A Question About Link Trades

[Licker4U]

I read somewhere that when Google sees a page with more inbound links than outbound it considers that page "important" because it has more pages linking to it. Assuming that's correct, wouldn't it be a good idea to have my free sites linking to my link list but not listing those sites on the list itself? More in than out. Most link lists have a negative ratio anyway because for every link out there is a recip back which is 1:1, but with the ads on the page to sponsors they wind up with more out than in. Is this strategy a |goodidea , a |badidea|, or am I

[Halfdeck]

I read somewhere that when Google sees a page with more inbound links than outbound it considers that page "important" because it has more pages linking to it.

That's a good reminder to not trust everything you read.

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by Halfdeck

That's a good reminder to not trust everything you read.

It makes sense to me unless someone can tell me why it doesn't.

[virgohippy]

I've built pages with far more outgoing links then incoming links which are noticible SE traffic pullers. Instead of relying on lots of cheap incoming links those pages rely on a few key backlinks and nothing more.

Also, I've noticed some pages get a sudden favorable treatment from Google for a short while after I added one way outgoing links to "high quality" pages. That doesn't tell me linking out will get me SE traffic, but it does tell me that I shouldn't be afraid of adding relevant outgoing links.

That being said, I think adding one way incoming links from your freesites IS a nice little SE bot attention getter, but having fresh content show up on our LL gives them something to actually chew on. Just $0.02

[SheepGuy]

I have an SSI recip table on about 400 older AVS sites that links back to 5 of my main sites and a few friends sites, about 75% are one-way, and it seems to boost my PR pretty quickly on the new sites I add to the mix, but that's about it. Doesn't help rankings for keywords, phrases, the important shit. Some of the one-way sites have high PR, some don't, some have good rankings, some don't, and the two don't appear to be related. I don't spend much time thinking about it

[LowryBigwood]

Originally Posted by Licker4U

I read somewhere that when Google sees a page with more inbound links than outbound it considers that page "important" because it has more pages linking to it. Assuming that's correct, wouldn't it be a good idea to have my free sites linking to my link list but not listing those sites on the list itself? More in than out.

There is much more to it than that, and IMHO listing your freesites at your LL is prettymuch standard practice. I wouldn't imagine your one way freesite recip links are going to transfer much juice anyhow. .02

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by LowryBigwood

There is much more to it than that,

I know I thought it might be one more thing in the arsenal to help and it just made sense

[Halfdeck]

I read somewhere that when Google sees a page with more inbound links than outbound it considers that page "important" because it has more pages linking to it.

Ranking high on Google depends on two things: a page's relevance to a query term and a page's importance.

How does Google measure's a page's "importance"?

1) Number of links pointing to a page.

2) Quality of inbound links. A link from a popular site is better than a site no one knows about.

3) Link intent. An editorial link ("hey check out this site I just found yesterday") is better than a link trade.

PageRank is Google's metric for a page's "importance"; Google uses all three factors I listed (at the very least) to calculate PageRank. It's not a simple numbers game anymore, where a link on a TBPR 7 page with 100 outbound links will transfer X TBPR. The value is skewed by how much Google trusts a link.

The "importance" of a page (i.e. a page's PageRank) depends largely on inbound links, not outbound links. Some PageRank will bleed by having too many outbounds because by linking to other sites, you're reducing the amount of PageRank that flows to other pages on your site through your internal links. But the effect in most cases is too small to worry about.

When can outbound links make a page less important?

Google partly decides how much to trust your site by looking at your outbound links. If Google doesn't trust your outbound links, your inbound links lose value, and then your site/page becomes less "important."

Google may trust you less if:

1) A majority of your links point to domain roots - many editorial sites link directly to a specific, inside page instead of a site's home page. 90% of your outbounds linking to domain roots is like leaving your fingerprints all over a crime scene.
2) A majority of your links are keyword-stuffed. When writing an article, people don't always use keyword stuffed text (see the links above.. where the anchor texts are "home page" and "inside pages" - instead of "news website" or "michael bloomberg."). If you want to get away with a crime and get the cash, the magic word is "stealth."
3) A majority of your links are non-contextual. A bunch of links in your site's footer or sidebar can be a red flag if other factors stack against you, though most people like to think blog rolls still work.

Free Porn

To Google, a non-contextual link like that sticks out like a sore thumb.

4) A large number of affiliate links. Google has a higher bar set for affiliate marketer sites, since they tend to lack content or lack originality.
5) You link to sites Google don't trust. Linking to Wikipedia, imdb, or other sites that Google trust makes you more trustworthy.
6) You link to non-commercial sites. Outbound links that doesn't pay makes those links that much more trustworthy:

Try this threesome site. It'll make you cum harder than Peter North!

You trust me? (not my aff link, btw)

7) You link to sites that interlink incestuously. Linking to sites that excessively reciprocal link with each other means you're either A) trying to help them rank higher or B) they're helping your site rank higher. In either case, you're participating in a link scheme, which - if detected - lowers your trustscore with Google.

Playing with the ratio between the number of inbounds and outbounds is utterly useless because PageRank isn't based on quantity of links alone.

[Licker4U]

Originally Posted by Halfdeck

Playing with the ratio between the number of inbounds and outbounds is utterly useless because PageRank isn't based on quantity of links alone.

I guess my original question was stated improperly, or taken wrong. I didn't mean that to be a stand alone strategy but part of a SEO plan to better a pages ranking. I realize there are a myriad of things to consider.

[soulman1212]

I know this is an old post. But I got to through my 2 cents in for what it is worth.
I spend alot of time looking at the top sites for a given keyword or phrase on google. Mainly onsite seo stuff.
Alot top pages aren't that se friendly code wise, but every top page has a ton of backlinks to it.A se sends it little spider bot thru a site and looks at the links from other sites and say "click,burp,whirlll" wich is bot speak for "this site is really important other sites with the keyword phrase are linking to it"
A site that has a chance of being ban by google can also hurt a sites overall rank.
My advice is get a program like webceo. Do good keyword research. Build each and every site with a se in mind.Even a little traffic over a period of time can add up.
Here is a basic checklist I have come up with for building a se friendly page:
1.Put the keyword tag in the first line of your <head> tag. Avoid stop words and make your title 4-8 words in length.
2. Put in a meta description google doesn't use it anymore but some se's do.
3. Don't overdue keywords. Pick one keyword or phrase and build around it. Google has free tools to help with keyword research.
Body Area:
4. Keyword/phrase should appear in the <h1><h1> tag.
5. Images should have alt tag with the keyword in it
6. Keyword at start of body.
7. Around 115 words minimum in body text. With keywords appearing 2-3 times.
8. Avoid repeating keywords in a row.
9. Underline keywords and keywords in bold. I put these at the bottom in my copyright statement.
10. Keywords appear in text links
11. Keywords appear at the end of the body.

If you are wondering where I came up with these,they are basically the same stuff webceo looks at.
But once you put a few sites thru you will have your own mental checklist for building a page
Some don't put much stock in software like webceo. I take a slightly different view;most search engines are nothing but a robot and I don't speak robotonize but webceo dose

[lesguide]

Thanks Soulman,
I just otpimised my website following your suggestions.

[NobleSavage]

Hey HalfDeck,

4) A large number of affiliate links. Google has a higher bar set for affiliate marketer sites, since they tend to lack content or lack originality.
5) You link to sites Google don't trust. Linking to Wikipedia, imdb, or other sites that Google trust makes you more trustworthy.
6) You link to non-commercial sites. Outbound links that doesn't pay makes those links that much more trustworthy:

So what would you think of making your own galleries on a blog and using JavaScript, flash, or .htaccess to hide the affiliate links?

[Halfdeck]

Originally Posted by NobleSavage

Hey HalfDeck,
So what would you think of making your own galleries on a blog and using JavaScript, flash, or .htaccess to hide the affiliate links?

I think there's so much affiliate junk out there that Googlers go out of their way to detect affiliate links on a page, even if they're "hidden." I'm not saying javascript won't work - it might even be a good idea - but personally, I would focus on creating affiliate sites with some level of originality and value instead of trying to make an affiliate site look like something else.