Ask Kalena

Oooh you're back! Lookin good. Have you lost weight? Yes, that was a compliment designed to butter you up for my next question. Subscribed to my feed yet? :-)

Hi Kalena

Just wondering what your view was on PR being dead – it’s what a lot of SEO professionals are saying.

I guess I’m curious also because it seems it’s the only way to be able to track any kind of progress with our linking campaigns. What are your thoughts? Is PR dead?

Sarah
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Hi Sarah

Regarding the death of PageRank, I wouldn’t go that far. It might be true that webmasters don’t need to obsess about the little green bar that is the Google Toolbar PageRank score, but the influence of links in Google’s PageRank algorithm is alive and well.

Just take a look at the results of the 2009 Ranking Factor survey that SEOmoz gives to 75 top SEO professionals worldwide (me included) every two years.

You’ll see that 4 of the Top 5 Ranking Factors (as agreed by the world’s busiest SEO practitioners) are link related.

So while Toolbar PageRank scores may not be as indicative as they used to be, link building is still absolutely vital as a way to boost search ranking for a page. Measurement now though is via observation, individual search query rank, number of pages indexed and number of backlinks achieved.

Of particular importance is the flow of linkjuice between inner pages on your own site and the achievement of external links pointing to those inner pages rather than all pointing to your home page.

Kalena

Dear Kalena,

Which is more powerful – a link from Facebook to my website, or a link from Facebook, and my website linking back to that Facebook page?

Thanks, Robert

Dear Robert,

A very ‘dry’ answer to your fairly complex question would be that one way links hold more traction in search engine rankings than reciprocal links. So a one way link from Facebook to your website would be treated more favorably than reciprocal linking between Facebook and your website. However, I am not trying to imply that reciprocal link trading should not be done or discounted.

Since I would be doing injustice to your question if I stopped right here, I am taking the liberty to delve further in order to paint a clearer picture for you.

“One way links vs. reciprocal links” is an age old debate and has been beaten to death. Still, this topic carries an aura of ambiguity for the very simple reason that there are too many variables involved. Search engine ranking algorithms have grown in complexity and their link analysis techniques are far more sophisticated than they were a couple of years ago.

While many people would want you believe that reciprocal linking is dead and not worth your effort, I personally believe that this notion is not entirely true. One way links are better than reciprocal links but this does not certainly mean that reciprocal linking is worthless. A limited amount of reciprocal linking is not only normal but natural.

If you want to recommend a useful resource to your visitors and the other webmaster does the same because he believes that his site visitors would find your website to be equally interesting, then I don’t see search engines having a problem with it. There are thousands of websites that link to one another for the simple fact that it makes business sense. If search engines start devaluing all reciprocal links then they would be ignoring these legitimate link votes, and in the process do more harm than good. So, as long as you stay away from abusive reciprocal linking that smell of link schemes done to artificially inflate search rankings, you will be just fine.

In essence, the more important things to look at and consider are link relevance and the quality of the link. If these two parameters stand fulfilled, I would not be too fussed whether it is a one way or reciprocal link.

Saurav Verma

Further Reading:

What are Reciprocal Links and What do Search Engines Think of Them?

Link value factors

Dear Kalena…

As I am submitting my site to directories as part of my link building campaign, I go back to some of the ones I submitted to 3 or 4 months ago and can see my info/link on these directories. However, when I check on Google WebMaster or Yahoo Site Explorer, these links are not listed as incoming links.

Can you tell me why that is?

Yen

Dear Yen…

There could be a number of reasons for this.

It’s not uncommon for some directories utilise the ‘nofollow’ tag, or use redirects or javascripts to link to your site. If any of these techniques have been applied, the link won’t be shown in the Webmaster / Site Explorer tools.

Some directories are very low quality, excessively employ reciprocal linking, sell links and/or link-out to bad neighbourhoods – if you’ve got a link from one of these directories, the link won’t pass any value and also may not be displayed in the link checking tools either.

Then there are the directories that are really big with hundreds/thousands of categories and sub-categories (and if those categories are not updated on a regular basis), then there’s also a very good chance that the spiders may not have crawled deeply enough to even find your link.

While submitting to a few of the more trusted directories isn’t a bad thing, my advice would be to adjust your link building approach.

Spend more time building relationships and trying to get a few really good, relevant links from well trusted sites instead of submitting to a bunch of average directories that most likely don’t pass much real link value.

Hope this helps!

Peter Newsome
SiteMost SEO Brisbane

Dear Kalena…

I have a site which has lost about 1000 back links, they were weak back links (repetitive links from same domain).

My question is this: is the site now permanently damaged or is it possible I can get it ranking again?

Thanks
Louie

Dear Louie

No the site is not permanently damaged – you’ll most-likely find that since the links were poor quality, and site-wide, a bulk of them probably weren’t even being counted in the first place.

Not all links are equal and the better quality (ie. more authoritative, trust worthy, relevant etc. ) the fewer links you’ll need to achieve the same results.

Jim Boykin explains this nicely in his post about Why that site with 50 backlinks beats your site with 1000 backlinks where he quotes:

It’s not always “He with the most links” who wins the game……often, “He with the right links” can win the game as well. Really, very often, he with the right 10 links can beat the guy with 1000 of the wrong links – I see it all the time.

So all you need to do is go out and find some decent links and you’ll be fine. If I were you, I’d consider this a good thing to be rid of the old crumby links and a golden opportunity to start building a better inbound link profile.

Hope this helps

Peter Newsome
SiteMost Search Engine Optimisation

Dear Kalena…

How do you distinguish a worth while directories from non worth while directories when designing a link building campaign? there are so many directories on the web but what factors you will consider it is a worthwhile? Kalena Page rank, alexa ranking or ? the second question is I have in mind is when design a link building campaign, often some directories require a review fee, so what do you suggest for link building if the website has no budget?

thanks
Proson

Dear Proson

As you are no doubt aware, Link Building is one of the most important strategies for raising the visibility (and rankings.. and traffic… and enquiries… and sales…) of your website via search engines. However, because it can be hard work and tedious, Link Building is also often one of the most neglected SEO techniques.

Directory Submission, involves submitting your site for inclusion to online directories, and is one (of the many) activities which can help build up backlinks to your site.

As you have highlighted, there are many many directories out there – some are free, some offer guaranteed listings for a fee, some will review your site for a fee,but will not guarantee you will be included.

Finding directories is pretty easy (there are even directories which list directories to help you with this), but it can certainly be difficult determining which directories are worth being listed in, and which are worth paying money to be a part of.

Just because a site is free doesn’t necessarily mean it is of no value, and many paid directories can be a complete waste of money.

But, back to your question – How to distinguish between a worthwhile and a useless directory. Here are some tips that should help you decide :

A Good Directory…

• Will not guarantee listing – If they are selective about the types of sites they listed, they are likely to be better quality and offer better link value
• Will be targeted – general directories are OK, but a directory that focuses on your particular niche is going to be much better for you
• Will add value – by including extra relevant content and information rather than just a list of links
• Will have a history – Older, established directories are often better than new ones (even if they dont look as pretty)
• Will be up to date – check the existing links on the category/page you expect to be listed on. If it contains broken links, think twice about listing
• May link to your competitors – If the directory already links to your competitors, and they are ranking higher than you in search results , it’s an indicator that it is worth joining
• Will have good PR – while Page Rank is not the be all and end all, if the directory (home page AND sub pages) has a low or no PR, then it is probably of little value to you

You should also consider local business directories, as these are often free, or inexpensive, and links form them can significantly improve your local search visibility.

Some Good Directories

Following is a small sample of some directories which are widely considered to be “good”

DMOZ (aka The Open Directory Project) is regarded as a reputable directory that lists only sites of good quality. Submission is FREE, but there is no guarantee of a listing. Listing requests are screened by volunteer editors, and listing can take months (if it happens at all) – depending on the category and how active the volunteer assigned to it is. DMOZ used to be a “must have”, but there has been much debate whether it is still of much value. Because it’s free, and easy, I would generally recommend a submission .

Yahoo Directory : ranks second to DMOZ in popularity but is one of the more expensive paid services (US$299 a year). However a single listing in Yahoo Directory will get you listed in multiple international Yahoo directories (18 last time I checked), and is important if you have the budget.

Best of the Web :  Another older and well used web directory which takes pride in the listing and categorisation of quality web sites. US$99.95 per year or US$2499.95 lifetime.

JoeAnt : Like Best of the Web,  Joe Ant is an older and valued directory which is a hybrid of paid and volunteer editing. US$39.99 review fee.

Gimpsy : Very similar to JoeAnt, this is also an authority directory and excellent for link building. US$49 review fee.

Regards,

Andy Henderson
Ireckon Web Marketing