Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I’m posting this in the hopes that someone will correct the errors of my thoughts and enlighten me. The following is a thought exercise only.
Definitions:
Site A: This is the first site we are studying, it has PR5, and has a link directory.
Site B: This is the second site we are studying, it has PR5, and has no link directory.
Site C: This is a PR5 reciprocal-linking site that links to Site A and Site A links back.
Site D: This is a PR5 non-reciprocal linking site that links to Site B without reciprocation.
Assumptions:
PR is passed at a rate of 85% of a page’s rank divided by the number of links on the page. (PR*0.85)/#links.
PR is logarithmic and the log scale is 6. (I’ve heard estimates of the log scale range being from a low of 3 to a high of 8. That is, a PR4 site has 3 to 8 times as much value as a PR3 site, and a PR5 sites has 3 to 8 times as much value as a PR4 site, and 9 to 64 times as much value as PR3 site.) Thus, a PR5 site is 6 times as valued as a PR4 site and a PR5 site is 36 times as valued as a PR3 site.
PR is passed to all links on a page, not just to out-bound links but to internal links as well.
While Google may be able to discount reciprocal linking relationships, there is currently no evidence that it does so, so we will assume it does not. (Actually, as a computational task, this would be quite difficult, and since no known Google patent is associated with such intent, we will for this exercise assume there is no discount. Nevertheless, Google did demonstrate about 7 months ago that it could discount links from pages named “links”, but has yet to repeat this tactic, and as far as I know it was quashed not as ineffective but detrimental to quality results because it leads to fragmentation of the net rather than cohesivness.)
PR is finite but not static. This means that total PR for all pages sums to a finite and calculable number. However, as new sites and pages are added to the internet, total PR increases at a rate equal to the added PR of the added pages.
Sites A, C, & D all have the same structure, every page on each site links to the site’s main link directory, out-bound links are published on link-category pages linked to only from the main link directory page and/or from other link category pages.
Site B has no link directory as it does not link out to other sites, otherwise it has the same structure as Sites A, C, & D.
Sites A, C, & D all have 12 internal links on the home page, one of which goes to the link directory.
Site B has 11 links on its home page since it has no link directory.
All incoming back-links for each of the sites point to the site’s home page.
All 2nd level pages (internal pages linked from the home page) also have PR5.
Each of the sites that have link directories have eight (8) category pages.
Each of the sites that have link directories have 10 links per category page.
Logarithms: Assuming, as I did above, that PR is based on log 6, then a PR6=46656 points, a PR5=7776 points, a PR4=1296 points, and a PR3=216 points.
Situation 1: Reciprocal links between Sites A & C
Situation 2: Link from Site D to Site B, no link from Site B to D.
1.) Before we look at incoming links, let’s look at how the home page disseminates PR to each of its linked sub-pages. The 3 sites with PR5 and 12 links passes (5*0.85)/12=550.8 points or PR3.522 points to each of the 12 pages. The one site with PR5 and 11 links passes (5*0.85)/11=600.87 points or PR3.5710 to each of the 11 pages. The site with 11 links passes 12/11 (9.1%) more PR to each of its 11 pages than the sites with 12 pages pass to each page. However, the site with 12 pages passes PR to each of those 12 pages 12 times, whereas the site with 11 pages passes increased PR only 11 times. The result is the same, each of those pages ends up getting passed the same amount of PR, so there’s no advantage to having one less internal page to link to because a site lacks a link directory, all else being the same.
2.) Site C links to Site A. Site C has a link directory main page with PR5 which links to 8 category pages, an in so doing passes (5*0.85)/8=826.2 points or PR3.749 points to each category page. Since this is the only link to each category page, the PR of the category pages is 3.749. Each of these category pages passes PR to 10 additional pages, so (3.749*0.85)/10= 70.227 points or PR2.373 value passed to whatever page they link to.
Well, so far, that’s pretty plain. What it means is that a PR5 site that links to you under this structure passes PR2.373 to you. This applies to both the situations described above, whether you link back or not, you are being passed PR2.373. Now let’s look at what you give away when you link back.
3.) Site A links back to Site C. This is identical to #2, above, you pass PR2.373 back to the site that linked to you.
Hmm, now let’s look at what gain Site B gets by not linking back to Site D, because so far, there’s no difference.
4.) Site B does not link back to Site D: As discussed, above, whether a site has 12 internal main pages linked to by all other main pages or only 11, the cumulative value of each is the same. When we add a link directory, there is no loss in PR value, and, it seems, this thought exercise is at an end, concluding that non-reciprocated links have the same value to a site as reciprocated links.
However, there is a real difference in that non-reciprocated links are much more difficult to obtain than reciprocal links. Therefore, reciprocal links are more valuable than non-reciprocal links by the time factor required to obtain those links. Since reciprocal links are 6 to 48 times as easy to get as non-reciprocated links, the conclusion can only be that you are wasting your time, energy and effort in your futile attempts to elevate your site via non-reciprocating links.
End of thought exercise.
Conclusion:
There are those who refuse to link to their competitors for fear that they will lose sales and give them to their competitor. There are people who believe that the pie only comes in one size and that the more that eat from the pie, there less each has. However, PR, while finite, is not limited. The pie gets bigger with each page and each site added to the internet. The more cooks in the kitchen, the bigger the pie. While non-reciprocating links may seem to be a good idea, you are doing nothing but hurting yourself by pursuing such.
Dare:
I invite a 3rd party to create 2 nearly identical sites for an experiment. The difference between the sites should be in some nonsensical text to keep the two sites from being ID’d as duplicitous of content, and we’ll let one of these true-believer non-reciprocaters get some non-reciprocal links in X amount of time and I’ll get as many reciprocal links as I can in the same amount of time and we’ll see who comes out on top. And just to make it more interesting, since in a previous thread we have indicated that reciprocal links are 6 to 48 times easier to get than non-reciprocal links, I’ll limit my reciprocal links to just 6 times that of whoever takes on getting the non-reciprocal links, and we’ll see who comes out on top.
Provisions:
I’ll give 100 reciprocal links to the person who creates the sites and pages for this challenge, and I’ll give 100 reciprocal links to anyone who takes up this challenge. And furthermore, if you site comes out on top in SERPs with your non-reciprocating links versus my reciprocating links, I’ll give you 1000 reciprocating links on any site you name.
Moderators: I have seen nothing in TOS that would prohibit me from laying down such a challenge, and in the event I have overlooked something, I beg your forgiveness, but the challenge stands. I’ll beat their non-reciprocating asses up one street and down the next until the cows come home.
Now, put that in your pipe and smoke it, you non-reciptors.
Sounds good to me.
It seems that using an external directory for all your links is a pretty good idea and shouldn't cause too much refusal of reciprocal linking; especially if the directory has high pagerank.
Unless you don't link to the directory from the main site at all, but then how do you make that directory attractive to link partners? Personally, I wouldn't trade links with you under the condition that your link is going to be on another site not linked to from the site I'm linking to. For one thing, it just sounds shady somehow, and for another, the only reason I'd trade links with you is if our sites were related, so I want a link back from your contextually relevant site, not from some random directory on another site which you don't even link to.
Does that make any sense?
