[thelist] link page management

Mike F lists at wirelust.com
Tue Aug 12 08:08:21 CDT 2003


Straight from the horse's mouth:

"Don't participate in link schemes designed to increase your site's 
ranking or PageRank. In particular, avoid links to web spammers or 'bad 
neighborhoods' on the web as your own ranking may be affected adversely 
by those links" (http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html).

And from Google Hacks:

"When you receive requests for links, check sites out before linking 
back to them. Check them through Google for their PageRank value. Look 
for directory listings. Don't link back to junk just because they asked 
you to. Make sure it is a site similar to yours and on topic. Linking to 
'bad neighborhoods,' as Google calls them, can actually cost you 
PageRank points" (302).

And to reiterate:

"Bad neighborhoods are those sites that exist only to propagate links. 
Because link popularity is one aspect of how Google determines PageRank, 
some sites have set up 'link famrs'---sites that exist only for the 
purpose of building site popularity with bunches of links. The links are 
not topical, like a speciality subject index, and they're not 
well-reviewed, like Yahoo!; they're just a pile of links. Another 
example of a 'bad neighborhood' is a general FFA page. FFA stands for 
'free for fall'; it's a page where anyonce can add their link. Linking 
to pages like that is grounds for a penalty from Google.

Now what happens if a page like that links to *you*? Will Google 
penalize your page? No. Google accepts that you have no control over who 
links to your site" (306).

I'd pay attention to that last little paragraph, as it helps to address 
the other side of the issue. Needless to say, if a high PageRank and a 
good listing in Google is a high priority of yours, I'd be wary of just 
link exchanging schemes, especially ones where the site in question 
doesn't have a similar topic to your own.



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