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I don't blog, but I post to a message board that links. All these links were dropped in this update as well as links to my internal pages. I'm wondering if my drop is related to Googles efforts to stop blogs.
Google ranking by inbound links is a big problem. If you look at the category for my site, compare the number one ranked site to my site. The no 1 site is a simple advertising brochure site mass produced and marketed. The ranking is derived from links that were mostly paid for. They are meaningless as to the value of the site.
My site slipped from no three to about 20 for no reason. The links went from 56 to 14 on my site. I post on a message board that links my site for each message and some of those showed up last month. No none are showing and no links are sowing for other pages of my site.
I noticed that many backward links show for pages of the same site.
The ranking system is fatally flawed. Why else would people come up with techniques to beat the system.
Face it, there is no real way to objectively rank pages other than in person peer type of review.
Due to the popularity of Google it is necessary to continue to attempt to maintain a good ranking. Google is an excellent search engine but the ranking system is flawed-big time!
If your internal links are not showing up, either the page does not have enough pagerank, or the links are not well formed (ie I avoid spaces, capital letters, and often use a full url, rather than a relative one. Also make sure you are not relying on javascript links)
I have not noticed a major change in how blogs are treated. Most of the stories about that are rather overblown - a weblog can see more variation in pagerank because of the transitory nature of blog linking, ie one days post can stimulate a lot of "buzz", get a lot of incoming links, and next week that page, and the pages that linked to it, are buried in an archive with little pagerank, and the inflated pagerank evaporates. So there is really not a distortion of pagerank by weblogs, it just moves a little quicker. Used to build good content on a site, they can be an asset, but perhaps less so than if you build regular pages.
More good content, and quality incoming links are the sure recipe for Google success. Other ways are usually temporary in benefit.
My internal pages showed up until last months update. I was wondering if the absence and rank reduction was some type of misapplied penalty.
My reading here tells me that google doesn't count javascript links when adding up backward links. This also matches my personal experience, with my backward link list dropping slightly due to a couple of people switching to blogrolling. I don't think this one thing is a major cause of change in general blog pr. Blog linking is already transient, as mentioned by SmallTime. But I do think that tools such as this just add to the shifting nature of it all.
Why else would people come up with techniques to beat the system.
People will always try to beat any system, flawed or not. We all want to be first even though it's obviously not possible for everyone to do so. I don't see this as a reflection on the ranking system but simply as human nature.
Your competitor is ranked number 20. He sees your web site, merrily sitting in slot #3. He examines your back links. An eyebrow goes up: "Messageboard links? Google thinks this site is important because of messageboard links?"
The competitor makes a fist. His face turns red as he growls to heaven, god and the devil: "Google is fatally flawed!"
HackingLawyer, it's important to cultivate meaningful inbound links. This isn't a google flaw. :)
Similarly, I doubt if my web site listing on my webmaster world profile that acts as an inbound link has any effect on my Google page rank.
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[edited by: NFFC at 8:43 pm (utc) on Aug. 31, 2002]
[edit reason] No pointing out competitors please [/edit]
