Some simple questions

[geckoz]

Hello everyone, this forum is a great tool!
sI still have some simple questions which could really help me (sorry for my english, i'm in Asia, so please try to keep the answers simple :-).
Can a PR change outside the dance period ? (if uploading new page)
Is an image less powerful than a textlink? Is a keyword recommended if used as a link?
what does outbound links means, and what influence do they have on your PR?
Does naming your folder using a keyword has an influence on the result?
Is it OK to use a redirect page "sorry, this page doesn't exist anymore...." using htaccess? (duplicate problem?) or leave the good old fashion 404?
Many thank to anyone who takes the time to answer these simple questions.

[vitaplease]

Welcome geckoz,

this should answer most of your questions..

[webmasterworld.com...]

[geckoz]

thanks vitaplease, I found few answers,but not all of them... or not very clearly for some specific questions... any more precise comments would be very appreciated.

[vitaplease]

geckoz,

that link should have kept you busy the whole of this Sunday ;)

Some answers:

- PR does not change outside the dance period for exisiting indexed pages

- New uploaded pages could show "guessed" pagerank (1 toolbar digit less than one directory level higher within your site)

- image link less powerfull than normal link? No one knows exactly. I would guess they account for approx. the same or slightly less regarding passing through pagerank.

- Do not forget to add ALT tag to image (it tends to count as in anchortext)and that helps rankings

- keyword(s) should be part of your linktext (anchortext)

- outbound links mean links to external sites. Every normal straight link passes through Pagerank. To external and internal pages.

- Having more or less links on a page has no influence on the Pagerank of that specific page (unless this page, as many of your other pages link to bad neighborhoods (PRO) and Google decides to catch you). The Pagerank of that specific page can only be influenced by links towards it.

- You will find people tend not to link to external pages too much so as to keep pagerank within the site. This could short-term be good for you site's general pagerank, however this could work against you in the future when theming and categorisation might come into effect. Also linking can help your reputation as information centre and lead to people linking to you. Also linking out is an excellent way of asking links back and thereby improving your own Pagerank.

- I am no good at 404 redirect htaccess questions.

Does that do? (I prefer this to cleaning my office on a Sunday :))

[geckoz]

Thanks Viatplease,
This is what I call clear answers! I'll have to apply these tips to our site and this will keep my all week busy! Now, if you don't mind, some more questions... (Sundeay is over in our part of the world!)
I've been reading that it is not recommended to use a keyword more than once per case. One in the alt tag, one ine the title, one int the heading... What is your opinion?
What about having keywords in subdirectories? are they better separated by a dash or by an underscore? (there were some previous threads about that, but as usual i was more confused at the end of my reading than before!)
Many thanks

[vitaplease]

keyword repetition in Alt-tag/title/link?

Everything with reason my mother heard her mother say...

Also, make keywords part of a natural short sentence - looks better and more specific, even to the visitor (remember the visitor? :))

Keywords in directories:

I use the minus - sign for separating keywords within a directory level, reads better (spaces give those ugly % signs).

Does it help ranking? maybe a tiny little bit of a percentage, but I doubt its effect for competitive search queries.
If well done, it could help the visitor understand where he/she is in your site theme-wise and maybe in the future the same goes for Google's theming.

I doubt Google puts - or will put- too much attention on the over-obvious stuff though, the free-lunches in ranking well are gone.

[geckoz]

What I mean by keywords repetition is when you have 5 images in a page, should you use a tag for each of them and can you use your main keyword in more that one of those images?
And the fact that I have 4 folders containing the same keyword and a link to each of them from the index page doesn't penalize me, or at the contrary, is it recommended?
Is the PR mainly relates to inbound links or the quality of the page also counts?
Also, what do you think about webposition gold for google page analysis?

[Beachboy]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld.

There shouldn't be any harm in placing keywords in your ALT tags, so long as you don't exceed around overall 15% kw density. It's a good idea to use them in some kind of coherent sentence (SEs are getting smarter all the time).

The Page Critic function of Web Position Gold can come in handy sometimes, but I quit using it. In terms of positioning results I get, I do far better without it.

[ciml]

You have some very good information to take in from this thread, the only thing I'd want to add is that for each page, the title, body text and incoming link text should have the same target words. Otherwise you don't get the full benefit.

I think that 404 redirects are fine; Google will just ignore those URLs. Of course if you run some kind of bait 'n switch campaign then you might annoy a human reviewer.

Oh, and geckoz I think you need to come to the WebmasterWorld Internet Marketing PubConference '02 [webmasterworld.com] and buy vitaplease a drink. I guess he really doesn't like cleaning his office. :)