Google in the Real World:
How Links Boost Your Ranking
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Link Popularity
 Inbound links play a key role in determining rankings
 It’s not just about quantity (“link popularity”); it’s about
quality (importance of the page, topically
relevant/authoritative)
 This has been the cornerstone of Google’s ranking
algorithm since Day 1
 Comes from the Google founders’ fascination with
citation analysis
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Checking Link Popularity
 To a page
– Google’s and MSN Search’s link: query operator
 To your site
– Yahoo’s linkdomain: query operator
 Subtract your site from the results (MSN & Yahoo only)
– E.g. link:www.yoursite.com -site:yoursite.com
 Google displays only a sampling of backlinks (to foil
SEOs)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Checking Link Popularity
 Free tools
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Yahoo’s Site Explorer (siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com)
Netconcepts’ Link Checker (www.netconcepts.com/linkcheck)
WeBuildPages’ Neat-o Tool (www.webuildpages.com/neat-o/)
SEO-Links Firefox extension (www.webmasterbrain.com/seotools/firefox-extensions/seo-links/)
– Thumbshots Ranking tool (ranking.thumbshots.com)
– TouchGraph GoogleBrowser
(www.touchgraph.com/TGGoogleBrowser.html)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Yahoo’s Site Explorer
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Netconcepts’ Link Checker
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
WeBuildPages’ Neat-o Tool
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
SEO-Links Firefox Extension
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Thumbshots Ranking tool
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
TouchGraph GoogleBrowser
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
PageRank
 PageRank™ – Google’s algorithm for measuring a
page’s importance; Yahoo & MSN have similar
measures
 Each web page (not site) has its own PageRank score
 PageRank scores from 0 to 10; logarithmic scale
 Who’s at the top of the PageRank food chain?
– 10: Google, Apple, NSF, FirstGov; 9: Yahoo, MSN, Stanford
 Sites with higher PageRank get crawled earlier, faster,
and deeper by Googlebot
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Checking PageRank
 Google Toolbar for IE or Firefox
– Download it from toolbar.google.com
 Google Directory (directory.google.com)
– Only works for pages that are listed in DMOZ (e.g. your home
page)
– Listings are ranked in order of PageRank
– Makes it possible to see your site make small PageRank
shifts relative to other sites in your category
– Get historical PageRank scores w/ Wayback Machine
(www.archive.org)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Google Toolbar
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Problems with the PageRank Meter
 Take the PageRank scores with a grain of salt
 PageRank scores are merely indicative
 Scores displayed in the PageRank meter are:
– Months old
– Imprecise
– Not the same as the PageRank as what is used in Google’s
ranking algorithm
– Not representative of the home page PageRank when a
redirect is present
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Google
Directory –
listings are
organized
by
PageRank
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Checking PageRank
 More free tools
– SEOChat PageRank Lookup (www.seochat.com/seotools/pagerank-lookup/)
– SEOChat PageRank Search (www.seochat.com/seotools/pagerank-search/)
– SnooPR (www.tartools.com)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
SEOChat’s PageRank Lookup
The way to
check the
home page
PageRank
when a
redirect is
present
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
SEOChat’s PageRank Search
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
SnooPR
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Find Link Targets
 Review links of competitive sites, sites in your keyword
market
– Use the tools just mentioned
– Check sites with high rankings for relevant keywords
– The fewer the number of links on their page, the better
 Review links to your site; look for opportunities to get
the link text revised
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Competitive Intelligence
 These tools aren’t just good for finding link targets
 They’re invaluable for uncovering competitors’ dodgy
practices
– E.g. Unraveling the mystery of Findgiftcards.com
commanding the #1 spot for “gift certificates”
 It’s also just good to know where they’re getting the bulk
of their PageRank from
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Watch Out For…
 Types of links that are likely to get discounted:
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Reciprocal links
Affiliated sites (on the same IP range or hostname)
Footer links (at the bottom of the page)
Site-wide links
Links contained on a page called links.htm / links.asp
Remember: the more links on the linking page, the less
PageRank you’ll get
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
“Google Bombing”
 Inbound contextual links alone can drive a site to the
top of Google (e.g. “miserable failure”)
 Also works on Yahoo, MSN Search, etc.
 THE LESSON: Link text is your secret weapon!
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
An
unintentional
“Google bomb”
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
PageRank Dilution
 Careful about having multiple URLs serving up the same content
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Multiple homes for your content
Multiple domains registered and resolving to your site
abccompany.com vs. www.abccompany.com
https:// version of your site
Session IDs or User IDs in the URL
301 redirect them all to the definitive version of the page
 Removed pages
– 301 redirect rather than 404
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
PageRank Dilution
 Example of multiple homes for the same content:
Laura Ries’ blog
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Best Practices
Try to get good keywords in the hyperlink text
Offer link-worthy content. Keep it fresh.
Provide RSS feeds
Simple keyword-rich links encourage deep linking
When you redesign your site, keep your old URLs or
301 redirect them to the new URLs
 “Nofollow” any links you don’t vouch for
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– <a href=“/privacy-policy.htm” rel=“nofollow”>
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Worst Practices
 Participating in “link farms” or FFA (“Free For All”) sites
– Hallmarks of a link farm = more urls per page & less
organization
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Splogging, comment spamming, guestbook spamming
Linking to “bad neighborhoods”
Hiding links
Hoarding all your PageRank
Unnatural link structures
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Link Hiding Example 1
 SubscriberMail.com embeds an invisible image linked to
their home page into their customers’ enewsletter
signup forms
– E.g. on www.ocharleydavidson.com/guest.html look for:
<a href="http://www.subscribermail.com"><img
src="http://tr1.subscribermail.com/bt/wbtr.cfm?ppid=ORANAD
FE6858" alt="Email Marketing" border=0></a>
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Link Hiding Example 2
 PRNewswire.co.uk embeds keyword-rich text links
within a <noframes> tag on their home page that not
visible to ordinary users:
– <a href="http://www.icrossing.com">Search Engine
Marketing</a>
<a href="http://sev.prnewswire.com">Search Engine News
Release Optimization</a>
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Unnatural Link Structures
 Google suspects unnatural-looking neighborhoods
 Don’t link to every single node in your network of sites;
it’ll get flagged.
 Naturally occurring neighborhoods
on the Web aren’t perfect
 Google is looking for “cliques”
(graph theory)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Submit to Directories
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Yahoo!
Open Directory (DMOZ)
GoGuides
JoeAnt
SearchHippo
Skaffe
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RubberStamped
BlueFind
Gigablast
WebSavvy
Zeal
etc.
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Submit to Directories
 Do your homework:
– www.stuntdubl.com/2005/09/26/directories/
– www.searchengineguide.com/wallace/2005/0407_dw1.html
– www.searchengineguide.com/searchengines.html
– forums.searchenginewatch.com/showthread.php?t=6505
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Submit to Verticals, Topical Guides
 e.g. Yahooligans if it’s of interest to kids
 e.g. BestHistorySites.net if you’ve got good historical
content
 e.g. FMLink.com if it’s relevant to facilities managers
 etc.
 Lots of work here to uncover the niche sites!
 Create a linking plan
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Blogs
 Search engines – and Google in particular – love blogs
 Inherently link-rich
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“Hat tips” – part of blog etiquette
Blogrolls
RSS feeds
Trackbacks
Comments
 The dark side of the blogosphere:
– Blog comment spam
– Splogs (spam blogs)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
RSS Feeds
 Not only an unspammable content delivery channel to
your consumers, but also…
 A powerful way to syndicate your content to other web
sites
– Propagate deep links that drive traffic and PageRank
– Careful! Some spammers lift your content from your RSS
feeds, strip out the links, and use as keyword-rich content
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Slashdot
headlines
syndicated
on
Nanodot.org
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
The top result
was thanks to
syndication via
RSS
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Blog software
like
WordPress
creates an
RSS feed
automatically,
even
embedding
audio/video
as podcasts
too!
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
RSS Feeds
 Facilitate propagation of your feeds across the web:
– Set up feed “autodiscovery”
• e.g. <link rel="alternate" type="application/atom+xml" title="Atom 0.3"
href="http://feeds.stephanspencer.com/scatterings" />
– Make your search listings in Yahoo! display the “Add to My Yahoo!” link
• Instructions here: http://my.yahoo.com/s/publishers.html
– Send out “pings” (to Technorati, My Yahoo, Pingomatic, etc.)
– Make sure “trackbacks” are enabled
 Submit to RSS directories & search engines
– List at www.masternewmedia.org/rss/top55/
 Pay attention to each item title; it’ll become link text
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Buying Text Links
 What is a Yahoo directory listing but a paid text link!
– Ok by Google because of the “editorial review”
 Brokers like Text-Link-Ads.com and can help
 Google’s perspective:
– “Selling links muddies the quality of the web and makes it
harder for many search engines (not just Google) to return
relevant results. The rel=nofollow attribute is the correct
answer: any site can sell links, but a search engine will be
able to tell that the source site is not vouching for the
destination page” -- Matt Cutts, Google engineer
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Buying Text Links
 Google discounts the voting power of sites that it knows
are selling text links:
– “…parts of perl.com, xml.com, etc. have not been trusted in
terms of linkage for months and months. Remember that just
because a site shows up for a “link:” command on Google
does not mean that it passes PageRank, reputation, or
anchortext” -- Matt Cutts, Google engineer
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Evaluating a Text Ad Opportunity
 Good
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High rankings for the search terms targeted with the existing ads’ link text
Stats showing the page you’ll be on gets good traffic numbers
Stats showing a respectable amount of traffic is sent to the advertisers
Site is topically relevant to your business
Site is likely to be considered an authority site
Inbound links from .gov, .edu, .mil sites
Good Alexa rank
Extra good if the site you’re placed on is a .gov, .edu, or .mil
Reasonably good PageRank score on the page you’ll be on
Reasonably few other links on the page you’ll be on
Link is within the main body of the page
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
984th
most
popular
website
Note: Alexa
rankings
can be
manipulated
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Evaluating a Text Ad Opportunity
 Bad
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Sitewide link
Site has been greybarred (i.e. banned)
Neighboring ads are of dubious nature (casinos, Hoodia, Viagra, etc.)
Acquired PageRank through dubious means (e.g. hidden or obscured
links)
– Advertisers have left in droves (evidenced by Wayback Machine archives)
– “Advertisers”, “Sponsors”, or “Sponsored” closely associated with the ads
– No visibility in top 10 pages in Google for advertisers’ targeted keywords
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
A year ago
(was a PR8)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Today
(now a PR7)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Advertiser
is not in the
first 10
pages in
Google for
“college
football”
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Get Creative
 Give awards / recognition
– Badges with link text underneath
 Allow webmasters to republish your articles
– Require a link in your byline
 Publish unique content
– Podcasts (e.g. SteveSpangler.com)
– Screencasts (use TechSmith’s Camtasia Studio)
– Wikis (e.g. SEOGlossary.com)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Get Creative
 Offer useful tools for webmasters, such as…
– Hit counters
• E.g. NOT 123counters.com
– Weather stickers
• E.g. Wunderground.com, SuperPages.com
– RSS feeds
• Lottery winning numbers from SuperPages.com
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Get Creative
 Start a blog
 Give testimonials
– E.g. www.wordpress.org/about/testimonials
– E.g. www.keyworddiscovery.com/testimonials.html
 Sponsor a nonprofit
– E.g. Kohl’s supports the Eastern Pennsylvania Youth Soccer Association
 Leverage your affiliates
– Get a straight link (e.g. from Legal Notices page)
– 301 redirect
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
In Summary
 Best links are:
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Topically relevant
One way (not reciprocated)
Not in footer and not site-wide
Earned by merit, rather than bought, bartered or stolen
Not crowded with many other links on the page
On a high PageRank-endowed, high Alexa-ranked,
.edu/.gov/.mil authority site
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Wouldn’t it
be nice to
have a link
on here?…
;-)
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
In Summary
 Get creative
– With your content, functionality, free tools, your budget
– Think “Web 2.0” (blogs, RSS, tagging, etc.)
 Measure success not by fixating on the PageRank
meter, but by measuring the rankings lift
 Don’t hamper the PageRank flow within your site
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]
Q&A
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Thank You!
Time now for some Q & A!
Also, feel free to email me: [email protected]
Email [email protected] for my Best & Worst
Practices in SEO whitepaper, free
© 2005 Stephan M Spencer Netconcepts www.netconcepts.com [email protected]