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View Full Version : Can you have a successful page rank without exchanging links?



SEO Service Finder
09-09-2011, 12:04 AM
I see so many sites that have outstanding traffic based on Alexa.com, but I notice that most of these sites do not bother with reciprocal links. How the heck do these non-brick and mortar web based companies achieve such success with traffic and page rank if they don’t focus on exchanging links?

vangogh
09-09-2011, 02:25 AM
Because link exchanges aren't a good way to get links. The search engines have said for years that they see link exchanges as manipulation and they work to discount these links. The SEs have become sophisticated enough where they can recognize reciprocal linking patterns.

There are so many other and better ways to get links.

1. Build relationships with people. Real people will link to you. There are people I know who read my blog and I read theirs and we each link to each other at times.

2. Create content people want to link to and let people know it exists. People will link to content they like. The more you do this the more people know about your content and the less you have to promote each new piece of content for it to generate links.

3. Create content for other sites, through guest blogging or writing articles, etc. Most any site that accepts your content will at least provide an author bio that will include a link or two. Many will let you add a link or three in the article itself.

There are plenty of other ways to get links They all build on the ideas of creating the best content you can create and building relationships with real people.

greenoak
09-09-2011, 08:34 AM
how about good content,,,,and offering something interesting and unique to a market that wants and needs you? wouldnt that be really a good way?

we are a big brick and mortar store with a pretty good w ebsite..........and we do it without trading links.... i would like them if they were relevant...we are local/regional not national...
we probably have lots of organic growth and are listed in some relevant directories and i post our address on some relevant places, like trade forums, and our website, has a long history on the web....we are on the first page of google for indiana antiques....we do link back to our site among our blogs and facebook ...our facebook is over 1800 now....
not sure if this applies to non brick and mortar...
also i never get why you would want to fill up with others links,unless they were really interesting to your target people, or why you would want others advertizing on your site......i wouldnt want that, altho i do puit on a bit of fun links at times......i am really careful about what i allow on my web places...i figure my site should be all about us....maybe the good sites you mention feel the same way....
also doesnt the link idea tend to get lots of action among all the folks who want and need links? and w ould they actually be your customers anyway? i have a marketing person in mind whos main comments and links come from other marketing people.... i dont get that...she is all over the net ...but not sure if she is selling anything....i wouldnt want all the other antique places on my site...???

nealrm
09-09-2011, 11:20 AM
I wouldn't put to much stock in number provided by Alex. It only counts traffic that comes from computers with their toolbar installed.

KristineS
09-09-2011, 12:58 PM
I'm also not sure how much page rank matters anymore. At one time that was a huge thing, but, as with a lot of things, people learned to manipulate their page rank, and it became less important. In my opinion, if you're worrying about creating good content, forming relationships and finding news ways to get the word out about your site, you'll probably do fine.

billbenson
09-09-2011, 01:10 PM
SERPS matter. Page Rank doesn't. At least most webmasters (people that have websites that make them money) ignore it today and have for a number of years now.

vangogh
09-09-2011, 01:46 PM
I wouldn't put to much stock in number provided by Alex

Agreed. However I do think you can gain some insight from Alexa. You have to be looking at a site in the top 100,000 and you can look at relative increases and decreases. I've found Alexa's graph for my site matches pretty well with what I'm seeing through analytics. Not so much the absolute numbers, but the relative changes.

I think you can also use Alexa to compare two sites in the same industry as it's likely both sites in the same industry would have a similar amount of Alexa users. Of course you still need to realize that it's mainly the tech elite who have Alexa installed in some way and because of that tech sites usually skew higher than what their actual traffic is.


SERPS matter. Page Rank doesn't.

PageRank is still part of the algorithm, though it doesn't carry the same weight it once did. Toolbar PageRank, the PR we can see, is less useful since it's often out of date. I think the main thing with PR is for people not to get carried away thinking it's the end all and be all of ranking well. It's not. It's one part of the Google algorithm and one who's weight in the algorithm has been reduced over the years.

greenoak
09-09-2011, 02:43 PM
are you saying that being on the first page of your keyword doesnt matter? [page rank] i dont get that... i like being on the first page...
from a selling point of view...

billbenson
09-09-2011, 02:52 PM
PageRank is still part of the algorithm, though it doesn't carry the same weight it once did. Toolbar PageRank, the PR we can see, is less useful since it's often out of date. I think the main thing with PR is for people not to get carried away thinking it's the end all and be all of ranking well. It's not. It's one part of the Google algorithm and one who's weight in the algorithm has been reduced over the years.

In the "old days" PR was used as a guide by webmasters on who to exchange links with including recip links. With that kind of linked being detected so easily and other factors about linking becoming more important, webmasters (the guys that have a fairly large portfolio of sites) only do link exchanges within a circle of friends and even then there can be no spam (black hat whatever) on the exchange sites. By and large they just write good pages to attract incoming links ie good content.

VG, today is PR increased by linking or various factors?

nealrm
09-09-2011, 04:52 PM
For the SEO beginners. SERP (Search Engine Result Placement) and Page Rank are not the same thing. Page rank is an obsolete value that at one time determined your place in the results. I'm calling it obsolete because while the factors that were used to determine that page rank value are still used by the search engines, the page rank value itself is not. Page rank was determined by the number and age of links that pointed towards your site and the number of links leaving your site. Now days, it is not that simple. Your SERP is still influenced by the number of links, but other factors include wording in the titles, headers and body, age of the content, how often the page is updated, location of the site with respect to the searcher, past selected results for the searcher, speed at which the page is presented...

SEO Service Finder
09-10-2011, 12:29 AM
Everyone, I wanted to say thanks. New to the forum and I’m already enjoying my stay. Your insight and perspective is greatly appreciated.

storymashup
09-10-2011, 10:22 AM
Hello All,

Interesting thread to say the least. Here is my small opinion: If you are trying to outrank tough competition, I believe that page rank still matters in that regard, where the higher your PR, site age, pages indexed (among other things). At the end of the day, I rather have a PR 0 or PR NA and get boat loads of converting traffic that buy than a PR 6 with crappy traffic or no traffic at all

vangogh
09-12-2011, 11:11 AM
are you saying that being on the first page of your keyword doesnt matter? [page rank]

Ann PageRank isn't the same thing as where your web pages rank. PageRank is the name of an algorithm at Google. It was named after Larry Page. Unfortunately it turned out to be a confusing choice of name since many people think it means where your page ranks.


is PR increased by linking or various factors?

Links, the same as it's always been. It's more than the sheet number of links, but it's still all about links.

scottish
09-22-2011, 02:20 PM
does anyone even still use alexa.com ? I've not used it for accurate traffic information in years.

vangogh
09-22-2011, 07:59 PM
You've never been able to use it for accurate traffic information. :)

I think Alexa gets knocked around a lot. It can be useful as long as you understand where the numbers are coming from. It's highly skewed since it only tracks people who use the Alexa Toolbar in some form. That tends to be the more tech savvy and so tech sites show more traffic than they probably deserve. However I have found Alexa to be pretty good at showing the relative growth of my own site. It's ups and down are usually well aligned with what I see in Analytics.

I think you can use Alexa to compare relative numbers on a single site or compare a few sites across the same industry. For example if we compared 10 tech blogs it stands to reason each has Alexa users in similar proportion and so while the numbers are skewed in comparison to other industries they're probably ok for comparing sites within in the one industry.

ThirdSEO
02-09-2012, 02:06 PM
Link exchanges are close to the bottom of the list in terms of building authority for your site. A very small amount of value, if any, is gained from participating in link exchanges or web directories. Like vangogh said, search engines are now advanced enough to connect the dots and place low importance on sites that participate in link exchanges. Content is king in Internet marketing. The better your posts are, the easier it will be for you to become successful in search marketing, or Internet marketing in general. Consider writing articles and submitting them to article directories for a start, or do the same with a blog. The main thing is to start creating quality content, and lots of it.

BusinessSupply
06-27-2012, 04:53 PM
For starters, you would have to define exactly what "successful pagerank" entails? The PR rank runs from 0 to 10, with 10 being the top dog. And I agree with others here pointing out that PR isn't important anymore. Organic search rankings are what matter. And PR can be manipulated through a number of methods including expired domains, 301's, high PR paid links, etc. Personally, I don't pay attention to PR at this point.

To help answer the 2nd part of your question about link exchanges: That's just one of many outdated linking schemes that no longer work. You might still be able to get some value out of a 3 way link exchange, but even that's questionable these days. IMHO, VG's got the right approach to linking these days: create (or buy) great content on your site. The better the content is, the more likely that people will link to it naturally, which is exactly what Google wants. There are a few other approaches to linking that can help, but it all starts with good content.

vangogh
06-28-2012, 12:47 AM
The better the content is, the more likely that people will link to it naturally, which is exactly what Google wants.

Yep. It starts with your content. You still need to promote your content in some way, at least early on. Once you get better known people will promote it for you, assuming you maintain the quality. Google's been making changes over the years that show this is what they want. People will always find ways to exploit holes in the algorithm, but Google eventually closes them.

JunkDawgs
07-03-2012, 01:06 PM
I own a small junk removal business and am tackling the SEO myself. Writing good content isn't the problem. I have my degree in English and I used to write papers for friends in college so I can put together quality content on various topics if I needed to, so I guess my question is more geared to how I would approach other website owners about guest blogging or even what type of people I should approach? My website and business pertains to junk removal so I'm a little lost as to who I could and should connect with. Thoughts?