Hi there,
While it is impossible to know the exact reason for your PR drop, I
can make an educated guess that reciprocal links are the problem.
Here's my opinion:
Google dislikes reciprocal linking
----------------------------------
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.
://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
Fiction: Joining a link exchange or "free-for-all" link program will
boost my rankings.
Fact: Linking schemes do not increase a given site's PageRank, and
will often do a site more harm than good.
://www.google.com/webmasters/facts.html
Your site has reciprocal links
------------------------------
Basically, if you swap links with another site, and each of you have
done the same with many others, and you each have a page of links to
sites otherwise unrelated to yours, it will appear to be a scheme with
one purpose - increase in ranking.
When some even have the same text next to the link, the case gets
stronger:
://www.google.com/search?q=%22Featuring+Ewa%2DMarine+All+Purpose+Waterproof+Pouches%22
I don't think your link to your web designer would be a negative, but
you never know. He links to a few sites that link to him. I would
leave it there.
When you look at the sites that link to you, and you rule out all
those that get their data from Open Directory, the majority of them
are reciprocal. It is the ratio that is important. A few reciprocal
links are fine if you have lots and lots of regular links pointing to
your site.
The Remedy
----------
You need to change the ratio of quality links vs reciprocal links.
1. Check referral logs and see if the reciprocal links have resulted
in any visitors who followed those links. If not, ask for them to be
removed.
2. The other step is to find quality sites to link to yours. You have
it relatively easy - other sites sell products that go inside your
cases, and you sell the cases. You could also target sites that focus
on underwater activities.
3. Consider paying $299 a year to Yahoo. Doing so can sometimes lead
to a doubling of visitors. In can also help improve PageRank
Search strategy: personal experience
Best wishes,
robertskelton-ga |
Request for Answer Clarification by
ronin100-ga
on
18 Mar 2003 12:18 PST
Hi robertskelton-ga!
1. I am unclear as to how to obtain a link from a site (any site)
without giving back a reciprocal link. Every person I have ever asked
for a link either turned me down or accepted if I gave a link back.
Can you clarify how to do what you suggesting (quality links) who just
gives links away? 2. I posted my site to
www.allaboutdigitalcameras.com and noticed that they are giving me two
spots in their directory of digital camera cases and accesories in
exchange for a link back. I was wondering if they are a links farm
since they are listing tons and tons of sites selling things for these
products as I am. I saw that screenshot you provided and boy was my
link text spammy looking! 3. I am in a "neighborhood" of Yahoo stores
that are all interlinked. I spent last night running down some of
them with my Google toolbar and most went down a notch, a few stayed
the same and one or two went up. In fact the site that had the most
links, including all of mine and every other Yahoo store
(exaggeration)went up and they are using the exact same reciprocal
linking scheme as I am. The links are from the same people I am
using? Do you suggest canceling all of my new links that came right
before the last Google dance....there were about 7 new ones, or all
but the best few, as you mentioned? 4. I am already in the Yahoo
directory, can you clarify that recommendation regarding Yahoo? 5. Is
it better to have just 2 or 3 decent reciprocal links than 20 from
unrelated sites who all exchange as we are doing?
Thanks,
ronin100
|
Clarification of Answer by
robertskelton-ga
on
18 Mar 2003 14:51 PST
Hi again,
1. Getting genuinely linked to is not easy by any means. It is the
number one dilemna of webmasters. My usual advice is to make your site
so amazing that people will want to link to it. Otherwise, these two
techniques have worked for me:
- Perserverance. I once sent out over 1,000 individualised emails.
Usually when I told them why I liked their site, I lied. But flattery
gets you everywhere. It took a few weeks, I gained 50 incoming links
and a PR rise of 1.
- Find dead sites related to yours. The easiest way is to browse the
appropriate categories of Google Directory and look for sites listed
last, with no PR. Half of them will be dead. Find every site that
links to the dead sites, and do them a favour by letting them know.
And politely suggest they could use your site as a replacement link.
2. Do not swap links with www.allaboutdigitalcameras.com. They not
only look like a link farm, they have a PR of zero - an indication of
displeasing Google.
3. I'm not familiar with the interlinking of a "neighborhood" of Yahoo
stores, and couldn't find anything about it at Yahoo. If it is
something you have no control over, it's okay. If it is an optional
scheme, and links are necessarily reciprocal, don't do it. Keeping a
couple of the links might be okay if you get some quality links as
well. No-one knows what Google's ratio is, but a fair guess would be
make sure at least 50% of incoming links are genuine.
4. Oops, my fault. Ignore my Yahoo remark.
5. It is best to have no reciprocal links that are obvious. By that I
mean if each of you link to the other in a normal way, within a page
of information, it will be okay. Just don't stick them on a links
page, and don't use their supplied image or text. If Google sees the
same text or image, linking to the same site, and that site links back
to them all, then imagine how it looks.
|
Request for Answer Clarification by
ronin100-ga
on
18 Mar 2003 16:54 PST
Hi robertskelton!
I still don't understand why anyone would want to link to my site
other than to receive a link back. So, if I understand your
clarification, I can & should find related sites that would desire to
link to mine for no other reason than their customers or readers would
find it a very fine place to visit? No strings attached? I find that
hard to believe but I will believe it if you say it's so. The Yahoo
neighborhood I referred to is a bunch of Yahoo store owners who pretty
well are linked to everyone else...I am linked to most of them and
they are linked to me and my "links people" who in turn are linked
back to them and each other, like a big spider web that's all
connected. I can track a reciprocal link partner and find my link on
his site along with my other partners. I follow the link to the next
"link partner" and they are linked to others who are also linked back
to them and to us...that sort of thing.
What I most desire to finish our session is clarification on getting
sites to link to me for nothing in return except that their customer's
might find my store useful. Like electronics stores might want to put
a link up for my cases but my customers are buying cases and don't
need electronics? Should I offer a % of sales from their site? Your
answers have contained some very interesting info (especially about
the placement of a link) I thought everyone had a links page?
Thanks,
ronin
|
Clarification of Answer by
robertskelton-ga
on
18 Mar 2003 17:59 PST
Like I said, it is not easy. I looked through a few sites similar to
yours, looking for examples of how best to do it, and they typically
have done the same as you - directory and reciprocal links. I imagine
that your site was ranking quite well previously. The fact remains,
that Google PR is based on link popularity. The only way to improve it
is to have links pointing to your site, without breaching Google
guidelines.
People prefer linking to information, which means that sites which are
purely an online store are at a disadvantage.
Other techniques include:
- Create useful informative content, perhaps an article in which one
of your products is just part of the overall story. Folk are more
likely to link to information
- Are you a user of your own products? Start a weblog about the
general activity, update it every day or two with personal thoughts,
and link it to your main site.
Obviously improving PR means hard work, or trickery which is bound to
backfire. 99% of Internet sites are not worth linking to, just like
99% of novels never get published, and 99% of actors never make it to
Hollywood.
You could even just forget about Google PR. Your PR was not bad, and
it should return to 6 when you ditch the reciprocal links. It would be
almost impossible to get the PR higher than 6 for your type of site
(niche retail) anyway. Consider getting traffic through Google
Adwords, or an affiliate scheme like this site has:
http://www.weatheraffects.com/affiliate.htm
|
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