Linking TO websites

[SusieG]

Hello

I am curious to know whether linking to similar websites will help my pr.

I know links pointing to you help alot but I have read an article stating that if you link to similar and related sites that this will help.

Any views?

Susie

[fathom]

Originally Posted by SusieG

Hello

I am curious to know whether linking to similar websites will help my pr.

I know links pointing to you help alot but I have read an article stating that if you link to similar and related sites that this will help.

Any views?

Susie

The short of it -- yes!

Some will disagree.

However - if for example:

1. You are listed in DMOZ.org, and

2. The "linked to site" is in DMOZ, and

3. They link to DMOZ, or one site they link to, link to DMOZ, etc.

Your passed PageRank will return to you.

The math is the same for all links, PageRank flows continuously -- people just can't follow millions of link paths thus many say "don't do it" if you don't get a link in return.

They would be wrong -- most of the time.

[SusieG]

Interesting. Yes I do agree. Really what I want is Google to know what my site is about and I reckon linking to good quality, related content sites can certainly do no harm. If anything, it will help the 'linked to' sites and then in the future if/when they reciprocate the link...it will pay off. :)

I think I'll go for it and see what happens.

Thanks again
Susie

[fathom]

Agree - will never hurt.

a related thread Outbound Links to Authority Sites

[slimboy]

I agree.

Linking to good, quality sites won't hurt and will probably help your case provided that you also have a good number of incoming links (not necessarily from the same site).

This si an awesome question and I look forward to seeing the barage of disagreement that is probably forthcoming. ;)

[Steven Glover]

I disagree you people are crazy! Whats wrong with you? HMMMMMMMMMMM?! Just kidding. Actually I have always believed that this will help.

[Tenyque]

It's nice to see the big picture view of PageRank put out there. KarmaPR vs PageLeak eh?

[kjohnson5576]

I hate to say this, but I hate to link. It takes a lot of time and effort to keep the link pages current, but I do it. I am a member of most of the linking services like GoTop, LinkDirectory, LinkPartners, etc. I get about 35 requests to link each week from these services plus other people who like my site want to link also. I've seen Google over time recognize a lot of the links and I've gained Page Rank improvement because of it. I've always demanded a reciprical link to keep the status quo of incoming to outgoing fairly even. A plus is, People do look at link pages and I always receive at least a couple of hits from a reciprical link and some of my reciprical links have brought in dozens of hits over a few months period of time.

So I can only complain about the time it takes me to put up links, but not the results.

[Lando]

Ditto to all the above, but just wanted to say for those that are not that familiar with linking (SusieG sounds like having a good understanding of it), stay away from FFA's (Free For All's). My experience is that they are just a means of harvesting email addresses (spemmed me to death when I did it years ago!!) and 'link farms', a legitimate site, but may have literally hundreds if not thousands of links.

PLEASE, anybody, correct me if I am wrong, but it is my understanding that Google and some other SE's frown heavily on 'link farms' and you may even be penalized for linking to them. If someone out there knows different, please say so! But this is my understanding. I myself would like to have that 'opinion' either validated or refuted from the SE gurus out there :) tanks!

Lando

[SusieG]

Fathom, thanks again for your input. I have read the associated thread you linked to on your last message. It has however left me a little confused.

I'll give a straight forward situation and see what comes of it.

My site is all about jobs, recruitment, work etc... I have accidently managed to get listed in the the first page of Google for a particular keyword relating to recruitment. Accidently meaning I hadn't gotten around to optimising that page yet :) (doing something right!) Obviously I want to capitalise on this and work for a better ranking.

Basically I am going to offer a resume distribution service and link to all the recruitment agencies. I am curious as to whether a well organised link structure to these agencies will help my site. Given that my page content and theme is very similar to theirs. Bearing in mind that these are not 'authority sites' and few will reciprocate the link.

This page is linked from my homepage pr5 and currently has pr0. All my tags and content relates to jobs, recruitment, work etc...

[SusieG]

Lando, I am no guru but I can safely say that link farms and such like are a huge NO NO.

I've been reading up quite a lot on this topic, I am essentially a 'newbie' but once you dig and dig through the many contradictions that are out there; stay away from link farms unless you would like to compare the prices of viagra in your email inbox EVERYDAY from many pro-spam, email harvesting sources.

I have also learned that getting links from sites totally non-related to your content is a huge waste of time and if anything will hurt your pr.

[fathom]

Originally Posted by SusieG

Fathom, thanks again for your input. I have read the associated thread you linked to on your last message. It has however left me a little confused.

I'll give a straight forward situation and see what comes of it.

My site is all about jobs, recruitment, work etc... I have accidently managed to get listed in the the first page of Google for a particular keyword relating to recruitment. Accidently meaning I hadn't gotten around to optimising that page yet :) (doing something right!) Obviously I want to capitalise on this and work for a better ranking.

Basically I am going to offer a resume distribution service and link to all the recruitment agencies. I am curious as to whether a well organised link structure to these agencies will help my site. Given that my page content and theme is very similar to theirs. Bearing in mind that these are not 'authority sites' and few will reciprocate the link.

This page is linked from my homepage pr5 and currently has pr0. All my tags and content relates to jobs, recruitment, work etc...

Glad you posted your industry niche... I'll get back to you later with a few links that will help quite a bit.

To address any confusion, authority sites are not just any old on-topic site. They tend to be leaders in an industry, governance agencies, and/or associations.

In your particular area I would assume any place concerned about "unemployment" - chamber of commerce, city and state government sites, most industry associations - IT, Tourism and Hospitality, etc.

Links out to these sites add visible integrity to your site plus the theme potential of ranking and PageRank.

The "theme" is important is this case because the chances of existing links pointing to you are directly affected by the boost you provide to the authority -- and by proxy a boost to your own site.

In addition, you are more likely -- because of the "community service" you provide (more jobs) you are more likely to actually get a link from these websites (which is a bonus - not a requirement).

I'll pm you later on a few others.

Good luck.

[kjohnson5576]

I think we need to qualify what a "Link Farm" is? I've seen many sites that only offer Links as their content. Is this a Link Farm? I agree then, nobody really looks at a Link Site when you have Search Engines that can tell you what you want in an instant.

However, having multiple pages of links on your site that link to a variety of different sites with real content, I don't think hurts and actually helps.

About FFA's...Stay away! Your link only last about 5 minutes on their page and they reserve the right to send you two emails touting the latest and greatest MLM super get rich "business" with no effort at all, as well as all kind of offers to become more "well endowed"... if you know what I mean.

[fathom]

Originally Posted by kjohnson5576

I think we need to qualify what a "Link Farm" is? I've seen many sites that only offer Links as their content. Is this a Link Farm? I agree then, nobody really looks at a Link Site when you have Search Engines that can tell you what you want in an instant.

However, having multiple pages of links on your site that link to a variety of different sites with real content, I don't think hurts and actually helps.

About FFA's...Stay away! Your link only last about 5 minutes on their page and they reserve the right to send you two emails touting the latest and greatest MLM super get rich "business" with no effort at all, as well as all kind of offers to become more "well endowed"... if you know what I mean.

There is a distinction between a directory (of links) which is also considered a "hub" or a site built on an aggregation of similiar topical sites by category, and a "link farm".

The basic idea of a link farm is a pyramid scheme.

I link to you - you link to me.

Garrett joins and he links to both of us and we both link to him.

Brittany joins and we all link to her and she links to all of us.

Jackie joins and we all link to her and she links to all of us.

John Paul joins and we all link to him and he links to all of us.

... I'll stop here but you get the picture.

In a directory -- it is one way linking only or one to one link reciprcal linking only.

[bangitup]

From a BANGitUP.com (Building and Construction Industry Portal) point of view there's no question about how links add value to your visitor experience.

At BANGitUP we've seen a huge increase in customers since we launched our directory. The key point is always content relevance to your target customer/ visitor.

In terms of managing your links then there are great tools available. We opted for Arelis

http://www.Axandra.com/go.to/maxys

We haven't had much to do with Link Exchanges at this point but considering how well our links directory has worked may look at this in the future.

The other point is that - it does take a lot of time - you're building relationships and like any relationship (on-line or off) thats an investment.

Is it the best way to invest your time? Well that depends.

Hope that helps

[IndiTech]

It can certainly help with search engine ratings

[fathom]

Originally Posted by bangitup

In terms of managing your links then there are great tools available. We opted for Arelis

http://www.Axandra.com/go.to/maxys

We haven't had much to do with Link Exchanges at this point but considering how well our links directory has worked may look at this in the future.

Just one thing to be mindful of. Arelis is a decent software program to help find "related sites". What it can't do is tell if the sites it does find is appealing to your market and link exchange program.

A manual "look see" is highly advisable - never allow a program to make a management decision.

Case in point: a client (before being a client) sells "pearl jewellery" and using Zeus (a similar program) provided a good list of related sites and he let the software decide what was worth a link request for his various keywords one of which (his selling items) most popular was "pearl necklace".

He got tons of responses, reciprocal links and added them to his jewellery site (unfortunately mostly from adult sites).

It was a potential customer that harshly pointed out the error of his ways.

Never let software run your business.

[MtraX]

Hi.

I bought SubmitWolf Pro software on behalf of my one client and keep on submitting each month, yet Google seemed to have penalized me - probably all the FFA linking (I can only find the site when typing in the actual name in Goole!), but how can I use the software without submitting to these sites? And how can I now improve the ranking after the damage have been done?

MtraX

I have found that Google really hates SEO auto-software........and have seen other sites get penalized for it......
Slowly but surely I'm learning that conttent rich sites (using a more "organic" SEO) become Google friendly sites ....where the content outweighs (%) html
,,,,,then Googlebot will index your site providing your header-meta-title supports your text-----no cloaking--

Although Google may indeed hate auto software... link pointing to you can't hurt you... if they did I would guarantee near every competitor would use such software daily to get the competition penalized.

Something else cause this.

[MtraX]

I'll keep that in mind. If not submitting every month, how do you ensure constant good ranking and hits from lots of search engines? PAY the search engines?!

MtraX

[kjohnson5576]

I have a campaign in Google Adwords. I paused the campaign for about 3 weeks and I noticed that my Page rank also decreased in select catagories. Despite what they say, I think using their advertising services does increase your page rank in Google.

Here is another bit of experience. I pay a service (someone cold called me and I bought)to submit my site to search engines on a paid basis...so it's not spamming the SE. They submit by feed every two days to the minors and once per week to Google. I was kind of dubious about this ($39.99/month) and did not see any real results until about the third month. My percentage of Search Engine to WebSite hits as figured in my Extreme Tracking program has risen from 17% to over 20% and seems to be getting better as time goes by. I'll stick with them for another month or two and see how far up the results can go.

Anyway, I think you have to pay somthing along with good content and optimization to get good results.

Another hint. Stay away from FFA's. Nothing but spam factories.

[PhilC]

The straight answer to the orginal question, "whether linking to similar websites will help my PR", is an emphatic NO. Linking out of the site to anywhere will leak PR from the site. The idea that it will be returned to the site nnnnnn number of links down the road is garbage. It may return, and it may not return, there's no way for anybody to know. One thing that everybody does know is that linking out of the site removes PR from the site.

That's the answer to the question. As to whether or not linking to related sites is helpful for other ranking factors is open to debate. Some people are sure it is, but I've no evidence one way or the other.