three way links

what are they?

[deborahbaker]

I understand that search engines dont like three way links. Firstly is that true? Secondly what exactly is a three way link as I think I may have some on my sites. Is it where my site links to say www.widgets.com and they link back to me from a completely different url like say www.wahoozits.com for example.

Thanks

[edited by: sugarrae at 2:02 pm (utc) on April 4, 2006]
[edit reason] replaced specific url for general [/edit]

[justdave]

Yes that would be a 3-way link. The way I understand it, three-way links are not necessarily froend upon as long as you don't have a huge network of interlinking sites using the method. If you have a few, it shouldn't be a huge deal.

[deborahbaker]

I see now. Thanks for your reply.

[jackson88]

- do search engines like 3-way linking? - they web is a three way link - its not something search engines can even identify - eventually anyone u link to and then through a series of other sites eventually link back to you - is what the web is all about.. and its inevitable -

but that doesnt mean to run out and start doing this- sure u want more sites to link to you - but most people doing this now are link farms - so its useless- there is just one way to get good links- is to have content - good sites want to link to-- dont over think it - and its more useful to have a few good link partnmers with good page rank then 100's of other. and if u link directly to your link partner the SE can see u r link there-- so they have no problem finding your back links... - dont oover think- it

but mostly - i hate that - one three way linker wanted to offer me a link from a pr-0 site giving my pr5 to her pr3 - becareful with these fools

[deborahbaker]

Thats great thanks. So when I look at the PR of a site wanting to link to me which PR do I check. The PR of their home page or the PR of the page that is linking to me. I have a lot of links from sites where their home page is PR4 but the page linking to me is PR 0. Should I ditch these?

[justdave]

If you are focusing on PR, then you want to look at the PR of the page that actually has the link. If the page has a PR0, it is having no kickback PR benefits to your site. Of course, it is widely believed that reciprocal links have no (or little) value anyway. It's up to you how to proceed. If the link is relevant to your site, I would maintain the link regardless of the PR it passes to you. Base the value of the link on more than just the PR it supplies to your site.

[drajput]

"If the link is relevant to your site, I would maintain the link regardless of the PR it passes to you. "

I think if we keep linking with good home page rank sites it will help in increasing the theme of the site? Search engines will find our site more relevant to the theme of the site. Isn't it?

[deborahbaker]

It's difficult to know what to do for the best. The reason I am so concerned is because I have two sites which rank in 2nd and 4th place on Yahoo and high with MSN but they are no-where to be found on Google using the same keywords. I have written to Google who advise me that these sites are not banned. I have tried everything to understand this and I can only assume it has something to do with the links. But who knows. If anyone has any suggestions or who could have a look at one of my sites I would be grateful and it would save me a lot of headache.

[JuniorOptimizer]

Ranking high in MSN and Yahoo are useless in Google.

I, for one, think three way links are cheating and are very hard to justify if ever asked by a search engine. There is at least one well known SEO company who was booted using this technique.

[deborahbaker]

Well how I see it with three way linking is that the site that I link to is the only one that gains because normally the site that links back to me has no PR. So their site has a good one way link from my site and I have a PR0 site giving me a one way link which is useless. What does everyone else think? and I still want to know how I can get a good place in Yahoo and MSN and not Google? I am completely baffled