Forum Moderators: Robert Charlton & goodroi
I have another question, related to the first one : if I link to a site that has a higher PR and the same topic as mine, will it increase my GG rankings on my keywords? That's again what I've heard. A friend told me that if for example I own a a personal Webdirectory and that I put a link to a big Webdirectory such as DMOZ or Google Directory, then my site will gain relevancy on the SERPS with my keywords because Google with associate my site to DMOZ and/or Google (maybe this has something to do with the "related:" fonction?).
To sum it up : is linking to ontopic sites benefic for my own site's ranking? Until now I have always thought that puting a link to a site was a VOTE for THAT site which has absolutely no impact on my own rankings, that it was a One-Way vote. Where is the truth?
PR has no bearing on to whom you link, only who links to you. Who links to you can sometimes have an affect on G SERP's. The key is to get high PR related sites to link TO YOU. But every person is going to have a different answer as to how much this can affect things since no one really knows. PR is a joke.
Linking to sites similar to yours is usually a good idea and be sure all the link text is VERY descriptive. Also be sure that whomever links to you is also using great link text for your link.
I've never heard of linking to G helping, BUT, during the Bourbon update at least in my checks of search phrases, I saw A LOT of sites on top of the G SERP's with G search boxes! I don't know if this is still going on, but from the looks of that having a G searchbox HELPED them (which course links to Google, but I can't say if that was why).
I'm only a newbie to this forum and a recent web designer. But I have noticed one site in particular I have designed, jump into the top three listings on google withn two weeks of putting a link to google on the site. I can't see how it would hurt
It's highly unlikely that you will have a page that could not link to a deeper category on a directory such as DMOZ. The idea of linking is to help your users anyway so I'd concentrate on gathering useful links out and the search engines will get around to realising that you mean well.
I would not concern yourself too much about the effect of outbound links unless you are linking to dodgy sites, a link out to a site that is banned may be worth worrying about.
Remember that inbound links are the more important type. Getting votes of confidence in your site's content from other well-respected sites is a surefire way to help you in the search engines.
If you are considering spending much time finding suitable links out then you should consider volunteering for DMOZ, that way you can help out, learn a little about editing a directory and you will start to understand the reasons for placing links in given categories.
i'd try to grasp concepts rather than specific facts out of context as it can be confusing:
for instance
>>Until now I have always thought that puting a link to a site was a VOTE for THAT site which has absolutely no impact on my own rankings, that it was a One-Way vote. Where is the truth?
yes it is a one way vote.
yes it may improve your rankings.
...
>>(paraphrase)>>i'd heard that linking to google was good for rankings
yes that is commonly said, imo - a webmaster myth
...
it is very easy to test things, testing is always better than heresay, imo many posts here at WebmasterWorld are very unsound (confusingly, many are right on the money too)
Very interesting guys :-O
I wish GoogleGuy clarified that as soon as possible ;)
PS : Clint when I said GG I meant GooGle and not GoogleGuy ;) otherwise it wouldn't make a lot of sense ;)
Outbound links to on-topic content helps. Google works on page basis, mostly, not on site-basis. If you make a page about 'widgets', it will gain certain relevancy for this term and certain position in SERPs.
Now, if you add several specific pages about 'blue widgets', 'rain widgets', 'fluffy widgets' and so on, and you link to these new pages from page about 'widgets', you'll increase the relevancy of 'widgets' page, because now this page leads to additional informational resources about widgets. Relevancy of these subpages to the term 'widgets' adds to this term relevancy for linking page - like reverse PageRank, but in contrary to PR it's term-dependent.
If you link to DMOZ subcategory about 'widgets', or other top relevant sites for this term, you'll add great informational resources for your users, and, believing in described above way of passing relevancy, you'll make an extreme boost to your relevancy.
What I said above, it's just my speculation, the way I'm trying to explain the possible reasons that outbounds may help to rank. I don't claim to know the algo, but I say what is reasonable to be in it. I have seen many examples supporting this theory, and a bit of understanding it may help to build better ranking sites, I suppose.
