Entries from Search Engine Roundtable tagged with 'links'

Can Links From Porn Sites Hurt Your Search Rankings?

When you're a webmaster, it's important to check your analytics to ensure that everything there is looking good. You can get a good sense of where your traffic is coming from, be it search traffic or uh, porn site traffic,...

Does the Multiple Link Penalty Really Exist?

A WebmasterWorld member wants confirmation if getting multiple links would cause a penalty in the SERPs. He notes that very popular sites which rank on the first page of Google have a lot of links, including those from "shady" places....

Are Internal Links Weighted the Same as External Links by Google?

A WebmasterWorld member notes that when he does a link: query for a specific domain, it shows only internal links and not external links -- but it depends on the size of the domain. This behavior is only observed on...

The Link Farm: How Does Google Define a Link Farm?

A Google Groups thread has a long discussion on how Google defines what a link farm is or is not. I have decided to isolate a Googler's comment, because who can best define what Google feels a link farm is,...

Google Basically Admits to Minus 60 Penalty

Remember when I reported that we saw Google Sitelinks in position 60? I said then that it seems Google is admitting to the minus 60 penalty: What I do find very interesting is that Googler, JohnMu, tells the webmaster to...

Poll: Can A Competitor Hurt Your Google Rankings with Links?

Forums have been buzzing and buzzing about the possibility of a competitor being able to hurt your Google ranking for the past few years now. We have covered this topic time and time again, just see here for some of...

New Link Building Strategy: "Link Unbuilding"

I was doing my forum research this morning and I spotted a HighRankings Forum thread with the title "Link Unbuilding." I love it! The new link building, for some, is link unbuilding! Here is the SEO's concern and this concern...

SEOs Split On Value of DMOZ.org (ODP) Link

On February 20th, I asked our readers if they thought a listing in the Open Directory Project would have a major impact on a site's Google ranking. The response was split down the middle. We only had 58 responses, which...

Many SEOs Feel The Minus X Penalties Are Back Link Related

A month ago I wrote, Google's Matt Cutts Replies to -60 Penalty Thread at Google where I summarize how Matt said some links are hurting a particular site. At that point, I decided to poll our readers and see if...

Why Does Google Hate Link Manipulation?

Anyone who knows the Google Web Spam team well, knows that they all have a huge distaste for link manipulation. In my opinion, it is more than just a distance for some of the web spam team members, specifically Matt...

Yahoo Site Explorer Showing Less Links Recently?

A DigitalPoint Forums has reports from dozens of webmasters that their link counts in the tool are way down. Some users are reporting as much as of an 80-percent reduction in the number of links Yahoo Site Explorer is finding...

Does The First Anchor Text Link Only Count in Google?

SEOmoz posted results from a study he did where he concluded that only the first anchor text on a page is counted by Google as the anchor text for that link. For example, let's say you have a two links...

Google Webmaster Tools External Links Report Showing 0 Links

The Google Webmaster Tools "external links" report is buggy over the weekend. The tool is not showing any backlinks anymore for, I believe, any site. For example, here are the non-existent backlinks for the Search Engine Roundtable: There are dozens...

65% of SEOs Prefer Old & Aged Links Over Fresh & New Links

The results are in, and SEOs voted on which link they would prefer. 65% of SEOs said they would prefer an old and aged link over a fresh and new link. 35% said they want the newer fresh links over...

Why Link Pages & Directories Might Not Work

A WebmasterWorld thread touches on a simple topic, the topic of link pages. Many sites have them, a page that contains links to link partners. Some of these pages are labeled "resources," some are labelled "partners," some are "directory," and...

SEOs Can't Agree on the Value of an Image Link

Mid January I asked An image link is worth what percentage less than a text link? The question was probably not clear enough and I honestly don't blame the respondents. It is a hard question to answer, because there are...

Google Finally Updates Webmaster Tools External Link Data: February 2008 Update

We reported several days ago that Google hasn't updated their external link counts and data in Google Webmaster Tools since early January. Webmasters and SEOs began to complain so Googlers began looking into it. We now have reports via Google...

Bad Links Can Kick You Once You Are Down

Taking you back to the -60 thread I blogged about earlier. The thread is at Google Groups and it shows us a little of something that may be obvious but should be spoken about. Once you are penalized in Google...

Google's Matt Cutts Replies to -60 Penalty Thread at Google

A Google Groups thread on the -60 penalty at Google (there are so many of these now, -6, -10, -250, etc) now has several responses from Matt Cutts of Google. Matt replies specifically to the nature of the posters site...

Is a Link From Google Worth the Exposure?

A WebmasterWorld member has been contacted by Google about presenting a story about how Google AdWords has worked for him. If all goes well, Google will interview him and write up a nice article which would ultimately need his approval...

Can A ODP (dmoz.org) Removal Hurt Your Search Engine Rankings?

A WebmasterWorld thread has a Webmaster saying that a site of his recently was removed from the ODP. He said, soon after he noticed his rankings drop in Google. He wants to know if it can be related to the...

Does Using a NoFollow Attribute Raise a Red Flag at Google?

Eric Lander wrote a piece at Search Engine Journal named NoFollow: An SEO Red Flag? which sparked some interesting debate over in a Sphinn thread. The question at hand is, does using a nofollow attribute on many of your links...

Yahoo Answers User Generated Links Not Clickable

Yahoo Answers allowed registered users to post links as answers but since yesterday, those links have not been clickable. Webmasters at both DigitalPoint Forums and WebmasterWorld have been complaining about the issue since 4am (EST) yesterday. But it appears that...

Google Removed "Download This Table" From Webmaster Link Reports

If you login to Google Webmaster Tools and go to your "links" and then "external links" section, you may notice Google removed the "Download This Table" link from the bottom. What remains is the "Download all external links." Why did...

The Value of Fresh Links in the Eyes of Search Engines

Branko at SEO Scientist wrote an excellent post named Tapping into Unconventional Link Attributes. The post was so good, it made the hot list at Sphinn over the weekend. Since I am out on vacation, I'll do a quick quick...

Is SEO Possible Without Inbound Links?

A HighRankings Forum member wants to know if it's possible to rank well for competitive keywords without having inbound links. The answer is no. As Randy points out: Without any links at all pointing towards your site not only will...

Google Says EDU Links Are Not Better Links

Googler, JohnMu, wrote in a Google Groups thread that links from EDU domains are not in itself better links than .com or .net links. John said: In general, I would like to add that no, backlinks from .EDU domains generally...

Does Google Penalize Too Many Footer Links?

What would you do if you saw hundreds of links on a website, with much of those being in the footer? Is that a natural surfing experience? Would Google penalize you for these links? The penalty might not be the...

Duplicate Links: Better to be Safe Than Sorry?

What happens if you link to the same page twice on one page with different anchor text? Does Google devalue the link at all? This question is asked on Cre8asite Forums. I have 2 identical links on same page but...

Are Links Themselves Subject to Copyright Concerns?

Let's say you wanted to be altruistic and provide a link to a site in hopes to raise awareness about a program that they promote. But when you alert the webmaster of said site, they go on a hissy fit...

Can You Hide Text & Links From Your Users, If Search Engines Won't See?

Here is an unusual scenario for you. You have a web page, the web page is one page of many on your site. This specific page does not allow search engines to crawl them by using a robots.txt file to...

Do Links Get Old & Expire As They Get Older?

A SitePoint Forums thread asks, as links get older, to they loose their power? Here is the exact question: This is something I have noticed couple of times in the past - it "feels" that old backlinks expire or loose...

Image Links, "The Next Best Thing" to Text Links

A short WebmasterWorld thread asks if links from logos or images give off any link popularity amongst the search engines. WebmasterWorld Link Development moderator, pageoneresults, replies that although text links are preferred, "you are getting the next best thing which...

Sites With Downgraded Toolbar PageRank Still Passing Link Juice?

Ever since Google downgraded the visible PageRank scores seen in the Google Toolbar for sites that do not use the nofollow on their ads, people have been wondering how it has been impacting the Google search results and algorithm. Most...

Automatically Mixing Up Your Anchor Text in Link Building Campaigns

Getting the Most out Of Your Anchor Text: It’s not as Simple as you Think from Slightly Shady SEO goes through how one should vary their anchor text used in their link building campaigns. As described in the blog post,...

Joost de Valk Releases Link Analysis Firefox Extension

Joost de Valk has released a Firefox extension that provides data from Google Webmaster Tools, Yahoo Site Explorer, and Microsoft Webmaster Central. By combining all three great resources, Joost has created a pretty awesome link analysis Firefox extension. Here's a...

When Will New Links Impact the Search Results?

A WebmasterWorld thread asks how long might it take for a search engine to discover new links and then have those new links impact your search results. For example, let's say you write an awesome article and you get 50...

Matt Cutts Clarifies Recent PageRank Drops & Link Buying

Matt Cutts recently spoke with Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz and made a few interesting statements that elicited some interesting forum response. First, WebmasterWorld members were particularly interested in this statement: we did do a full PageRank update several weeks ago...

Google Declares War on Paid Links: But Why Now?

This weekend has been a landmark time in the SEO industry. To huge blog posts, with dozens of policy changes over the past couple of weeks, have been instrumental in what makes this weekend so significant. The official Google Webmaster...

Google Selling PageRank 7 Links on Google.com Domain

With all the debate and discussion around paid links these days, some DigitalPoint Forums members are wondering how Google can get away with selling links that are not nofollowed. That is right, if you want a PageRank 7 link directly...

Need Help Getting Links from Education (.EDU) Sites?

There is no doubt that link builders love to get links from sites on edu TLDs. But those are not always that easy to obtain. We have covered the topic several times here, including: Finding Some of Your EDU Links...

Check if Wikipedia Links To Your Site

A High Rankings Forums member wonders if there's a way to check how many links are on Wikipedia. A few people say yes, you can. Some possible methods of exploration include the linkdomain:yoursite.com site:wikipedia.org or Google Webmaster Tools. But Barry,...

Are SEOs Still Buying Links?

After all the recent Google PageRank news and "penalties," the big question is, are SEOs still buying links? A DigitalPoint Forums thread has a poll, that is asking that question. They break the poll down into four possible answers. Here...

Google Webmaster Link Tool November 2007 Update

Google has updated Google Webmaster Tools with a link update earlier this week. Google typically does these updates monthly, around this time. There is currently discussion at DigitalPoint Forums. Here is a look at our top pages, by links reported...

Google Back Link Update? Google Blog Search Link Command Slow?

A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that Google has also done a backlink update recently. Now, I think most people in this forum thread are talking about the link:www.domain.com command when searched at Google.com. That backlink command is known to just...

Matt Cutts Confirms that Paid Links Killed Your PageRank

Selling links? Matt Cutts has told Loren at Search Engine Journal that it was buying and selling links that ended up getting your PageRank lowered over the past few days. The partial update to visible PageRank that went out a...

Theory: How Does Google Determine Which Sites Sell Links?

The largest topic by far this week in the forums is the PageRank update that hit sites that are selling links. There are literally dozens upon dozens of threads at many of the webmaster forums on the topic. We covered...

What Does This Google PageRank Message Mean?

Yesterday we reported about a 2nd Google PageRank in October 2007 which turned out to be a message from Google, at least most of us think so. At Search Engine Land I wrote in Google's PageRank Update Goes After Paid...

Will SEOs Stop Buying Links in Light of the Risks?

We recently had the October 2007 Paid Link Debate which recapped the discussion around Danny Sullivan's Official: Selling Paid Links Can Hurt Your PageRank Or Rankings On Google. But will SEOs and Webmasters stop buying links? That is the question...

Google Webmaster Tools Link Update More Frequent?

A DigitalPoint Forums thread is reporting yet another recent Google Webmaster Tools Link update. It appears Google is now updating the linkage data, not monthly, but much more frequently, over at Google Webmaster Tools. We typically track only the monthly...

Yahoo Site Explorer Showing Different Counts For Registered vs. Non-Registered Users

Yahoo Site Explorer is a wonderful tool to check your page index count and the number and source of links you have pointing to your site. But did you know that you get different results if you are logged into...

Google Webmaster Link Tool October 2007 Update

Google has updated Google Webmaster Tools with a link update last week. Google typically does these updates monthly, around this time. There are additional reports of and ranking changes. There is currently discussion at DigitalPoint Forums. Here is a look...

Yahoo Search Showing Less Links in Site Explorer?

A DigitalPoint Forums thread reports that Yahoo Site Explorer seems to be showing less and less link data every month for some sites. Personally, I do not track my link counts in Yahoo Site Explorer. But at this moment in...

Google Says Spam Links Can't Hurt You; Again

Over at the Google Groups forum, yet another Googler said that bad links to your site cannot hurt you, at least for the most part. Wysz, a Googler, said in response to someone being worried that a spammy site is...

Video: Matt Cutts Warns Against Link Buying

When I covered the You&A With Matt Cutts at SMX Seattle, I was only liveblogging - there was no video. But now, here's a video that confirms that Matt Cutts has said about link buying: As you can tell, Matt...

YouTube Video Links Are 'NoFollowed'

A DigitalPoint Forums thread asks if Google counts the links from YouTube videos. The simple answer is no. If you look at a YouTube video that has a link in the description field, you will notice that in the code...

Google Count Links within Word Documents

A WebmasterWorld thread says that Google has counted links from within Microsoft Word Documents, as links to a page. We all know Google indexes files like Word Documents, PDFs, and many many other types of documents. We also know you...

Dangling Links & Google's PageRank

EGOL started a thread at Cre8asite Forums asking how using the various robots.txt command or META noindex nofollow commands will impact the flow of PageRank and link popularity. Several members go through some detailed examples and what-if scenarios. However, Ammon...

Google Does Not Index Private Facebook Profiles

A Cre8asite Forums thread asks why is this person's private Facebook profile listed in the Google index? In this case, Google really did not fully index this person's profile. They just crawled a link to this person's Facebook profile, but...