Linking to Google

Does linking to Google give you a Googleboost

[jrobbio]

With Gigablast having the clever ploy of allowing a rank jump if you link to the site or have search box (aka Gigaboost) I wondered whether Google had an unmentioned "reward" of paying you back if Google is linked back to.
It just occurred to me that Google will know whether a site is linking to them, like any webmaster worth their salt, by checking the site stats (however they do it) if people click through to the site and of course when the bots crawl it.

[garylo]

It just occurred to me that Google will know whether a site is linking to them, like any webmaster worth their salt, by checking the site stats

Google does not need to look at their site stats in order to know which site links to them. They keep record of links not just to their sites but to each site in their index. It is part of their algo. Do they reward sites that link to them? I wonder...

[Clovis]

this realization hit me a while back, i thought i had discovered "a big secret"... anyway... not sure if it helps, surely it can't hurt, and its interesting to note that looking at the many backlinks to google most have pretty good pr themselves.

[garylo]

Each time that I see a site with a Google link at the bottom (and I see many) I think to myself, does he know something that I don't know?

[brass monkey]

That is an interesting idea. It would make sense, but I have never heard the idea confirmed by GoogleGuy (why would he). Although if you think about it, does Google really care who links to them, since (when it is all said and done), they determine rank and the weight of the links.

It is however I nice thought! ;)

bRaSs_MoNkEy

[ronin]

This is my understanding - I'm sure one of the Senior members will set me straight if this isn't correct.

The Google SERPS are determined by algo alone.

There is no human intervention.

A link back to Google (in the same way as linking to any other site) will only have much of an effect on a SERP if the content on the site being linked to (ie. google.com) bears some relevance to the content on the page that is linking.

So if you're running a search engine it might help.

[rfgdxm1]

>A link back to Google (in the same way as linking to any other site) will only have much of an effect on a SERP if the content on the site being linked to (ie. google.com) bears some relevance to the content on the page that is linking.

I've seen no such evidence with Google. And the very idea is problematic.

[FourDegreez]

I was wondering this myself. =)

[Yidaki]

I run a niche search engine and yes, i link to google. Don't know if it boosts my positions or my pr but from the users pov it makes sense. The few resources that people can't find at my place, they may find with google. ;)

[jrobbio]

What is funny is that linking to Google, is the only way of paying back Google for crawling the site for the majority of small or non-commercial sites. I've read elsewhere (may have been a GG post) that linking to high PR sites is one portion of the algorithm especially when they appear in the top of the SERPs together. How do you define Google when you think of the content it has and its cache? Google to themselves are everything they know and so it is not possible to be classed as making an irrelevant link.
I doubt it would boost PR, but I am noticing favourable attention with freshbot although 1+1 = 3 does come to mind.

[ronin]

rfgdxm1 (or anyone else who knows a bit about it) - this is interesting. Perhaps you can clear something up for me.

Are you saying that outbound links have no effect at all on pagerank or are you saying that outbound links to content-irrelevant sites have just as much effect as those to content-relevant sites?

Does Google, to your knowledge, not see outbound links to content-relevant sites as a value-added service for the reader?

Thanks.

[Yidaki]

ronin,

that's in fact a interesting thing. There was a lot of discussion going on here at WebmasterWorld within the last weeks about the value of outbound links, about hub structures and stuff. I'd do a site search - especially rfgdxm1 gave (IMHO) some nice contributions to this theme. Many members shared quite different and controversial thoughts. Worth to search and read.

[Receptional Andy]

I think you've all been to [pr10.com?...] :)

[jrobbio]

Of that list on PR10 I think in terms of ethical SEO, I agreed with numbers 2, 5, 8 (although I didn't fully understand it) and 9 if you really think your on the line.
I think this H1 thing is totally mad because if a disabled person uses a custom css setting, the site is going to be horrendous for them to look at. Since this is becoming more the case, this is a dangerous tactic.

[duckhunter]

this is a dangerous tactic

Can't agree more. I use some H1 tags (unchanged for this reason) here and there and they do get good results. I just use it sparingly to avoid butchering the presentation

I would advise against resizing them.... sooner or later GG is going to find a way to recognize it. Even if it's your competition reporting you.

[Receptional Andy]

[sarcastic streak]
But that site has a PR10 - you can see it at the top of the page ;)
[/sarcastic streak]

Don't believe everything you read - even if it's on the internet ;)

Surely Mr. Güg L. Baht gave it away?

[jrobbio]

Receptional Andy I re-read the last point and I got your meaning.
I swear the internet really is one of the most gullible enhancing media types I have ever encountered.

[borisbaloney]

I swear the internet really is one of the most gullible enhancing media types I have ever encountered.

I disagree. While newbies to the net often get suckered in by scams, for the rest of us we learn to improve our "bullsh1t detectors". All of the scams only keep us sharp.

[ronin]

Have you two had a humour bypass?

>;->

[kevinpate]

> Have you two had a humour bypass?

Nah, they're just dancing around the obvious 8^)

[ScottM]

I believe this topic has been gone over in the past, here at WebmasterWorld, and the consensus was, "No, it does not help."

I can't find the thread right now, but that was the consensus.

[johnsmith2003]

>I would advise against resizing them.... sooner or later GG is going to find a way to recognize it. Even if it's your competition reporting you.

Hello, I have made a site with H1's looking like font-size: 72px all over the page, this was 5 months ago, and I reported myself in google spam report 10 times.

But I won't go into details.

[johnsmith2003]

And yes definitely linking to Google will improve your ranking.

[Oaf357]

I added a customized Google search function to a few pages on my site and two days later FreshBot rolled by. Three days after that, those pages were listed in Google.

My two cents is that it's worth it.

[johnnstacy1]

Excuse my ignorance, but what is a "customized Google search function"? When we refer to providing a link to Google, are we talking about a text link, www.google.com or a search box, or what? Google use to offer a small search box but I cannot find it in their tools section.

[jrobbio]

The small search box code appears here:
[google.com ]

[bocaguy6]

here is what i saw on two of my sites....
I have google serach on my indew page on one
and since that day or a week after when they picked it up at google. I have seen google cache page e every two days

thats a fact.

Then i tried same on my other site
same thing ,

[garylo]

And yes definitely linking to Google will improve your ranking.

Based on what?

[Dynamoo]

No, no, no, don't give Google an inbound link for free, email them and ask if they want to do a link exchange.. "I'll put you on my front page, if you put me on yours."

[WibbleWobble]

I would advise against resizing them.... sooner or later GG is going to find a way to recognize it

So? font-styling is perfectly valid, what goes between it may not be, but thats not the layout/formatting at fault. Were we without styling because google decided to deem it spamming, we'd be looking at the internet in 1995 all over again. Quite simply, it'd be a ridiculous move for google to penalize for reducing font size.
(at least, with in an acceptable margin, font-size: 1px is obviously going to be for spam purposes)