
for my own sites and for my client sites, without
regard to GPR. In every single case, this has
resulted in constantly increasing traffic, from
both the links themselves, and from many of
the search engines, including Google. Those
kinds of results are hard to argue with.
I have to trust what I've seen for myself, not
a bunch of unsubstantiated, contradictory theories.
The bottom line cliche' is this: Pursue links
on their own merit, which is considerable in
and of itself. Good overall search engine results
will probably follow, including good Google
results. I wouldn't turn down a good link
to an appropriate site because they don't have
the right GPR. Links are valuable. Waste them,
and you may later want them, to re-word another
old cliche'.
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