A Question About Link Trades

[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.

[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.