Dead Links

Can't Google filter

[Paskenell]

Been a very quiet observer on this forum for quite some time and appreciate the free exchange of ideas, theories, and knowledge. There is a lot of talk on here about how to get a web site ranked higher, and since mine are not commerical, my quiet concern in this matter is more ego related than economically based. My recent move from a "free" service that did not offer a 301 or 302 re-direct has cost me numerous page 4 rankings, and I have to suck it up each day when I sign on and see a bare PageRank on the old Google bar. But I'll go to counseling if the despair grows to deep :-).

While searching on numerous subject's (keyword's), I find many sites that rank well seem to be because the key word's I am seeking, while minimal in the pages actual content, may be heavy in the "out bound links". These sites have been around awhile and some of them havent been updated in 2 to 3 years. The problem is when I try to visit many of these out-bound links they are no good. If I really want to see what the link was, I have to go to the Wayback Site to see if they even have it.

Isn't there a way for Google to add a filter that penalizes a page for numerous non working out bound links? And since you guys are great at dissecting ideas, what would be the draw-back's?

[DerekH]

Welcome to Webmasterworld Paskenell

I'll begin by not answering your question at all... <grin>
You said that you moved from a free ISP, and yes, they don't offer 301s or anything useful, but having just moved a site from free ISP to free ISP for a friend, let me tell you one way that will minimise your "down time" from Google...
On the old site, replace each page with one that has a
<META NAME="robots" CONTENT="noindex, follow">
and a single link to the corresponding page on your new site.
I did this on a PR 5 site, and within 8 days, all but 26 of the 325 pages on the (old) site were down in the Google search as URL only, and 110 of the pages in the new site were in the index. After another couple of weeks I can shut the old site and delete the files, provided, of course, I can get the majority of people who link to it to change their links! If not, I'll just leave an index page up there with a polite message and a click to enter site button that switches them to the new site.

Hope that helps!
And in fact, I'll finish without answering your question at all either!
DerekH

[webdude]

Welcome to WebMasterWorls Paskenell!

There has been many debates here on whether or not outbound links count for anything. You may be seeing the keywords in the outbounds, but I believe the real ranking is achieved by the inbound links. Have you checked these on these sites? It is rather hard to do on Google because the link:widget.com command does not return all the results.

You might want to try Yahoo or alltheweb for this.

If you are considering outbound links on your site, just make sure they would be a help to your visitors.

[webdude]

Darn DerekH,

You beat me to it.

[internetheaven]

what would be the draw-back's

You mean other than every website that isn't updated weekly getting kicked down the results? Google isn't really interested in the broken links (it'll even put them in the index) if the page had the information you were looking for then Google has done it's job. If it didn't, then Google need to work harder at matching your search - not working out which links you want to click on the page you reach.

Oh, and Welcome. Hope you find better answers to your other questions in here! ;)