Do Zeal links count as inbound links?

[bluecorr]

Hi there!

I just got my site listed in Zeal and I was wondering if they can count as inbound links. In all my backlinks searches I never came across Zeal links.

Thanks

[creative craig]

Is the Zeal page with your link on it have PageRank of 4 or more, needs to be at least a 4 to show in backlinks.

Also is the page easy to reach for a search engine spider, is it linked to?

Craig

[bluecorr]

Yes it's PR5 but so are all directory pages from what I could see. The subcat is a bit buried but there is a clear path to it.

[creative craig]

Have you only just had the site listed there, it may take a while for it to show as a backlink and for the page to be crawled.

Craig

[bluecorr]

Yes I know, I just wanted to know if it can count as a backlink the same way other links do.

[dmjw01]

I have a similar question: My site is listed on a number of directory sites that use 'dynamic' links. Do *these* count towards your site's link popularity or not?

[Shadow]

Zeal's robots file:

User-agent: *
Disallow: /exit.jhtml
Disallow: /users/my_profile.jhtml
Disallow: /users/my_tools.jhtml
Disallow: /users/login.jhtml
Disallow: /users/register.jhtml
Disallow: /website/add.jhtml
Disallow: /website/post_message.jhtml
Disallow: /website/promo_download_1.jhtml
Disallow: /website/ratings_history.jhtml
Disallow: /category/be_zealous.jhtml
Disallow: /category/manage.jhtml
Disallow: /category/pending_websites.jhtml
Disallow: /charity/share_your_zeal.jhtml
Disallow: /charity/choose_charity_verify.jhtml
Disallow: /charity/banner_download.jhtml
Disallow: /charity/edit.jhtml
Disallow: /charity/post_message.jhtml
Disallow: /charity/charity_profile_share_your_zeal.jhtml
Disallow: /feedback/

[bluecorr]

Oh great.... that about covers it. I don't get it though, shouldn't the manage.jhtml have no PR then?

[swizz]

Hi Guys,

Maybe my question is a little bit off-topic, but I would like to know if I have my site listed on other page which link is : [siteb.com...] and this link is redirecting to mine, would it count for me as an inbound link? or it has to be [mysite.com...] to count?

Thnx in advanced

Steven

[bluecorr]

As far as I know such dynamic link doesn't carry any PR to your site. I would have thought that if the links page your link is located is a dynamic URL but still has PR and your link is the normal www.domain.com then it will carry some PR. Am I correct?

[swizz]

Thnx bluecorr
I'll search the net for the answer, I'll let you know if I find something about it... :)

[julinho]

From what I have read and seen, it seems like if the dynamic link carries your URL, the link may pass some PR, depending on the lenght of the query string; if the dynamic link only uses an ID number, no PR is passed.

So,

A) [siteb.com...] doesnīt pass PR;

B) [siteb.com...]
will probably pass PR;

C) [siteb.com...] almost certainly wonīt pass PR (too long query string).

How to check which case a link falls in?
- put the mouse over a link and right click it; copy the shortcut; paste it in the search bar of your browser; you will see the true linking code (many times itīs disguised by onMouseOver code) and it will be easy to see if itīs a class A link (no URL)
- if thereīs a URL, it will be a B or C link; paste the shortcut in Google and search for it; if Google knows about it, it will be a class B; it there is no info about it, itīs a class C

This is an example of Zealīs linking (numbers are fake): [zeal.com...]
It clearly is a class A link and so, doesnīt pass PR. Note, however, that it still is a way for googlebot to find your site and, besides, as Zealīs pages have high PR, the freshbot has better chances to find you too.

Note, also, that GoogleGuy has said that they are improving their ability to follow dynamic links; this might mean that class A links will pass PR someday in the future.

[swizz]

Thnx julinho, really nice from you.

[Slade]

I don't think it has much to do with what the link looks like (speculation).

The problem with zeal links is GoogleBot isn't allowed to spider them.

Translation: GoogleBot never tries the link to see that it comes to your site!

Prior Discussion on Looksmart/Zeal and Google: Looksmart and Google PR [webmasterworld.com]

My personal site is in zeal. It doesn't show up in google from zeal. One month it showed up from a downstream "mirror", but it doesn't right now.

[vmaster]

Swizz, we have one such link and it does show up as a backlink for our site.

[swizz]

Hello Vmaster,

Thanks for your answer, I was worried about all the work that I made was going to end in the trash... a lot of web directories where I inserted my page have a redirecting script like go.asp?id=1515..
Anyway I think the best way to know if it really really works is to wait a little bit 'til next update :)

Cheers
Steven

[crobb305]

Yes Zeal counts as inbound links. My site (commercial oddly enough since Zeal doesn't usually list commercial sites) was recently added to Zeal and shows up when i do link:www.mysite.com

C

[rfgdxm1]

I looked at that old thread someone posted a link to, and I even participated in. I actually found a case where indeed Googlebot had spidered Looksmart. The Zeal/Looksmart robots.txt clearly would allow Google to spider it. The question is whether Google gives PR value from those dynamic links? Can anyone post a link of a case where a Zeal/Looksmart listing shows up in Google backlinks? I'd suggest anyone seeking such look for major companies listed very high up the tree. Posting such an example here probably wouldn't upset the mods, as if for example someone could show in the microsoft.com backlinks at Google one from Looksmart, I think its safe to say that poster wouldn't be Bill Gates spamming here. ;) I've yet to see an example of Google showing a Looksmart backlink.

While I dunno if a Zeal/Looksmart listing counts for Google, it most definitely does for msn.com searches. My 2 little non-commercial sites come up right at the top at msn.com because they are listed in Zeal. Last time I checked my logs, besides Google the only other source of what I would consider a material number of hits was msn.com. And, my sites tend to do very well on pretty much all the SEs. However, I'd say all the other SEs are just icing on the cake. Now that Yahoo and AOL are using Google, personally I'd say the only other game left in town is doing well at msn.com. As such, I'd say DEFINITELY if your site qualifies for a Zeal listing go for it. And, if you have a big enough commercial site, a Looksmart listing is likely worth the money. Focusing ones energy on doing well on Google and msn.com seems to be what counts today.

[crobb305]

Well I might've been wrong. My Zeal listing only shows up when I search on my domain, not using link:www.mysite.com

Of course, Google only shows about half of the backlinks so who knows if my Zeal listing counts or not.

:)

[dmjw01]

I'd definitely agree that Zeal/Looksmart give you a huge boost in MSN - and it's worth having when you consider that the default behaviour when you push the 'search' button in IE is to do an MSN search.