Quote:
Originally Posted by wige
My understanding of this method (based on comments from Google that seem to be intentionally non-specific) is as follows:
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My bolding.
Interesting and you seem to agree with me that this important subject is far from settled.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wige
Google knows and acknowledges that although the SEO community stays on top of every tidbit of information coming from the Googleplex, the average webmaster/small business person is relatively oblivious to the hows and whys of rankings. As a result, most systems err on the side of caution - punish a site, not a server; punish a page, not a site; punish a link, not a page. |
My bolding again.
This is what I mean is still diffuse.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wige
As the Googlebot reads a page, it breaks the content down, trying to figure out what the different parts of the page are. For instance, the bot will look for a footer so that can be ignored from the keyword calculations. Most sites have visual separations between different types of content - think of your own site, a visitor can immediately spot "this is navigation, this is the logo, these are ads, this is the footer". These distinctions are carried over into the code. Googlebot tries to find the same elements to determine how to rank different things. Wording that is found in the header, footer and navigation are discounted relative to the value of the content. In the same way, links that are separated from the content are discounted (or completely ignored) when the value of outbound links is calculated. In most cases, the bot will "ignore" sections of the page if it detects possible paid links. The idea that links within content are worth more because the surrounding text imparts more relevance has already been discussed, this idea simply expands on that concept.
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Good explanation.
That is why separting the three layers of the web is so important:
- Content in desrciptive (semantic) tags. XML is much better than HTML. XHTML is a bridge between HTML and XML, since an XHTML document has to be well-formed.
- Presentation or styling in CSS / XSLT stylesheet files.
- Behaviour in JS files.
There are additional layers for XML-driven sites, like link-bases (files), Document Type Declaration (grammar files), sematic links related to link-bases and roles of links (arch roles) etc.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wige
Nofollow enters the equation because if the spider finds these links greatly outnumbering the editorial links, or in some other way these paid links trigger a red flag for the spider, it may decide that the purpose of the page is to spam the index. In that case the page could be penalized by having all pagerank removed, or even be dropped from the index. If this happens to enough pages on the site, then the site would risk a penalty. Finally, if enough sites on the server get penalized, the server itself may be penalized. Nofollow simply gives the webmaster a way to avoid the risk of too many false positives.
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Do you mean that affiliate links, ideally, shall have a nofollow property? Some providers encrypt links etc. so it is not self evident that the link functions as it shall if it (some properties) is (are) changed. So there have to be a clear option to put no follow on links from the affiliate link provider or the merchant. What about the value of a link with and without a nofollow on it is the next natural question. May be not so important today, since a SeBOT will in most cases have no problem in identifying affiliate and Googel AdSense links. But as explained above there is an argument for unethical business to hide this.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wige
Bear in mind, paid direct links were created specifically for the purpose of gaming search engines. If you bought a link on a web site for any reason other than to increase your IBLs, they would not be direct links. If you sold links for any purpose other than to pass on page rank, you would not use direct links.
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I know that. But again, return to start, my first post. There are
- One single link on a site.
- One single or a few links per page (example FaceBook).
- Sites with pages only designed for the purpose of linkselling, so it is separted from the rest of the site. A site with high traffic takes the opportunity to sell some of that traffic, regardless of the Se's policy.
- Sites with AdSense and affiliate links all over. This Ad should be contextual and sematic aimed at the surfer.
May be some professional sites should have an option to turn off all Ad?
Do not turn this thread into an usability / accessibility discussion. Cross contry skiing is not relevant for every human being, as it is irrelevant for most people
to go alone to the South Pole. Then he also needed equipment that only a few people need.