Gaz Jones - Webmaster Rantings

It occured to me while reading a post on the WebTalkForums Forums message boards.

A user posted a question asking if Google gives more weight to related links with lower PR’s than non related links with higher PR’s. The obvious answer to this question is that the related link with the lower pagerank will overall provide more benefit to your website.

The next question that arised from this however was if links from bad sources e.g. spam directories and ffa sites damage your sites positions or pagerank in Google.

It interesting to note that a few people on this thread said that links from these sites damage your site. This is of course incorrect as if this where possible we would be able to destroy the rankings of top sites simply by link bombing them on ffa and other unrelated websites. My question as the title says is “Is Google Grooming Webmasters?”, this is a good question…

It has to be said that at no point has it been proved that ffa and spammy link directories damage your sites rankings. To me they actually are quite useful as they provide quick links into a new site to help it get spidered while you post around trying to find quality related links. Perhaps Google is just trying to “groom” webmasters so they do not get links from these types of websites.

As undesirable as they are ffa and spam sites do provide a good service. It is perhaps time that some of these questions where ironed out indefinatly. Perhaps Google will come along and tell us exactly how this part of the system works!!!

I think not…! For now however just feel happy in the knowledge that the odd link from a bad site is not going to do you any harm.

Not only is the number of links into your website important, but also important is the weight (or quality) of the websites which have links to your site. The sites that link to yours must be related to the industry you are in and the sites should not contact any spam, dubious search practices etc. This gives search engines some help with your ranking, If they think you are offering a public service,  for free or have highly relevant content to your industry its likely they will rank you accordingly.

There are a few website that offer to help gather links or broker links for you. One such site is Qualified Links which allows you to trade or exchange links for free with other webmasters, they also have a sister site called Qualified Freelancers which allows you to find a freelancer to do some work for you or you can post yourself as available for work.

Another good way to get links into your website is to offer link bait. This basically is either something people will want to link to because its fun like a game or a puzzle, other link baiting things include well written articles and news articles.

For more in depth information there is an article available on SEO CHAT.

It occurs to me I have completly neglected my blog, I have written about 20 odd articles but never posted any of them so they will be filtering there way through soon.

Am currently doing not a lot of anything, sorting my life out mainly as it is a bit of a mess. Will write more when I get round to it…