Let's Dispel 3 Google Myths.

greeneagle · #1 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 12:11 AM

Let’s Dispel 3 GOOGLE Myths!

1) Keyword rankings are almighty! – This is no longer fact. GOOGLE indexes every word on a Site and including keyphrases. Anyone that keeps up with their stats knows that 95%+_, if not every searching visitor that reaches their site did not search with a single keyword. Virtually everyone that understands anything about the Internet tries to be more specific by using keyphrases. Keyphrases are being preferred by search engines due to shear volume of indexed data and the all out keyword purchasing spam, in itself!. Get a clue folks times are changing! Keywords are quickly becoming nothing but building blocks, and rightly so at this complexity level!

2) There is no total separation between PR (Page Rank) and SE (Search Engine) Rank. PR is not completely determined by popularity!

Google explicitly conveys this as fact:

A. How does Google rank pages?
1. The basics
“Google's order of results is automatically determined by more than 100 factors, including our PageRank algorithm.”
I don’t think they could express it more plainly than that!, Please let’s work to dispel this myth. Sure they are somewhat independent, but they do effect each other or GOOGLE is misleading at several points in their Webmaster Resources Pages!

3) Any Incoming Link is a GOOD Link and helps my Site! – Wrong!, At best links below a 3PR do not help. Incoming 0-PR links usually associated with link farms can hurt PR.

#3 under QUALITY GUIDELINES on the GOOGLE Webmaster’s pages:

-Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or "bad neighborhoods" on the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely by those links.

Let’s Dance with the advancement of technology --- or die!
It seems to be that simple,
Ken

simonm · #2 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 05:27 AM

Ken

Totally agree, my web site stats show that the vast majority of visitors find my sites through a combination of search terms that are largely unpredicatable. The important thing is that they find my site and considering the key terms used it seems to be relevant which is emphasised by the number of page views per visitor.

However, there are still some serious inconsistencies in site placement that I believe Google still needs to address.

greeneagle · #3 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 03:06 PM

simonm

This month I do not have any single keywords in my search strings, not even 2, the least is 3!, and here is #1 on the list:

"detecting Internet fraud"

What do you think about that?
See my post on "Search Engine Discussion" thread:

Alexa Ranks Top 5 Search Engines By Traffic - You Vote
Ken

janeth · #4 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 07:00 PM

Hi greeneagle

You said and I quote
"3) Any Incoming Link is a GOOD Link and helps my Site! – Wrong!, At best links below a 3PR do not help. Incoming 0-PR links usually associated with link farms can hurt PR."

I have to disagree on this one.
I thing if you check arond you will find that
There is no incoming link from another site that can hurt your site. Every incoming link helps even a pr0 link and there is no link that hurts as long as you did not link back.

rlrouse · #5 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 08:07 PM

1 - Keyphrases are indeed more valuable than keywords. Very few searchers use single keywords these days. Most use anywhere from 2 to 5.

2 - PageRank is indeed one of the 100 odd factors that Google uses to rank pages in the SERPS. But PR plays such a small role when compared to a handful of other factors that it's virtually irrelevent.

Inbound links with good link anchor text coupled with a few on-page factors will get a page ranked above a higher PR page for a specific keyword/phrase every time.

3 - Any inbound link is indeed good and helps your site. If a link brings in one referral a month, it helps your site. And of course today's PR1 page can easily becomes PR6 next month (we see this happen with virtually every Google update).

Also, any link with a PageRank above 0 will give a PR boost to pages that it links to. Although the boost may be miniscule, it could be enough to serve as a "tie-breaker" if all other factors are equal.

4 - "Don't participate in link schemes..." Right on the money with this one.

sonnie · #6 (**permalink**) 12-09-2003, 09:59 PM

I agree with simonm and greeneagle. With the following comments. I started a small site for my girlfriend who became interested in starting an online business. I take care of a couple other sites, and simply followed the same marketing path. She picked out the "template" of the site, one of the typical provided by the hosting company, and I simply created a couple of pages. We were listed with Google after three weeks and if you search for "handcrafted in the usa" (which she insisted upon), we're #2, at least for now. Cleanliness, Content, not hard to accomplish.

greeneagle · #7 (**permalink**) 12-10-2003, 07:59 AM

rlrouse said: PageRank is indeed one of the 100 odd factors that Google uses to rank pages in the SERPS. But PR plays such a small role.

We recently built the www.tubeltechnologies.com site for one of our newest clients. They had their site down for more than a year while maintaining a 3 GOOGLE PR with nothing but an URL!, because they had several quality incoming links from before, including various governmental agencies and so on. On review you would not believe the hits that a blank page was generating. I don't think that PR should be discounted lightly at all!

Ken

greeneagle · #8 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:01 PM

Garrett wrote in:
On the Scene at the Search Engine Strategies
Live Updates from Search Engine Strategies

In the article:
"An exclusive Google interview."

An Exclusive Interview. Yesterday, I caught up with Marissa after her presentation. We walked through the hallway together and had a short but exclusive interview as she carried her suitcase outside to catch a taxi to the airport.

I asked, “What should people do if their sites were totally dumped from Google?”

She replied, “If you dropped in rankings, go back and look at who you linked to and who’s linking to you. If any of these people are using spam techniques, they're the reason your site no longer appears on Google.”

“Does this mean that new algorithm somehow measures the ‘neighborhood’ you're linked into more highly?”

Smiling, Marissa told me she couldn’t answer that question, because it’s a direct statement about the new Google algorithm.

We'll take that as a yes. :)
____________________

SEOs using questionable practices such as linking themselves and clients to “Link Farms” are being penalized (and rightfully so)

Already the back-peddling is occurring
Many “Link Farms” are posting disclaimers!
Many SEOs are placing messages on sites of disclaiming nature,
Several are off the Web!
Can they unlink themselves and clients or do they have to take down the Sites all together to avoid litigation?

janeth · #9 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:04 PM

trading links and link farms are two different things.

The fact that Google will ban a site for using link farms is nothing new.

bmchild · #10 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:37 PM

I wonder do they penalize you if you link to a link farm or are linked from a link farm? the reason I ask is you really have no control of who links to you. If you think about it, if there is a competitor out there who's looking to get above you in the page rankings, all they would have to do is submit your link to the link farms.

janeth · #11 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:44 PM

It would be only if you linked to a link farm.

greeneagle · #12 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:46 PM

So it has absolutely no effect to link a client to a Link Farm either?
Ken

janeth · #13 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:48 PM

If you link to them then you have a problem if they link to you it is no problem.

greeneagle · #14 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:53 PM

BUT IT DOES NOT HELP ANY MORE, with the new dance!
So it's a waste of time!
Ken

janeth · #15 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 04:55 PM

what does not help?

greeneagle · #16 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 05:00 PM

At best, if you are not penalized for having link farms connected to you, it absolutely does no good at all, or many indicators, including the comments made by GOOGLE expressly (in the current forum), and those made on their Webmasters Guideline site are misleading and a complete falacy!
Ken

janeth · #17 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 05:05 PM

To start with a link farm is not going to link to you unless you link to them but this is what Google says about people that link to you and it is on there web site

Fiction: A competitor can ruin a site's ranking somehow or have another site removed from Google's index.

Fact: There is almost nothing a competitor can do to harm your ranking or have your site removed from our index. Your rank and your inclusion are dependent on factors under your control as a webmaster, including content choices and site design.

greeneagle · #18 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 05:17 PM

The point is: There is absolutely no reason at all to ever engage the services of a "bad neighborhood" ie.. link farm again, coming or going. At best you run the risk of damaging yourself or clients, in the "new dance". I and many other "straight" webmasters that struggle to get themselves and clients "ahead of the game", by the rules appreciate this particular focus in the new alogrithms!

Thanks for your comments,
Ken

janeth · #19 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 05:21 PM

There is nothing new there though Google has always said do not link to link farms or bad neighbors.

Jamie · #20 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 09:46 PM

[quote="greeneagle"]Garrett wrote
She replied, “If you dropped in rankings, go back and look at who you linked to and who’s linking to you. If any of these people are using spam techniques, they're the reason your site no longer appears on Google.”

If one has 100 plus reciprocal links. What would you suggest as the quickest or best way to do this?
Jamie

janeth · #21 (**permalink**) 12-12-2003, 09:51 PM

Jamie,
I would do nothing and would read around more I thing she was wrong in what she said.

My site was 100% gone for over 200 key words for our home page alone I made some changes none of those changes had to do with links and we are back now

greeneagle · #22 (**permalink**) 12-13-2003, 02:56 AM

If it were my sites that had links from "bad neighborhoods", and I had placed them there, I would contact the webmaster and ask them to remove them ASAP!

If it were my sites that had links from "bad neighborhoods" such as link farms, that were not placed by me, I would contact the webmaster and demand immediate removal and if that didn't work, I would have an attorney specializing in Internet Litigation contact them via letter or what ever was necessary to be unlinked!

Furthermore, I would sure try to find out who placed me there and determine whether I had grounds for legal action!

We cannot possibly give legal advice, but this would be the course of our actions.

Good Luck,
Ken

janeth · #23 (**permalink**) 12-13-2003, 07:24 AM

Google says on there web site another web site can not hurt you.

I will tell anyone you can submit my web site to ffa pages do whatever you want link to it by every bad site you want it does not effect me at all.

As a matter of fact I may get some traffic from the links.

Will I loose my ranking no way.

There is nothing you can do to effect my sites ranking.

I would like to see someone sue me for linking that is really funny.

Someone gets shot in the middle of town and it takes all day for the police to show up. I'm sure they will move right in here for a law suit because my site thought another web site was nice so I linked to it.